The work of creation is that wherein God did in the beginning, by the Word of his power, make of nothing the world, and all things therein, for himself, within the space of six days, and all very good.
(Westminster Confession of Faith, Larger Catechism, Question 15)
God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11
Years ago while camping and hiking in the Florida Everglades I unexpectedly chanced upon a signpost with a poem printed on it. As best I can recall the opening lines went as follows:
When you put your nose to the grindstone rough,
And you keep it down there long enough,
You’ll soon forget the finer things,
Like brooks that babble and birds that sing.
And isn’t that just how it frequently is in life? We get so wrapped up in the here and now, accumulating things, securing our future, working for respect, advancement, or accolades, that we give little or no thought to the beautiful world around us — the marvelous creation that God has blessed us with. When we get so consumed in accumulating the things of this life, living our lives as if they never will run out, we forget to pay attention to what will happen to us after this earthly life is over.
In Luke 12:16-21, Jesus taught what is referred to as the Parable of the Rich Fool. By the normal standards that we use to judge success, the rich fool looked accomplished and smart, he accumulated wealth and excelled as a farmer and as a businessman. However, he only lived for today. He neglected to plan for eternity and did not realize his shortsightedness until it was too late.
Like the rich fool we should heed the warning of Jesus:
Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21
In other words, as Christ would elaborate, Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they will welcome you to an eternal home. Luke 16:9
Our lives would be immeasurably better if we would always remember to stop, marvel, and praise our God for the majesty of creation, the blessings of creation, living our lives in the light of his revelation to us. Instead of [storing] up things for [ourselves] we should live our lives rich toward God, Luke 12:21, preparing for our eternal home.
As singer, songwriter, Bruce Cockburn sang, “You stare at too much concrete; you forget the earth’s alive.”
We live in a world that was created to be beautiful, bountiful, amazing, and perfect. Another singer, songwriter, King David, sang about our beautiful creation like this:
Praise the Lord, my soul.
Lord my God, you are very great;
you are clothed with splendor and majesty.
The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment;
he stretches out the heavens like a tent
and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
and rides on the wings of the wind.
He makes winds his messengers,
flames of fire his servants.
He set the earth on its foundations;
it can never be moved.
You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
But at your rebuke the waters fled,
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;
they flowed over the mountains,
they went down into the valleys,
to the place you assigned for them
You set a boundary they cannot cross;
never again will they cover the earth.
He makes springs pour water into the ravines;
it flows between the mountains.
They give water to all the beasts of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
The birds of the sky nest by the waters;
they sing among the branches.
He waters the mountains from his upper chambers;
the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
He makes grass grow for the cattle,
and plants for people to cultivate—
bringing forth food from the earth.
Psalm 104:1-14
And after bringing forth with his Word, the watery depths, springs, mountains, valleys, fields, and all of the beasts of the field, God created man to oversee and steward his world.
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
You have made them a little lower than Elohim
and crowned them with glory and honor.
You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
you put everything under their feet:
all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
Psalm 8:3-9
What is man?
The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
Job 33:4
After God had made all other creatures, he created man male and female; formed the body of man of the dust of the ground, and made woman of the rib of the man, endued them with living, reasonable, and immortal souls; made them after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness; having the Law of God written in their hearts, and power to fulfill it, and dominion over the creatures; yet subject to fall.
(Westminster Confession of Faith, Larger Catechism Question 17)
Man was made in God’s image. Genesis 1:27 David explains that man is crowned with glory and honor. We are to stop and consider [God’s] heavens or, in other words, the wonder of God’s creation. We are also to [rule] over, the works of [God’s] hands. Adam and Eve, made in God’s image, were created to live forever. God placed this first family, man and woman, husband and wife, in a garden that he had prepared for them — a beautiful, productive garden, beyond our imagining, where they were given free access to the tree of life.
The couple were commissioned as God’s vice-regents on the earth. They are shown living in a close relationship with their Creator, walking with him in the garden, exploring and enjoying the creation. They were to be stewards of this new creation. Their assigned task was twofold.
First, they were to fill the earth with godly offspring — fellow image bearers. They were to have children, raise families, and share the knowledge of their Creator God from generation to generation. They were to cultivate the good earth. They were to explore and discover the mysteries of this world and, with the exuberance of a child, thinking God’s thoughts after him, share their discoveries with their Creator.
Second, Adam was to guard the creation. Although Adam did not know it, there had been a rebellion in heaven and an angel named Lucifer, portrayed as a serpent in Genesis and his confederates, had come to the new earth intent on disrupting God’s plan.
God created all the angels [as] spirits, immortal, holy, excelling in knowledge, mighty in power, to execute his commands, to praise his Name, yet subject to change.
(Westminster Confession of Faith, Larger Catechism Question 16)
Eternity was ours. Eternity was our heritage from our Creator.
But Satan, also created by God, had rebelled against his Creator. This rebellious, fallen angel described as a guardian cherub, was apparently assigned to Eden.
You were in Eden, the garden of God…
You were anointed as a guardian cherub,
For so I ordained you.
