The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"From Everlasting"
Part 2
"From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God."
(Psalm 90:2)
If God has existed "from everlasting," this is, if He alone has always been, the obvious question arises, What was He doing before He created angels, the universe, and human beings?
"Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:24).
The Lord Jesus Christ's prayerful affirmation to His Father just before the cross of Calvary offers the only Biblical indication of God's doings in His "from everlasting" being. He existed as love, and He loved in expression, all within the glory of His triune Person. He lived in relationship, the devoted bond between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As God, this fellowship of love perfectly fulfilled and satisfied the heart(s) of each Person of the godhead, and we can only imagine the joyful devotion of that singular existence when only God was.
This answers the question of why God made relationship central in the race of beings created in His image.
"So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them" (Genesis 1:27).
"And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these" (Mark 12:30-31).
God purposes loving relationship and fellowship to be central in us because it was, is, and will forever be central in Him. Originally created in His image, humanity possesses the faculties for love, as motivated, guided, and empowered by the Father, Son, and Spirit of love. Through His saving grace in the Lord Jesus, God makes possible our devotion to others, redeeming us from the nature of distorted and demeaned relationship we inherited from the Adam who hid from God and covered himself before Eve because his capacity for loving fellowship had been so grievously damaged by sin (Genesis 3:3:7-10). Salvation in Christ births within us the "newness of life" - Christ's own life - whereby relationship with God and people becomes the very heart of our existence. Through Him, we can increasingly walk accordingly as we look to the God who "is love," and as we discover the wonder of the Apostle Paul's affirmation: "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (Romans 6:4; 7; 5:5).
We did not exist in God's "from everlasting" glory of love. We will forever exist in His "to everlasting" glory of love now resident in us through the indwelling Holy Spirit. We can love as God loves, as led by His presence, leading, and enabling. Thus, Paul could command, "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us" (Ephesians 5:2). The history and the present hour of the church bears witness to the Lord Jesus once again walking the earth in love for the Father, and love for people. "I will dwell in them and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16). He incessantly works to enhance our devotion to relationship, and to lead us in an eternally ancient devotion to others that has always been, and will always be. Our Savior prayed that such grace would find a place in us, and then suffered and died on the cross of Calvary to make possible His Father's answer. Indeed, the cross bears witness to how central relationship has always been God, and how central He purposes it to forever be in us.
"I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them."
(John 17:26)
Weekly Memory Verse
Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God."
(II Corinthians 3:5)
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