Creation: purpose
and mandate: Extension of God’s rule through His people- ruled and directed by
Him God created man in His own image with abilities of choice, decision and
control over all the other created beings on the earth. God gave man the
responsibility to rule over the beings as His representative and take care of
the earth on his behalf. For that procreation was a necessity and hence God
blessed Adam and Eve with the responsibility of rearing children and educating
them to follow God’s mandate. They were to be God’s own people taking care of
His interests and accomplishing His plans on earth. That would have been the
ultimate fulfillment of man’s life and enjoyment as God’s special creation on
earth. For this, they had to choose to be under the rule of God and obey his
directions on their freewill. They were to be dependent on God as the source of
their life and authority and remain thankful to Him for that status of being in
fellowship with God, the Creator. No creation can attain more than
that with the Creator. Read Genesis 1:26-28, 2:15,18
That is where things went wrong. Man chose to rebel,
act on their own understanding, lust and take control of things independent of
God. For that Satan enticed man and made them to disobey God, thereby breaking
the supernatural (spiritual) relationship between man, the creation and God,
the creator. Man’s status has become lower that what they were made and now had
to live more of a biological life just like other animals but with natural
abilities endowed in the image of God. Man’s capacity to relate, communicate
and co-work with God freely has been lost and hence they became lonely and left
to make their own lives. But God was concerned about His purposes and started
to promise them with a plan beyond what they could earn or achieve. This was
out of His love for Man and expressed in His grace towards them. God is just
and hence had to punish them and curse this present world, kept under man’s
dominion and prepare for a new world for the final consummation of His creation
plans. Read Genesis 3.
Promise: The
Seed coming to take over the enemy and establish a new race- new birth. Genesis
3:15
In that fallen state of helplessness, man couldn’t
accomplish God’s plans for which they have been created and assigned to earth.
So God in His mercy and love gave them a promise of sending a Son born of the
fallen woman but able to win over the enticement of Satan and hence qualified
to start accomplishing God’s eternal plans for mankind. He becomes the
progenitor of a new mankind from the old- the second Adam. The first
procreation was physical and human hence perpetuating fallen-ness and sin. The
new is to be by the Spirit of God, thereby assuring eternal life and hence a
new creation striving to attain Christ likeness de-robing the old. It is
putting away the old nature from Adam and putting on the new nature in Christ.
This was a promise and hence had to wait for God’s timing and action in human
history. Read Romans 5:14, 6:6; 1 Cor 15:22,45, John 3:5,6; 2 Cor 5:17; Eph
4:22; Col 3:9 etc.
Man who had become to live independent of God found
soon that they are incapable of living on their own. So they started to seek
after God to receive help and tried to appease Him through their corrupt mind.
Their corruption got darker with seeking after natural forces of wind, water,
air, fire and mountains to help them. That is where they started worshipping-
trying to appease, nature and then the celestial objects. That perversion gave
rise to animistic religious systems with idolatry and all kinds of human
perversion with their body and mind. In all this, Satan and his spirits helped
them and enticed them more to be subjected to them. Slowly they developed
philosophies and presumptive modes of religious rites to satisfy themselves and
their aspirations beyond biological life as the image of God in them aspired
for more. This gave rise to lust, pride, greed and all kinds of injustice and
human atrocities. Man has become more perverted and uncontrollable than animals
by their own choice. All laws, rules, systems and philosophies utterly failed
to change man and their fallen nature through centuries and it is becoming ever
worse. Man has destroyed the natural structures and ecosystems on
earth instead of taking care of it, inviting their own massive destruction and
suffering. Instead of taking dominion over the created beings, man has
succumbed to illnesses and diseases caused by even micro-organisms and failed
even to safeguard their bodies. Man has become a liability on themselves due to
their fallen nature from which they couldn’t come out.
God is His mercy and grace continued to intervene into
human lives through personally communicating with people who were looking
beyond themselves and listening. He used nature and events in human lives to do
that. So from time to time God found a man who was willing to listen and follow
His instructions. The first man God wanted to help- Cain, did not accept His
instruction and hence failed to make any change. Enoch found favor with Him
though we do not have any details. The Bible brings these encounters as God’s
calls to humans. This is the story we read of humanity even in the form of
chosen Israel from Genesis 11- Malachi 4 in the OT.
Calls:
1. Noah: For judgment and for a
new beginning but failure leading to Babel, challenging the rule of God
The first such call was to Noah in Genesis 6.
Concerned with the increasing perversion of humanity challenging their own
existence, God called Noah to do an action of faith- doing something he cannot
understand or perceive but fully trusting God on His Word. He was ridiculed for
what he was making, the ship, and the preaching he did calling them to leave
their ways and come to the ship. This was God’s judgment in His mercy and grace
to save the human race from annihilation. Those eight who responded to God in
faith entered the ship, got saved and continued human race. But that didn’t
last long and we see a big plot at Babel (Genesis 11) to dethrone God and His
rule over humanity which God had to thwart their designs by scattering them all
over the world.