You were on the holy mountain of God;
You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.
You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created. Till iniquity was found in you.
Ezekiel 28:12-15
Here we are told that the cosmic rebel, that ancient alien, the ancient serpent, who is the devil, Satan, Revelation 20:2, had tried to elevate himself to godlike status and stated,
I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly on the utmost heights of the north. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.
Isaiah 14:13-14
It was in Eden, that he tried to put his evil plan into effect by undermining God.
In a display of power against God, Lucifer, the ancient liar and murderer, John 8:44, conspired to have Adam and Eve join in his rebellion against God. And that is just what happened.
In the garden God had clearly warned Adam and Eve that death would be the consequence for disobedience. Yet when Satan, who deceives the whole world, Revelation 12:9, tempted them, they were convinced their lives would be made more satisfying and meaningful by listening to Lucifer and joining the rebellion.
Immediately after following Lucifer’s advice they realized their mistake. Lucifer’s promises of life, “You shall not surely die” Genesis 3:4, and advanced knowledge, “You will be like God, knowing good and evil” Genesis 3:5, turned out to be lies. Instead of living forever with their Creator, they were rewarded with physical death and alienation. Immortality was lost. Eternity seemed out of reach.
Our first parents being left to the freedom of their own will, through the temptation of Satan, transgressed the commandment of God in eating the forbidden fruit; and thereby fell from the estate of innocence wherein they were created…The fall brought mankind into an estate of sin and misery.
(Westminster Confession of Faith, Larger Catechism Question 21&22)
Though [God] set eternity in [our] hearts, Ecclesiastes 3:11, Adam and Eve and all of their descendants found themselves [living] in the land of the shadow of death. Isaiah 9:2
Throughout the ages, all honest men and women, facing with fear, the unknown of death, have grieved the loss of immortality.
As Dylan Thomas wrote in Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night… “rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
Below is a brief survey of others who have lamented the loss of immortality.
Opening my senses, I cannot help but marvel. The astonishing intricacy of all the forms of life on earth sometimes literally takes my breath away. But I will die, sooner or later. Death is my truly mortal enemy. (John Hershey, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Living Philosophies, Doubleday)
Despair is the price one pays for self-awareness. Look deeply into life, and you’ll always find despair.
(Irvin D. Yalom, When Nietzsche Wept)
The earth is headed for ultimate destruction. We must eventually go under. We can only strive to hang on as long as possible, have some fun while we’re at the table…
(Stephen Jay Gould, Paleontologist, Clifton Fadiman, Living Philosophies, Doubleday)
Man must realize that he is an emanation of nothingness and nothingness will devour his clever constructs.
(Czeslaw Milosz, Nobel Prize Winner, Living Philosophies, Doubleday)
We are condemned to live lives of futility because all that we aspire to and all that we accomplish in our mortal lives is taken from us in death. Our lives are as fleeting as the morning dew that quickly evaporates as the sun rises. As the Apostle Paul would later write to the Romans, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Romans 7:24
Seeing Adam’s sin, God visited Adam and Eve and confronted them. However, in a cosmic turn of events, rather than disowning or annihilating them because of their rebellion, God did something remarkable. God countered Lucifer’s false promise of life to Adam and Eve, “You shall not surely die”, with another Promise. God made a true Promise, a Covenant Promise to redeem the life that they would lose in death.
God promised that one day a Son born to a woman would undue the damage that Adam and Eve had brought on the world by their sin and rebellion.God said that this future Son and Lucifer would enter into mortal combat. Lucifer, the serpent, would fatally strike the Son; however, the Son would end Lucifer’s power over mankind by defeating death once and for all time, crushing the serpent’s head. Genesis 3:15
To perpetually remind men of the Promise to Adam and Eve, to remind them of the coming of a Son who would defeat death and end their alienation from God by His sacrifice, God instituted a sacrificial system. Throughout history, prior to the Son’s coming, men were to sacrifice an unblemished lamb.
This taught men two things.
First, the sacrifice was a constant, bloody reminder, teaching mankind that their sins and rebellion against the One Holy and True God were grievous and deserved death.
Second, the sacrifice, at the same time reminded all men and all women of the Promise that one day, somehow and in some way, God would send a Son, born to human flesh, born of a woman, to defeat death.
The story of the fulfillment of that Promise, as it was revealed in the history of the world, is the story unfolded in the Bible. The Creator himself, Jesus Christ, came to earth to offer eternal life to rebellious and sinful mankind. Galatians 4:4
Sin entered the world through one man [Adam], and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned – just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man [Jesus] the many will be made righteous.
Romans 5:12, 18-19
As we will see, the love of our Creator was so great that he came to earth to bear our punishment. In his death he defeated death.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive…The first man Adam became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit…The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven.
1 Corinthians 15:22, 45 & 47
The Lord Jesus, by His perfect obedience, and sacrifice of Himself, which He through the eternal Spirit, once offered up unto God, has fully satisfied the justice of His Father, and purchased, not only reconciliation, but an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father has given unto Him. (Westminster Confession of Faith, Christ the Mediator)