The Plan of God for Man: God Shares Himself

By Donald Roth

God the Father has been so maligned by everybody in our world. We speak of God as the big man upstairs who carries a big stick, just waiting for us to get out of line, and a god who never rewards but only punishes. This, unfortunately, is the god of our religions as portrayed by most of all our religious systems of today. But is this the real God and Father of our life who decided, for no reasons at all, to create a man who would have all the fullness of Almighty God in him and who says he will provide the very best for us? And who said, My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours (Luke 15: 31)?

Will the real God please show himself to us? Well, the God presented here, who, for no reason other than his desire and his willingness to share his great love with man that he would create, did so, knowing there is absolutely nothing that this man or any man could ever give back to him. Presented here is God whose only love and whose only desire is to share himself with his man. Not only that, but this God and Father will also fill this man with all the fullness of himself in his son, and he has said so (Col. 2:9 and Eph. 1:22). As you get to know him here, his Holy Spirit will reveal much more of himself to you!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 25, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543437874

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Copyright © 2017 by Donald Roth.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. [Biblica]

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Rev. date: 07/20/2017

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 GOD’S PLAN FOR MAN

CHAPTER 2 THE SUBSTITUTION

CHAPTER 3 GOD UNVEILS HIS PLAN

CHAPTER 4 GOD CREATES THE WORLD FOR MAN

CHAPTER 5 GOD CREATES HIS MAN

CHAPTER 6 THE SEVENTH (7TH) DAY, GOD RESTED

CHAPTER 7 THE FALL OF MAN

CHAPTER 8 THE FLOOD

CHAPTER 9 ABRAHAM BELIEVES GOD

CHAPTER 10 THE PLAN OF SATAN

CHAPTER 11 ABRAHAM’S SEED – CHRIST JESUS

CHAPTER 12 JOSEPH AND SLAVERY IN EGYPT

CHAPTER 13 MAN’S APPROACH TO GOD

CHAPTER 14 GOD DELIVERS HIS PEOPLE

CHAPTER 15 GOD GIVES THE LAW

CHAPTER 16 ISRAEL ENTERS THE PROMISED LAND

CHAPTER 17 MOSES DISTRUSTS GOD

CHAPTER 18 LIFE IN THE PROMISED LAND

CHAPTER 19 THE MESSIAH COMES

CHAPTER 20 THE FATHER WORKS HIS PLAN

CHAPTER 21 THE HOLY SPIRIT

CHAPTER 22 GOD’S JUDGMENT

CHAPTER 1

GOD’S PLAN FOR MAN

God has a PLAN for each of us for our lives and this PLAN is based upon a GREAT LOVE that He not only has, but IS, HIM! This PLAN is not based upon a TASK-DRIVEN agenda that we must accomplish nor is it based upon a Desire to Punish, to make us Holy and Clean. I KNOW we have been taught that He is vindictive and DEMANDS HOLINESS and SUFFERING to accomplish His PLAN, and who will not help until we accomplish Heaven. That has been our teaching, but that is not Our GOD! He has a great PLAN for each of us that is beyond belief! This is not a SECRET PLAN that He keeps to Himself or that He gives ONLY to the religious ELITE, but it is a Plan that He revealed before Eternity began and which He revealed to a MAN He would create and this creation would thus become HIS FAMILY.

Even before the foundations for our World were created, the three DIVINE PERSONS in GOD had decided to SHARE THEIR LOVE WITH A NEW BEING CALLED MAN WHICH THEY WOULD CREATE. These three Persons, God the Father, God the Word, and God the Holy Spirit, then AGREED UPON A PLAN that would ALLOW their GREAT LOVE to come to Man so they could have eternal LOVE and Fellowship with them even in a greater way than an earthly Father has with His Family. These three Divine Persons are ONE GOD and NOT THREE GODS! That is a mystery that is just to be believed. When this decision was made, it would certainly be GOOD for MAN and GOOD for GOD. God revealed:

JER 29:11 I KNOW the Plans I have for you, declares the LORD, PLANS to PROSPER you and NOT to HARM YOU, and PLANS to give you HOPE and a FUTURE.

