The Perfect Beginning

Fifty2- Sundays ~ Listening for God

            Sunday’s sermon was the second of a series titled “The Gospel of One Hand”. The areas to be covered in this series include the following: Creation, Fall, Community, Cross, Faith, Transformation, Covenant, Resurrection, Purposes, Culmination and Incarnation. I was a little late so I missed hearing what the sermon was titled, but it might have been “Foundational Principles”, “Back to the Basics” or maybe “First Things First”. The preacher’s opening question also could have been the sermon title, Where to begin when considering the gospel story? Below is the basic outline of the sermon and my comments/thoughts follow that.

Before time began, before the creation, God was …

·       I Corinthians 2:7: “No, we declare God's wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.”

·       II Timothy 1:9: “He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,”

·       Ephesians 1:4 & 5: “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—"

God’s character is the gospel story… He is…

Holy (Leviticus 19:2), Loving (Psalm 51:1), Gracious (Joel 2:13), Faithful (I Thessalonians 5:24) & more…

·       Exodus 34:6b & 7: “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” 

·       Micah 7:18: “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy.”

His plan and purposes are not haphazard or random and they originate from who He is…

Isaiah 46:10 & 11:  

             Declaring the end from the beginning,
                 And from ancient times things which have not been done,
                 Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,
                 And I will accomplish all My good pleasure

             Calling a bird of prey from the east,

                 The man of My purpose from a far country.

                 Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass.

                 I have planned it, surely I will do it.

They are embodied in Christ and include us...as described in  Ephesians 1:3-10: 

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  For he us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.  In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.”

*~*

This sermon established the foundation upon which the gospel was (is) built. The foundation is God, it originates in Him for the fulfillment of His plan and purposes. 

This sermon brought to mind a book I read many years ago, We Shall Judge Angels (1994) by Harold J. Chadwick, in which he discusses what I have come to think of as the ‘grand scheme’ of God’s plan and purpose. This plan stretches from “pre-time eternity” (before the creation of the temporal physical world, time and space) through to “post-time eternity”. Prior to reading this book, I had the naive understanding that Jesus must have been God's 'Plan B', the way to get us out of the mess we made when all His other efforts were exhausted or failed, similar to what the author states here:

Although a close examination of the Scriptures and God’s eternal purpose reveals otherwise…(many) seem to believe that God’s original plan was to create a perfect world; a world without sin, without problems, without imperfections, starting with the man and woman in the Garden of Eden. But Satan, in the form of a serpent, somehow sneaked past God and crept into the Garden and talked the woman into eating of the fruit that God had forbidden for man to eat. As a result, God’s creation was spoiled. Ever since, God has been doing the best He can to straighten out the mess Satan made of His perfect world. … Ergo: God made a mistake. Several mistakes in fact; even as basic and human a mistake as underestimating the power and cunning of the devil—whom He himself created as Lucifer and transformed into Satan (p.55 – 56).

            The author goes on to point out that this sort of thinking (“theological theory”) has resulted in many Christians assuming God needs our help in straightening out this mess. The fallacy of this thinking is that if God ever made one mistake, then he has continued to do so, and we are all in deep trouble as the consequence of this and the result is there is nothing we can place our confidence in – because a God who makes mistakes is “untrustworthy and dangerous – flawed and imperfect”.

          God is perfect; as are His purposes and plan. Once again the author states:

Jehovah God is perfect and all He does is perfect. Within His eternal purpose in Christ, established before the foundation of the world, the earth was perfect, the Garden of Eden was perfect, and the man and woman were perfect! So how can we explain the serpent in Eden, the obvious flaw in the man and woman, and their consequent disobedience of God? Since we must not for one moment even consider an iota of imperfection or lack of foreknowledge in God, there can only be one explanation: God perfectly created an imperfect world and imperfect creatures that are perfect for His eternal purpose in Christ (p. 57).

          This is good news because sometimes I become distressed at the mess the world is in, or disappointed with myself or how things are going in the life of a loved one. It is a relief to know God's perfect plan and purpose(s) include the imperfect. I thank God for this and need to take more comfort in this fact, as Romans 8:28 says "... (we) know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."