Expanded view of God’s plan of salvation and justice

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Deutsch

The plan of salvation for fallen man, prepared by God before the creation of this earthly world, hides far more details than “just” the justification of man through the grace of Jesus based on faith. A broader view shows that God wants to take us all into one boat.

The world revolves around people

Humans are naturally predisposed to always put themselves at the center. Everything revolves around the “crowning of creation” of God. This positioning of humans also applies to the world of science. Except that according to their worldview, the thinking person is the result of an almost infinitely long chain of pure coincidences and should have its origin in a primordial soup. But we are not talking about this modern religion here, but about the eternal gospel, the word of God.

Own moral standards

Man is equipped with his own reason and also the belief that he can distinguish good from evil. This is also the basis for man’s idea of ​​being able to define his own certain morality. While reason, independent thinking and especially one’s own will was a wish of God and also realized this with His creation, the (supposed) distinction between good and evil with the accompanying – one has to say – imagination, defining one’s own morality to be able to, a result of the Fall.

Man in his fallen nature is not at all capable of thinking up and living a morality that could even begin to do justice to God’s perfect will. One only has to look across the entire spectrum of history to see that morality, the “values” of people, have always led to more injustice, abuse, wars, murder and manslaughter. All the announced efforts of the “highest moral apostles” were obviously of no use, because the world has never been so riddled with unrest, rebellions and wars as it is today.

Hellenistic thought

Even the “human rights” cannot come close to the just plans of God and His order to the highest perfection and harmony. After all, the declared human rights are based on the philosophies of the ancient Greeks anyway, and these are still cultivated and implemented by the Roman Catholic Church in the form of their dogmatized social ideas. So it is also a logical consequence that the human being, together with the morality that he created himself out of his own reason, places himself in the center and thereby pushes Jesus Christ, who is necessary for our salvation, to the sidelines.

Man supposedly at the center of the plan of salvation

The gospel is the “good news (of victory)” and anyone who wants to understand this message correctly will also recognize in it an ingenious plan of salvation created for people. Everything revolves around the salvation of fallen man inclined to sin. And apart from Jesus Christ as a human being, not a single other human being remained without sin. So they are all sentenced to death. Our Father gave His only begotten Son for this, so that by taking over our guilt and through the just punishment, death, He would shed His blood to wash away our sins. With this, Jesus Christ bought the right to declare us righteous while maintaining justice and thus free us from accumulated sins. His grace because of our faith in the only begotten Son of God and His sacrifice through His shed blood.

In fact, even with this perspective alone, Jesus Christ is of course the focus, but supposedly exclusively for the “purpose” of our redemption from sin-death (2nd death, according to Revelation 21:8). John 14:6 says that Jesus Christ is indispensable for our salvation:
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.“

Nobody can get past Jesus Christ if man wants to bridge the broken bridges to God. Everything is therefore designed to free man from his fallen nature. Justification through God’s plan of salvation thus revolves around man, and thus man is at the center. But is that actually the case?

An expanded view of the plan of salvation

God’s plan of salvation still applies unchanged, after all it is about the promises of the “eternal gospel” including all of God’s announcements and promises. In contrast to man, God keeps His word. However, it is not man who plays the central role in justification, but God himself. The man “to be saved” takes on a secondary role in the broader perspective of the plan of salvation.

Beginning from before the creation of this mundane world

Sin did not first come into God’s created and perfect universe with Adam and Eve, but with the then highest of all created angels. The once protective cherub. Man gave him the Latin name Lucifer (“light bearer”) and the gospel describes this one adversary of God as the “old serpent, the dragon, the devil and Satan”.(Revelation 12:9). In the role of the highest angel, Satan has exalted himself. He was overcome with envy and resentment towards Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. Pride overcame the highest of the angels and he not only wanted to make himself equal to God, but even to rise above the throne of God. With that, sin came into the hitherto sinless world. Ezekiel 28:15:
“Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.“

Sin came to earth

Satan even managed to get about a third of all angels to his side with his deceptions, fictions and accusations. They were deceived by the rebel and have been in rebellion against God and His statutes ever since. This rebellion began in heaven before the foundation of our world was laid. When God created the earth and everything that is on it, Satan also came to the newly created earthly world and, along with his already fallen angels, also wanted to bring mankind to disobedience to God. It is well known that Satan has done this. With his mendacious “art of persuasion” he first got Eva to eat the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge. Adam did the same.

