‘Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:’’ 2Timothy 1:9

Ever wondered why there’s an endless striving in the ‘Christian community’’ to be more holy, more righteous. Why there’s much fear of falling short, fear of not making heaven, getting saved and unsaved? It is because our understanding of the purpose of God for us in Christ is shortsighted. We see ourselves in Christ as we saw in Adam. We unconsciously think there would’ve been no need for Christ if Adam hadn’t failed and that Christ only came for the purpose of fixing Adam's wrong. So in our mind, the possibility of falling short if we are not careful is very high because Jesus will come again at the ‘End Of The World’ and this time, to sentence us to eternal damnation if we are not found standing.

This is how the story has been told for years: “In the beginning God made man in his image and after his likeness, placed him in the garden of Eden and commanded him not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The first man (Adam) disobeyed and ate from the tree which resulted in his death and then God introduced a plan ‘B’ in the person of Jesus Christ to restore man and give us what we lost in Adam.”

Such interpretation muddies the waters of understanding about the nature of God and his purpose for humanity. It also creates a notion that, if not for the fall of Adam, there would’ve been no need for Jesus; and therefore, reduces the entire work of Jesus Christ from his incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension to one thing; to restore all that we lost in Adam.

However, if we study scriptures properly without such preconceived thoughts, we will begin to see things differently: That Christ didn’t just come to restore that which we lost in Adam, but to give us that which God has purposed or us in Him (Christ) before the world began. Jesus is not an afterthought or a plan ‘B’. He is the very deal. The plan ‘A’. Christ did not come to work on or improve on our identity in the first Adam. He came to give us a whole new identity that cannot be identified with the old. He came to give us a whole new life — His life; the preordained life! In Him we don’t just have the image of God or are fashioned in his likeness but we are the very image. In him there’s no falling short of the glory of God, for we are the expression of his glory.......

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