If you know me then you know how frustrated I feel right now
trying to write something about the entire first chapter of Genesis in one
paragrapah. The story of creation is an
unfolding drama. The creation of things
is told in verse one and yet there is a chaotic element to the state of
creation, it is formless and void, the rest of the story here tells us how God
changed formless and void by the power of His will. He speaks and whatever He speaks comes into
being exactly as He intended. We know it
was as intended because He pronounces it good.
Formlessness is corrected in the first three days. There is light, an amorphous undefined light
and there is a distinction between day and night, a form is established called
day and night. Immediately we know that
this describes the perspective of one particular planet in the universe,
ours. On day two there is a separation
of waters in the firmament and on day three waters roll back to boundaries on
earth, forms to heaven and earth. On the
succeeding days, beginning on day three and continuing to day five, the problem
of void is corrected with life filling the earth, heavens and seas. Day six is the pinnacle when God announces
prior to acting, " Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And
let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the
heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping
thing that creeps on the earth.” Then,
He did, but we aren't told here just how He did so, that waits for chapter
two. On this day, God said what He had
done was very good now that it was complete.
The masterpiece was finished and there was someone to ensure that it
continued to be maintained.
John points to Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the
sins of the world, an interesting way of speaking of Messiah. There was no real precedent for such an idea
in messianic thought and expectations, particularly when you consider just how
Jesus would fulfill this prophetic utterance.
John makes a second interesting observation that Jesus ranks before John
because He was before him. He is saying
that Jesus is pre-existing but what does he mean when he says that? Does he know the truth, the whole truth? John knew only what he knew, what the Spirit
revealed to him, that his role was to reveal this one, and the Lord had given
him a very particular sign by which he would know Him, the Spirit would descend
and remain. The Spirit hovering over the
face of the deep would alight and remain on the one God anointed, it would find
rest. The true image and likeness of God
had come.
Before any of that activity of Genesis 1 happened God chose
you. Paul says not only do we have all
spiritual blessings through Jesus, He " chose us in him before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him." The sin in the garden didn’t come as a
surprise to God and you didn't come as a surprise to Him either. He knew you before you were and He chose you
and adopted you as His child before you took on life. He not only created you in His image, He
specifically and specially created you to be His own forever. He had a plan to deal with sin before it all
began. He created everything knowing
this would happen and He did it anyway.
If you determined to have a child but knew that it would ultimately turn
on you, hate you, and demand you be killed would you create? God did.
You, as a believer, are His precious child whom He predestined for
life. Make sure that today you return that
love in worship not just in a service but in all you do.
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