If you stayed with me when I departed from the Heaven Bent
series for a three-part run on angels and demons, you probably have already forgotten
Parts 1-8 like I did since I am writing this series on the cuff. My memory
these days are good but kind of short. I had to reread those parts to see the forest
once again after lingering in a stand of trees of angels and demons!
We tend to think Ex nihilo
(out of nothing) is all words and no work, “poof, there it is” like a rabbit in
a hat (cf. Gn 2:2-3). Adam was made from preexisting material, dust (Gn 2:7-8);
the key ingredient was when man became a living being the very moment God
breathed into him the breath of life. The verb “formed” literally means “to
mold clay” as a potter (cf. Jer 18:6); recall the expression that God is the
potter, and we are the clay?
God’s creative action toward man is seen in the verbs “make” (Gn
1:26), “created” (Gn 1:27), “formed” (Gn 2:7a), and “breathed” (Gn 2:7b). The
ratio of words to “hands-on,” anthropomorphically speaking, during creation
week is unknown, but it wasn’t all words, “And God said,” and that is the point
here. In the creation account, we see the
Holy Spirit’s involvement with creation (Gn 1:2), but according to the NT, Jesus
Christ was also involved (Jn 1:3; 1 Cor 8:6; Col 1:16; Heb 1:2). And of course, there is always the “Let Us make” statement (Gn 1:26), referring to the Potters
of the Triune Godhead: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
On Day 7 (Gn 2:2) does God really need to rest being the
Almighty who never sleeps? No, (cf. Psa 121:3-4, God is not a man in need of
sleep.) it means His creative work was completed prior to Day 7. This “rest”
served as a pattern for living during the rigorous economy under the Law of
Moses (Ex 20:8-11; cf. Mk 2:27). To cease from working after six days and rest
on the seventh is not a bad idea in a 365.25 days of 24/7 culture, year after
year! The business enterprises of the world are more interested in profits not
rest. Have you ever heard the expression, “You can rest when you’re dead?”
Ironically, the Sabbath-keeping idea was so misinterpreted by
the keepers of the Law that Jesus had to give the proper perspective of the
Sabbath, “The Sabbath was made for man, not (emphasis mine) man for the Sabbath” (Mk 2:27). Sabbath keepers today stressing that man was made for the Sabbath in contradiction to the Law-giver is in keeping with the historical practice of the Pharisees, other than carrying out executions for violating the Sabbath day (cf. Ex 20:8-11).
The Lord of the Sabbath (Mk 2:28) was giving the nitpickers the right interpretation of the Sabbath; they never got it like some
people today. After Jesus had healed a man on the Sabbath, the spiritual spies
were very offended and were eyeballing Jesus very closely which indicated that
Jesus couldn’t be the long-anticipated Messiah according to them (Lk 6:7, 10-11)! What about the sign
of healing that validated more than anything else that Jesus was indeed the
Messiah (cf. Lk 7:22; Jn 20:30-31)?! Jesus was upsetting the apple cart, and
the Sanhedrin, the ruling religious body of Israel, was concerned about
disturbing Pax Romana (Roman peace) and
losing control over its people as the ruling body (Jn 11:48, 53). In other
words, Jesus, the Truth, was making them look bad before the Gentiles and the Jewish people by the truth.
Do you remember me talking about spiritual blindness due to willful
unbelief in our short breakaway series (2 Cor 4:4)? Here is a great example of
it! Jesus broke their rules of not performing any work on the Sabbath! In the
mind of the spiritual leaders, Jesus had to be another con job suffering from a
Messiah complex. The healing of the blind man in John chapter 9 is a rich
illustration of spiritual blindness (Jn 9:14, 16) and the breaking of the Sabbath
according to the Pharisees. What is ironic is that Jesus never violated the true
interpretation of the Sabbath because (1) He was born under the Law (Gal 4:4)
and (2) Jesus fulfilled the Law (Mt 5:17-18; cf. Psa 40:8; Isa 42:21).