2. Abraham: For a walk with God- obedience in
faith for God’s ways and time
God was seeking for a man who will listen and follow
Him in His plan to make a people of His own choice to challenge the whole
humanity- to make Him known. Abram a Mesopotamian was the one who
heard and responded to the call. In Genesis 12:1-3, God gave an unusual promise
to Abram, a childless old man, of giving him lands, nations, and a great
people, finally blessing the whole humanity through him. With his
wife he started to follow God in faith without knowing the plans or
destination. But God continued to direct him, changed his name to Abraham and
made him a success before others, thereby making him known as a man of God and
a friend of God. God in His grace confirmed his faith through giving him a son
in his old age miraculously and testing on his integrity towards God. So God
made Himself known as the God of Abraham. Isaac, his redeemed son (Gen 22)
continued to follow God and His voice though not fully as Abraham.
3. Jacob: To be a people- different and under God but
again way-ward
Jacob, the second son of Isaac was the one chosen by
God. So God chooses as well as calling people. He was chosen from the womb of his
mother but remained a pervert until he received the call. Jacob recognized the
God of Abraham in a dream when he was alone and afraid of his future, running
away from his brother whom he cheated. Again God gave a promise to him and
Jacob in all his perversion held on to that promise and worked hard. Finally
God acted on his family, changed his name to be Israel- people of God, and told
him that he will be the father of a nation under God. He had to leave the
Promised Land but it was a learning period for his generations in Egypt, the
cradle of political education. Jacob died in Egypt seeing the hope of
fulfillment of God’s promises through his generations later. God was not in a
hurry but allowed people to learn the hard way, how to live on faith and adhere
to god’s plans for them.
4. Moses: To be a nation- different and lawful, obedience
and adherence demanded
So it was now over 400 years in Egypt. Again God chose
someone who failed to recognize the call. Moses assumed God’s action through
him but had to wait for 80 years. Then was the call of God (Exodus 3) and a
hesitant Moses was commissioned to do the most extraordinary exodus of a nation
out of the greatest empire of the times. It was the greatest move of God
humanity had ever witnessed and declaring to the whole world that God is there
and is concerned. Through Moses God disciplined His people to be a nation for
forty years and finally God brought them to the Promised land after giving them
laws, worship systems and a civil code to live as His people- different from
other nations and ruled by God. God’s demand was adherence and obedience to His
laws and he promised care and protection to make them a people who will show
His light to the whole humanity.
5. David: To be a Kingdom- under God and ruled by His
King who is after His heart
That people who had been called by God as His own
could not become His people as they continued to rebel against God and His
laws. Yet God cared for a remnant who remained faithful to Him and continued to
protect them proving His faithfulness. Finally at the time of Samuel people
wanted to become a nation under a human King rejecting God’s Kingship. God
allowed them to have Saul, a person acclaimed by the people as a fitting King.
God blessed him but as he failed God, God chose a shepherd boy David, a man
after God’s heart to be the future King. David never strived to become the King
even after he was anointed by Samuel, but God brought him to the throne in his
own way and time (Psalms 78:70-72). David clearly understood that he was a King
under God for His people- that is why he became the man after God’s heart. He
made Israel a great kingdom but his focus was on making them a worshipping
community of God around the Ark of God. David failed to give continuity to what
he has done for god as he failed to control his family in God’s way.
6. Prophets: To call back those who have lost
the way, purpose and real life
From the time of Solomon, the person of God has failed
to be God’s people in life and obedience. God was patient and in His mercy and
faithfulness, continued to protect and use them to reveal Himself and His
concern for His people. So from to time He sent prophets to warn, teach, and
exhort His people to repent and come back to Him. Through the prophets, God
made His voice heard and His mighty hand of discipline and mercy acting up on
His people. It was a visual lesson for the whole world. Daniel’s time was one
such when God acted up on the Kingdoms of the world to show that He is in
control and is concerned about the whole humanity while what has been revealed
through His people Israel remains to be the truth for all. Prophets called for
repentance and proclaimed a future action of God when God Himself gets into
action among His people- Immanuel.
7. John the Baptist: The final call for repentance and
the acceptance of God’s kingdom
The Kingdoms failed, prophets words were not adhered
to and God stopped direct communication for 400 years but He was in the affairs
of the world all through. Finally He sent John the Baptist, one chosen from his
mother’s womb to be the last prophet for the Kingdom of God. He was to proclaim
the coming of the King Himself and introduce Him to the few faithful who were
waiting for His coming as the Messiah, God’s Christ (John 1:15-27, 29,36). He
was proclaiming as well as preparing the hearts of few to receive the King and to
be His followers. A new dispensation was beginning. God was going to act on His
promise to bring a new humanity through His son, a new humanity born of the
Spirit. Son of man, born of a virgin as the seed of the woman to crush the head
of Satan was entering the world and John, the Baptist announced His coming as
well prepared a way for Him. Not few but many from all walks of life came to
him on the way to join the new band with Jesus, the son of man.
