The Bliss of Creation

In the beginning, God. Neither created nor fashioned by any man, power or force, the immutable God existing from everlasting to everlasting. This is a thought that baffles the wisest of men because in our finitude, we simply cannot conceive of an existence beyond creation.

What is an uncreated Being who always was, is and ever will be?

Everything that man has ever known has been created. Every tangible frame of his existence has been given to him. And in keeping with this unreachable gap between the finite and the infinite, God is One Being in Three Co-equal and Co-eternal Persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, what we’ve come to call ‘the Holy Trinity’.

This perfect Being, forever glorious and forever holy, lacking in nothing, complete in every way, according to the counsel of his own will, fashioned the world and everything in it. Out of the eternity in his Being, came life, love and justice.

24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,
25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

Acts 17:24–25 (ESV)

We are, only because He is!

To the formless, He gave form. To the darkness, He brought light. To the lifeless, He breathed life. The world was bliss, for all of God’s creation was good. And the foremost of all that He created was the Imago Dei—mankind. In humanity, God carved His own image. He made us in His likeness and entrusted us with dominion over the world. This dominion was to guard life, to love God and all He made, and to uphold justice. We were meant to be vessels that carried the abundance flowing from the divine to the created world.

The Fall of the Imago Dei

In the ancient garden, the enemy came to steal, kill, and destroy. With malice in his heart, this celestial being, the serpent of darkness, the devil, the accuser, the father of lies—Satan—tempted us. In our folly, we fell. Promised to be like God, we became far removed from His likeness. Holy turned unholy, pure became impure, blessing turned to curse, and life turned to death.

We sinned against God, against the eternal unfathomable infinite. The Trinity has been wronged.

The stain of our first father Adam’s sin runs through the veins of all his descendants. The same corruption, the same frailty, the same curse. We traded life for death, twisted love into hate, and embraced injustice as our inheritance. No longer were we vessels of righteousness but vessels of destruction. With the fall of mankind, corruption spread to all our dominion, tainting the entire world. What was once bliss was lost, and darkness and death veiled our eyes.

The Seed of Redemption

Then God cursed the serpent, the woman and the man. And in that judgment, came these words.

15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Genesis 3:15 (ESV)

What awaited man in his disobedience should have been death, not the promise of offsprings. His decreed portion was the end of all hope, but no, hope endured! The seed of the woman, her offspring would one day crush the head of the serpent. Victory would be ours and not the enemy’s.

For the Trinity predestined a plan of redemption even before the foundation of the world. For though the life, love and justice of men waned in their corruption, God, the wellspring of all that is good, could not be deterred. It was decided. One would come, who would reclaim the world. One who would restore it and present it back to the Father without blemish.

One to rule them all, One to call them, One to gather them from the ends of the earth, and in his light, ransom them.

Covenants, Signs and Prophetic Symbols

Adam broke his covenant with God, but God made a new covenant. Not a covenant of works, but a covenant of grace. Every subsequent covenant he made with man was a redemptive covenant.

To Abraham, the promise to bless all the nations of the world through his posterity.

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Genesis 12:1–3 (ESV)

To Israel, they would be his people and he would be their God.

3 while Moses went up to God. The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the people of Israel:
4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.
5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;
6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

Exodus 19:3–6 (ESV)

To David, the promise of a king in his lineage whose kingdom will never come to an end.

12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men,
15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you.
16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’ ”

2 Samuel 7:12–16 (ESV)

Through the prophets and mighty men of old, God made know to us his will. Every covenant, every sign and every story foreshadowing the coming of the One. They called him the Messiah, the Saviour of the world.

Noah built God’s ark but the Messiah would be the true ark that saves the world from God’s judgment. God provided Abraham a ram to spare his son but the Messiah would be the true ram caught in the thicket. God spared Abraham’s son by not sparing his own. He would be the true and better sacrifice.

The Incarnation

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6 (ESV)

Born to a virgin, the Messiah came—not merely a prophet, but the Prophet of prophets; not merely a judge, but the Judge of judges; and not merely a king, but the King of kings. Lord of lords, the second person of the Trinity descended to the world and took on human flesh. Born by the power of the Spirit, the corruption of Adam did not flow through His veins. Darkness could not veil His sight, for He is light. In Him was life, love, and justice untarnished. He was all that we should have been, and He came to pay for all that we should have paid.

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16 (ESV)

There is therefore one destiny for all mankind. Death!

23 For the wages of sin is death,….

Romans 6:23 (ESV)

Likewise, there is but one hope for all mankind. Faith in Jesus!

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:23 (ESV)

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 14:6 (ESV)

This, then, was the purpose of God’s will before all creation: to send His Son to save the world, to reclaim the hearts of believers back to God, and to truly make us more like Him. The serpent deceived us, and we became less like God.

Yet, in Christ,

29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Romans 8:29 (ESV)

Before the enemy of our souls devised a plan to make us less like our God, our God devised a plan to make us more like him.

To the Cross and Beyond

God predestined a people from this fallen kingdom to be His remnant—His elect, whom He would reclaim from sin and death. His glory would remain untarnished as He both judges the wicked and saves the wicked.

22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—
24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

Romans 9:22–24 (ESV)

He accomplished this by taking our sins and giving us his righteousness. The hope we lost in the garden of Eden when Adam chose his will over God’s, was reclaimed in the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus cried, “Not my will, but Yours”.

Mankind had traded life for death, twisted love into hate, and perverted justice. Yet, He saved us without corruption or compromise. On the cross of Calvary, the Son of God died, bearing the wages of our sin. There, true life tasted death, true love bore our hate, and endured our injustice. On the cross, the eternal love of God and the eternal judgment of God met, granting life again—life eternal—to all who repent and believe. Upon Golgotha, the redemptive victory of Christ was sealed, transforming the horrors of the cross into a symbol of hope that men now wear around their necks.

Yet, the death of Christ was not a victory worthy of celebration if the stone was not rolled away.

21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’
22 “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—
23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.
24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

Acts 2:21–24 (ESV)

Yet, the resurrection of Christ was not the end. For he ascended to heaven and is now seated at the right hand of the Father.

18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Matthew 28:18 (ESV)

And this Messiah now commands us, his remnant, his elect.

19 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,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:19–20 (ESV)

This is our mission till he returns. To Christianise the world. To be vessels of righteousness. To be guardians of life, lovers of God, and upholders of his justice.

This is the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the story of our redemption.

Hear now and believe!