This PLAN of GOD was Prepared before the foundations of the world and is designed to PROSPER MAN by allowing the SPIRIT of GOD to MOLD this MAN into the same image and likeness as GOD Himself. We are to have ETERNAL LIFE for JESUS Prayed, and His Prayers are always answered. He asked, Give Eternal Life to all those you have given Me, and this is Eternal Life, That they may KNOW YOU, the ONLY True God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

This too, is a primary commitment of God to His PLAN. We KNOW that God will prosper MAN, and that Prosperity is in HIS LOVE, and that LOVE is GOD! God’s Family would mirror the workings of FAMILY LIFE on the Earth except with the LOVE that is GOD which cannot be KNOWN except through Christ Jesus that He gives to each. Also, we KNOW little about HEAVEN and the Prosperity that awaits us, but we KNOW HIS PLAN will BENEFIT us and provide a FUTURE to include the EXHAUSTIVE RICHES OF GOD!

Did we hear that? He will give us His FULLNESS! (COL 1:10) First of all, we must have a TRUST of GOD as a FATHER in the same way as our children TRUST us as parents. We PROVIDE their NEED and we learned this from GOD Our Father, so we can be sure that He will satisfy our NEED in the same way as He says HE WILL! God, the Creator of the Universe, began this PLAN only because of this GREAT LOVE that is HIM, and once we learn to KNOW His LOVE we will see it as something we cannot even Imagine. His Plan CANNOT HARM us but can only provide the GOOD that is Him, for HIS LOVE CANNOT EVER DO ANYTHING THAT EVEN HAS THE APPEARANCE OF EVIL.

However, to EXECUTE this PLAN, He would have to ALLOW a Being (the Devil—Satan), to buffet the man God created, as he to attempts to cause us to deny God. This being was an angel, Lucifer, who denied the GOD who created him. This enemy, the devil, is the very opposite of GOD in every way! He was created as an ANGEL and was the most beautiful being God created next to Himself, but he allowed his beauty to overwhelm him and caused him to say in his heart, I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly; I will ASCEND above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the MOST HIGH. (IS 14:13-15) Because of this rebellion, War in Heaven ensued and He was CAST down to the Earth. (IS 14:12) Being found in the Earth, he became the perpetual enemy of all God’s creations while attempting to destroy the MAN that GOD would create. However, this was not a surprise to GOD’S PLAN, for GOD who KNOWS all things, KNEW Lucifer would do this. He did not ordain this evil but allowed it to happen. God says His PLAN will Prosper us and not Harm us and will give us HOPE and a FUTURE. The GODLY HOPE of His PLAN is that GOD KNOWS All things and knows every snare in our path. Jesus too, prayed that GOD would PROTECT us from this Evil One:

JN 17:11 Holy Father, PROTECT them by the Power of your Name — the NAME YOU GAVE ME.

That NAME is JESUS who gave us AUTHORITY over all the power of the enemy. However, God KNEW His Man would DISOBEY HIM, and He also KNOWS that His HOLINESS CANNOT ALLOW SIN to exist with Him. If even a taint of Sin exists, His HOLINESS would immediately CONSUME it! GOD has planned that HIS Presence would ALWAYS be with His Man, and that is GOD’S PURPOSE CREATED in creating Man. However, His HOLINESS demands that ALL SIN be destroyed in Man before He can have fellowship with Him!

His decree was that the MAN WHO SINS MUST DIE FOR HIS SINS. This Death would result in SPIRITUAL DEATH immediately and PHYSICAL DEATH as GOD dictated. The Spiritual Death man receives is ETERNAL SEPARATION from GOD. However, because of God’s FOREKNOWLEDGE, He KNEW His man would SIN, but He also decreed that His Man could be redeemed by a SUBSTITUTE who would DIE the Death required of Sinful Man. After Man was created, God decreed only ONE LAW to Obey:

GEN 2:16 You are FREE to eat of from ANY tree in the GARDEN; but YOU MUST NOT eat from the tree of the KNOWLEDGE of Good and EVIL, for when you do, you shall surely DIE.

