God' Game Plan

He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will (Eph 1:5).

Before the game, coaches come up with a game plan.  How will his team attack on offense.  How his defense will shut down the opponent.  

They study game tape.  They look at tendencies.  They know strengths.  They weaknesses.  

Some football teams will go so far as to script the first 10-15 plays of the game.  It's all part of determining a game plan.  

If Ephesians 1:4 is all about God making choices in the draft, this next verse is about coming up with His divine game plan.  

So what's the Lord's strategy?  "He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will" (v5).  

Did you catch it?  Almighty God's game plan is to take us, His opponents (Rom 5:10; Col 1:21) and make us part of His team through divine adoption!  

Isn't that just the craziest strategy you've ever heard?!?  But we can look back on the game tape of our own lives and know that His game plan worked to perfection.

There's one bit of housekeeping we need to take handle.  At the end of Ephesians 1:4, we read those two little words "in love."  

A lot of Bible scholars believe this short but important phrase actually goes with verse five.  Remember, everything from Ephesians 1:3-14 is one long, run on sentence.  

Paul wrote this original letter without punctuation, much less verse numbers.  Translators added all that stuff way later.  

As a result, "in love" kinda gets left out, swinging in the breeze.  And that's a crying shame because it's very important.  REALLY important.  SUPER important.  

Without the lens of God's love, a lot of this incredible passage becomes a dry, academic exercise.  

Rather than being swept away by the tidal wave of His love, we end up studying big ideas predestination and election under a microscope like a dissected frog in biology class.  

God did it all "in love."  The whole enchilada.  "In love."  Every last stinkin' bit of it.  "In love."  

And this kind of love isn't confined to a warm fuzzy or deep feeling.  No, the apostle is talking about agape.  It's the sacrificial love-in-action, love-is-a-verb kind of expression.  

If you have any doubt about about it, Paul told his buddies in Rome to simply look back how it all went down.  "God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8).  Now THAT'S love!

A huge part of God's game plan is centered around the fact that He actually pre-loved you.  Let's be very clear about something.  There's actually nothing lovable about you or me.  

You know it's true.  Sure, He made us in His image (Gen 1:26-27).  But we jacked that up from the get-go (Gen 3).  And as a result, we're all sinners (Rom 3:10-12, 23).  

Jesus pre-loved me DESPITE everything I know about myself.  It's just who He is.  The very personification of love (1Jn 4:8, 16).  

He loved us first.  He pre-loved us.  "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins" (1Jn 4:10).  

God doesn't just love you.  He pre-loves you.

It's because of that pre-love that God draws up His divine game plan.  "He predestined us" (v5).  

We get the entire idea of His pregame strategy from the Greek verb προοριζω/prooizo.  It means to predetermine, decide beforehand, foreordain or appoint ahead of time.  

This is a compound word meaning beforehand (προ/pro-) marking out the limits or boundaries (-οριζω/-orizo).  

In other words, God wasn't caught by surprise and had to ad lib.  Jesus doesn't run a freelance offense.  

He doesn't have to audible at the line of scrimmage because His opponent did something He wasn't expecting.  

As the all-knowing God, He knows EXACTLY what's going to happen.  His knowledge is absolutely perfect (37:16).  

There's no limit to what He knows (Ps 147:5).  Because He knows what will happen in the game, His predetermined game plan is flawless.

Without going all Calvinist on you, let's just walk through a few verses that talk about God's ability to sovereignly and perfectly preplan His strategy.  

The first church understood that Herod, Pilate, and the Romans were simply tools that God "predestined" to pull out of His toolbox to fulfill His plan (Acts 4:28).  

Paul knew that the Good News about salvation in Jesus was "a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed (Gr. προοριζω/prooizo) before the ages" (1Cor 2:7).  

But one of the most important passages on God's sovereign game plan for us is the apostle's letter to believers in Rome.  

"For those whom He foreknew He also predestined (Gr. προοριζω/prooizo) to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.  

"And those whom He predestined (Gr. προοριζω/prooizo) He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified" (Rom 8:29-30).

While we can be sure that God is coming back to renew and restore His creation (Rev 21), part of His game plan is to do the same for those He pre-loves.  

Before the game, He has a plan.  At the end of the big game, He will glorify us.  Forget going to Disney World.  

God's predetermined strategy is to put us on His roster.  But we won't be lost on the depth chart as some kind of forgotten benchwarmers.  "He predestined us for adoptions as sons" (v5).  

Through His amazing love and the work of Jesus at Calvary, God transforms us from rebels against His kingdom to members of His family.  

We deserve punishment for treason.  We deserve death for betrayal.  But Christ took the full wrath of God on our behalf.  

Instead we receive what we don't deserve.  Grace.  Unmerited favor.  Tullian Tchividjian calls it that descending, one-way love.  

Bitter enemies one minute.  Full family members the next.  

So is Paul some sort of chauvinist?  Why are we just "sons through Jesus Christ" (v5)?  Why are not sons AND DAUGHTERS?  

This certainly must be another example of sexual discrimination in the church, right?  Wrong.  As a matter of fact, it's exactly the opposite.  

Back in the first century, only sons were allowed to be full heirs of the family fortune.  God is letting us know that our inheritance and position in His family has absolutely nothing to do with gender.  

We all get the pole position of sonship.  That's all part of pregame strategy for those He pre-loves.

His plan for our adoption is "through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will" (v5).  

There's absolutely nothing we bring to the table that merits our heavenly Dad picking us out of the orphanage.  There's nothing in my file that makes me stand out.  

It's all because of Jesus and what He's done for me.  Here's a quick look at our Lord's highlights.

He lived the spotless, sinless life that I completely stunk at.  

He died the brutal, bloody death that was meant for me.  

He rose to a glorious new life that I should have no part of.  

But I trust in His work on my behalf.  It's only through God's one and only Son and His perfection that He adopts me into His family.  

And it was all part of His plan from the beginning.  It was all part of His pre-love for you and me.  It was all part of God's game plan.

©2013

Jay Jennings