Romans 5:14 “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.”
Many teach the error that mankind fell when Adam sinned, and that God had to then come up with a plan to restore man to where he was before. And so in response to the fall of man God came up with the plan of salvation. But that is not the truth at all, for God never intended that mankind live for all eternity as Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden. God’s plan was always for man to dwell with Him in the heavenly city of Jerusalem for all eternity. In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul confirms that truth to us when he teaches us that Adam was in fact a type of Jesus. In other words Jesus was always God’s ultimate plan and not Adam. And so we see that it was never God’s intention to restore man to become what Adam was, but rather it was always God’s intention to make man become what Jesus is.
1 Peter 1:20-21 “He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you (21) who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.”
Because it was always God’s plan that man be in the image of Jesus, He had planned our salvation before the foundation of the world. In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit reveals to us that Jesus was foreordained by God before the foundation of the world. Think about that statement for a moment. God laid the foundation of the world millennia before Adam was created. In fact the apostle Paul teaches us that God’s plan of salvation was put in place from the beginning of the ages, i.e. even before his angels were created (Ephesians 3:9). And so we see that God had put in place His plan for the salvation of mankind before He created the earth, before He created the angels, and before He created Adam. In other word’s Adam’s sin did not take God by surprise, for it had always been part of God’s plan of salvation for mankind. The apostle Paul described God’s plan of salvation when he taught us that God in His infinite wisdom committed all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all (Romans 11:32).
Revelation 13:8 “All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
The context of the above quoted passage of scripture is referring to those who worship the antichrist at the end of the age. In this passage the Holy Spirit reveals to us that unbelievers have never had their names recorded in the Book of Life, thus implying that believers have their names recorded in the Book of Life before the foundation of the earth. This passage also reinforces the truth that it was always God’s plan for mankind to receive salvation through Jesus Christ, for it teaches us that Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world. Obviously that does not mean that Jesus was actually slain from the foundation of the world, but rather that it was in God’s perfect plan that He would be slain for the sin of the world. And that plan had always been hidden in God, even before the foundation of the world, until God made His plan of salvation manifest in His perfect time.
Michael E.B. Maher
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