some thoughts

When God spoke the cosmos into being ex nihilo (out of nothing), it came into being in total dependance upon him, and in absolute submission to his authority. That’s what it means for him to be Creator, and all else to be creation. That dependant relationship stands to this day–for anything to continue in existence, God must actively will it to be so. He created, he owns, and he preserves.

I don’t remember where I first read it (somewhere in Ryle, perhaps, a couple of years ago), but the parallel between the creation/generation of the cosmos in Genesis 1-2 by the calling forth of God and the new creation/regeneration of the church in the New Testament age by the calling forth of God provokes just as much wonder in me today as it did then. Meditating on Genesis 1-2 and the account of Lazarus’ resurrection is quite a feast, to be sure. And, lest anyone see nothing but a nifty coincidence here, Peter seems to allude to this idea in 1 Peter 2:9-10. Once you were not, then you were–by his word. Once you were lost and in darkness, but then God called your name and you were — and by doing so you were brought into the “glorious light.” Many other allusions to this parallel can be found in Paul, too.

But today, as I was listening to Gerard Von Groningen’s lecture on Moses, Sinai and Covenant (link) something he said took this one step further. The parallel between the old creation and the new doesn’t stop with the generation/re-generation link; God’s faithfulness to preserve the old creation by his continued, active, willing presence and power also applies to the new creation–the church, the called-out ones purchased by Christ. There is a new level of ownership and committment between God and his beloved new creation, somehow more powerful, more intimate, more unbreakable, than that between him and his old creation. Where the head of the old creation failed him, the head of the new creation glorified him to the utmost. Where there was a true bond between him and the old, there is a–gasp!–even deeper and more permanent bond between him and the new.

It brings new meaning to phrases like “Just as the heavens and earth shall not pass away [but are preserved in both existence and duties], so also will I not fail to bring you to myself.” We are the new creation; called forth by the fiat-word of God out of darkness, chaos, death, void, nothingness, into the kingdom of his Son, into his glorious presence and light. More than that, we are sustained and preserved as the precious possession of Almighty God himself–we who call upon his wondrous name, are mightily, irrevocably, his–we and no other–and shall therefore never pass away, but shall indeed be raised up at that last day–for this is the will of our Father in heaven.

And for this, like the heavens above, we cease not to declare the glory of the Lord, day unto day we utter our praise and thanksgiving, night unto night we pour forth our shouts of delight–there is no land, no language, where our voice is not heard. The church shall not fail because it is the Lord Christ who brings us, it is the Lord Christ who builds us, and it is the Lord Christ who preserves us until that last day. There can be no threat to the church–corporately or individually–because there can be no threat to the throne of the High King of cosmos, our Lord and King Jesus, who reigns above all powers and names both in this age and in the age to come, and it is he who “shall build his church.” To be one of his means to be permanently out of ultimate danger.

For he has called out his people from the old and dark into the light and life of the new and resplendant–all for the glory of his majestic Name. He himself is our most precious inheritance. And we are his beloved, his purchased posession. He made us, He owns us, and He keeps us.

For whom he called, he justified, and whom he justified, he also glorified: and he shall not lose a single one.