Have you ever wondered what the Trinity—Father, Son and Spirit—were doing in eternity past? Before the galaxies, before the earthworms, before the giraffes, what was the triune God doing? C. S. Lewis would say, “In Christianity, God is not a static thing—not even a person—but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance.” In other words, God—the three persons—danced around each other in self-donating, loving relationships. God lacked nothing. Within the Trinity was perfect love, goodness, relationship, and joy. So, why did God make us?
Love Begets
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
love gives
Love has a tendency to give. Boy meets girl, they start a relationship. That relationship begets a marriage.
Families grow and so on. The overflow of the triune’s love gives creation. And, at the culmination of all of creation, sitting at the top above the moon and sun, the good Niagara Falls, the good stegosaurus, was the best of all of God’s creation: humanity. Out of the goodness of the triune relationship, God made humans in his image.
He created male and female to have dominion and to rule over all of creation. We had perfect fellowship with God, and we enjoyed the figs from the trees, patting the lion on the head, and the coolness of the river on our bare feet as we walked through Eden. We also enjoyed each other. Adam and Eve, our first parents, lived without anxiety, despair, jealousy, hatred, and fear. God made the world and everything in it, and it was good.
gospel starts here
When we think about the gospel, we should train our minds to go back to the very beginning. The gospel begins with God, then humanity, then sin. We tend to bypass the first two on a race to get to the bad news. Yet, the gospel is good news. We celebrate that God created out of love, not need. We celebrate that God created out of goodness, not loneliness. We celebrate that God created out of joy, not boredom. And, we celebrate that we bear God’s image. Humanity—though separate from God, since he is creator and we are creation—still maintains the ability to do God-like things: create, love, divest of power, dance, commune with others, and so forth. Humans, in a partnership with God, rule, reign, and seek the good of the world around us. In the fabric of our humanity, God infused us with the ability to do beautiful, redemptive, and meaningful things.
We celebrate that God created out of love, not need. We celebrate that God created out of goodness, not loneliness. We celebrate that God created out of joy, not boredom. And, we celebrate that we bear God’s image.
The next time you think about the gospel or share it with someone, put on your dancing shoes and consider the Trinity orbiting in self-donating loving relationship. The gospel starts with God, and so should we.
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Daily Question
When you consider that God made you from an overflow of love and goodness and made you to be like him, how does this inform your self-image? How do you see yourself imaging God in your life?
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It gives me confidence as a woman and a believer but also reminds me how like Adam and Eve I can do quickly flip things and fall into the lies of satan believing that I am in control, thinking that I know better … I want to live fully in the freedom of his good news. I want an intimate love relationship with my father like never before! To be like someone you have to spend time with them, study them, talk to them listen…. if God did create me an image bearer of Christ I sure do want to reflect Him and not the world around me which I fear I all too often do
God does like me more than I would ever know. He made me the way he wanted me. I need not cut myself down for the way God made me. He is not ashamed of my body, hair or how thin I am. It does give me a healthier respect for my body. I need to be in more of a relationship with him, Christ and the Holy Spirit.
When growing up, I never gave consideration to how God saw me. My interpretation of it was "How I thought God saw me". Not until I studied the word and learned truly "How God sees me" was I ever able to understand that I am human, make mistakes, and not expected to be perfect at everything I do. I have struggled my entire life with the en-gained feeling and belief that I had to earn His love. Learning of his love for me has allowed me to view God totally different as if He is not the rule keeper, but as my loving heavenly father.
It helps me remember I am not what I do or what I have done. I am an image bearer of Christ and it makes me want to represent him well. I think we show the image of God by the way that we love, just as he created us out of love.
It reminds me that I was created with love, something we so easily forget.
God is perfect therefore he creates perfection. God made us in his image so to Him I am perfectly made. God made me exactly the way I am ,with all the flaws that I see and feel about myself, for His purpose.
If I was created out of love, then I am worthy of love and should love myself and others as Jesus loves me.
This informs my self – image that I was made in love and made to love ; to love God more deeply and others more deeply. To love with an openness is freeing , and part of my job in this life is to help others to see the freedom only found in Jesus .
Knowing that God made me from love, loves me for who I am, and continually loves me no matter my sins gives a great sense of security and peace. But most of all it gives me security. A sense of calmness about who I am and my purpose. Because if He is for me than whomever is against me is irrelevant. instead of coming at those with a sense of anguish and hatred I can allow myself to instead love them and tell them of Love.
This helps me to understand that God created me out of love. For the longest time, and still a bit deep down, I believed that God one day would look at me and say "You know what? I was wrong, you are not worthy. You are your sins. I changed my mind; you will not be saved." I now realize this is the enemy talking, but for the longest time (when I first accepted God in my life) I lived with this fear. But He created me from an overflow of love. And I am going to wrap myself in this miracle of Creation.