God taking over the
plan of action and rule, in the flesh of a man- Jesus, the Son: John
1:14, Phil 1:5-11
So in Jesus God took over the mission of God to
establish the rule of God over His world. He started with an encounter with the
enemy and beginning the crush. Satan tried enticement as before with this man
but to fail forever. Then on He began to call people, no more from heaven but
from the world around Him- Immanuel in action. He taught people of the way to
God and offered the living water and the living bread that will satisfy their
thirst and hunger for ever. Thirst for truth, thirst for real life and hunger
for the lost relationship with God the creator. Jesus named it eternal life and
He Himself was that life (John 1:4, 3:15,16). He had to be taken in (John
1:12,13) and trusted up on (John 3:36). He has to come in and be with us
permanently as a branch lives out of a vine (John 15) and become fruitful. It
is total dependence against the independence activated in the Garden of Eden.
Jesus was the perfect man who accepted the rule of God in His body (flesh and
mind) thereby fulfilling God’s plan for humanity, hence all the laws fulfilled
in Him. As Paul says in Colossians 1:12-22, everything thing was created
through Him and for Him and for His church- His body continuing on the earth to
complete the mission of God.
In Church Jesus expects the extension of God’s rule
through His people- ruled and directed by Him. Jesus proclaimed the kingdom
being established: Kingdom is coming, has come, in your midst, in you, you are
the Kingdom. These were the phrases He used while teaching His disciples. He
demonstrated the power and authority of this new Kingdom as the King, through
the signs and miracles He did over human body, life, nature and against the
powers of darkness and Satan. He offered peace beyond all human understanding
and the knowledge of the coming world to those who committed to follow Him. He
promised the Holy Spirit who will remain in his followers once He leave in His
physical body.
So Jesus prepared His Kingdom of people for the
uncorrupt new world eliminating the corrupt old world and its systems. We are
not of this world but in this world till the number of God’s people under His
rule are welcomed by His grace, truth and power through the witness of the
Gospel into eternal life in Him. These new born people of God called
as Christians are to be people called out and living in the hope of the new
world and accomplishing god’s eternal purposes into the lives of people around. Christians
are those who live looking up as their life is there in Christ (Col 3:1-3). Now
and here, this is having Him in us, controlled and directed by Him, feeding on
Him- His Word and truth for power and wisdom and abiding in Him as a living
sacrifice fulfilling what He wants through our bodies and minds (Rom 12:1-2;
Eph 2:10). It is a new beginning, a life-long commitment and an ongoing
transformation, to be fully realized in glory when Jesus comes.
It is becoming one with Jesus in the new birth,
-
Raised from death
in the spirit (Eph 2:1-9)
-
Being built to be
like Him in mind (Phil 2:5) by feeding on Him and His truth
-
Consummated in
the new body as the bride of the heavenly King
Here and now we Christians have three functions to
fulfill in this lost, perverted, corrupt world. We need to live as the children
of light in three aspects. Consider the three occurrence of the word Christian
in the NT.
First is to demonstrate a lifestyle against the
currents of this world- a life which emanates Christ and His lifestyle so that
we can be truly called followers and imitators of the perfect Man. Read Acts
11:26.
Second is to witness the life of Christ in us, in the
power of the indwelling Holy Spirit before others through utterance and action
as Paul did. Read Acts 26:28.
Thirdly it is the commitment to enjoy suffering for
Christ and Kingdom’s sake. As Jesus warned us, we will have persecution and
suffering in this world and Paul reminds us of this as an essential part of the
gift from God as we believe on Jesus (Phil 1:29). Peter admonishes us to enjoy
that suffering without being ashamed as the apostles did in Acts 5:41. Read 1
Peter 4:16.
The new eternal world order with the new eternal system being established
through the King and His people accomplishing God’s plan of establishing His
rule through His creation. After the Church being taken into the clouds and
after the period of tribulation when the Jewish nation will share into the Body
of Christ, the final judgment of the whole humanity will happen before the
white throne. The hell will receive its share of those who rejected God and the
OT saints will be ushered to join us in the Kingdom. The earth will pass away and
the new earth and the heavens will be revealed to begin the eternal kingdom of
God established with His people.
There is not much description of these in the Bible as
they are things yet to happen and are reserved under the authority of God until
the time comes. There is enough mention of what is going to happen for us to
look forward to and hope for. Enveloped in the love of God, we will reign
together with Jesus our Lord, the head of the Body- Church and with all God’s
saints ever and ever. Now we wait for it in faith and looking for that great
morning on the new earth with hope. We have received the eternal Spirit of God
as an assurance now and hence we are prompted to worship our great and faithful
God, waiting for the fulfillment of the unfolding of His eternal kingdom. Read
Rev 21 and 22. Marannatha.
I want to close with the following verses from
Revelation.
“These sayings are faithful and true: and the
Lord God of the
holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto
his servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I
come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the
sayings of the prophecy of this book” (Rev 22:6,7) and “I Jesus have
sent mine angel to testify unto you these
things in the churches. I am the
root and the offspring of David, and the
bright and morning star.17And the
Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that
heareth say, Come. And let him that is
athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the
water of life freely” (Rev 22:16,17).
PA Thomas
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