That was the only COMMAND God had given to His man! We shall show that Man would DISOBEY and EAT of this Apple (Fruit) of the Tree of Knowledge later. As a result of disobeying, he would immediately LOSE his right to be the FULLNESS OF GOD which God had placed in Man. (COL 2:10) But GOD, who is a GOD of a LOVE and a MERCY that cannot even be imagined, knowing His Man (Adam) would disobey, also decreed in His PLAN that MAN could be restored into the Kingdom of God through allowing a SUBSTITUTE to take his place of the death required for sinners. During the early life of man, the substitute had to be a Perfect, Unblemished ANIMAL, which was designated to be the substitute required so that God’s HOLINESS could be satisfied. Later in the PLAN of GOD, the FINAL and TRUE Substitute would be a MAN who would came into the world and be that sacrificial LAMB, perfect in every way, and thus would satisfy the HOLINESS demands of God by dying for the sins of the first man. Holy God would designate the appropriate time for HIM to come into the world to be this substitute. GOD’S PLAN decreed that this FINAL SUBSTITUTE would be HIS ONLY SON, the WORD of GOD, who would be MADE FLESH in the exact same manner as the first Adam who sinned. This LAST ADAM, CHRIST JESUS, would come and LIVE the Perfect life of obedience required by HOLY GOD and then voluntarily DIE the DEATH required of Man as satisfaction for his sins. Then, if ALL Men after HIM would agree to accept the works of this LAST Adam in Dying for them, through only calling upon His Name, they would be restored to the GRACES of the FIRST ADAM before he sinned.

God is exceptionally JUST and though not obligated to allow this, a MAN of the Earth, ABRAHAM, proved to God that He, ABRAHAM, was willing to sacrifice His Only Son as a Sin offering to HOLY GOD! What a great PLAN from GOD! Because a MAN LOST GOD’S GLORY, only another MAN who would live a PERFECT SINLESS LIFE in total SUBMISSION and OBEDIENCE TO GOD could FULFILL the LAW of GOD’S DEMANDS for HOLINESS. This LAST MAN, Christ Jesus, would RESTORE the GLORY that the first Adam lost through SIN. He would successfully REDEEM and RESTORE MAN to the ORIGINAL GRACES, God had given to the FIRST ADAM. This PLAN of GOD is HIS WORD which was PROCLAIMED FORMALLY in HEAVEN before any FOUNDATIONS for our WORLD were ever created. At that time, GOD decided to create a FAMILY to SHARE HIS LIFE and HIS LOVE, and so He CREATED MAN. This Man would be created in the exact Image and Likeness of God.

