Grace Before the World Began

The good news of the gospel is that God has saved us and called us to a holy life — not because of anything we have done but because of His own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. This is essentially what Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 1:9. He says something similar in Ephesians 1:4: “For God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love.”

We are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8). Saved by the grace of God granted us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Saved by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. For we are God’s workmanship, God’s doing (not our own), created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).

How were we chosen and created in Christ Jesus? It was not by anything we have done or ever could do. It is purely by the grace of God and the faithfulness of Jesus Christ before the world ever came to be. It is by the Incarnation, by which Christ united divinity with humanity, God with humankind — and eternity with time. It certainly happened in time, but by that union, time itself was transfigured by eternity. And so were we chosen and created in Jesus Christ, “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” As as I have said elsewhere, Christ Crucified and Risen is the foundation of the world).

In our human frame, we think of past and present and future as three different moments, a linear succession. But there is really only one moment, the Eternal Moment. It is the moment of divine love and grace and faithfulness, the moment of the Incarnation, the moment of the Cross and Resurrection, the moment of Creation — and also the moment of the completeness and fulfillment of all things.

God made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment — to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. (Ephesians 1:9-10)

Our Lord Jesus Christ did not merely come in the fullness of time; he himself is the fullness of time. In him, time has come to its completion. What we experience as temporal succession, within our limited perspective, is in reality the fullness of time transformed by Jesus Christ, in whom all of time is revealed. It is one with the Eternal Moment, in which all things in heaven and on earth are brought to unity and summed up in Christ.

Christ the Singularity

In Colossians 1, we discover that Christ, who is the image of the invisible God, is the creator of all things. Through him, by him, for him, and in him all things are created — not merely created, as if once and done, but continually sustained through and by and for and in him. 

Yet, he who is Creator has also become part of his Creation. He did not leverage divinity for his own benefit, but taking on the form of a servant, he became human. For our sake, he made himself subject to the mortality of our humanity, even to the point of a shameful death on the cross, crucified by our own wicked hands. But he being Life, death could not hold him, and by his death, he put death itself to death, and was resurrected.

This is of great significance not only for humankind but for the entire cosmos as well. All Creation is transfigured by his Cross and Resurrection. For he is, as John the Revelator says, the Lamb Slain from the Foundation of the World. Indeed, Christ Crucified and Risen is the foundation of the world, he who is the “firstborn from the dead” is the “firstborn of all creation.” The language of “firstborn” (Greek, prototokos) is not the time bound language of chronology but the eternal import of his absolute primacy in every way. 

It is not merely that Christ who created all things, including time, would one day be crucified in time and raised from the dead — that is all true, of course — but it means that Christ, who is eternal and has transfigured time by his coming into the world, is eternally the Crucified and Risen One. And it is as the Crucified and Risen One that all things are created through him, by him, for him and in him. Christ Crucified and Risen is the singularity from which all of heaven and earth explodes into being.

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1:15-20)

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:6-11)

Christ Shatters Our Delusions

Here is the primary thing: Jesus Christ is the Logos, the Word of God, who indeed is God. Through Christ, God created humankind in the image of God — to be like God. Our delusion was that we could ever be divine on our own, apart from God, determining for ourselves what is good and what is evil. Apart from God, and the goodness of God, we experienced evil and its relentless pull toward non-being. We became futile in our thinking, and our foolish hearts became dark.

By the Incarnation, our Lord Jesus Christ united himself with all humankind, joining divine being with human being. He became not just one of us; he became one with us. Not merely a human being, he became Human Being itself, defining for us what is means to be human. He is the humanity of which all humankind partakes, the truth of who we really are. Our true identity, our true self, is found in him alone.

And so Christ entered into our darkness and our delusion, for he is the True Light, who gives Light to everyone in the world. Our darkness could not overcome it, our delusion could not comprehend it, but is itself overcome by it. The same John who tells us this, in John 1, also tells us, “the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8).

Christ, the True Light, has come into the world and has never ceased to shine, so the darkness is already passing away and must finally succumb to his Divine Light. In Jesus Christ, then, God has come to shatter our delusions from the inside out.

What We Become By Grace

We are created by Christ, through Christ, for Christ and in Christ, as indeed are all things. “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:16-17).

By the Incarnation, all humankind is united with Christ — divine being made one with human being. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” (John 1:14). “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death — that is, the devil — and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Hebrews 2:14-15).

So are we included in the death of Christ on the Cross, and so also in his resurrection. “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22). 

Through the Creation, the Incarnation and the Cross, we become by grace what Christ is by nature. Indeed, in Christ, we become partakers, participants, sharers in, the Divine Nature. 

