Original, yet New
Jesus once said: “My testimony is valid, because I know where I came from and where I’m going.” An understanding of our origin and final destiny has a greater influence on our ‘now’ - our present experience - than anything else.
This great gospel has the most awesome origin and the most triumphant conclusion. In the beginning, before creation, before time as we experience it, before the existence of evil, the God who is love planned to share this love with beings created in His image and likeness. This God, who is all-knowing and able to accomplish all of His purposes, planned a love-affair that would span over eons and conclude with a final victory in which His love conquered all - no contradiction; no evil, for death will die. This gospel is not some new idea, but the ancient, original thought of God. The challenges to our faith and the questions asked of it are not new either, however, we should never allow our answers to become stale. The truth of this message is ever fresh as it finds resonance in us.
John, realising the ancient beginning of this message wrote: “Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command, but an old command that you have had from the beginning”. But he also realised that this truth remains fresh and current as it finds confirmation in our lives, and so he wrote: “On the other hand, perhaps it is new, freshly minted as it is in both Christ and you—the darkness on its way out and the True Light already blazing!”
The Original Motivation
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
All things were created through Him,
and apart from Him not one thing was created
that has been created. (John 1:1-2)
Imagine what John thought when he began planning this writing. Where does this story begin? Where and when did Christ begin? The Holy Spirit starts to reveal to him a beginning even before the first recorded scripture. Before “In the beginning God created” he sees “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. He sees Christ in God before creation began. He sees Christ before sin entered the world. He sees Christ beyond the context of redemption. He sees Christ as the expression (Word) of God.
Let’s imagine this beginning, let’s allow the spirit of God to draw us, just like He drew John, to this place in which all things had their origin. Although no science can explain it, although the greatest minds have tried and failed to define it, God is confident that you are able to comprehend the unsearchable; to appreciate the motivation that gave you birth; to remember where you began. In this place there is no space, yet no limit; no creation, yet no emptiness, - there is only God in all His fullness. The one and only true God: a Union of multiple expressions. Within the diversity of this Union there is a free and explosive exchange of that which is most essential to God - love.
You see, although there are many characteristics by which we can describe God, there is only one quality that unifies and harmonises all the other qualities. Much later He inspired a writing that gives us such clear insight into His being:
If I speak the languages of men and of angels, but do not have love, I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. (1 Cor 13)
These words reveal something about the God of love, namely: It is not His infinite knowledge or intellect, referred to as His omniscience, that is His most essential characteristic. Neither is it His limitless power, known as His omnipotence, that makes Him who He is. Love is at the core of who God is!
Love desires to give … love is not focused on itself, but desires the benefit of others. Love is not needy, lack-conscious or aware of what it does not have. Love is an expression of abundance; the overflow of joy and satisfaction. Love is not obsessed with its own importance … it does not need the recognition of others. There is no inferiority in love … it is not dependent on affirmation, because love’s attention is not on itself but on its target. All God is for man and all He does for man, is out of His own free grace. He does not owe us anything, neither do we have any claim upon this free grace, yet in utter freedom, without any obligation He desires to give it, because that is who He is. His love, His free grace is not some quality or property of His character that can be placed alongside other properties. This is essentially who He is. All other qualities proceeds from this central reality: God is love.
In this place; in the beginning; in God, there is no need or lack. It’s the abundance and overflow of joy that motivates the ‘Logos’ - the Logic and Word of God - to calculate and plan a way in which this love would continue to grow and find ever increasing expression throughout all eternity. This God-dream is about a being who has the capacity to receive, to produce and to exchange the same quality of love that flows within God. His plan is not vague or speculative philosophy, but clear and specific ... so clear, that He uniquely identifies and names the individuals who would form part of the plan and become part of creation. And so before the foundation of this world, He saw you in Christ. At this point, He made up His mind about you! No matter what detours, no matter what contradictions would come, He determined that you would be His treasure - blameless and innocent before Him in love.
The good news therefore begins, not with any form of human need, but with the free gift of God’s grace, which is nothing less than God Himself.
Before it all began
Before His infinite mind, lay infinite possibilities. Within His limitless imagination arose limitless options. God chose from all the possibilities, those which would most accurately express Himself. But in choosing these possibilities, in deciding what to create, there were inevitably some possibilities that were rejected. The possibilities and options that were rejected, later became known as ‘evil’. ‘Evil’ is all the possibilities that are not in harmony with the nature and character of God. Evil is all that He chose not to create. The existence of evil does not mean it has any substance - darkness exists only in the absence of light.
However, the being He imagined to be His companion, would be able to choose ‘its’ own possibilities. Love, by its very nature, is free. Love can be awakened, encouraged and stirred, but it can never be forced. And so God determined to create man outside of His control! This meant - and He knew it all before - that man would make wrong choices and in doing so create obstacles to ... or maybe opportunities for, the love of God.
How could a completely free and spontaneous being be guaranteed to make the right choices? The ‘Logos’ calculated uncountable scenarios and configurations of the environment to see if there was a way to guarantee the right choice. The answer was produced after an exceptionally long period of timelessness. The fact that this being would not be all-knowing, yet be imaginative and free, meant that this being would indeed make choices and have preferences other than those chosen by God! This creature would be responsible for choosing ‘evil’! For any other logic, this would be an impossible situation - how to plan and purpose the conclusion of this plot, yet give another creature the freedom to choose what role to play within it. But for the Logos, nothing is impossible.
Before anything began, God foresaw the inevitable mistakes, the fall of man, the evil consequences ... but He also saw a way in which to provide for every need, overcome every obstacle and restore man to the glory He intended. And so we read about the grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began! (1 Tim 1:9). Before He created anything, He knew it would cost Him everything to redeem man and fulfil all His purpose ... and so we read about the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world. Once again, in His own freedom, He determined to give Himself in His Son, to step out of this eternal unsearchable realm, into the temporal, the realm of fallen man. In giving us grace and truth, He would give nothing less than Himself.
When we realise that our Creator foreknew the whole plot before a single event occurred, we are able to recognise His loving and guiding hand in all things. He knew about the temptations, the choices and the consequences of those choices, long before they happened. “He declares the end from the beginning”. Isaiah ... He is not the author of all events, but He certainly is wise and able enough to steer even the most evil events toward the conclusion that He pre-ordained.
I’m so glad God is not nervous or anxious about the life He imagined for us. He is resting in the full assurance of who we really are and who He really is. He invites us to join Him in that same rest; to see things from His perspective. Realise that there is no obstacle He cannot overcome; there is no problem that surprises Him - before you ask, He has answered.