The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"From Everlasting"
Conclusion - "An Everlasting Love"
"From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God."
(Psalm 90:2)
Eternity concerns relation more than duration.
"This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3).
Rather than how long, the question of eternal life for conscious beings far more involves who is known in the everlasting "duration" of existence. For God, this involves the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who have existed "from everlasting to everlasting." As we have suggested, only of God can it be said He has always been. All other things and beings had a beginning, as originated by the only completely eternal Being. Declared in Scripture as love, with love being defined as devoted relationship to others, the living and true God of the Bible has forever dwelt in the bond of commitment, dedication, affection, and devotion within the triune Divine nature (I John 4:8; I Corinthians 13:5). The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have known one another in the essence and expression of love, perfectly fulfilled in the glory that has always been, and will always be.
In creation, God willed that other beings exist, made to know His love, and to respond in like devotion. The Bible does not address this regarding the angels, largely omitting reference to personal relationship between God and Michael, Gabriel, and the vast host of other angelic beings. We know their service, but we are not provided the nature of their fellowship with God. Scripture reserves such light for the Divine/human bond so central in God's purposes that He took upon Himself our humanity in order to redeem us, and personally relate to us. "Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh" (I Timothy 3:16). Moreover, the God who became man would suffer at the hands of both the Divine and the human to fulfill His Father's purpose of loving and being loved by human hearts - "We did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God… Ye, by wicked hands have crucified and slain (Isaiah 53:4; Acts 2:23).
Such truth bears the most personal message to your heart and mine. The God who has forever existed in the relationship of love that constitutes His very being calls us to Himself, that we may know the same heart-fulfilling wonder. The Lord Jesus prayed for such a gift to be given. "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." He then suffered and died on the cross of Calvary to make possible His Father's righteous provision of His Spirit to our hearts. "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (John 17:24; Romans 5:5). The "from everlasting" wonder of relationship and fellowship in our Lord now blesses us in a "to everlasting" glory of grace never to be fully known because it "passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19).
We presently "walk by faith" and "see through a glass, darkly" (II Corinthians 5:7; I Corinthians 13:12). Our Heavenly Father nevertheless calls us to know His love as well as His Spirit and His Word will allow, which is infinitely greater than we have yet begun to ponder or imagine. Yes, "to everlasting" begins in this moment as God beckons us to know the wonders that have flowed in His glorious being "from everlasting." So much was sacrificed to make such grace possible, and so much was given to make such glory actual in our hearts. The sounding and resounding voice of the everlasting God beckons us in this moment to know His "from everlasting to everlasting" love. May nothing keep us from hearing and responding.
"I have loved thee with an everlasting love."
(Jeremiah 31:3)
"I will love Thee, o Lord my strength!"
(Psalm 18:1)
(Psalm 18:1)
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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