There is only one Person who ever kept all 613 commands of the
Law of Moses perfectly, Jesus, and by the way, of that body of commands, 365
are negative. Fancy that, one negative command from God for every day of the year
living under the Levitical system. We catch a break every 4th year with
366 days on our Gentile calendar…!
What could the ruling spiritual body of Israel really get on
Jesus? Actually, nothing, but these two accusations got Him nailed to the cross (Keep in mind Jesus was not a victim; cf. Mt 26:53.):
(1) He was considered a lawbreaker; Jesus violated the Sabbath and so did His disciples
according to the traditions of the Elders, and (2) blasphemy: Jesus claimed to
be God. The bodily resurrection of Christ proved beyond a
shadow of a doubt that (1) only Jesus kept the Law perfectly (cf. Jn 8:29), (2)
God the Father was satisfied (propitiated) by the death of His Son (1 Jn 4:10),
and (3) Jesus was precisely who He claimed to be, the Son of God, Israel’s
Messiah (Jn 10:30). Glory to God! There are two viewpoints to propitiation: the Father's view, man could not see the propitiation in Jesus' death (Lev 17:11; Mt 26:28; Rom 3:25; Heb 9:22; 1 Jn 4:10), and man's view, the physical resurrection, believers could visibly see the risen Christ (1 Cor 15:16-17).
It is important to note that no other man (past, present, future)
other than the God-Man has kept the Decalogue or the Ten Commandments
perfectly. This means that all of us are violators of the Ten Commandments in
some way shape or form even today! We should all be attending a rock concert
where we are center stage! I love these verses (Rom 8:1-2; Gal 5:18), glory!
Thank
you for your love and grace, sweet Jesus! So deserving are we of wrath that you took upon Yourself the outpouring of God the Father’s
wrath for our sin on that cruel wood on Calvary for all who believe in the Name that is above all names.
Up Calvary’s mountain, one
dreadful morn,
Walked Christ my Savior,
weary and worn’
Facing for sinners death on
the cross,
That He might save them from
endless loss.
Refrain
Blessed Redeemer! Precious
Redeemer!
Seems I now see Him on
Calvary’s tree;
Wounded and bleeding, for
sinners pleading,
Blind and unheeding – dying
for me!
“Father forgive them!” Thus
did He pray
E’en while His lifeblood
flowed fast away,
Praying for sinners while in
such woe,
No one but Jesus ever loved
so.
Refrain…
O how I love Him, Savior and
Friend,
How can my praises ever find
end!
Through years unnumbered on
heaven’s shore,
My tongue shall praise Him
forevermore.
Refrain…
Words: Avis M. Christiansen,
1920
Music: Harry D. Hoes, 1920
Source:
http://www.namethathymn.com
Aren’t you thankful for grace (Eph 2:8-9, “not of works,” (like
Sabbath-keeping). Interestingly, nine of the ten commands of the Decalogue are
reiterated in the NT, except for command four – keeping the Sabbath…. Am I
suggesting you skip church on Saturday or Sunday; you know I am not (Heb 10:25)!
You see attending a church regularly is part of being what I call, “Heaven
Bent,” too! If only believers would realize from the Scriptures that there is
more to church than simply showing up!
Holiness is a deliberate work (Lev 19:2) because it cuts against
the grain of the flesh, but the Pharisees were a killjoy and wandered from the
spirit of the Law to legalistically burden the Israelites with a myriad of
man-made rules, literally superseding the Word of God with the tradition of the
elders (Mk 7:9, 13)! This is the religious environment Jesus confronted in His
day; the Word of God trumped by a man-made
religion that contradicted the very Word of God they upheld! The Pharisees were
subverting the authority of God through their man-made regulations that had become
institutionalized. You can see the same thing clearly in other religions today.
Man is always attempting
to put a new spin on God’s Word. I personally think it has to do with control.
This is so Pharisaical and so dangerous (Gal 1:8, 9).
I told this talented HR person
one time in a meeting that we are all nothing more than a collection of
imperfect people trying to do a perfect job. She took it personally and disagreed
with me. I guess she didn’t like the idea of being thought of as imperfect
given her position and abilities! The
bar can be raised so high that even good employees or followers of man-made
rules are set up for eventual failure. Then the castigation comes. A human
being eventually cracks under the constant pressure of survival mode.