With that, Satan had won a temporary, or rather, apparent victory. However, the fall of man did not come as a surprise to God, for He completed His plan of salvation even before the creation of the physical world. Immediately after man’s first sin, God announced to Satan the future triumph of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Genesis 3:15:
“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.“

An important indication that God’s plan of salvation was already established before the creation of the earth are the statements in Revelation 17:8:
“The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.“

God is always in control

There is only one in this universe who sees everything at once, knows the thoughts of others as well as his own, has an unobstructed view into every heart, and for whom yesterday and tomorrow are as tangible as the present, and that is God. Satan may be highly intelligent, but like all other creatures of God, he cannot read other people’s minds or see into the future. Due to his knowledge of the prevailing laws of nature created by God, he is able to understand and derive a forward-looking calculability from this, but there are narrow limits and the paths to the calculated results are not immune to any “surprises”. It is also very reassuring to know that no matter how dire the situation, God is always in control. God acts actively, simply allows many things, loosens the reins and tightens them again. Everything at the right time, in the right amount.

Satan accuses God

Satan’s incitements against God included doubting God’s justice and love for all His creatures. This was certainly not a process within “one week”. But what is “space and time” within this invisible world?

Now the righteousness of God “claimed” by himself and the accusations of Satan and his entourage are in the room. What is left for God to demonstrate His justice and love when there are only two dependent parties, God’s and Satan’s? Doing everything with a “crush” would not be a problem for God, but is that proof of His justice and love towards all creatures? There would be room for doubts and also discomfort or even fear in the creatures who have remained faithful to God up to now. But that is not the nature of God, that supposed nature that Satan trumpeted to the world. “The “dictator who ruled solely with the help of his arbitrariness for his self-aggrandizement.” However, God’s true nature and unshakeable will is togetherness in unconditional love and blind trust.

Man as proof of God’s righteousness

There was therefore no independent or neutral position on Satan’s charges against God. It was almost statement against statement. However, God wants His justice and love towards all creatures to be proven and not “just” asserted. Seen from this perspective, the creation of earth and man is the answer to the rebellion launched in heaven by Satan. Everything already planned, for God saw man’s apostasy coming.

To imagine God under pressure or even as open to blackmail is of course incredibly difficult. But that is rather due to the same human wishful thinking, which is particularly evident in today’s time of spiritual darkness. Man tinkers with his god until he can be seamlessly pushed into the current zeitgeist. The statements in Malachi 3:6 and Hebrews 13:8 are persistently ignored:
“For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”
“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.“

But God’s true nature, the “inpersonified” love and eternal justice, leads to a different way of thinking and acting than we fallen people usually do within our changeable “value-basin”. Isaiah 55:8:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.“

Only a superficial look raises questions

Now, “wicked tongues” could argue that God created man merely as a means to an end for His own glory, knowing of man’s fall because of the rebellious adversary. Calculating and with “gross negligence” almost provoked all the suffering over humanity, purely for its own sake.
In fact, God created man to glorify himself, but not as an end in itself and man as collateral. Rather, this glorification serves God’s own justification.

The “end justifies the means” faction, in particular, was keen to put forth such versions that portrayed God as a self-centered ruler. But with this argument man would reduce himself in his God-given maturity. Because with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, God not only gave his only son to enable the creation (siehe John 3:16) he so loved to find a way to redemption, but also to preserve the free decision of people.

Adam and Eve decided freely and responsibly for their actions, just like every person of the following generations. Those who believe that God created human beings merely as tools also ignore the fact that God actually did what He asked Abram (later Abraham) to test his faith and failed to do, the sacrifice of his only beloved son. That alone proves that there is a lot more to it than that.

God wants to justify himself

God wants to demonstrate His love and justice, which Satan has challenged, and not just proclaim it in an authoritarian voice. In this sense, God would not (by human standards) need the role of a self-defending accused. But love based on knowledge of His true nature, rather than obedience out of fear, is God’s conception of a harmonious world permeated with light and love.

The inevitable consequence of this is that God also wants to justify himself. And this way of looking at it throws a different light of knowledge on the still same plan of salvation. God himself wants to justify himself in court and in this process the people sitting in a boat with him at the same time. God’s own justification, the justification of the believers and adherents of Jesus Christ (who bear the testimony of Jesus), and the final exposure of the adversary and his followers. All in “one swipe”.

Man – The “neutral” entity

The honors and praises of God by man are therefore to be understood not only as the homage to our divine Creator and Ruler, but also as the exaltation and glorification for His justification. Man is the neutral instance of the rebellion between two parties that had already begun in heaven and is therefore also a witness to God’s eternal love and justice.

One such witness who had no doubt about God’s righteousness was Job. He was severely tested by Satan in the worst of inflicted fates. God expressly permitted all of this. Yet Job remained faithful to God despite the “good advice” of his friends, especially his wife.

Man in a very special position

Job questioned the special position of man, as in Job 7:17:
“What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?”