His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Peter 1:3-4)

The Saints Are Alive and Well

The Saints are not dead and gone. They are alive and well in the unhindered presence and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, where all is unveiled. They are with us and we are with them, because they are with Christ and he is with us, ever and always. This is the Communion of Saints, which the Church has long confessed in the third portion of the Apostles’ Creed:

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Catholic Church,
the Communion of the Saints,
the Forgiveness of Sins,
the Resurrection of the Body,
and the Life Everlasting. Amen.

Lord Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even if he dies, and the one who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).

Do you believe this? The early Church certainly did, for it is the gospel. And so they believed in the Communion of Saints.

There is No Separation

All things are created by Christ, through Christ, for Christ and in Christ. In Christ, all things consist, and in him we all “live and move and have our being.”

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15-17)

God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. “For in him we live and move and have our being.” As some of your own poets have said, “We are his offspring.” (Acts 17:27-28) 

There is no separation between us and God — and never has been. The only separation there has ever been has only been in our own minds at enmity against God. It was never in the mind of God but is purely an idea of our own deluded thinking and does not correspond to reality.

God is not a being among other beings, not even the greatest of beings. No, God is Being itself, of which everything that has existence partakes. So there is nothing that is external to God, nor can there be. Everything that has being exists within God. God has never separated himself from us, nor can we separate ourselves from God, for if we could, we would simply cease to be. That we exist at all is evidence that we are not truly separated from God.

Sin is the foolish imagination that we can somehow exist independently of God. When in our minds we pull away from God, that is never the end of it. For in turning away from God, we turn away from all other persons and things, for all have their being in Christ alone. So we come to odds not only with God but with each other and with all of creation as well — even with our own self — alienated by our own darkened understanding.

The gospel is the good news that God was in Christ reconciling the whole world to himself, not counting our sins against us (2 Corinthians 5:19). “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:19-20).

Notice the direction of reconciliation here. God did not need to reconcile himself to us, because he never turned away from us, and certainly never separated from us. But in Christ, God has reconciled us to himself, for we were the ones who turned away from God, hostile to God in our own minds.

Repentance becomes very important here, for it is a renewing of our mind, reorienting us back toward God, each other, and the world God created. It is a return to wholeness of mind, so that we are not longer at odds within our own self. Such repentance is a gift, for as Paul says, it is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). It is only because God has already reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, not counting our sins against us, that we are able to repent.

Through Christ, God has reconciled us to himself, for he is not only God’s faithfulness toward us, he is also our faithful response to God. So Paul says, “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20). This call to be reconciled to God is a call to repentance, to let ourselves be transformed and our minds renewed by the truth that we are not separated from God but are reconciled in Christ, in whom we have always had our existence.

Love Overcomes Evil With Good

The deep revelation and mystery of the gospel is not just that “God so loved the world,” (John 3:16), but that “God is Love” (1 John 4:8). Love is not merely what God has or does or shows; love is what God is within God’s own being.

We can see what this divine love looks like in God’s act of giving his only begotten Son for the sake of the world. Love is self-giving and other-centered. Love is cross-shaped. The apostle Paul gives us a profound description of divine love in 1 Corinthians: 

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

Now, notice that retribution has no place in this description. It is not merely indifferent to love, it is antithetical to love. Love is not self-seeking; retribution is. Love keeps no record of wrongs, is not resentful; retribution takes careful note in order to pay back, to take revenge. Love seeks what is good for the sake of the other; retribution seeks vengeance for one’s own sake. 

God is love, and love is simply not retributive. Yes, there is divine wrath and divine judgment, but these are not for the purpose of retribution; they have a very different end in view. In the hands of angry men, wrath and judgment are destructive, but in the hands of divine love, their ultimate purpose is not destruction but restoration. And, yes, there is divine vengeance, but the way God — the way Love — pays back is very different from the way of the world.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:17-21)

Paul instructs us here on how we should live. He is not telling us to be different from our heavenly Father, or from our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the express manifestation of the Father. No, he is showing us what God is like. God does not pay back evil with evil, but overcomes evil with good.

The Greek word for “revenge” and “avenge” in this passage are not about settling old scores — as least not in hands of God — but about putting things right, with nothing missing or broken. So, God repays evil with good, for as Paul says earlier in this letter, it is the goodness of God that leads to repentance (Romans 2:4).

God overcomes evil with good, just as Paul instructs us to do. Though there is yet much evil in the world, God has already acted to overcome it all by the Cross and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The expectation of the Christian faith is that we shall see the full manifestation of that great victory.

For more on this, see The Surprising Vengeance of God.

The More We Know the Lord

The more we know the Lord,
the more obedience to the Lord
flows naturally from us,
not as duty but as delight,
doing things with Papa. 

The obedience of our
Lord Jesus Christ to the Father
was nothing more nor less
than intimacy with the Father.