Expanded view of God's plan of salvation and justice

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 achievement of God’s creation.” The world of science (once) shared this view of humanity. Only, according to scientists’ worldviews, thinking humans are the result of an almost infinite chain of pure coincidences and are said to have originated in a prehistoric primordial soup. But we are not talking about this modern religion here, but about the eternal gospel, the word of God.

Own moral standards

own rules — Humans are endowed with their own reason and the belief that they can distinguish good from evil. This is also the basis for the human concept of being able to define their own moral code. While reason, independent thought, and especially one’s own will were God’s desire and were also realized through His perfect creation, the (supposed) distinction between good and evil, with the accompanying—one must say—human conceit of being able to define their own moral code, is 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
[caption id="attachment_9604" align="alignleft" width="300"] Hellenistic philosophers – smart but wrong

Plato bust — Humans are endowed with their own reason and the belief that they can distinguish good from evil. This is also the basis for the human concept of being able to define their own moral code. While reason, independent thought, and especially one’s own will were God’s desire and were also realized through His perfect creation, the (supposed) distinction between good and evil, with the accompanying—one must say—human conceit of being able to define their own moral code, is 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
[caption id="attachment_9604" align="alignleft" width="300"] Hellenistic philosophers – smart but wrong

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 recognize in it an ingenious plan of salvation created for humanity. Everything revolves around the redemption of fallen humanity, inclined to sin. And apart from Jesus Christ as a human being, not a single other human being has remained without sin. Thus, all human beings are condemned to death. Our Father in heaven gave His only begotten Son for this purpose, so that by taking on our guilt and through the just punishment of death, He might 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.“

No one can ignore Jesus Christ if humanity wants to overcome the broken bridges to God. Everything is therefore designed to free humanity from its fallen nature. Justification through God’s plan of salvation thus revolves around humanity, and thus humanity is at the center. But is this really the case?

An expanded view of the plan of salvation

Bibel Staffelei — Another light on God’s 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 didn’t enter God’s perfectly created universe with Adam and Eve, but with the highest of all created angels at that time: the once protective cherub. This angel was given the name “Lucifer” (“light-bearer”) when the original text was translated into Latin, and the Gospel refers to this great adversary of God as “the ancient serpent, the dragon, the devil, and Satan.” (Revelation 12:9).

In the role of the highest angel, Satan exalted himself. Envy and resentment arose in him against 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 exalt himself above the throne of God. Thus, sin entered this once sinless world for the first time. 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

First fall — The Adversary Brought Sin to Earth

Satan managed to win over about a third of all angels to his side with his deceptions, fictions, slander, and accusations. They were deceived by the rebel and have since waged a common rebellion against God and His law. This rebellion began in heaven, even before the foundation of our world was laid.

When God created the earth and everything on it, Satan also came to the newly created earthly world and, along with his already fallen angels, sought to seduce humanity into disobedience to God. Satan, as we know, succeeded in doing 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

Steering wheel — There is only one person in this universe who sees everything simultaneously, who knows the thoughts of others as well as his own, who has an unobstructed view into every heart, and for whom yesterday and tomorrow are just as present as the present—and that is God. Satan may be highly intelligent, but like all of God’s other creatures, he too can neither read other people’s thoughts nor see into the future.

Satan, based on his knowledge, is certainly capable of understanding the prevailing natural laws created by God and deriving a predictable future from them, but there are strict limits to this plan. Furthermore, the path to the calculated results is not immune to any “surprises.” It is also very reassuring to know that, no matter how adverse the situation may seem to us, God always has all processes under control. God actively acts, simply allows many things to happen, loosens the reins, and then tightens them again. All at the right time, to the appropriate extent.

Satan accuses God

Satan’s incitements and incitements against God also included doubting God’s justice and His love for all His creatures. This certainly wasn’t a process that could be resolved within “a week.” But what is “space and time” within this world invisible to us?

Now, the self-proclaimed righteousness of God and the accusations of Satan and his followers are in the air. What remains for God to prove His righteousness and love when there are only two dependent parties, God’s and Satan’s? It would require no effort from God to do everything in one fell swoop, but would this be proof of His righteousness and love for His creatures?

For those who remain faithful to God, there would remain room for doubt, unease, or even fear. But that is not the nature of God, the supposed nature that Satan proclaimed to the world. “The dictator who ruled solely by arbitrary will for his own self-glorification.” God’s true nature and unshakeable will, however, is coexistence in unconditional love and blind trust.

