Difference between revisions of "The Great Design"
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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. He made vegetation, animals, and man. God placed lights in the heavens for signs and seasons. All this was "very good." | In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. He made vegetation, animals, and man. God placed lights in the heavens for signs and seasons. All this was "very good." | ||
Latest revision as of 16:01, 4 March 2020
The Great Design
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. He made vegetation, animals, and man. God placed lights in the heavens for signs and seasons. All this was "very good."
Then God planted a garden on the earth, a paradise in which man was to dwell. Man was placed in the garden to cultivate and maintain it.
Adam was a "son of God," according to the Scriptures (Luke 3:38).
The Lord God Himself walked in the garden of Eden, revealing His desire to have fellowship with the people whom He had created.
God declared four things concerning man:
He is to be in the image of God.
He is to be male and female.
He is to be fruitful, filling the earth with the image of God.
He is to govern all the works of God’s hands.
This is the great design. All the working of God are moving toward these goals. Although the four aspects of man are in a primitive form as yet they are to be greatly expanded and glorified.
The blood of the Lord Jesus has redeemed mankind so that all who are found worthy of the Kingdom of God may be brought forward to the new heaven and earth reign of Christ, where God’s intention concerning man may be carried forward.
To be "saved" in the narrow sense means not to be destroyed in the day of God’s wrath, not to be assigned to the Lake of Fire.
To be "saved" in the fullest sense means to inherit all that the Lord God has spoken concerning man.
The physical elements of the creation, including the sky, the earth, and the bodies of people, will be released from the bondage of corruption at the coming of the Lord from Heaven (Romans 8:20,21).
At the conclusion of the thousand-year period (the Kingdom Age), the earth and sky with which we are familiar will pass away with a great noise. God will replace them with a new sky and a new earth. God will make new all the things with which we are familiar, if they are found worthy to be part of the Kingdom of God.
The original design is eternal. The present physical elements are a beginning example of what is in God’s mind.
The study of the original creation enables us to understand much concerning God’s Person, His ways, and His eternal plan in Christ.
The Gospel call is going forth today as never before and multitudes are being saved. At the same time, God is dealing endlessly (it seems) with His elect, His saints, His chosen. Human history is moving toward the perfect and complete expression and glorification of all that is outlined and foretold by the original creation.
The first creation teaches us that God intends for His children to dwell in beautiful surroundings and to enjoy those surroundings. Adam’s assignment to cultivate and maintain the garden was a delightful one. It is only because of the curse that people are compelled to live under such difficult circumstances.
We learn also that it is God’s intention to walk on the earth and to have fellowship with the people whom He has created. The present condition in which God dwells in the invisible spirit realm, not being immediately available to each person for blessing and counsel (although He is available to the praying saint), is not God’s ultimate plan for mankind. It is God’s intention to dwell among people on the earth.
The whole duty of man is to fear God and live uprightly. There is no need for any human being to become great or to achieve anything in the world. The need to become something great or to amass material wealth is a burden the individual places on himself. God does not require such achievement of us.
God’s purposes for us are wholly good, wholly joyous. We destroy ourselves, being driven by the world, Satan, the sin that dwells in our flesh, and our self-will and self-centeredness.
Men spend their lives in the pursuit of wealth, or pleasure, or fame, or power. In the beginning it was not so. Adam and Eve in the garden were a prototype of what God intends for mankind, although the finished creation will be exceedingly greater, exceedingly more glorious.
The eternal state of man is described by the four aspects of the Divine declaration: the image of God, male and female, fruitfulness, and dominion.
The immediate, temporary fulfillment of these four aspects can be seen in Adam and Eve. Each had a soul and spirit, as does God, and a body that resembled the form of God’s body (Ezekiel 1:26). One was male and the other was female. They were the ancestors of all human beings. They were learning to subdue the natural creation and use it for their own purposes.
The eternal fulfillment of the four aspects can be seen in the new heaven and earth reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. The saints are in the image of Christ. The Lamb and His Wife are one as the Father and the Son are One. Through the saints the image of Christ is filling the creation of God. The servants of God have authority over all the works of God’s hands.
The environment of the new world will greatly surpass in beauty the garden of Eden. No longer will there be crying, or sorrow, or pain on the earth. God’s children, being free from the curse of death, will perform delightful, joyous tasks in keeping with their abilities and desires.
Best of all, the Throne of God and of the Lamb will be established forever on the new earth. Through the saints in whom He is dwelling the Lord God will be available for counsel and blessing to every creature. This is the eternal design, of which the original creation was a forerunner.
The person who goes through life without Christ, not being changed into God’s image, not seeking to abide in Him, not becoming one with the members of Christ’s Body, not being fruitful in the imparting of the Life of Christ to others, and not learning to overcome the world, Satan, and his own lusts and self-will, has not received the best the present world has to offer.
No matter how great his achievements in the world may prove to be, if one of God’s elect does not follow the Master, Christ, in the fulfillment of the Divine declaration concerning man, coming under the discipline and instruction of the Lord, his or her life has not accomplished its purpose. The individual may be saved in the narrow sense but he has made little progress toward God’s plan for his life.