What is God's plan for His people?

What is God's plan for His people? How can you apply this to your life?

God's plan for His people is to bring them into a relationship with Him that lasts forever (John 17:3). From the very beginning, God has been rescuing people for Himself (Titus 2:14), making them like Himself (Romans 8:29), and sending them out to make Him known (Matthew 28:19-20), and preparing a home where He'll live with them forever (John 14:2-3; Revelation 21:3). This plan started before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), and you become a part of this plan the moment you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ (John 1:12).

God is Rescuing People for Himself

God's plan didn't start with us, it started with Him (Isaiah 46:9-10). Before God created anything, He had already decided to adopt us into His family.

For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.

-Ephesians 1:4-5 CSB

God made mankind in His image to know Him and to reflect His glory (Genesis 1:27; Isaiah 43:7). When sin broke mankind's relationship (Genesis 3:6-8; Romans 5:12), God didn't give up on His people. He promised a Savior who would crush the head of the Satan (Genesis 3:15), and He promised Abraham through his family, "all the peoples on earth will be blessed" (Genesis 12:3). God repeats this promise often in the Old Testament (Leviticus 25:12; Jeremiah 31:33).

"I will take you as my people, and I will be your God."

-Exodus 6:7 CSB

God's promise from the Old Testament is fulfilled in Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). Through Christ's death and resurrection, Jesus paid for our sin (Romans 5:8; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4) and opened the way for people from every nation to become His people (Revelation 7:9). We're not saved because we earned it, we're saved because God, in His grace, chose to rescue us (Titus 3:5).

For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God's gift—not from works, so that no one can boast."

-Ephesians 2:8-9 CSB

God is Making His People Like Christ

God doesn't save people just to leave them like they are (2 Corinthians 5:17), God saves us in order to transform us. The Bible calls this sanctification, meaning the lifelong process of being made holy (John 17:17-19; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; 2 Corinthians 3:18). Every circumstance in a believer's life, whether good or bad, is used by God for our sanctification.

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

-Romans 8:28-29 CSB

"Good" does not mean comfort, wealth, health, or an easy life (John 16:33). "Good" means becoming like Jesus. Many people misunderstand Jeremiah 29:11, one of the most quoted verses in the Bible.

For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

-Jeremiah 29:11

God spoke these words to Israel while they were in exile in Babylon, and he told them they would be there for seventy years (Jeremiah 29:10). His plan for their "future and a hope" didn't remove their hardship, but it carried them through it. The same is true for us. God is at work in our hard seasons to shape us (James 1:2-4); Romans 5:3-5), and He will finish what He started.

I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

-Philippians 1:6 CSB

God Is Sending His People On Mission

God saves us for a purpose (Ephesians 2:10). We aren't supposed to keep the good news to ourselves (Acts 1:8; Romans 10:14). Peter describes the church as a people who belong to God so that they can tell others about Him.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

-1 Peter 2:9 CSB

Before Jesus ascended to heaven (Acts 1:9), He gave us a command to make disciples of every nation.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

-Matthew 28:19-20 CSB

This is the same promise God made to Abraham (Galatians 3:8). Through God's people, all the people on earth would be blessed. When Christians share the gospel with their neighbors, coworkers, and families, they're taking part in a plan that started thousands of years ago (2 Corinthians 5:20). God has even prepared good works ahead of time for each of His people to walk in (Ephesians 2:10).

God Will Dwell With His People Forever

The final chapter of God's plan is the new heaven and new earth (Isaiah 65:17; 2 Peter 3:13). Everything God has been doing since the beginning of time points to the new heaven and the new earth, when sin, death, and suffering are gone for good (1 Corinthians 15:26) and God lives with His people face to face (Revelation 22:4).

Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.

-Revelation 21:3-4

The promise God gave Israel, "I will be your God," is finally fulfilled (Genesis 17:7-8; Exodus 6:7; Jeremiah 30:22; Ezekiel 36:28; Ezekiel 37:27-28). This is where God's plan for His people was always headed.

How Can You Apply This to Your Life?

The first step is to make sure you're a part of God's people. God's plan isn't something you join by being.a good person (Galatians 2:16). It's something you enter by faith, when you turn from your sin and trust Jesus as your Savior and Lord (Acts 3:19-20; Romans 10:9). If you've never done that, there is no better day than today (2 Corinthians 6:2).

If you're already a Christian, God's plan will shape how you live (Colossians 3:1-2). Because God is making you like Christ, you can trust Him in the hard times, knowing He is using everything for your good (Romans 8:28). You can spend time in God's Word and in prayer (Psalm 119:105; 1 Thessalonians 5:17), because that is how He renews your mind.

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

-Romans 12:2 CSB

Because God is sending you on mission, you can look at your neighborhood, your workplace, and your friends as the places He has placed you in order to make Him known (Acts 17:26-27; Matthew 5:14-16). God will deliver us to dwell with Him forever, so we live with eternal hope (1 Peter 1:3-4). Your struggles today are not the end of your story (2 Corinthians 4:17).

In Conclusion

God's plan for His people begins in eternity past and continue to eternity future. God chose us before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), rescued us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 3:18), and He is making us like Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18), sending us out to proclaim His truth (1 Peter 2:9), and one day we will live with Him forever in the new heaven and the new earth (Revelation 21:3). Everything God does, He does for His glory and the good of His people (Romans 11:36).

For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

-Jeremiah 29:11 CSB

God's plan for His people is to be in relationship with Him that lasts forever (John 3:16) and that plan is available to anyone who decides to put their faith in Jesus (Romans 10:13).