Man as proof of God’s righteousness
[caption id="attachment_9997" align="alignleft" width="300"] Faithful man is evidence of God’s righteousness

Crowd — There is only one person in this universe who sees everything simultaneously, who knows the thoughts of others as well as his own, who has an unobstructed view into every heart, and for whom yesterday and tomorrow are just as present as the present—and that is God. Satan may be highly intelligent, but like all of God’s other creatures, he too can neither read other people’s thoughts nor see into the future.

Satan, based on his knowledge, is certainly capable of understanding the prevailing natural laws created by God and deriving a predictable future from them, but there are strict limits to this plan. Furthermore, the path to the calculated results is not immune to any “surprises.” It is also very reassuring to know that, no matter how adverse the situation may seem to us, God always has all processes under control. God actively acts, simply allows many things to happen, loosens the reins, and then tightens them again. All at the right time, to the appropriate extent.

Satan accuses God

Satan’s incitements and incitements against God also included doubting God’s justice and His love for all His creatures. This certainly wasn’t a process that could be resolved within “a week.” But what is “space and time” within this world invisible to us?

Now, the self-proclaimed righteousness of God and the accusations of Satan and his followers are in the air. What remains for God to prove His righteousness and love when there are only two dependent parties, God’s and Satan’s? It would require no effort from God to do everything in one fell swoop, but would this be proof of His righteousness and love for His creatures?

For those who remain faithful to God, there would remain room for doubt, unease, or even fear. But that is not the nature of God, the supposed nature that Satan proclaimed to the world. “The dictator who ruled solely by arbitrary will for his own self-glorification.” God’s true nature and unshakeable will, however, is coexistence in unconditional love and blind trust.

Man as proof of God’s righteousness
[caption id="attachment_9997" align="alignleft" width="300"] Faithful man is evidence of God’s righteousness

Therefore, there was no independent or neutral position on Satan’s accusations against God. It was essentially one person’s word against another’s. However, God wants His justice and love for all His creatures to be proven, not “merely asserted.” From this perspective, the creation of the earth and of humanity is the answer to the rebellion unleashed by Satan in heaven. Everything was already planned, for God foresaw the apostasy of humanity coming.

Imagining God under duress, or even as someone who can be blackmailed, is all the more difficult than imagining God at all, let alone putting it into words. But this is more likely due to the same human wishful thinking that is particularly evident in today’s time of spiritual darkness. Humans continue to construct their own God until it can be seamlessly inserted 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, “personified” love and eternal justice, leads to different thinking and acting than we fallen humans commonly do within our changing “basin of values.” 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

flying owl — The adversary has his accomplices on site

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, loves to zealously promote such versions that portray God as an egocentric ruler. However, with this argument, humanity would diminish its 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 freely and independently chose their actions, as did every person in subsequent generations. Those who believe that God created humans merely as instruments also ignore the fact that God actually did what He required of Abram (later Abraham) merely as a test of faith, and ultimately did not do in Abram’s case: the sacrifice of his only beloved son. This alone proves that there is much more to it.

God wants to justify himself

God wants to demonstrate His love and justice, which Satan has questioned, and not simply proclaim them in an authoritative voice. In this sense, God (by human standards) would not need the role of a self-defending defendant. But love based on knowledge of His true nature, rather than obedience out of fear, is also God’s vision of a harmonious world permeated by light and love.

This inevitably leads to the conclusion that God also wants to justify himself. And this perspective sheds a different light on the still-unchanging plan of salvation. God himself wants to justify himself in court, and in doing so, the people in the same boat with him. God’s own justification, the justification of those who believe in and adhere to Jesus Christ (who bear the testimony of Jesus), and the final exposure of the adversary and his followers. All in one fell swoop, for Jesus Christ not only acts as High Priest and Mediator for humanity, but also simultaneously provides for the visible justification of the Father in heaven.

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, one who harbored no doubt about God’s justice, was Job. Satan harassed him with the most terrible evils. Yet Job remained faithful to God despite the “good advice” of his friends and especially the curses of his wife. God expressly permitted all of this. Yet Job remained faithful to God despite the “good advice” of his friends and especially the curses of his wife.

Man in a very special position

Raised Way — Elevated position awaits man

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

school board — The forgotten recognition while reading

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

The conqueror will one day judge himself

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!

Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
Revelation 22:17b

Bible verses from King James Version

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