The Creator's Canvas

Creation

The story begins with God and nothing. Before and apart from and outside of any created thing, God is who he is, ever existing in the harmonious love of Father, Son, and Spirit. God didn’t create the universe because he was lonely, but from the overflow of his triune love, he commanded a world outside of himself to come into being. And the nothing had no choice but to yield to his powerful decree and all things that have been made were created. God then created beings capable of sharing his own life through fellowship with him and invited them into the eternal divine dance. “God created man male and female, in his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, (WSC 6)” to partner with him in governing the rest of creation. As stewards of his creation, God gave us the task of tending, defending, and filling the earth for his glory and the good of others.

Covenants

How did God plan to restore his broken and fallen creation? God unfolds the mystery of his plan of salvation by way of covenants. Covenants are official, binding agreements, “bonds in blood sovereignly administered.” Through covenant oaths, God binds himself to protect and provide for his people. 

In the beginning, God made a covenant with Adam and all humanity through him. The Adamic covenant revealed God’s intention for humanity: he would be our God and we would be his people, fulfilling his purposes, filling his place with his glory, and enjoying the fullness of God’s own life in his presence. Adam broke this covenant and brought sin and its consequences to all of his descendants. 

Finally, God makes a covenant with David. In this covenant, we learn that the Redeemer will be a king from David’s line who will establish God’s Kingdom on earth forever. The Old Testament ends with God’s people longing for the coming of this King.God washes the earth of human bloodshed with a flood, but he graciously preserves humanity and the earth for redemption, through a covenant with Noah. 

God makes a covenant with Abraham, promising to bless all the people of the world with new life through his family. 

At Sinai, God makes a covenant with the nation of Israel through Moses to make them a kingdom of priests, a holy nation, and his own precious possession. He commissions them to represent him before the nations as a beacon of hope by being careful to obey his commands and instructions. Through the Law, God reveals his holy character, teaches us how to follow him, exposes our sin and shows us our need for a Redeemer. The sacrificial system of the Law taught God’s people that it is through atonement, the death of an innocent sacrifice in the place of the guilty, that God would provide a way to solve the problem of sin and death. 
 

Cross

After four hundred years of silence, the long-awaited “seed” of Abraham, the son of David, comes in a manner no one would expect for a King. The Apostle Paul tells us that “though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Php 2:6). Born in very humble conditions, even laid in a manger, Jesus of Nazareth is Immanuel, God with us. As the Apostle John described it, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14).

During his ministry, Jesus trained leaders, taught people about the kingdom, revealed the Father, confronted evil and lived a righteous life as he prepared for his death. It wasn’t enough to go as low as takeing the form of a servant, he must go lower still, “and being found in human form,” Paul continues, “he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Php 2:8).

Consummation

We rejoice as we see the gospel spread all over the world, and we await a day when he will return and the words of the prophet Habbakuk will be fulfilled: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Hab 2:14). There will be a day when God will not only restore his creation to its former glory, but bring it into an age of glory far surpassing our wildest imaginations. We will forever be with the Lord, his people, fulfilling his purposes, in the place of his presence, as he always intended.