God assured Man through his prophet Amos Amos 3:7 this wonderful truth, “Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but He revealeth His secret unto His servants the prophets.”, and the most fundamental of all God’s plans is the fact that He wants everyone to be saved. He wants everyone to be spared from the judgments that periodically descend on the world and will shortly come slamming down on the entire earth with unprecedented force and power. He wants all who will come to Him to be able to spend eternity with Him. In 1 Timothy 2:4–5 Paul wrote, “God will have all men to be saved and come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” In 2 Peter 3:9 we are reminded again; “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”  So because God would like all men to come to repentance (even though he knows all men won’t) He is very careful to give us all a chance.

God’s Plan of the Ages is a Plan of Covering Sin
In order to get a full understanding of God’s desire for men to be saved we must take an even broader view, by something called “God’s plan of the ages”.  This “plan of the ages”, has been revealed through His servants the prophets and made available to all who want to know the truth, and are willing to take the time to search the Scriptures, know God’s Word, and be taught by the Holy Spirit. The story begins in the Old Testament.

The Old Testament is a pageant, physically acted out by the Jews as a nation, and certain individual Gentiles to show God’s dealings with man. From the beginning, God wanted fellowship with man, a two-way relationship, but man rejected this through his disobedience and self-will. With this he (man) broke his perfect fellowship with God. But God in His love, mercy and wisdom had made provision for Man’s fall.

Provision was made to cover sin by making innocent sacrifice and God had it acted out in the flesh, what would become a spiritual covering later. God physically covered Adam and Eve by the shedding of innocent animal’s blood, that their skins might be used as clothing. Genesis 3:21 Generations later, in chapter 22 of Genesis, Abraham and his son Isaac “acted out” what God and His Son Jesus would do later. Abraham in obedience to God was willing to sacrifice his son, but the time had not yet come, and there would be only one Son sacrificed, so God once more provided a covering, through an innocent animal.

“And He said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.
And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.”  Genesis 22:12 -13

Abraham’s part in the plan was simply to believe God. He did and his belief endeared him to God. Through Moses, God gave the Jews the Law, and the Levitical priesthood. As the Jews lived out their attempts to keep the Law, their resulting frustration only proves that Man cannot keep the Law, or in other words, there is no way he can be righteous – in right standing – with God on his own.

Throughout the time of the Levitical priesthood, Man’s sin had to be atoned for by the blood, his sin still had to be “covered”. (see chapter 16 of Leviticus for atonement) This act performed by the priest once a year made the individual Jew right before God and made him righteous for one more year.  This didn’t mean he would not sin in the year to come, only that when he did he would appear righteous in the sight of God, because of the SACRIFICE made on his behalf through the shedding of innocent blood.

What all this acting-out established was that Man needed a savior, that he could never become righteous on his own. (See James 2:9–10, and Romans 3:23) Job 9:33–34 (Amplified Bible) shows how, Job, acting in behalf of Mankind in general, cried out for that savior: “There is no umpire between us, who might lay his hand upon us both (would that there were)! That He might take His rod away from (threatening ) me, and that fear of Him might not terrify me.” Through Job we see that Man’s heart cries out for a mediator, a savior, to intercede with God for him. The Law, an important cog in God’s overall plan, did not save Man but it did force him to recognize the need to be saved.

God repeatedly had Man act out that he could not keep the Law, but in spite of our inability to keep the Law, God still has mercy and provides us a way out.The ultimate covering or way out is JESUS and the innocent blood He shed for all men. His was the covering ONCE and for ALL. This final and perfect covering took the place of the temporary provisions for Adam and Eve, Abraham, and the atonement and Passover for the Jews.

The Redeemer is the Way of Salvation
The next part of “God’s plan of the ages” provides exactly that, a way out!

After four thousand years of trying to make it on his own, or living under the Law, God sent Man the promised Savior, His only Son Jesus Christ. It is declared in 1 Timothy 2:5, “That there (is only) one God, and (only) one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” (Amplified bible) And verse 6 goes on to say, “Who gave Himself a ransom for all (people, a fact that was) attested to at the right and proper time.”

Hebrews 9:24–25 and 10:14 says, “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with the blood of others” … “For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. (set apart)”

The above verses show the transition between the Levitical Priesthood, the Law, and the true redemption of Man by the blood of the Lamb: ONCE AND FOR All. All according to God’s perfectly constructed plan of the ages. The catch is that Man must accept His death as having been for him personally, in his stead, just as a Jew believed and accepted that the atonement by the blood, performed by the priest, wiped away his sins and put him right with God for another year.

Now we need only to accept that ONE sacrifice of Christ, ONE TIME.

God could now gather a company of people to His Son, people who answer His call to participate in His plan of redemption. This plan always points toward the restoration of that perfect fellowship, and companionship with Him. For this period of nearly 2,000 years, God has been calling, teaching, and refining a people from among the Gentiles, and this part of His plan He has dubbed the “time of the Gentiles”.

Luke 21:24 and Romans 11:25 tell us: “And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” And… “For  I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.”This is not to say the Jews are forever excluded from God’s plan. The Scriptures tell us the contrary. Romans 11:11–12 tells us, “I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy. Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?”

I would urge the reader to read the entire chapter 11 of Romans on this subject to understand how God’s plan makes provision for both Jew and Gentile.

Current Age is Drawing to a Close
The past two thousand years are known to students of prophecy as the age or dispensation of Grace. This age or dispensation is rapidly coming to a close. We know that even now God’s judgment is going on in the house of God as we are told in 1 Peter 4:17, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” Following the age of Grace, will begin a period or dispensation of judgment, made clear to us in the prophetic Scriptures. Among the most exciting, yet sobering of these prophecies is from Jesus Himself, often referred to as the “Olivet Discourse” and so important it appears in three of the four gospels; Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21.  Matthew 24:3 says, “And as He sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto Him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (or age).

In these three chapters Jesus is instructing us concerning the signs of the end, warning us, and even commanding us what to do. He sets certain times and tells of rewards and penalties. By these prophecies of Jesus, and many other prophecies in both the Old and New Testament, we know this age or dispensation is rapidly coming to a close, which will bring us into the next dispensation, one of trial and judgment!

The purpose of this judgment, as revealed by God’s Word and by His prophets, is to purge the earth in preparation for its restoration, and to judge men for their open rebellion. It is coming soon! Matthew 24:7 warns us that, “nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.”  We are seeing previews of these things even now. What was promised in the past has all come true, what is promised in the future will surely come to pass also.

One thing I can promise, there is a happy ending.