Thought for the Week: Cooperation

God's complex "Plan of Salvation" often has human cooperation. Sometimes those humans do not understand it. I expect Isaiah did not understand what it meant as he wrote, "A virgin shall conceive and bear a Son." Micah probably did not understand, "... Bethlehem...out of thee shall come One to rule my people..." either. Zachariah and Elizabeth likely did not understand why God had not answered their prayers for years and now would provide them with child during old age. Mary likely did not understand much of what the Angel Gabriel told her but she willingly said, "Behold, the handmaid of the Lord."

Could Joseph understand what was meant by "Fear not to take Mary as thy wife"? Joseph was known as a just man and was kind. He must have had an understanding of what was right and what was wrong. He wanted to do what was right, but this did not seem right. Still, he obeyed and did what was asked of him by God.

We might expect since Joseph was obedient, God would make things easy. The journey to Bethlehem was hard. Finding no room in the inn was hard. Fleeing into Egypt to protect the Child that was not his own was hard. Even within the Triune God the Plan of Salvation was hard. Imagine God, The Son, having to leave the perfection of Heaven to come to earth and experience poverty, hardship, hatred, humiliation, rejection, suffering, desertion and all the other things He faced. That was harder than anything mortal man ever faced.

Still, when the fullness of time arrived, God had received cooperation needed to complete the Plan of Salvation. Now the Plan is effective. Everything that needed to be done has been done. God has completed all He needed to do. The Plan of Salvation is open and free for us. The only requirement of us is to accept, (The Plan) believe, (God's promises) confess, (our sins) and be disciples (follow Christ absolutely). The end result of the Plan of Salvation is eternal life in the presence of God Who loves us with an intense love.

God did not make us robots with no choice but to obey. He gave us a free will, so we could make personal choices. We are responsible for the choices we make. Most certainly we can choose to reject God's perfect Plan of Salvation. And likely more choose to reject than to accept. We cannot humanly understand why God would love us so much. Let there be no doubt: The Plan of Salvation has its base in love.

God so intensely loved He paid the whole price for the salvation of any and all who would accept His Plan of Salvation. I am so glad for those who cooperated with God to bring it all to pass. God still seeks those who will cooperate with Him in publishing the Plan to those who are lost and dying.

Our world is in terrible shape. Humanly we can never solve our problems nor fix what is wrong with our world. Our only hope is God's plan. Some think it too simple. Some think it too exclusionary. It is both, but it is the only way.