There’s a large house being built outside of our town that’s been under construction literally for years. It’s almost a curiosity. One year it looked like maybe it would be completed. Instead, studs for a new section were added. For about two years, the framework for a second story was left gradually warping and being destroyed by weather. There is no singular architecture style and the exterior is the black insulation—no siding or brick yet. There are windows in most of the structure, and someone lives there.
When I asked about it, I was told that the owner liked to build and kept changing the plan. It has become a novelty in the area that keeps everyone guessing and amazed that such an expensive project seems to have no master plan. The structure is a continuing surprise.
Looking at the account of creation in Genesis, some wonder if God was caught by surprise when Adam and Eve disobeyed Him and destroyed His perfect creation. It could appear like that with the sense of urgency and the incomplete sentence in chapter 3, verse 22: “Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—’” (ESV). Perhaps the sentence was left incomplete because of urgency to protect. That “life forever” would have been an eternal life separated from Him.
Nothing surprises God. And He has no beginning, although time does. Before time, and before the creation of earth, God in eternity knew the awful choice that Adam and Eve would make. So great was God’s love that He not only created mankind anyway, He laid out a costly, divine strategy to accomplish His original plan—fellowship with mankind.
God’s plan is incredibly simple. When Adam and Eve sinned, they could no longer fellowship with Him because He is holy. Sin removed them from living in His presence. It brought death, a debt they were powerless to pay, so God chose to pay it for them. And for us. Simple but extremely expensive. So profound even the angels try to understand (1 Pet. 1:12).
Adam brought death, but Jesus the Christ brought life. “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (I Cor. 15:21-22 ESV).
A beautiful way to describe what the Lord Jesus did is in His own words as He prayed for us before going to the cross. Listen closely to His heart:
“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:1-5 ESV).
And so it is, “For freedom Christ has set us free…” (Gal. 5:1a ESV). Free from eternal death and free to have a living, eternal relationship with our holy God. Perfectly planned before the beginning of time.