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God's plan for humanity is revealed in His word - the Bible. Made up of two parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament, the Bible is the accurate and complete message from God to each one of us. Young or old, clever or not so clever, God's message is for everyone and can be understood by all.
In Genesis, the first Book of the Old Testament, God reveals that He is the answer to the important question all of us ask at one time or another: "Where did we come from?" It was God who made everything - the universe, the earth, the plants and animals, even the first man and woman! (Genesis 1). And this understanding answers another important question: "Who or what are we?" We are creatures uniquely made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). Unlike all other creatures made by God, people have a spiritual as well as a physical side to their nature. God's image in us can be easily seen through our ability to create and appreciate beauty, our ability to reason, our emotions, our concern with morality and our ability to exercise free will. Unlike us, God is Spirit only and He is not a part of the physical creation. He is not limited by time and space as we are. This is why God alone is eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, and present everywhere. And God looks after and cares about His creation, especially people, which brings us to a third important question: "Why are we here?" The answer to that question can be summed up very simply: We are here to love God with all our heart and mind and strength...and to love other people as our self (Matthew 22:37-39).
Genesis chapter two gives us a picture of how things were in the beginning: the first people were happy, fulfilled and secure as they lived in close friendship with God and one another. As God Himself said, things were very good! (Genesis 1:31).
So why doesn't our present experience match this picture of security, happiness and fulfilment? Why do most of us have that niggling feeling that all is not well and as it should be? God tells us why in the third chapter of Genesis. The first humans chose to follow Satan and their own selfish desires rather than honouring and obeying God. This is what the Bible calls sin and it was their rebellion against God which destroyed their friendship with Him. But sin not only separated them from God (bringing spiritual death), it spoiled their relationships with one another and the rest of the creation resulting in physical death and hardship and moral corruption. And if we think seriously and honestly about it, we will have to admit that we also have failed to put God and His will at the centre of our lives. We too have rebelled. We too have sinned. We too have seen and felt the terrible effects of sin in our own lives as well as the lives of others. But God's love for us is much too great to leave us in this hopeless mess. He had a plan and the rest of the Old Testament records how God worked and unfolded that plan to save us from the guilt and bondage of sin.
God chose a man called Abraham because of his willingness to trust and obey Him (faith) and God promised Abraham that his descendants would become a great nation (Israel) and that they would be given a land (Palestine). Much of the Old Testament traces the history of Israel as God fulfilled these promises and in the process, it reveals to us a great deal about God's nature and character and expectations as we read how God dealt with the nation of Israel. Despite their general unfaithfulness to the special law given to them (the Law of Moses: the first five Books of the Old Testament), God still honoured His promises to Abraham and used Israel to prepare the world for a very special event. You see, God had also promised to Abraham that He would raise up a saviour from among his descendants through whom all the world would be blessed (Genesis 12:1-3; cf. Galatians 3:7-18).
The New Testament begins with a surprising twist to God's plan. The promised saviour turns out to be none other than God Himself in the person of Jesus, the Son of God, who humbled Himself to take on human form in order to bridge the gap between humanity and God caused by our sin. We get a glimpse of Jesus' glory through His miracles and teaching and His sinless life of perfect submission to His Father's will. Then the unimaginable happens. Jesus painfully but willingly gives up His life on a cross as a sacrifice for our sins. Because God is just and righteous, He could not ignore the guilt of our sins. The penalty of death had to be satisfied. But because God is also loving and merciful, He sent His own Son to rescue us (John 3:16; Romans 3:23-26). The guiltless Jesus paid our penalty on that cross. And the good news does not stop there. On the third day following Jesus' death and burial, God raised Him back to life! After forty days of proving to His followers that He was indeed victorious over death, Jesus returned to Heaven to reign as the Christ (King and High Priest) at the right hand side of His Father. Jesus died for our sins so that we might have God's forgiveness and eternal life and His resurrection from death guarantees the truth and certainty of that promise.
Hasn't God already done it all? Is there more to God's plan for us? As a matter of grace (undeserved favour), Jesus paid our penalty for our sins so the means of our forgiveness is an accomplished fact whether we accept it or not. But simply believing this without acting on that knowledge is worthless (James 2:14-26). The corruption of sin in our lives still has to be dealt with. We cannot be reunited with a holy God without a radical change and cleansing occurring within ourselves first. And that change is so radical it is called a new birth (John 3:5-7; 2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 Peter 1:22-25). In response to the gospel (the good news of God's grace expressed in Jesus' death, burial and resurrection) God calls upon us to act in faith (trust and obedience); turning in our thinking and behaviour (repentance) from serving ourselves to serving God; and being baptised into the possession of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 28:19; Acts 2:36-41; 22:16; Romans 6:3-18).
Baptism (literally, immersion) in water is the faith response to the gospel of a penitent believer commanded by God. Baptism puts us into Christ (Galatians 3:26-27; Colossians 2:11-13), symbolising and connecting us with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus (Romans 6:3-6) and calls on God to begin apply His saving work to us personally. But baptism is just the birth, the beginning of a new life, and not the end in itself. At our baptism we die to sin as we are buried with Christ in the likeness of His own death, but we are also raised from the water in the likeness of Jesus' resurrection to walk in newness of life! Furthermore, at our baptism we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:32). We understand that, in a way that cannot be explained physically, from our baptism the Holy Spirit begins to participate in our lives to help us on our spiritual journey.
Just like Jesus, every aspect of our life is then to be lived in service (worship) to our heavenly Father, not being moulded by the world but being changed and renewed by God's Spirit through living God's will daily (Romans 12:1-2; Galatians 2:20). Much of the New Testament is made up of letters instructing and encouraging Christians in following God's will. It is true that we will not be perfect in our attempts to serve God, but that is no discouragement to trying. God knows we will stumble despite our best efforts to please and honour Him and He is ready to forgive us when we do (1 John 1:5-2:6). And we are not alone in our new life as a Christian. God never intended us to 'go it alone' so His plan includes His church, Christ's body, the community or family of God's children. Christians meet as a church family regularly to encourage one another in love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24), to support and teach and minister to each other as we mature in the Christian faith and grow more and more like Jesus (Ephesians 4:11-16), looking forward to the time when Jesus will return to bring His Father's family 'home' (John 14:1-3) and God's plan will be fully accomplished (Revelation 20:11-22:21). If you are willing to humble yourself before God and commit yourself to a relationship with Him through following His Son, Jesus, God certainly has big plans for you!