A workplace has its own set
of rules to be carried out religiously. The system is the god and standard by
which people are measured. All non-compliance is seen as rebellion, not Murphy’s
Law unless you are a machine. The blame for failure is transferred to others
rather than acknowledging there is a glitch in the system or poor leadership. In
the case of the Pharisees, their system of spiritual measurement or performance
was honoring the traditions of the Elders (Mk 7:9, 13), and the spiritual
leadership of a nation was nothing more than the blind leading the blind (Mt
23:24; Lk 6:39; Jn 3:12): blind leaders, blind nation. Legalism (salvation of works) is man-bent not Heaven-bent (salvation by grace through faith).
Moving on, our model presented in Part 8 on the current configuration of creation, eternity,
outer darkness, and the lake of fire is based on the probability
that God in His foreknowledge (cf. Eph 1:4) provided the space intended for
creation when He established eternity and heaven.
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Putting matter into that space would have to wait until Day 1. Time
would begin not when it was said, “So the evening and the morning were the
first day” (Gn 1:5b); but rather with the fall of man, Adam's biological clock
started ticking in the Garden (Gn 3:6; 5:5).
Where did the light come from in Gn 1:3 if the sun, moon, and
stars did not appear until Day 4 of creation week (Gn 1:14-19)? I do not believe that this was natural light
but supernatural light, God’s “unapproachable light” (2 Cor 4:6; 1 Tim 6:16; 1 Jn
1:5 cf. Rev 21:23) emanating to the point where God “separated the light from
the darkness” (Gn 1:4). It is like God’s Shekinah glory poured out for several
24-hour periods from “Sunday through Tuesday,” and ended on Day 4 with the sun,
moon, and stars coming into existence on “Wednesday.” My thinking is that God
rested on the Sabbath (Saturday, Day 7, Ex 20:11; Gn 3:2-3) right? So I just
worked it back to Sunday to make it relatable though its usage is admittedly
anachronistic.
God just limited the range of His supernatural glow like we do with a dimmer switch for lights though I doubt if He turns a knob! God’s glory in eternity doesn’t
spill over into creation or into the outer darkness to be seen by the future prisoners
to the penalty of sin in the lake of fire (LOF); God's radiant scope is defined by Him. When Yahweh came down on Mt. Horeb, His glory was restrained. When
Jesus revealed His glory on the Mt of Transfiguration He limited His glory. It
is my understanding that we are not physically equipped for a full “show me
Your glory” moment unless we have a death wish. So, I think it is not strange that
God’s Shekinah glory was restricted in all of the above.
It might be more accurate not to refer to creation week as 6
solar days but rather as 3 Shekinah days and three solar days or simpler yet,
six 24-hour periods, “evening and the morning” (Gn 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31). Why
did God choose to light up Days 1-3 with His glory (Gn 1:2-13)? Indeed, He
doesn’t need light to work (cf. Psa 139:12), but it may have had something to
do with getting the geologic features and waters positioned due to the upcoming
influence of the moon upon the ocean tides. In addition to a possible reason for referring to a time before
time initiated at the fall of man was in order to stay in cadence with the 6
days of “the evening and the morning” of creation week (Dr. Michael Womack), Thus, this puts creation at 6/24-hour periods, not at billions of years in the making.
For sure God provided light in the beginning (2 Cor 4:6a); He
will do so in eternity as well (Rev 21:23). There could also be some spiritual
meanings involving light and darkness. God also did the very same thing in our
regeneration (2 Cor 4:6b; Col 1:13; Eph 5:8; 1 Thes 5:5; 1 Pet 2:9). Jn 8:12
should motivate all of us in service to the Lord. Read what Paul reminded the
Thessalonian believers (1 Thes 5:5; cf. 1 Jn 1:5-7). Thank God; we won’t wind
up like the children of the darkness (Mt 8:12)! Heaven bent is more than a light-blessing!
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