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God's Plan for Mankind
By Carl E. Willis, Jr.
There is a truism that all believers must consider when striving to draw closer to Almighty God: We plan, and God plans, and He is the best of planners! This is so true, for He is the All-Knowing, the All-Seeing, the All-Hearing, and the All Wise. Because of this, He and He alone is worthy of our worship. Because of His inherent qualities He’s worthy of our devotions. He’s worthy of our supplications. He’s worthy of our unfiltered praise. Suffice it to say, it is with the sincere worship and praises offered to God by mankind, and with the human duty of such, that the Scriptures are principally concerned.
 A believer should never let the daily and constant blessings which God showers us pass us by without giving Him credit. But, I can’t conjure up any better blessing than the matchless, unequaled, unrivaled blessing of salvation! The beauty and majesty of this blessing is that He has graciously given his servants a plan in attaining what should be our ultimate goal—SALVATION. Nothing can equate to salvation. Not money, nor fame, prestige, or power. Salvation trumps all.
The Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, speaks about eternal life—salvation. God succinctly conveys it to us through the detailed lifetime experiences of His chosen elect. In Genesis, we learn about the prophet Abraham. From Abraham, we become familiar with Moses, and then to the other prophets of old, prophets like Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha, David, Solomon, and Isaiah, just to name a few. But, these prophets and others spoke forcefully about the coming of the Christ. David, the Psalmist, said, “The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool” (Psalm 110:1).
Through this passage we can safely and reasonably conclude that David recognized God had a special covenant with Jesus. Moreover, being that Almighty God anointed and appointed Jesus to be the Christ, we can further conclude Jesus’ commands supersedes all others in the Scriptures. Jesus, in essence, tells us in John 14 that His words come directly from God. “The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwells in me, he does the works.” We should never take the interpretation of the words of Jesus within the context of what others teach. On the contrary, it should be the other way around. We should accept or reject mandates or commands according to their conformity to the pristine life-giving teachings of Jesus. Almighty God has given Jesus this awesome authority. If commands and/or mandates are at variance with Jesus’ teachings, then we should willingly yield to the words of Christ.
With salvation being the ultimate gift, and Jesus being the anointed and appointed Christ, it behooves us to scour the Scriptures to find out what Jesus says about salvation. Let us begin.
An exchange recorded in the book of Matthew occurred between a man and Jesus. The man sought the perfect guidance of Jesus. The exchange is recorded as follows:
Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.” “Which ones?” the man inquired. Jesus replied, “‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’” “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?” Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth (Matthew 19:16-22, NIV, emphasis added).
From these verses, we can deduce the following:
The man asked Jesus to tell him what he must do to have eternal life (salvation). Jesus’ reply was succinct and in congruence with previous prophets—do the law of God! That man acknowledged that he kept the law all the way from his adolescent years. However, Jesus informed him that he was lacking one thing. He asked him to give away his goods to the poor. He wanted him to be charitable to those in need—the poor. The man instantly became melancholy. He recognized he wasn’t willing to follow this command coming from Christ. This is tragic. For Jesus says in John 14:15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”
Another example that is lucidly clear is found in Luke 19:1-9:
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a ‘sinner.’” But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.”
Our beloved Jesus undoubtedly knew that there would come a time when mankind would attempt to distort and annul His commandments. Woe unto those who foolishly attempt to do such a thing.
He forewarns us in Matthew 5:18-19:
I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
When we are entrusted with the sacred Word of God it is our duty to revere, obey, and “work” it. One does not need to leave or forsake his job or family or shirk his responsibilities in order to serve God. Genesis 2:15 illustrates to us what God intends for us: “The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”
The Apostle Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, “For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “If a man will not work, he shall not eat.”
Regrettably, the man given the one talent in Matthew 25 chose not to “work” his talent and as a result incurred the wrath of his master. We as believers should ponder on this parable and customize it as it relates to our lives. We have at our disposal the trusted and valued Word of God to bring disbelievers into the fold. Are we “working” the Word of God? Or are we putting our “light under a bushel basket?” Or are we letting our light shine? Jesus said, “Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house” (Matthew 5:15).
We must do our very best in proving our love for God and His Christ. Let us prove His word to be true. The scripture admonishes us to do this. “Prove all things; hold fast to that which is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21, KJV).
Let us do our best in obeying God, His Word, and His Christ. Let us take heed to what Samuel the Prophet says in 1 Samuel 15:22: To obey is better than sacrifice!
May we all be diligent in our noble efforts in striving to be a mirror reflection of our risen Christ, while yearning to draw nigh to Almighty God.
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