IN THE VERY BEGINNING 

REVELATION 13:8

          Many of us this week went to see the movie “The Passion of Christ” which depicted the brutal suffering and death of Christ after having walked the earth for only about 34 years.  His death we know from the scriptures was during the history of mankind, yet John here speaks of Jesus, the Lamb of God, being slain before the worlds began.  How can this be? 

GENESIS 1:1-3         

          This is the beginning of the history of mankind and the earth as we know it today.  In this beginning God establishes a homeland for the physical creatures that will become the focus of his attention for the rest of eternity.  However, though this is the beginning of mankind’s history there is a beginning before this beginning.  In other words there is a very beginning. 

JOHN 1:1-5

          This very beginning is a time when God existed but there was no earth and no mankind.  We do not know how long this period of the very beginnings lasted for we do not know when it began.  Somewhere in eternity past God existed.  What we do know is that even in this very beginning God existed as a trinity.  For here in this verse we have the Word of God existing with God and according to verse 14 this Word took on flesh and became Jesus the son of God.  Also in Genesis 1:2 we saw the Spirit of God, who is the Holy Spirit move on the face of the waters.  Though we rarely look at the very beginnings, it is in this period of time that the foundation and plan for the eternal, interaction between God and mankind was established.  Thus if we are to really understand the plan of God for mankind we must start at the very beginning. 

          Now in the very beginning we know that there was God, the Word of God and the Spirit of God.  We also know that at sometime during this time period the angels were created.  We are not told how God created them nor why He created them.  However we do know that they were created to bring pleasure to God because Revelation 4:11 says that all things were created for God’s pleasure.  We can also infer from this that the angels were not sufficiently meeting God’s needs.  For if they were then why bother to go through the trouble to create mankind, especially sense we have been trouble since the beginning of our existence.  God wanted something from mankind that the angels could not give Him.  There was something lacking in the desire of God and thus in the very beginning God sets in motion a plan that would yield him this pleasure that he was desiring and that plan involved mankind; love by choice not by force.  It is in this very beginning that Jesus is described as a Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.  In fact there is much that affects mankind that was established before mankind ever existed.  Again, how can this be?  To understand this we must understand the foreknowledge of God.

          Foreknowledge is the ability to see, understand and know all future events and their effects.  Comprehending the foreknowledge of God means understanding that God knows everything from eternity past through eternity future and he has always known.  From the very beginning, before there was mankind and earth, before there were angels and other created beings, when there was nothing but God, God knew all that would ever be.  This means that there is no new knowledge to God.  There are no unexpected events, no surprises; for He knows all and always has known all.  So that in the very beginning, before God ever made man, he knew every thing that would ever be done in the history of mankind.  He knew that he would make Adam and Eve.  He knew that they would be tempted and that they would fall to temptation and plunge the rest of mankind into a state of sin.  But He also knew that the failure of Adam and Eve would fit into his plan to obtain love by choice and not by force.  In the foreknowledge of God he saw the failure of Adam and Eve and all mankind and at that time he put in motion a plan that would guarantee him love by choice and not by force.  The plan was laid before the founding of the world and in this plan several things were predetermined.

1.     It was predetermined that Jesus would come and die

I PETER 1:18-20

Mankind would have to be redeemed or purchased back from its sinful state.  The cost of doing this for the entire world would be much more than all the precious metals and jewels of the earth.  In fact since the penalty for sin was to be death, then the payment of death had to be made.  Blood had to be shed (Hebrews 9:22 without shedding of blood is no remission).  But not the blood of goats and bulls because the animal kingdom was also tainted by sin.  The payment for the sin of mankind would have to be precious untainted blood.  This meant that God himself would have to provide the blood.  Verse 20 says that it was foreordained before the foundation of the world that Jesus would shed his blood in payment for the sin of mankind.

HEBREWS 10:5-9

          This is written like Christ said it just before coming to earth, however it really is a reference to a prophetic statement made in Psalms 40:6-8, which was spoken long before the birth of Christ.  It sounds like to me that in the development of the plan, Jesus volunteered.  He said make me a body and I will go and fulfill that which is your will God.  Did Jesus have a choice?  Yes, as we throughout the coming weeks look at the sacrifice made by Jesus we will see that He had opportunities to choose a different route, but he did not.  Was God surprised by Jesus sticking to the plan, no because in the foreknowledge of God He knew exactly what would happen?

