In 2013 I visited the US for the first time. I was there for an academic conference. My trip was sponsored by the university that I was studying with and so I took advantage of the free air ticket and made sure that I travelled around a bit while in the US. During one leg of my trip, I was staying in a hotel in Los Angeles. I had booked a rental car at Long Beach Airport which was about 50km away from where I was staying. I did not know how I would get to Long Beach Airport, but two weeks of travelling around in the US had made me incredibly impressed and confident in the US transportation system. So I knew, at least, that it should be possible. That day however, I would be more impressed than ever before.
The hotel where I was lodged was just up the road from Union Station—a large central train station in Los Angeles. I walked to Union Station and I arrived there at around 7:30 in the morning. At Union Station there are phones available for travelers to use to obtain any information needed regarding their journey or how to get to a particular destination. I picked up a phone and I told the operator that I needed to get to Long Beach Airport. He paused for a bit and then gave me the directions I needed to get there.
These were his words: “Take the Red Line train at 7:45. Get off at 7th Street at 7:50. Then, switch trains and take the Blue Line going South at 7:55. Get off at Willow Street Station at 8:35. Leave the station and take the Long Beach Bus 102, it arrives at East on Willow Street at 9:05. The bus will take you to Long Beach Airport and you can get off at the airport at 9:25.” Wow! An intricate plan, with intricate details, each and every detail important to get me to my destination. I followed this plan and I was able to get to my destination at the exact time the operator said I would.
The Bible tells us of an intricate plan as well: the plan of salvation and the plan to eradicate the universe of sin. Revelation 12 tells us that long before you and I came on the scene of history, there was a war going on in heaven. One of the most magnificent creatures that God ever gave life to was unhappy with the position that God had assigned him, and he accused God of being exacting, arbitrary, and unfair. Thus sin was born. Thus all the gloom and doom, trials and hardship that we face was born. But when sin originated, God put into effect His intricate plan, with intricate details that would demonstrate to the entire universe that God is love, that God is fair, and that God’s way is the best.
There are many parts to this plan. In this article, however, I am not going to focus on the details of the plan. But I would like to use the few words that I have available to demonstrate that this plan was not an afterthought, that it was not “damage control” and that it was well-crafted down to the minutest details. I hope that this will give you confidence in God and that it will reassure you that God knows what He is doing despite apparent evidence in your daily life, and in the news, that things are completely out of control. I also hope that this discussion will give you the strength to cooperate with God as He works in your life to bring that plan to its completion.
The Plan was not an Afterthought
What do we mean when we say “Afterthought”? Last year, we had a small get-together with a few friends for my wife’s birthday. We decided to have it at a park. Shortly after we started eating the food and the birthday cake, the weather started to turn a bit gloomy, and, as often happens during the summertime in Pretoria, it appeared to us that rain was on its way. When it did finally start to drizzle, I called my mother and asked her if we could bring the guests to their house and continue our little get-together over there. This was an afterthought. In other words, it was something that was not part of the original plan but was instead a quick solution to a mini, unforeseen crisis. When a solution to a problem is an afterthought, it does not carry the same elegance and sufficiency of a well-thought-through solution that is crafted long before. For example, my mother’s house did not have any birthday decorations and the dining table was not set for guests.
But suppose we had checked the weather and had known that it would start to rain at exactly 14:22. Suppose we had decorated my mother’s house for a birthday party. Suppose we had prepared vehicles to arrive at the park at exactly 14:10 with people to pick up the guests, pack up the picnic items and move everything to my mother’s house. Suppose we had planned to have something to drink in the park, sing Happy Birthday and then move to the second phase of the party at my parents’ house. Moving the birthday party to my parents’ house would not have been an afterthought. It would have been a wonderfully planned multi-venue birthday party.
This is more like the plan of salvation. It was not an afterthought. It was, and is, an elegantly crafted solution employed to deal with a foreseen problem. The Bible tells us that the plan of Salvation was not an afterthought—it was, and is, not damage control. Here are a few Bible verses that bear testament to this:
“Now to him that is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal.” Romans 16:25 (ASV)
“This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: ‘I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden since the foundation of the world.’” Matthew 13:35 (ESV)
“No, we speak of the mysterious and hidden wisdom of God, which He destined for our glory before time began.” 1 Corinthians 2:7 (Berean Study Bible)
“And to illuminate for everyone the stewardship of this mystery, which for ages past was hidden in God, who created all things.” Ephesians 3:9 (Berean Study Bible)
“The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people.” Colossians 1:26 (NIV)
Only Begotten Son
The greatest testament, perhaps, to the assertion that the plan of salvation was not afterthought is found in the very name given to Jesus: “Son of God”. One of the most well-known passages of scripture is of course John 3:16 which reads:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 (KJV)
What does the Bible mean, though, when it refers to Jesus as the “only begotten Son”? Does it mean that Jesus had a mother? Certainly not! What we need to be aware of here is the workings of a language device called the “metaphor.”