However, this PLAN of GOD would have great obstacles to overcome. We shall learn later that LUCIFER, a most beautiful angel of God’s creation, would rebel against God and try to ascend above GOD who created him. This attempt on his part FAILED as we shall learn later, and because he rebelled and disobeyed the Most High God, he was cast out of Heaven and cast down to the Earth. While in the earth, he still had that rebellious spirit and his sole aim in the earth is to oppose God in every way possible by destroying His Family. Once God announced His PLAN for a FAMILY, Lucifer, whose name was changed to SATAN, began his ATTACK to steal, to kill, and to destroy God’s Man, who was loved by God, and would try to harm God. The devil was shown to be WRONG AGAIN, for GOD had already KNOWN this development and had included the PLAN necessary to thwart and deny Satan’s plans. God’s Law dictated that SIN is SLAVERY and the Man who sins becomes the SLAVE of SIN and thus, becomes the SLAVE of the ONE He Obeys. However, GOD’S PLAN also included the PROMISE OF ONE who would come to be the MAN that MUST DIE for SIN! He would come as the Sacrifice allowed by God that could take the place of MAN in the DEATH required. This SUBSTITUTE would allow MAN to be restored to the original HOLINESS God had given Man and thus allow Man to live in His Presence, FREE of All Sin. Since Scripture dictates that Man becomes the SLAVE of the One he OBEYS (ROM 6:16), this MAN would give up the SEED of GOD’S HOLINESS received at Creation, and take on the SEED of the one he obeyed, who was Satan. That is what happened! Adam SINNED and LOST the SEED of Almighty GOD and received the seed of the devil. Now God also decreed a Law of SEED in His creation that Every SEED PRODUCES OF ITS KIND! That is WHY EVERY MAN BORN AFTER ADAM COMES INTO THE WORLD AS A SINNER. He has the seed of his new father, SATAN, which is the Nature to Sin, Which can only do EVIL. He cannot stop himself from sinning or cause himself to do right. St. Paul lamented, In his mind, he desires to serve God, but in his flesh, he cannot help but do what his nature requires of him, and that is to SIN. (ROM 7:18) This is why this Sin and the Nature to Sin is now referred to as ORIGINAL SIN! EVERY MAN born after the First Adam MUST be born into this Earth with the devil’s nature to sin because ADAM sinned and the LAW of GOD decreed EVERY SEED MUST PRODUCE AFTER ITS KIND." This same LAW decreed that Man received this SEED OF GOD when God BREATHED HIS LIFE in him. Thus, all vegetation also lives under this Law, and Man will live by this same LAW of the SEED producing after its Kind. God already KNEW His Man would lose the SEED of GOD which would Produce after its Kind and receive the seed of the one he obeyed, and so GOD’S PLAN already included a remedy that would allow a Substitute Savior to take the place of Man in the death required in order for Man to again RECEIVE the SEED of Him who was his SUBSTITUTE in Death. This event in the life of His Man was revealed by St. Paul. Man tried to live Godly, but his SINFUL Nature would just not allow him to do so. But Almighty God already KNEW this and so He had already PLANNED to have this Substitute, who would be HIMSELF, ready to take the place of Man in DEATH!

CHAPTER 2

THE SUBSTITUTION

ROM 7:21 So I find this Law at work; when I want to do good, Evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s Law, but I see another Law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the Law of my mind, making me a prisoner of the Law of Sin at work within my members.

This was the lament of Paul who diligently attempted to follow the LAW of Moses but could not do so. Finally, in great disgust and dire frustration, Paul gave up trying. More than any other Jewish man, Paul knew the Law of Moses and was taught by the best teacher of his time. He knew his heritage, which was well founded in Jewish tradition, and he knew everything about the LAW and that placed him above his peers. He felt strongly that his knowledge of the LAW would provide God’s Righteous Life for him, and yet HE COULD NOT ATTAIN THIS RIGHTEOUS LIFE! He finally screams out in rage:

ROM 7:24 What a wretched man I am! WHO WILL RESCUE ME FROM THIS BODY OF DEATH? Thanks, be to God — through CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD.

Thus, Paul NAMES God’s Holy Son, JESUS, as the LAST ADAM who will REDEEM MAN from all His sins. This substitute would take the penalty of suffering and death required by God’s Holiness in His own body to fulfill the demands of Holy God. This decision was made before the worlds were created, when GOD decided to SEND HIS SON, the WORD OF GOD, to DIE in place of MAN:

PS 40:6f Sacrifice and Offering you did not desire, but a BODY You have prepared for Me; Then I said, HERE AM I; SEND ME. I have come to do your WILL O’ GOD.

The True substitute was JESUS of NAZARETH. Here Jesus said, if the sacrifice of the blood of bulls and goats, which were the SUBSTITUTE sacrifices for the sin of man, which were allowed by God’s LAW given to Moses to restore man back to God, if these could TAKE AWAY SIN, then Jesus DIED for nothing. However, these sacrifices only COVERED OVER SIN and DID NOT remove or eliminate Sin from Man.

Paul said, these animal sacrifices ONLY reminded Man of Sin and COULD NOT take away Sin (HEB 10:4), but only cover over SIN, and so JESUS said: A body you have prepared for me. I have come to do your Will O’ God! (HEB 10:7)

HEB 10:10,14 And by that WILL we have been made HOLY through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all… because by ONE Sacrifice, He (Jesus) made PERFECT FOREVER those who are being made HOLY (Perfect).

So, because these animal sacrifices could not take away SIN, God’s Son, Jesus, would come to be that Sacrifice. We see God’s PLAN as it unfolds. ALMIGHTY GOD sent HIMSELF to DIE