Before The Hands Of Time - Part 1 of 3

 Many of us have been taught to have a plan B just in case plan A didn’t work. In the Mel Gibson movie “We Were Soldiers,” the U.S. forces were being overrun by the enemy. When everything seemed to be lost, Mel Gibson got on the radio and said two words “Broken Arrow.” This means to come into the area with everything they have. There is no separation of the U.S. and the enemy forces. Just bomb everything. That is a plan B or C.

As sin cursed beings, we are confined to react on our own strength. God, on the other hand, is never confined by anything. He is the all-supreme Creator. Before we try to understand Creation, let’s explore a few verses that give us insight into the plan God set in place prior to Creation.

Ephesians 1:3-5  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us[b] for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.”

2 Timothy 1:9 “[God] who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.”

Psalm 139:16 “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.”

Revelation 13:8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

These few verses help us to understand that God had a specific plan laid out before He created the World. There is no such thing as plan B with God. He does not put on a blindfold to sovereignly control His creation. Everything that happens is because He ordained it. That is why, from eternity past to eternity future, we call it “The Covenant of Grace.” God also laid out His plan in the Covenant of Redemption in the eternity past. This has to be in place before sin came into the world. Otherwise, it can mistakenly lead us to view God as reactive and not proactive. God has shown His redemptive grace before anything He created, because He already had a path to salvation before the foundations of the world.

In Genesis 1, Moses wrote how God methodically and perfectly created all things according to His will. Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden. They could eat from any and all plants except for the one: Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. That is why we call this the “Covenant of Works. Adam was allowed to live in the Garden as long as he followed God’s agreement perfectly. All Adam and Eve understood was good. They had zero understanding of any presence of evil. Everything in the Garden was perfect. God is perfect, and He cannot sin. Adam and Eve were created perfect, but they had the ability to sin. This one aspect is what differentiates us from God.

In the form of a serpent, Satan came to Eve to tempt her to eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. After a short conversation, Eve finally came to the point that she made a conscious decision to eat a bite of that fruit. After eating it, she gave some to Adam, and he also willingly chose to eat the fruit.

After they sinned, they tried to justify it. Probably in the same manner that we often do. They tried to ask for forgiveness. The problem is that God, being a perfect, holy, righteous, and sinless God, cannot look on sin, no matter how small or big it may be. Adam and Eve, now that they have sinned, cannot become perfect again on their own power. Due to their sinful nature, God, due to their agreement (the Covenant of Works) had to remove them from the Garden of Eden. They did not lose their relationship with God. It simply changed. The human race now begins to look for a coming Messiah, which means “Chosen One,” to save them from their sins.