The Metaphor
When we employ a metaphor in our use of language, we can easily identify the reality and the object we are representing by that reality. For example, if I say “I few to work in my car”, I am making use of a metaphor whereby I am comparing my car or my driving—the object—to an airplane, the reality. My car, of course, does not fly like an airplane does. However, I am using a characteristic of the airplane, speed, to describe my journey to work. Speed is the only characteristic that I am extracting from the reality of an airplane to describe my car or my journey.
Also, I am not even asserting that my car travelled at the same speed that airplanes do. Speed, therefore, applies to my journey in a limited sense. The other aspects of an airplane (size, shape, colour, etc.) do not apply at all. In addition, in no sense am I describing the airplane by employing the metaphor. I am only describing the car or my journey. The airplane is the reality. The car or my journey is the object being described.
In our language, I believe, “son” is a metaphor for a heavenly, or eternal, reality. In our language, the term “son” means to be a male born of a woman and to be the result of conception between a man and a woman. In heaven, it means something different. In our language, the term “son” is used to describe an object—a male child—which in some limited sense, and certainly not in every sense, is similar to the reality of the “Son” of God.
Hebrews 1:5 (KJV) says, “For unto which of the angels said he at any time, ‘Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee’? And again, ‘I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son’?”. Note the tense of this verse. Speaking of Jesus, it states that at some point in the future God will be His Father and He will be the Son of the Father.
Psalm 2:7 (KJV) says, “I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.”
“When did this conversation take place?” we may ask. Acts 13:30-33 gives us the answer. Paul uses this verse as he is addressing some “Men of Israel” and those who fear God as he declares the following regarding Jesus:
“But God raised him from the dead: And he was seen many days of them which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are his witnesses unto the people. And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.” Acts 13:30-33 (KJV)
According to Acts 13, the conversation in Psalm 2:7 took place at the resurrection of Jesus. There is a connection, therefore, between being a “Son” and “being raised from the dead”. To be a “Son” in the reality of the word, is to be raised from the dead. We see this connection as well in Hebrews 11 when the faith of Abraham is described.
“By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. Hebrews 11:17-19 (KJV)
So we see that there is a connection between the name “Son” or “only begotten Son” and being raised from the dead. Thus, when the Bible refers to Jesus as the Son of God or the “only begotten Son” of God, it has nothing to do with Jesus’ origin (as if He had a mother). Rather, it is a prophecy, that one day, Jesus would die and be raised from the dead to defeat this intruder called “sin”. The name “Son of God” has to do with the foreknowledge of God. God knew that sin would one day arise in the universe. He knew that it would take place on earth. So, he had a solution, a complete solution, to the sin problem, long before any creature ever existed. This solution is the very reason the Godhead, or the trinity, has a being called “The Son of God”.
For as long as there has been God, there has been a solution to the sin problem. This is “the mystery that was hidden for ages and generations but is now revealed to His saints” says Paul. The plan of salvation was not an afterthought, it was a fore-ordained solution to the universe’s greatest threat, and it was prophesied in the very name “Son of God”.
“Why was it a great act of love then?”, we might ask. It was a great act of love, firstly, because, for a moment in eternity, there was a separation between the members of the Godhead. Beings that had been in close community from eternity past suffered the greatest separation possible. Secondly, by deciding to come to earth, God would suffer the pain and gloom of this sinful world. He would be tortured and killed by beings which He created and which He had the power to destroy merely by uttering a single word. Thirdly, Jesus, this second member of the Godhead, will forever carry the scars of this sinful world, and He will never realize His former glory.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son”—for God so loved the world, that He deployed the solution to the sin problem despite the pain and the permanent damage to Himself.
This was not an afterthought. This was, and is, a complete and thorough solution that existed long before the problem. May we have confidence in that solution. May we cooperate with God as He seeks to see his plan through to completion.