Some years ago a student I knew suf­fered a tragedy during his summer holidays. His fellow students all seemed to be asking the same ques­tions: “How is he coping? How is he facing the problem?” We had heard that he was in turmoil. As he tried to come to terms with his situation, he just kept shaking his head and saying it didn’t make sense.

Have you ever been in the same position at some time in your life? Have you ever asked the question: “What’s the point of it all? How do my circumstances fit into God’s scheme of things?”

The world is far from perfect. At times, life seems quite senseless and without pur­pose. Sometimes it’s easy to give way to the pessimism of Jean-Paul Sartre, who said “man is a useless passion”. But could God have a purpose in it all? Is it possible that he has a plan for our lives which transcends the realm of time?

One man who believed that God had a plan for the world was the apostle Paul. His whole view of life was transformed after he met the risen Christ on the Damascus road. From that moment on, he realised that God had a grand design for his people that was to be realised through Jesus Christ.

The idea that God has a plan is a con­stant theme in Paul’s letters. In writing to the Christians in Ephesus he refers to it often. All the elements of a carefully thought-out plan are present. He speaks of God’s “predestination” (1:5), God’s will which he purposed in Christ (1:9), and a “plan” which God “works out in confor­mity with his purpose” (1:11). It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that God is firmly in control of the universe, and that history is unfolding in predictable stages according to a divine timetable. There is nothing left to chance here (Eph. 3:10, 11).

Not surprisingly, when Paul delivers his farewell message to the elders of the Ephesian church (Acts 20:17-35), he again refers to God’s plan. “I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will (pur­pose) of God” (v27). What he is referring to here, of course, is the comprehensive body of doctrine which he had taught at Ephesus during his earlier three-year pas­torate.

He actually refers to some of the ele­ments of this plan in the course of his address. The central feature of the plan is that God is acting towards us in grace (v24). In love, he is calling us to share in his kingdom (v25). People can enter this king­dom if they turn back to God and have faith in Jesus Christ (v21). God makes this possible because he purchases believers with his own blood (v28). Once the believer turns back, he can look forward to an inheritance which is God’s gift (v32). When a person has faith in Christ, they take on a new life-style in which they find it more blessed to give than to receive (v35). These are the basic outlines of the plan, although there are additional ele­ments which we discover in other New Testament writings.

The point of all this is that Paul was convinced that the Scriptures spoke of a divine plan which was conceived in eter­nity and executed in history. Since he regarded his message as the whole “will” of God, it is only logical to believe that the 66 books of the Bible which speak of this plan constitute a unity. The term “will” (20:27) implies that God deliberately chose to pursue his aim, step-by-step in a methodical way. Luke uses the same Greek word “will/purpose” earlier in Acts to indicate a deliberate plan of action:

This man (Jesus) was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge. Acts 2:23

In other words, the Bible writers see God as taking deliberate steps from the creation to the end of the world to bring about his master-plan. The Scripture is the record of the various stages through which God’s plan pro­ceeds.

What does all this mean for you and me? A number of things.

First, there’s a purpose to life and it makes good sense. Sadly, many people don’t realise this. When some people look at life today, they believe (in Shakespeare’s words) that it is “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury and signifying noth­ing”. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is that God’s plan to renew the creation through Christ offers us a hope and a meaningful exis­tence. Life becomes a joy when we know we have a purpose.

Second, we mustn’t forget that, since God has a purpose, we can read the Bible knowing that it has to make sense. I sus­pect that many Christians find it hard to understand the Scriptures. Sometimes I do. The problem is that we don’t have the big picture. We are like people who are faced with a 5000-piece jig-saw puzzle, but because we haven’t seen what the com­pleted puzzle looks like we don’t know where to begin. But the fact that there is an underlying plan to the Bible gives us encouragement to persevere. The Bible does fit together. The message is a unity. And if we have the Holy Spirit as our teacher (1 Cor. 2:12), we will be able to rejoice as each stage of the plan fits together and we discover God’s purpose from Eden to eternity. Knowing that God has a plan should make us all keener read­ers of the Bible.