Plan A

Highlights from John Piper's message - The Suffering of Christ and the Sovereignty of God, from the book Suffering and the Sovereignty of God.

*The entire universe exists to display the greatness of the glory of God.

*The glory of God shines most brightly, most fully, most beautifully in the manifestation of the glory of his grace.

*The death of Christ in supreme suffering is the highest, clearest, surest display of the glory of the grace of God.

*The ultimate reason that suffering exists in the universe is so that Christ might display the greatness of the glory of the grace off God by suffering in himself to overcome our suffering.

*The suffering of Jesus was not an afterthought, as though the work of creation did not go the way God planned.

2 Timothy 1:9

"[God] saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us [that is, he gave us this grace] in Christ Jesus before the ages began."

Ephesians 1:4-6

"[God] chose us in him [that is, in Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace."