mankind

A Predetermined and Perfect Plan

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4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

6 And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” 7 And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. 8 And God called the expanse Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.

9 And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening and there was morning, the third day. – Genesis 1:4-13 ESV

As Moses began his record of the creation account, he described a darkness being “over the face of the deep” (Genesis 1:2 ESV). The Hebrew word he used is חֹשֶׁךְ (ḥōšeḵ), which can be translated as “darkness, obscurity, or secret place.” It comes from the root word חָשַׁךְ (ḥāšaḵ), which was used to refer to the absence of light. Unlike everything else Moses is about to describe, the darkness was not created by God. It was simply the void created by the absence of light. For the ancients, darkness became a symbol for evil. It came to represent such things as misery, destruction, death, ignorance, sorrow, and wickedness. In the Tanakh, the Hebrew Scriptures, darkness is used to represent all that stands in opposition to God. It was also associated with God’s judgment.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived. – Exodus 10:21-23 ESV

The prophet Isaiah wrote of a coming day when darkness would be invaded by another source of light.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. – Isaiah 9:2 ESV

And the apostle Matthew would later reveal that Isaiah’s prophecy had been predicting the coming of Jesus, the Messiah of Israel.

Now when he [Jesus] heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:

“The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
the people dwelling in darkness
have seen a great light,
and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death,
on them a light has dawned.” – Matthew 4:12-16 ESV

God’s great work of creation began with the coming of the light. And His grand plan of redemption began the same way. In Jesus, the light entered the darkness once again, setting in motion the divine plan for the re-creation of all things. The theme of darkness and light will continue all throughout the pages of Scripture, setting up an ongoing contrast between the forces of righteousness and wickedness, the godly and the ungodly.

But the glaring difference between darkness and light is not the only contrast found in the opening chapter of Genesis. As Moses presents the sequential nature of God’s creation timeline, he records a number of important divisions or contrasts that seem to separate one thing from another.

On the first day, God invaded the darkness with His light, providing a stark contrast between that which was good and all that would later come to represent evil. Moses states that God “separated the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1:4 ESV). The Hebrew word is בָּדַל (bāḏal) and it refers to a separating or distinguishing of one thing from another. God set apart His light from the darkness and deemed it “good” or טוֹב (ṭôḇ). According to the NET Bible study notes, the Hebrew word ṭôḇ refers to “whatever enhances, promotes, produces, or is conducive for life.” By contrast, the darkness was unproductive and incapable of promoting or sustaining life. It represented the absence of God’s life-giving light and, therefore, was deemed as being the opposite of “good.”

The separation of the light and the dark established the end of the first day of creation. But God was far from done. There was another separation or division to take place. On the beginning of the second day, God created the “expanse.”

“Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters…” – Genesis 1:6 ESV

The Hebrew word is רָקִיעַ (rāqîa) and it refers to what we would call the upper atmosphere. But to the ancient Hebrews, it was used to describe “an expanse of air pressure between the surface of the sea and the clouds, separating water below from water above” (NET Bible Study Notes). In we recall, the creation story began with the earth was shrouded by water.

The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. – Genesis 1:2 ESV

At this point in the story, God separates the waters and, in so doing, He creates the upper atmosphere or what is sometimes translated as the “firmament.” There are some biblical scholars who believe that this separating process created a band of water vapor around the earth that would later become one of the primary sources of water that helped to create the worldwide flood recorded in chapter 6-8 of Genesis. There we read, “on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights” (Genesis 7:11-12 ESV). It is believed that, at this time, the canopy of water surrounding the earth was released and acted as a major source of the water necessary to flood the entire earth in a very short period of time. It is also believed that this canopy served as a protective barrier from the sun’s harmful rays and helps to explain the longevity of human life prior to the flood.

But God separated the waters, creating yet another distinction between one thing and another. He “separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse” (Genesis 1:7 ESV) and He called His creation, “Heaven.” While the Hebrew word can be used to refer to heaven, in this context it makes more sense to translate it as “sky.” On this second day of creation, God separated the earth from the sky.

