God's Plan of Salvation

I’m a natural born planner. I love a good plan when I see one, I marvel at a great one. Plans speak to the brilliance and insight of the planner, the wisdom of the execution and the good wrought by the plan. Plans are glorious things.

When we look at the big picture of the Bible we inevitably speak of God’s plan of salvation. It sometimes is described like this: in response to the Fall God initiated a plan whereby His grace made possible a way of salvation that culminated in Christ, and awaits His second coming (Fall, Redemption and Consummation).

So far as plans go, it appears glorious but upon closer inspection is quite lacking. The plan makes salvation possible but not guaranteed. In fact, our total depravity dooms such a plan to fail. It is a plan dependent upon man, not God. We need salvation of the Lord.

There are true elements in this popular sketch, however, as a great and glorious God, we would expect a far grander plan, and this is precisely what we find in the pages of Scripture (Eph 1:4–6; Ro 8:30).

A four-hundred-year-old document articulates God’s biblical plan of salvation thus:

This elect number [i.e. those given to Christ in eternity past], though by nature neither better nor more deserving than others, but with them involved in one common misery, God hath decreed to give to Christ, to be saved by Him, and effectually to call and draw them to His communion by His Word and Spirit, to bestow upon them true faith, justification and sanctification; and having powerfully preserved them in the fellowship of His Son, finally, to glorify them for the demonstration of His mercy and for the praise of His glorious grace. (Canons of Dort 1.7).
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Using modern planning language, we see every element of a great plan:

• The Planner’s Will/Purpose: to save a people for His glory;
• The Agent: Christ who saves or enables the project;
• The Guarantor: the Holy Spirit who builds: calls, grants faith, guarantees our sanctification & perseverance; who involves us in His church to join in the work as under-labourers, fulfilling the Great Commission and extending the Kingdom.
• The End: a bride presented to Christ to live with Him in the New Heavens and New Earth.

This is a plan that we can rest our faith and hope in; confident that as He is able to save, able to keep and able to finish the good work He began in us. Praise the Lord for His glorious plan of salvation!