That with the question “what is man?” man is not to be looked down upon, but exalted in the eyes of God, can be read in Hebrews 2:5-6:
“For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?”

The apostle Paul clearly recognized the “cooperative interaction” between God and man for justification. He wrote the following to the church in Rome (Romans 3:25-26):
“Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.“

This statement also explains why man does not drop dead immediately after committing a sin, as God could have made possible. For the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

The details of the language

However, in order to recognize the connection with God’s willed own justification, one single word must be examined more closely here, namely “declare”. Contrary to the widespread rumor that people in society today were far more educated and literate than 2000 years ago, the educated people of that time had far greater potential. Sad as it may sound, the advanced technology available today only belies the already advanced degeneration of average mental potential. Being able to use sophisticated technology is by no means proof of being able to create something like this yourself through your own innovations.

Here Paul clearly states that God does not want His righteousness “to be proved”, but He wants “to declare” that righteousness

Man will judge angels

This special role provided for by God for man in the plan of salvation and justification, now in the broader sense, also justifies the promises that are special to man. However, only for those people who have overcome this world like Jesus Christ. Revelation 3:21:
“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.“

You have to let that melt in your mouth first. The man who has been declared righteous will not only lead an existence in God’s presence in eternity, but he will sit together with God on the throne. Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, which was at odds over trifles, and pointed out the special future position of the overcomers (1 Corinthians 6:3):
“Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?“

By the angels, Paul meant the angels who fell together with Satan, i.e. demons, who still do their disastrous works in the service of their “Lord” with ever greater zeal. Their goal is to dissuade as many people as possible from overcoming this world and thereby send them straight to perdition.

The Forgotten Trial

Most people, including those in Christian-oriented churches, are no longer aware that there will be a judgment from God. By the way, this has already started. Rather, the language is of a “universal reconciliation” of God, since he loves all people. The punishment for sins in this case is the pain experienced through experiencing and feeling one’s own transgressions and after that everything is fine again. What a mistake.

God faces judgment

With the perspective of the intended justification of God before the whole world, the so-called first of three angels’ messages is put in a new light, Revelation 14:7:
“Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”

“The Hour of His Judgment” stands for the judgment of the people, whereby the overcomers have nothing to fear at this point(siehe John 5:24). At the same time, judgment on God begins in this sense. He is eventually accused by Satan and his entourage. God wants to declare His eternal love and justice. He stands up to the charge and proves His love and justice through those people who have overcome the world and remained faithful at His side despite all attacks like Job. Since the accused cannot be the judge at the same time, the Father turned all judgment over to His Son, as in John 5:22:
“For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:“

Jesus Christ was the first

Visibly, Jesus Christ has already overcome the world for the entire universe. Against Him there is no more room for any accusations of Satan. With His self-sacrifice, Jesus Christ also bought the right to absolve sinful people of their guilt out of pure grace. Jesus Christ as a man on earth also served as the great example to give the glory and exaltation to our Father of all for His justification against Satan’s accusation, John 17:4:
“I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.”

A little hypothesis

Satan knows the love and justice of God only too well, even if at one point he no longer understood it. It may be that the adversary, based on his accusations, tried to maneuver God into a dead end with His justice. To a point where either grace because of His love or even His justice would have to be dropped. God would have had only the choice of either abandoning His created people to Satan or redeeming them without upholding justice. But Satan’s calculation didn’t work out. The adversary has stumbled here from his own anger. Even the common man knows the (literally in German) phrase: “blind with anger”.

With the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Satan has irrevocably lost his rebellion. He can’t win anymore. Since then, the prosecutor has only tried to drag as many of the people he already hated into his doom as possible. Satan knows the Bible and the prophecies it contains all too well. He therefore also knows that he cannot achieve his personal triumph of being worshiped by all people in whatever form. Knowing this only infuriates him, 1 Peter 5:8:
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”

And the whole world is watching the developments on this fallen world with “high tension”, 1 Corinthians 4:9b:
“for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.“

Rejoice in God’s invitation

God wants to take man into His common boat. He wants to justify himself in court before all the world and the faithful witnesses who have overcome this satanic ruled and now almost devastated earthly world will prove the righteousness of God by bearing the testimony of his only begotten Son. At the same time, Jesus Christ, “justified” by His own sacrifice, absolves those who have remained loyal to Him from any sin.

What an ingenious plan!

The expanded view does not change the gospel plan of salvation. It is merely an illumination of God’s plan from a different angle, and it takes the “egocentric” human being out of focus. At the center is God, our Creator, and He remembers His loved ones without reservation. Our “job” is to follow God’s invitation. But what prevents us from simply accepting the immeasurable love of God? It’s free!

Bible verses from King James Version