At this point, God turned His attention to the earth, where He performed another act of separation or division.

“Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” – Genesis 1:9 ESV

The earth, which had been covered and obscured by water, was suddenly exposed. God separated the water, allowing the formerly hidden land masses to become visible for the first time. What is significant about this phase of God’s creative act was that the land was going to be necessary to sustain human life. Man would not be able to exist in an atmosphere of total darkness or in an environment consisting of nothing but water. So, God sovereignly separated one thing from another so that mankind might have a proper place in which to live. This was all preparatory work for God’s greatest act of creation: Humanity.

Moses states that “God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good” (Genesis 1:10 ESV). God deemed it good because it was all part of His perfect plan. It was all according to His sovereign will and just as it needed to be to support the human life He would soon be creating. He knew that humanity would need air to breath, water to drink, and dry land on which to live. And so, He created all this for mankind’s good, long before they even existed. But God was far from done. Humanity would also need food to eat. So, He began the next phase of His preparatory work.

“Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” – Genesis 1:11 ESV

And, once again, God declared His work to be good. Everything He made was just as He had planned it and every aspect of His creative work had a purpose. There was nothing that God created that lacked a reason for being. It was all highly intentional and pointed to something even greater to come.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

New English Translation (NET)NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

Buying Into “The Lie”.

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Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. – Romans 1:24-25 ESV

This whole section of Romans 1 has to do with the truth versus the lie. In these verses, Paul says that man has “exchanged the truth of God for a lie”, or literally, “the lie”. To understand this passage we have to define what Paul had in mind with these two terms. What is the truth of God? What is it that man, in his unrighteousness, has suppressed (vs 18)? God has revealed His eternal power and divine nature to man through His creation. So they are without excuse. Nature virtually screams the reality or truth regarding the existence of God. The very fact that men have ended up worshiping the creation rather than the creator simply shows that man recognizes some more powerful source outside of himself, but has chosen to exchange “the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Romans 1:23 ESV). The truth to which Paul is referring in chapter one is the reality of God’s existence. “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them” (Romans 1:19 ESV). Because man has rejected the truth regarding the existence of God, it is virtually impossible for him to accept the need for a Savior sent from God for his salvation. Ignorance or disbelief in God’s existence ultimately leads to a refusal to accept any kind of divine standard for moral conduct. Morality becomes highly subjective and relativistic. Each man ends up doing what is right in his own eyes. As a result, they begin to believe “the lie”, either rejecting that God exists at all or replacing the truth about God for something or someone else. Rather than honoring Him as God and giving Him thanks for all that He has done for them, they turn their attention elsewhere, relying on their own wisdom to explain their existence and to determine their conduct.

So God gives them up. That sounds like such a harsh statement. It comes across as some form of divine abandonment. The Greek word is paradidōmi and it means “to give into the hands (of another)” or “to give over into (one’s) power or use”. In a way, this simply means that God releases them to pursue and believe “the lie”. He allows men to rely on their own wisdom and darkened hearts. His wrath is less active in this sense, than passive. He allows them to reap what they sow. Paul had this idea in mind when he wrote to the believers in Galatia. “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life” (Galatians 6:7-8 ESV). Three times in this section of Romans 1, Paul uses the phrase, “God gave them up”. In these two verses, God gave them up to impurity. The rejection of the truth regarding God’s existence will ultimately lead to a false conclusion that man is the ultimate arbiter of his own fate. It is the wisdom of man, apart from God, that leads to things like genocide, infanticide, abortion, and virtually all forms of sexual sin and perversion. Highly intelligent people can commit and justify highly immoral acts. Humanism, as a philosophy of life, is destructive. It can be define as “a variety of ethical theory and practice that emphasizes reason, scientific inquiry, and human fulfillment in the natural world and often rejects the importance of belief in God” (Collins English Dictionary – Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition).

Man ends up worshiping and idolizing man. But at the end of the day, all men are inherently selfish and self-centered. Even our best attempts at living altruistic lives end up being self-serving. When you make man the center of your world, it is difficult, if not impossible, to keep from making that world revolve around yourself and your individual wants and desires. You end up doing what is right in your own eyes, and find yourself serving the creature rather than the creator. Not only do you dishonor God, but you eventually dishonor your own body, doing with it things that God never intended or approved, fulfilling the lusts of your own heart. God releases you to reap what you sow. He allows you to experience the negative outcomes of your own myopic and narcissistic lifestyle choices.

We see the reality of these verse all around us. Highly education and intelligent men and women living God-less lives in which they have made themselves the sole focus of their worship and attention. Mankind has made a habit out of rejecting the one true God and coming up with their own version of the truth. They exchange the truth about God for the lie. And the lie always leads do destruction. Paul is going to outline some serious consequences of living according to the lie. When we read the following verses we tend to focus on one particular sin, but Paul has a much broader view in mind when it comes to man’s belief in the lie. He describes those who reject the truth of God and accept the lie as “filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless” (Romans 1:29-31 ESV). Sound familiar? It should. That is the world in which we live. Paul says, “since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God have them up to a debased mind to do what out not to be done” (Romans 1:28 ESV). And this is what they reaped. A life lived without God is not a pretty picture. Buying into the lie results in some serious consequences. Any man, left to himself, allowed by God to pursue his own way, will ultimately live a life marked by godlessness and unrighteousness.

Too Smart For Our Own Good.

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For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. – Romans 1:21-23 ESV

Wise fools. The world is full of them and always has been. Paul describes them as futile in their thinking. The Greek word Paul uses is mataioō and it can mean “to passively become foolish, or to become idolatrous.” Paul says they are without excuse because they have had every opportunity to honor or recognize the existence and reality of God, who has revealed Himself through His creation. “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made” (Romans 1:20 ESV). These kinds of people indict themselves because they all end up worshiping something or someone. They may not call it worship, but they esteem or honor other things, giving them the place of prominence in their lives that belongs to God alone. Some end up worshiping man, making humanity to end-all-be-all of our existence. They believe we are our own savior. Others worship science, placing all their hope and trust in reason and man’s ability to solve all of the world’s problem through scientific research and development. We can end up worshiping political parties or governmental policies. Elevating men or man-made ideas to a god-like status in our lives has been the lot of humanity since the fall. That was the original temptation of the serpent in the garden. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5 ESV).

Paul makes it painfully clear that all men know God. They sense the existence of something bigger and greater than what they can see. Creation virtually shouts that there is something or someone out there, the first cause behind all that we see. Ancient man knew that there was something out there. That’s why they created idols. That’s why they worshiped the sun, moon, stars, animals, nature and every other created thing. But modern man is more sophisticated than that. Our idols are more subtle and sensible. We wouldn’t dream of worshiping the sun. But we will worship the Big Bang Theory. We will go out of our way to concoct every possible explanation for our existence, while refusing to accept the idea that God exists. Claiming to be wise, we become fools, self-deceived and sadly mistaken in our conclusions. We end up exchanging the glory of the immortal God for a cheap, but seemingly plausible replacement.

Paul insists that man’s persistent attempt to explain away God has left him with a darkened heart. What was once clearly visible to them, the invisible attributes of God, has become cloudy and veiled. Man has lost the ability to sense God’s presence and power. This has left him with the nagging need to explain his existence and make sense of a world that continues to spiral out of control, despite all our scientific advances, modern conveniences, and moralistic efforts. We keep hoping and believing that we can make the world a better place. We have made vast improvements in communication, transportation, medicine, education and agricultural production. Yet the world remains plagued by hatred, disease, famine, ignorance, and inequities in all their hideous forms. We have been able to make advances in everything except the state of man’s heart. We can help him live longer, but we are incapable of making him live better. Human reason will never come up with a way to deal with sin. Science will never come up with a solution to the problem of the human heart. In our wisdom, we have become fools.

And  yet, in the midst of all of mankind’s arrogance and pride, God sent His Son. Paul calls it the gospel, “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16 ESV). In the gospel, the righteousness of God has been revealed. What God expects of humanity has been made known through His Son coming to earth as a man and living a sinless life. Jesus did what no other man had been able to do since Adam. He lived in perfect obedience to the law of God. And it was His sinless life that made Him the perfect sacrifice to pay for the sins of man. He died so that man might live. He gave His life so that we would not have to give ours. The death of Jesus was what God required so that men might be made right (righteous) with Him. And this righteousness is only available by faith. Not by reason. Not by scientific explanations or experiments. Not through human effort or any amount of seemingly moral advancements.

Man, apart from God, is helpless, hopeless, blind, ignorant, and spiritually dead. Even his best efforts on his best day are flawed and, ultimately, worthless. As the prophet Isaiah so aptly put it, “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind” (Isaiah 64:6 NLT). Man has become to smart for his own good. His intelligence has left him unable to honor God or give Him thanks. He is determined to come up with his own explanation for his existence and his own plan for his future. But in the end, all men must face the reality of God’s existence. God doesn’t go away because we attempt to explain Him away. He doesn’t cease to exist simply because our intelligence refuses to accept Him. God has revealed Himself in His creation. He has made Himself known through His written Word. And He has given men the means by which they can know Him personally and permanently through His Son. But the knowledge of God is ultimately available as a result of faith, not wisdom.

Genesis 47-48, Matthew 24

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The End In Mind.

And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. – Matthew 24:14 ESV

It is so easy to see the Bible as 66 isolated and independent books written by a variety of authors and covering a timeline thousands of years in length. But it is important to remember that the Bible is the revelation of God, not a record of historical events written down by men. It is, in essence, one book written by one author and dealing a single storyline: the redemption of mankind by God. The stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph are essential to the overall plot of the book, but are not to be confused with the central theme and the primary character: God Himself. One of the benefits of reading the Old and New Testaments simultaneously is that it provides a constant reminder that there is really a single story going on. It’s a story with a beginning and an end. The death of Jacob does not end the story. The arrival of the people of Israel in Egypt is not the climax of the plot. The rise of Joseph to power in Egypt and his wise handling of the famine is simply just another plot twist in the bigger story of God’s plan for the restoration of mankind to a right relationship with Him.

What does this passage reveal about God?

Jacob, near death, reminded his long-lost son, Joseph, about the promise of God. “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me, and said to me, ‘Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession'” (Genesis 48:3-4 ESV). This was a long-standing promise originally made to Abraham and confirmed over and over again by God to each of Abraham’s descendants. “I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God” (Genesis 17:6-8 ESV). Once again, we see the promise being passed down to each successive generation. Even though he was close to death, Jacob knew that God was not done yet. His passing would not negate the fulfillment of the promise, because its impact was to be cross-generational and international in scope. Even before Abraham had ever set eyes on the land of Canaan, God had told him, “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3 ESV). The story wasn’t going to just be about Abraham and his descendants. It wasn’t going to be limited to the people of Israel. God’s story was about the fate of mankind and His plan to deal with the sins of mankind in a just, holy, and righteous way. God’s story includes the creation, the fall, and, ultimately, the redemption of man through the coming of Jesus Christ. Everything points to that moment and God’s Word must be read with that end in mind.

What does this passage reveal about man?

Every man who has ever lived has had a plan for his own life. There is a natural bent in each of us to see our lives as central to the storyline. We view our moment in the spotlight as paramount. We want to be significant. We want to have an influence. There is a natural tendency to focus on self and to see the world from our limited and somewhat selfish perspective. But when reading the stories of Abraham, Jacob and Joseph, we see that each of these men, while important, were not indispensable. They were not the point of the story. Each of them played a limited part, but there was a much greater story going on behind the scenes to which they were, for the most part, oblivious. To each, the blessing was important. Which is why they were so adamant to make sure that they or their children received the blessing. Joseph was upset when Jacob laid his hands on the wrong sons, saying, “Not this way, my father, since this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head” (Genesis 48:18 ESV). Joseph had a plan and it included his firstborn son, Manasseh. But God had a bigger plan. He was operating with a far greater plot in mind than simply the blessing of a single son or a solitary generation. Our greatest problem is that we too often think the story revolves around us. We see ourselves as the main characters in the plot and view God as a glorified screenwriter whose job it is to craft our story according to our own self-centered, self-satisfying notions.

How would I apply what I’ve read to my own life?

But God is doing something far greater than any of us can even imagine. Abraham had no idea just how big God’s plan was. Isaac was oblivious as to the magnitude of the storyline God was writing. Jacob and Joseph were unaware of the incredible nature of what God was doing behind the scenes. Men would come and go. Generations would pass from existence. And yet God was still at work implementing His plan for mankind. No one individual or nation would be more important than any other. Kings and slaves, Jews and Gentiles, men and women … they all would be used to accomplish God’s divine plan for the future. His mind was focused on the end. He knew what had to be done for mankind to be restored to a right relationship with Him. He knew the blessing was about more than promised land and progeny. It was about salvation and redemption from slavery to sin and the condemnation of death that every man was under. I need to have that same mindset. It isn’t all about me. The world doesn’t revolve around me and my desires. I don’t exist for my own satisfaction and I should not live to seek my own limited will. I exist for God’s glory and am part of a long-standing line of men and women whom God has used to accomplish His greater plan for the good of mankind. I am to live with the end in mind. I am to focus on the reality that my life and my short time on this planet are not the point of the story. I am to live faithfully focused on the end. Jesus told His disciples, “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect” (Matthew 24:44 ESV). Interestingly enough, not one of those men lived to see the second coming of Christ. And yet they were told to live with that event in mind. They were to be ready. And so should we be. We are to live with the end in mind – not our end, but the one God has planned for all mankind. It is the end of the story, the culmination and conclusion of His plan.

Father, keep me focused on Your plan and not my own. Constantly remind me that there is something far more important than my own selfish, self-centered satisfaction and comfort. I want to be a faithful servant who is found doing what You have called me to do when Your Son returns. I may not live to see that day, but I want to conduct my life as if I will. I want my greatest desire to be Christ’s return and the conclusion of Your plan. Help me to live with the end in mind. Amen.

Genesis 7-8, Matthew 4

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Sin and Salvation.

Genesis 7-8, Matthew 4

From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near. – Matthew 4:11 NLT

Sin had become so rampant in the world and the wickedness of man, so prevalent, that God had to take drastic measures and destroy the world He had created. We read in chapter six of Genesis: “The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart” (Genesis 6:5-6 NLT). The single sin of Adam and Eve had ushered in a flood wave of sinful behavior that had escalated to such an extent that God was forced to act justly and righteously, wiping out those whom He had made in His own image.

What does this passage reveal about God?

But God showed favor. He offered an invitation to Noah and his family to enter into the ark. There they would find safety, provision and protection from judgment. We must be careful that we do not misinterpret this passage and assume that Noah was saved by God because of his righteousness. The invitation God offers to Noah would seem to indicate that he somehow deserved to be saved. “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation” (Genesis 7:1 ESV). But this is a statement based on comparison. Noah’s righteousness was not meritorious. In other words, his actions were not the cause of his salvation by God. It was just that Noah, when compared to those among whom he lived, was a relatively righteous individual. “It is not that Noah’s works of righteousness gains him salvation, for none is cited. Rather, his upright character is noted to condemn his generation, which merits death” (Kenneth A. Mathews, Genesis).

No, it was God’s grace that saved Noah. It was God who came up with the idea for the ark. It was God who gathered the animals together in pairs. It was God who gave Noah and his family the skills to take on a construction project of this magnitude. And it was God who closed up the door of the ark once they were all inside. The story of the flood is not simply a story of God’s wrath and judgment against mankind. It is a glimpse into God’s unfailing grace, mercy, love and faithfulness. I personally believe that Noah was saved because it would be through his descendants that the Messiah would come. Luke’s gospel account gives us the genealogy of Jesus and includes Shem, one of the sons of Noah, in the list. The salvation provided by the ark would preserve mankind in order that the true Savior of the world might be born. In a way, Noah’s righteousness, like yours and mine, was based on his association with Jesus. His salvation was due to Jesus, not himself. His righteousness was imputed, not earned.

Chapter eight starts out with the words, “But God remembered Noah…’ What a wonderful statement of the mercy of God. He never forgot about Noah and his family. The ark wasn’t intended to be permanent, but was simply a temporary respite from judgment. God had a more permanent plan for Noah and his family. He would preserve them from destruction, then place them back on the earth, promising to never use a flood to destroy mankind again. “I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things” (Genesis 8:21 NLT). Nothing had really changed. Mankind was still evil, even though, at this point, it was just Noah and his family. The ark had preserved mankind, but there had been no transformation. Sin was still a problem. They would still need a Savior. And generations later, He would appear on the scene, preaching, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near” (Matthew 4:17 NLT). This descendant of Adam and Noah would come to bring true salvation from sin and deliverance from the curse of death. He would provide not only forgiveness from sin, but freedom as well. Jesus is the ultimate “ark” provided by God so that we might be saved from the destruction to come. All those who place their faith in Him will be saved. God will deliver them from death and provide them with eternal life. In the story of the ark, we have a glimpse into the redemptive heart of God. He longs to preserve and protect. He desires to restore and redeem. Through the ark, He did for Noah what Noah could not have done for himself. And through Christ, He has done for you and me what we could never have accomplished on our own.

What does this passage reveal about man?

Man is deserving of punishment and death. The verdict is clear: Man has a serious sin problem and God must deal with it. As God, He cannot simply overlook our sins and act as if they never happened. We are in open rebellion against God, and our very existence brings dishonor to His name as God. As His creation, made in His image, we are an affront to His character. So God, being righteous, holy and just, must deal with our rebellion justly, or He would case to be God. And there is nothing we can do to remedy the problem. No amount of good works or attempts at changed behavior will ever change our condition or soften our condemnation. If we are to be saved, it will have to be done by God. If we can’t satisfy His just demands, then He will have to somehow satisfy Himself. And that is what He did by sending His Son to earth as a man, a descendant of Adam. Jesus would live on this earth as a sinless human being, accomplishing what no other man had ever been able to do. He would live in perfect obedience to God – with no sins or sin nature to separate Him from God. And it was His sinless life that would make Him the perfect sacrifice, giving His life on the cross as payment for the sins of mankind. He would pay the penalty for our sin in order to satisfy the justice of God. And His death would provide deliverance from coming destruction. In Noah’s day, man was in need of saving. God had to destroy them because of their sin. And God would have to save them if anyone was going to survive the flood that was coming. The same is true today. Man is in need of saving, and if anyone is going to escape the destruction to come, it will be up to God. He alone can provide salvation, and He has done so through His Son, Jesus Christ.

How would I apply what I’ve read to my own life?

I have been saved so that I might live a life that is holy and set apart to God. I belong to Him now. But I have to constantly remember that my righteousness is not of my own making. I did not deserve to be saved. I was a sinner just as much as the next guy, but God, in His mercy and grace, showed me favor. He offered me an invitation to step into the safety of His ark, Jesus Christ, and find protection from the flood to come. I am covered by His righteousness, not mine. I am preserved because of His holiness, not my own. And now I am called to live as one who has been saved by God. My response to His grace and mercy should take the form of willful obedience out of gratitude for all that He has done for me. I am to live like one who has been given a new lease on life.

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the bodyand the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. ButGod, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:1-10 NLT).

Father, thank You for providing salvation for me. I am so grateful that You placed me in Christ so that I might enjoy protection from the wrath that I deserved. I did nothing deserving of Your grace, mercy and love, and yet You saved me. I have no reason to boast or brag. But I have every reason to rejoice, because I once was as good as dead because of my sins, but You have made me alive in Christ. Amen.

Ken Miller Grow Pastor
& Minister to Men kenm@christchapelbc.org

Genesis 5-6, Matthew 3

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Judgment and Mercy.

Genesis 5-6, Matthew 3

The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. 6 So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart. – Genesis 6:5-6 NLT

We have been introduced to Satan, who helped bring sin into the world. But we have also been made aware of the “seed” who will prove to be more than a match for Satan, someday defeating him, and bringing an end to his reign and rule on earth. The purpose behind the genealogy of chapter 5 of Genesis was to link the one to come, who would fulfill the curse on Satan, all the way back to Adam. The coming “seed” or offspring of Adam would be a man, a descendant of Adam and He would bring judgment on Satan for his role in the fall of man. So as chapter six opens up, we see that man has multiplied and, at the same time, so has sin. But there is a glimmer of hope in the story. Redemption is coming. All is not lost.

What does this passage reveal about God?

The creator of the universe is faced with a creation that has been marred by sin. He is not caught off guard or surprised by this situation, but He is grieved at what He has to witness. All that He had made and deemed “good” has been damaged by sin. Man’s decision to reject God’s authority and doubt God’s Word has led to a world that is quickly losing its original glory and a human race that is quickly losing any semblance of having been made in the image of God. “The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil” (Genesis 6:5 NLT). Time has passed, and generations of men and women have been born. Sin has increased and so has the extent of wickedness among men. God, as holy and righteous, must deal with the sin of mankind. He cannot stand idly by and do nothing. His sense of justice demands that He punish the guilty for their rebellion against Him. “So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart. And the Lord said, ‘I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, and I will destroy every living thing—all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them'” (Genesis 6:6-7 NLT).

But there is a glimmer of light in this dark scene. We are told that “Noah found favor with the Lord” (Genesis 6:8 NLT). At first blush, it would appear that Noah was somehow deserving of God’s favor. Among all the other men who lived at that time, he was the only one who lived up to God’s standards. But this would be inconsistent with what we know about God and man. The Psalmist wrote, “Only fools say in their hearts, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good! The LORD looks down from heaven on the entire human race; he looks to see if anyone is truly wise, if anyone seeks God. But no, all have turned away; all have become corrupt. No one does good, not a single one!” (Psalm 14:1-3 NLT). This would have been true of Noah as well. Was he better than the rest? More than likely. But he was no more deserving of God’s favor than anyone else living at the time. The point of the story is that God, in His grace and mercy, determined to show His favor on Noah. In the midst of His fully justified judgment, God chose to extend mercy to a few.

All of mankind was deserving of God’s judgment, and yet God chose to redeem a few. Chapter six tells the story of God’s judgment in the form of a worldwide flood. But it also tells the story of a miraculous deliverance. God commands Noah to do the impossible: build an ark or large boat, in a land where there are no lakes or seas. God required Noah to step out in faith, taking Him at His word, and place his trust in something he had never seen before. The ark would prove to be Noah’s source of salvation. It would shelter he and his family, providing protection from the judgment to come. God, the judge, would prove to be the Savior as well. In Noah, God would preserve an offspring of Adam, so that ultimately, the “seed” would be born who would eventually bring spiritual salvation to mankind. The flood did not remove sin from the earth. It punished the sinners, but sin remained in Noah and his children. They would quickly end up perpetuating the problem.