ACTS 2:23

          Paul explains here that both the Jews and the Romans did exactly what God already knew they would do.  In other words they fell right into the plan of God.  God allowed the wickedness and jealousy of man to manifest itself in a gruesome and painful death of his son, recognizing that only that death could redeem mankind back to him.  Someone ask me this week “what would have happened if the Jews who were followers of Christ had stood up and refused to allow him to be crucified.  If this had happened then there would have been no payment for the sins of mankind and we would have forever been trapped in our sinful state, trying to redeem ourselves with the blood of tainted goats and bulls.  Without the shedding of the blood of Jesus, mankind could not be restored to right standing with God.   There is no evidence that God had a backup plan.  Jesus was our only hope.  But God knew that Jesus would stick to the plan before He ever made man.  In the mind of God, Jesus was already slain before the world began. 

          There were other events that were pre determined.  Many people believe in predestination however, they have the wrong understanding of predestination.  Because God knows what choices I will make in no way means that he has already determined those choices for me.  If you really think about your own actions you will know this to be true.  How many times have we felt the Spirit of God leading us in one direction and we choose to go in another.  If God was making choices for us, then He would always choose to do that which was his will.  However, the Bible does speak of predestination in two passages and these two passages let us know that in the plan of God from the very beginning there are certain things that God had predetermined will happen.

ROMANS 8:29-30

          What is predetermined here and for whom is it predetermined?  First of all what ever is predestined is predetermined for those who love God and are called or committed to his purpose.  How does God know who these people are?  He knows through foreknowledge.  Does God decide who loves him or does he simply know who does?  Any person and every person can make the choice to love God and surrender to his purpose.  That is what free will is all about and remember that was God’s desire from the very beginning;  love by choice not by force.  For those who will choose to love him and based on his knowledge God has

2.     Predetermined that those persons would be changed into the image of His son.  So II Cor. 3:18 says “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”  It is the task of the Holy Spirit to through the Word of God show us the image of Christ and work to conform us into that image.  The Bible teaches in Phil. 2:13 that God is at work within the believer performing that which is His good pleasure.  What God predestined was that all who love him and submit to his will would one day look like Jesus in character and nature. For that group who loves and submits to him, God also called.  But what did he call the group to.  Those who love God are called to a life of holiness, a life of obedience and a life of service.  Those who have been called, which by the way happens to be all who love him and will surrender to his will, God has also justified.  To be justified means to be declared not guilty.  Why can God declare someone not guilty?  Because that someone has yielded to God, applied for and accepted His payment plan for sin.  That plan is the shed blood of Jesus, shed to redeem or buy man back from his sinful state.  Finally, those who God has justified will one day receive new glorified bodies and live with God and Christ is a glorified state forever.  But in this passage what did God predestine?  He predestined that all who love him and submit to him would e changed into the image of Christ.  Did He predetermine who would love him and who would submit to him?  No, that is each person’s individual choice, not God’s choice.

3.     EPHESIANS 1:3-5

The us in verse 4 refers to Christians not to individual persons.  In the very beginning God decided that He would consider all Christians who stand before him to be holy and without blame.  This was God’s choice.  He did not choose who would be Christians, but rather how He would view Christians.  Each person must for himself choose either to submit to God or follow his own way.  However, God has from the very beginning decided how he will respond to each group.  

          Another reference to predestination is given in verse 5.  But what did God predestine here?  God predetermined that He would adopt all Christians as his children, making us brothers and sisters of Christ.  He would do this simply because he wanted to.  But yet again, God did not choose who would be Christians.  What he chose was what he would do for Christians.  Less anyone be confused, by Christian I mean as does the Bible those who are followers of Christ, committed to living by and carrying out the will of God for their lives., 

4.     EPHESIANS 1:11

What is predestined here?  What God has predetermined here is that all believers will have an inheritance.  In other words when Christ who is our big brother receives His inheritance, we too will receive an inheritance.  Once again the we refers to Christians. 

These references here in Ephesians and the one previously read in Romans are the only uses of the word predestined in the Bible.  None of these in any way imply that God has hand picked some to go to hell and others to go to heaven.

There is one more thing that God ordained should happen in the very, very beginning.

5.     EPHESIANS 2:10

God in the very beginning ordained that followers of Christ should do good works.  We are to copy Christ in character, in words, in actions and in deeds.

          In the very beginning before the creation of the earth and mankind God set a plan in motion.  It was not a plan to be utilized by some while ignoring others.  It was a plan that was meant to be all inclusive.  John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”      

 Every individual born on this earth is a who so ever.  In the very beginning God chose the plan.  In the beginning, in this now time, man must choose God.