Christ was thrashed, beaten almost to the point of death, and nailed up on a stake to die slowly. But He was prematurely speared and bled to death. He was despised, rejected by man, and even forsaken by God, in whom He totally trusted. He was completely alone: “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:3-5).

But why?

To understand the enormity of this terrifying event, we need to go back to the beginning of time, before even matter existed—when there was no physical universe.

John 1:1 records: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Nothing else existed, just two beings: God and the Word—the Logos, or Spokesman. The Moffatt translation reads: “The Logos existed in the very beginning, the Logos was with God, the Logos was divine. He was with God in the very beginning: through him all existence came into being, no existence came into being apart from him” (verses 1-3).

Then God created the angels with eternal life inherent in them. After that He created the universe. Lucifer and one third of the angels were given the Earth as their abode with the opportunity of finishing the creation. Herbert W. Armstrong explained it as “putting the icing on the cake.” In his book The Incredible Human Potential, Mr. Armstrong wrote: “The angels, beholding the Earth at its creation, found it so beautiful and perfect they shouted spontaneously for joy! (Job 38:4‑7). It was to provide a glorious opportunity for them. They were to work it, produce from it, and preserve and increase its beauty.”They had the potential to develop the entire universe after finishing their job on Earth.

That Was God’s Plan A

Instead, they rebelled, and Lucifer and his cohorts tried to unseat God from His throne. In the vernacular, they blew it! Lucifer became Satan, and his angels became demons. They wrecked the Earth’s surface totally so that it became without form and void—a dark slush of lifeless ruin, as recorded in the second verse of Genesis. So God cleaned up the Earth’s surface and atmosphere to create a life support system for His greatest creation—man (Genesis 1 and 2). Psalm 104:30 states: “Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.”

God had no assurance that the remaining two thirds of the angels would not rebel also; He realized He could trust only His own kind to administer His government throughout th universe. This meant reproducing Himself, through beings created in His own image that could become sons—sons of God! (Psalm 82:6). They would first have to prove, of their own free will, that they would trust and obey God and not sin. Sin is the transgression of the law (1 John 3:4).

If they obeyed, they would qualify to replace Satan on the throne of the Earth. If they failed, they would die forever—the wages of sin would be eternal death (Romans 6:23; Ezekiel 18:4).

God started His family plan through Adam and Eve. God (Elohim) said: “Let us [plural] make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion …” (Genesis 1:26). “Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet” (Psalm 8:6). This opened up the vast universe to mankind!

God created man in His own image, but with only a temporary, physio-chemical existence, like animals. But unlike animals, He gave us a human spirit, which imparts intellect, with creative and reasoning power. When this spirit unites with God’s Holy Spirit, the way to eternal life is opened. Men could become literal sons of God, to administer the entire universe, starting with planet Earth!

Expansive, Perfect And Magnificent Plan B!

God never offered any angel, including Lucifer, the honor of becoming a son. In Hebrews 1:5, God asks: “For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?” The implied and obvious answer is none! But we are to be born again by a resurrection into the Family of God (John 3:3). That’s what being “born again” means. God tested Adam and Eve to see if they, of their own free will, would obey Him. He strongly warned them not to take of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; they were told that if they did, they would “surely die.” They failed, so God closed off access to the tree of (eternal) life and cast them out of the garden. Man took on Satan’s nature, which man calls human nature.

No doubt Satan thought he had thwarted God’s Plan B.

But God and the Word were a long way ahead of Satan. They had planned even before the creation of man that, if he sinned, the death penalty could be paid on his behalf by one who was sinless. That meant the Word would have to divest Himself of eternal life, be born a human being, then die for each individual’s sins. “[T]he Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us …” (John 1:14).That’s when He became the Son of God. He was also the Son of man because He was human, but without human nature. As Jesus grew, so the Holy Spirit grew in Him. He went through human experiences like we do and was tested as we are, but in a much greater and more profound way—yet He remained sinless His entire life (Hebrews 4:15).

Knowing the wages of sin is death, Satan has conducted a relentless campaign to entice all humanity to sin, including the Son of God. Satan deceived Eve, and Adam went along; so they both ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They, along with their progeny, became tuned in to Satan’s wavelength, his nature and attitude—inclined to do as they think is right rather than what God says.

Satan tried to have Jesus Christ killed as a baby, then he tried to corrupt Him before He began His earthly ministry (Matthew 4). If Christ had succumbed to Satan’s temptation, He would have brought the eternal death penalty on Himself. His death would have then paid for His own sin. We would have no Savior and no hope. This was a titanic battle for the survival of Plan B!

Satan didn’t give up. He never gives up. That’s something we must learn; we must know how he operates, or we will be caught unawares and suffer. We are all vulnerable, and Satan is much smarter and more powerful than we are. If we don’t believe that, then we are already deceived and he is already using us—even if we don’t see it.

Satan bombarded Christ through an onslaught of false accusations, betrayal, an illegal trial, an excruciating flogging for our healing, ending in a painful, humiliating, bloody death. Satan hoped Christ would “crack”—and He would have were it not for His holy righteous character, developed through God’s Spirit, and His total resolve to reject sin. He died with complete reliance on God to resurrect Him after 72 hours, as prophesied in Matthew 12:40.

Christ always drew on the Father’s power, and the Father always delivered. As the time of His crucifixion drew near, He needed God’s help and power more than ever. God especially encouraged Him when facing the upcoming terror. Jesus had said to His disciples, “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53). When feeling the enormous pressure, He asked God if there was another way: “Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel from heaven, strengthening Him” (Luke 22:42-43). God encouraged Him then, but eventually, Jesus had to deal with the heavy load of triumphing over the sins of the world alone.

At that time, Christ became sin! “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

When Christ was laden with our sins, He called out in anguish: My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring? (Psalm 22:1).God had turned His back on Him. Why? Because sin cuts us off from God. He cannot even bear to look at sin. “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you …” (Isaiah 59:2).

The Son of God was tested beyond that of any human being. He was the ultimate and willing Passover Lamb. The Father and the Word were acutely aware from the foundation of the world that Christ would have to go through this terrible ordeal. It would be tough! If Jesus Christ sinned at any time in His life, right up until His last breath, we would have no Savior and no hope for eternal life; He would die forever, and the Father would be alone, without a family. But both the Father and Christ were resolute to see this sacrifice through as planned.

Gerald Flurry wrote in The Last Hour: “Do we realize that, when we draw upon Him, Christ becomes our Advocate, pleading our case with God the Father? When you sin, and perhaps get depressed over it, Christ is at God’s throne being your Advocate! … We have two comforters: Not only the Holy Spirit, but also the righteous Christ is helping us to receive perfect justice by being our Advocate with the Father when we sin. Just knowing that is encouraging.”

Christ is our encourager to help us do our part in fulfilling Plan B (2 Timothy 2:12; Revelation 3:21).

Next time you look upward into a clear night sky, you will see your future, because that’s where it ultimately is:“For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it; he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:18). And in Isaiah 51:16, “And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.”

So what was in jeopardy on the stake?

Simply, Plan B—God re-creating Himself through mankind into a Family of God beings who will administer His government throughout the universe. That was at stake!

What a great Father and Savior, Healer, Advocate and soon-coming King we have!