Preplanned

Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Jn 17:24
   
He was chosen before the creation of the world , but was revealed in these last times for your sake. 1 Pet 1:20  
   
the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world. ( Or written from the creation of the world in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain). Rev 13:8
 
Consider:
   
Our three verses today all have a common element – they refer back to the beginning of the world, or even to before it!   There are a number of these verses in the New Testament, coming from a variety of writers who all understood the same thing.
   
The first one speaks of the love the Father had for the Son before they created this world.  Jesus himself spoke a number of times about having come from heaven.  His life didn’t start when he was conceived in Mary; he had existed from before time. The Father and Son existed in loving communion before anything else was.
   
The second verse speaks about how the Godhead chose Jesus to come down and go through the thirty three years of human existence.  Seen in context, we see that Peter had just been writing about Jesus dying like a sacrificial lamb so the implication is that this role was assigned him before they made the world.
     
The third verse, from Revelation, indicates that this plan for Jesus to die for our sins and thus create a book of the saved, was established before they created the world, thus confirming Peter’s revelation of the truth.
 
Again and again, the message is that God planned the Cross even before He created the world. Because He is God, He could look into the future and see that His perfect creation would soon be marred by sin, as Adam and Eve used their free will to choose to disregard God.
   
Before He created the world, He knew what the consequences of free will and of sin, and knew the separation from Him that would occur.   Right back then, He knew the only way to deal with this would be the Cross, and right back then they agreed that the Son would be the one who would leave heaven and come in human form to bring about eternal justice. The activities in Jerusalem some two thousand years ago were no last-ditch, desperate measure by God. No, they were part of the plan and purpose of heaven that was decided upon even before He spoke and said, “Let there light”! (Gen 1:3).  We need to get this firmly in  our mind: The Cross of Easter was planned by God before anything else came into being.   It is the pivot of history.  God knew that once He gave us free will, the Cross became essential, for all the reasons we’ve considered previously
    
Prayer:
   
Lord, thank you that you looked into the future and saw our plight and planned accordingly, even before you brought anything into being.  Thank you that even before time began you planned this, Jesus coming and dying (Easter) for us.