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God's Wonderful Plan

FOUR LAWS CULTURE CLASH SINNER SAVED JOIN US

Four Laws In the late 1960's there was a Bible tract I became familar with and often encountered. It was the Four Spiritual Laws, a pamphlet created by Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ. “Have You Heard of the Four Spiritual Laws?”, the tract asked on the cover. The spiritual laws, in summary, were:

God Loves You
You are Separated from God
Jesus is the Only Way to God
You must Receive Jesus

No surprises there. Pretty straight forward, if you were a Christian. But if you were not a believing Christian, the laws were a bit pushy and dogmatic.

In fact, in my pre-Christian days, I never got much beyond the first law:

God Loves You and has a Wonderful Plan for Your Life.

Have you ever been told by someone that “God loves you”, and it almost feels like a taunt? Or even a threat? Like God loves you, or else. But I was raised in a home where we sang “Jesus loves me, this I know” in Sunday School, so I was familar with the love. It was the “plan” part that bothered me.

God had a wonderful plan to turn me into a Bible-thumping Baptist, against my will. I would need to get my hair cut, probably a crew cut. I would have to move away from home, probably south, probably west, into a belt of Bibles. I would have to change my political points of view. I would have to forsake Rock & Roll for Country & Western. My family wouldn't recognize me. I wouldn't recognize me. This plan wasn't appealing to me.

In an effort perhaps to make the Four Spiritual Laws seem more scientific, charts and graphs had been included in the tract to illustrate the laws. You know, a chasm, a cross bridging the chasm, in that style. But once again it was the pictures representing the wonderful plan that really distracted me, in particular the ones depicting the self-directed life versus the Christ-directed life.

Self-Directed Life In the self-directed picture, self is on the throne, self is in the center, and there are these little dots or bubbles of varying sizes floating around. It is apparently all chaos, all confusion, but it really didn't look that bad to me. The cross, representing Christ, is waiting just outside and wants to take over.

Christ-Directed Life In the Christ-directed picture, bingo, Christ has taken over, self has been pushed aside, and the little dots have lined up in regimental fashion with no variations. There are now strict marching orders. You are now a Christian soldier, a Christian machine, a Christian robot. This was God's wonderful plan, to move in, take over, and remove any individual thinking or outlook that made you you. The pictures made it clear. This was a plan I did not want.

CULTURE CLASH
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Cultural resistance to believing in Jesus is all too common. By believing in him and accepting him as your personal Lord and Savior, you risk rejection by your own group. You risk becoming part of the “other,” the group that may now be your enemy or, at best, the group you look down on.

If you were brought up in a family that followed a particular religious tradition (for example, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, or non-believing Christianity), they may regard your acceptance of Christ as a betrayal against the family. Or you may have been raised in a home that emphasized higher learning, that focused on human knowledge and wisdom. They may consider your acceptance of Christ as “intellectual suicide.” To the religious, Christ is a stumbling block. To the wise, Christ is foolishness. Paul recognized this —

1Co 1:23-25 : 23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. 25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

The Four Spiritual Laws suggested that God's “Wonderful Plan” for your life were rewards now (John 10:10), that your problems would be solved somehow, that there would be harmony in your life. To suggest otherwise would have made the selling points of the tract much less appealing.

Yes, the Bible promises some rewards in this life, but it makes other promises too —

2Ti 3:12 : Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

By forsaking the old group and joining the new group, Jesus did say there would be some material benefit, although with persecution. But there was something else —

Mar 10:28-30 : 28 Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. 29 And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, 30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.

There may be rewards in this life, but, at its core, the “Wonderful Plan” is eternal life, without question the most wonderful plan that anyone could imagine.

SINNER SAVED
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Fortunately, in spite of the objections I might have had to the Four Spiritual Laws, I finally did become a Christian.

For me, the resistance to becoming a Christian wasn't really about not wanting to become part of another group. It was actually about pride, not wanting to yield myself to God, not wanting to admit to being wrong (or a sinner) —

1Ti 1:15 : This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

And now, the most “Bible thumping” passages in the Bible are my own, at the center of my life —

Gal 2:20 : I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

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