As Christians we believe that God, out of love for us, set-aside his divinity and became a finite human being in order to bring humanity to redemption. Despite knowing this truth, we can sometimes feel as though God sent Jesus to live and die among us as a sort of “fallback” plan. The common view of the cross can sometimes become a “plan B” theory. However, the idea that God sent Jesus after every other effort had failed, is not Biblical.
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You Ain’t No Cinderella
• Greg Boyd
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As Christians we believe that God, out of love for us, set-aside his divinity and became a finite human being in order to bring humanity to redemption. Despite knowing this truth, we can sometimes feel as though God sent Jesus to live and die among us as a sort of “fallback” plan. The common view of the cross can sometimes become a “plan B” theory. However, the idea that God sent Jesus after every other effort had failed, is not Biblical.
God’s redemption of humanity by the death of Jesus on the cross was not a fallback plan, it was THE plan from the beginning. According to Ephesians 1:3-6, before the beginning of the world God chose to redeem a people God had not yet created by becoming a human being and dying for us. (See Col. 1:16)
Ephesians does NOT say that God chose some to be “in Christ” and some not. Rather, God’s desire is for ALL to be in Christ. This is stated again and again throughout scripture (see 2 Peter 3:9, 1 Tim. 2:4)
As Christians we can rejoice in the knowledge that God chose us, each one of us, to be completely his. We are God’s first choice, not an after thought. God’s love is so vast, so infinite that God can love every person ever created with unsurpassable and complete love. In the truth of God’s passionate love for us we can enter into deep intimacy with God knowing we were loved before the world began.
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Focus Scripture:
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Luke 2:39-40
When Joseph and Mary had done everything required by the Law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee to their own town of Nazareth. And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.
