(1Pe 1:18-25 NLT) For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom He paid was not mere gold or silver. (19) It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. (20) God chose Him as your ransom long before the world began, but He has now revealed Him to you in these last days. (21) Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because He raised Christ from the dead and gave Him great glory. (22) You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters. Love each other deeply with all your heart. (23) For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. (24) As the Scriptures say, "People are like grass; their beauty is like a flower in the field. The grass withers and the flower fades. (25) But the word of the Lord remains forever." And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.
There are three verses
that have the phrase, from before the foundation of the world in them (John 17:24,
Ephesians 1:4 and 1 Peter 1:20.) Jesus was chosen, to be the redeemer before
the foundation of the world… in other words, before creation. What exactly does
this mean? Well, it means that redemption is the earliest purpose of God that
has been revealed to mankind. This is the same as saying that God’s sole purpose
in creation was redemption. Yes, you got it right… you heard, read me right.
God created the world to redeem it! Why, you ask? Ephesians 1:6 provides the
answer to this question, Eph 1:6 NLT “So
we praise God for the glorious grace He has poured out on us who belong to His
dear Son.” He did that, (created the world to redeem it) so that he could
be truly praised for his glorious grace. God wants to be praised but praised in
truth!
The foundation… the
ground for praising God is His glorious grace demonstrated in Jesus and His
cross. Yes friend, it is the gospel that produces real true praise for God.
Remember Jesus words in John chapter four. The Father wants people to worship
Him in Spirit and truth. That is the reason for the gospel. That is the reason
that God had redemption as his sole purpose in creation. That is the reason that God
chose Jesus to be the Lamb Slain from before the foundation of the world. It is
also the reason that John pointed out in his gospel, that the Word was in the
very beginning. There you have it. Redemption in and through the Word, was the first
and sole consideration for creation. How much more does this give the
redemptive focus of scripture absolute primacy?
It is past time that we acknowledge this purpose of the sacred writings and reject the legal constitutional reading of scripture. God's New Covenant purpose was redemption to the praise of His glorious grace. Let's face it, the church exists under the New Covenant provisions (Matt 26:28), or it does not exist at all... Join me in praising God for the redemption that was before the foundation of the world.
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ReplyDelete"God ... created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God [that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the (covenantal) promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel] ... might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places." —Paul to the Ephesians (3:1-10)
ReplyDeleteHi Joel,
ReplyDeleteThanks for this addition. It shows that the gospel of peace... peace and reconciliation with God was indeed the purpose in creation.
Knowing that when God created.. there was only God.. no "nothing". Just God. So I consider that he created from within himself. Everything that has been created came out from him. (Yes, YOU!)
ReplyDeleteI have been "chewing" on this for about 25 years, and still cannot comment further, but this consideration has changed my life in an incredible way. The way I view others, their "religious concepts", the creation accounts, concepts of "hell", eschatology, return of Christ, etc. Bottom line for me is the increase of love and acceptance I have discovered, both for others and myself. I have discovered that our Lord is not prejudiced nor angry or upset at what we think or do. He is so much at peace, that we, as being an eternal part of Him, can only love and cherish us, "as is", "as will be". I think, (and because I am not too versed in scripture), that it was in Hebrews somewhere is a mention that He finished all things before he began them.