The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"From Everlasting"
Part 4 - Purpose, Perfection, Pleasure
"From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God."
(Psalm 90:2)
Why would the God perfectly fulfilled and content in His triune Being "from everlasting" create other beings and a universe that resulted in so much darkness, sin, and chaos?
First, run far and run fast from any voice that purports to provide definitive answers to a question far beyond our capacity to fully grasp. This being said, Scripture does offer certain truths we can know regarding the character and nature of our Lord whereby we can rest in the assurance that He knew, and He knows, exactly what He was doing by His determination to create.
We can view these truths in terms of purpose, perfection, and power.
"The eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:11).
"As for God, His way is perfect" (II Samuel 22:31).
"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created" (Revelation 4:11).
First, God's purpose for creation forever existed within His being, being "eternal… in Christ Jesus." He created all things according to a "from everlasting" planned determination of heart and mind, knowing what He would do, and how He would do it. "His understanding is infinite… Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world" (Psalm 147:5; Acts 15:18). Our Heavenly Father knew what would happen if He made something other than Himself. He knew He could fulfill His purposes despite the rebellion of angelic and human beings given freedom to love Him or not, and the dire consequences that would necessarily ensue. Such purpose and action proceeded from His character and nature, as the Psalmist declared, "Thou art good, and doest good" (Psalm 119:68).
Perfection also guided God's determination to create. By definition, His heart and hand always move according to the best possible course of action. Creation resulted from the pristine purity of motive and means in our Lord. Despite all that would occur as a result, including the suffering, forsakenness, and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, God nevertheless deemed the forming of angels, the universe, and human beings as the perfect thing to do. Because it was. Again, "as for God, His way is perfect."
Finally, pleasure motivated the Lord to create. Creation was, and is, personal to God. Much sorrow in Him and in created beings would result because He made all things. The Lord Jesus would become a "man of sorrows," and many angels and humans will know eternal sorrow because of their freely determined rejection of God and His truth (eliciting woe in God - "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked"). However, it pleased the Lord to make all things because in so doing, "many sons" would be spiritually birthed and redeemed through the sacrifice of one Son (Hebrews 2:10). We will know His love forevermore, "that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:7). This will please Him as He pleases us, and in this light of love and grace, we will realize the personal reasons for which God made all things.
It seems our Lord could have saved Himself much trouble by continuing to exist only in the perfectly contented "from everlasting, to everlasting" glory of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not the case, however. His purpose, His perfection, and His pleasure led Him to become a Creator by word, and a Redeemer by death and resurrection. No intention accompanies this consideration to explain such wonder, but rather to elicit much wonder. And, to know how much we can trust the One whose making of all things, including ourselves, proceeded from mysteries of purpose and perfection guided by personal reasons of love beyond our capacity to ever fully know.
"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!"
(Romans 11:33)
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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