But this story was meant to be a precursor to an even greater event to come. The book of Matthew records the coming of the “seed” of Adam. Jesus, the Son of God, was born as a man, a descendant of Adam through the lineage of Mary. The gospel of Luke records in painstaking detail Jesus’ family tree all the way back to Adam, the first son of God. And Matthew gives us the record of the inauguration of Jesus’ earthly ministry. The place was the river Jordan. Jesus has been baptized by His cousin, John the Baptist, and “after his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him” (Matthew 3:16 NLT). God Himself announces Jesus as “my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy” (Matthew 3:17 NLT). Noah would survive the flood, but so would sin. The flood did not eliminate the problem, it just postponed the inevitable. The ark could only forestall the future punishment to come. God was still going to have to deal with the problem of sin, and Jesus was to be the solution. The story of the flood is a story of God’s redemptive nature. He wants to preserve. He desires to show mercy and extend grace. But He must also punish sin. To not do so would be inconsistent with His character as God. But the good news is that God had a plan that would satisfy His justice and illustrate His love at the same time. The story contained in Matthew and the other gospels is the unveiling of that remarkable plan.

What does this passage reveal about man?

Man is sin-saturated. In spite of all that God had done for them, the descendants of Adam had continued to rebel against God, listening to the lies of the enemy and seeking their own selfish agendas. In just a few short generations, things had degenerated to such a degree that God was forced to conclude “that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil” (Genesis 6:5 NLT). Not a pretty picture. While Noah was somewhat of a bright spot in the darkness of the day, even he was undeserving of God’s mercy and grace. He too would prove to be a sinner just like the rest. Given enough time, he would show his true stripes and reveal that sin was part of his nature. And yet God showed grace. God redeemed the irredeemable. He gave hope to the hopeless. He extended mercy to the undeserving and grace to the unworthy. Apart from God, all men are without hope. Sin has so infected us that we are damaged beyond any hope of restoration – if left to ourselves. But the good news is that God has not left mankind without hope. He provided a Savior, a better ark, who will rescue mankind from the judgment to come. But like Noah, man must place his faith in the unknown and do the impossible – take God at His word and trust His plan for salvation. Jesus proved to be an unlikely source of salvation. He was not what the people were expecting. But He would prove more than sufficient to save any who would place their faith in Him. The ark saved Noah from physical annihilation. Jesus saves mankind from spiritual extermination. No matter how bad things may appear to be, there is always hope in Jesus.

How would I apply what I’ve read to my own life?

God is not one-dimensional. His judgment and justice is balanced by His love and mercy. I can find it so easy to view Him from my limited perspective and lose sight of the fact that God is far what I can see. Ultimately, God is a god of redemption and restoration. It is far too easy to focus on His judgment and miss the real story of the Bible. Yes, judgment is coming. It is inevitable and will be fully deserved. But there is also salvation coming, and the amazing thing is – it is totally undeserved. It is the product of grace, not merit. Man’s coming judgment is well-deserved and completely justified. But his salvation is a gift, provided for by God, and an illustration of His incredible love, mercy and grace. The story of the flood and the coming of Jesus both remind me that I have a God who is far more complex than I can comprehend. I have no business judging His actions or questioning His motives. I need to learn to spend more time trusting Him rather than questioning Him. He has proved Himself faithful over and over again. The Bible is a record of His unfailing faithfulness and unwavering love for mankind – in spite of our ongoing unfaithfulness and lack of love for Him.

Father, forgive me for the many times I have judged You and questioned Your goodness. I have no justifiable reason to doubt You. Yours is a story of constant faithfulness and love. Your relationship with mankind has been marked by incredible patience and mercy. We have been repeatedly unfaithful and ungrateful. And yet You have provided a way for us to escape our well-deserved punishment and enjoy a restored relationship with You. Your redemption of mankind is an amazing aspect of who You are. Never let me forget just how guilty I was before You showered me with Your grace. Amen.

Ken Miller Grow Pastor
& Minister to Men kenm@christchapelbc.org