by Jacob Ninan
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Gen.1:1). 'Heavens' here is what we now call 'outer space', with all the galaxies of stars, planets, etc. God includes all that in one word, 'heavens', and then mentions the earth separately. Science will include the earth as a tiny part of 'space', but God considers earth as a particularly significant thing to mention. The reason is that all of space was created with the final significance being given to the earth specifically, because here was where man was to live. Every big and small thing in the universe was created with man in mind so that all of them would provide the right environment for man to live. Just to take one small example, think of the distances of earth from the sun and the planets and their masses providing the right balance of gravitational pull so that the earth can revolve around the sun from year to year. The more we understand the sciences of the universe, the more we marvel at the Creator who designed everything so that finally human beings could live on earth.
And then, what was God's purpose in creating man? The answer is found in the fact that among all the other creatures on earth, man was the only one who was made in the image of God (Gen.1:27). Adam could not find any companion like himself among all the animals, till God created Eve for him. In the same way, God could not have a friendship with anyone else other than man, and that was why He created man. So the ultimate plan of God for each one of us is that we can be friends with Him and enjoy His relationship. In order to make this possible, God went through all the effort of creating the whole universe and finally creating man.
But we know from history that Adam and Eve failed God. The essential aspect of their failure was not just that they disobeyed God, which is what is obvious from the outside, but it was that they chose to live independent of God by having knowledge within themselves and making their own decisions (Gen.3:5). When we think about it, we can also understand that we cannot put all the blame on Adam and Eve, because all of us have made exactly the same choice in our lives too, when at different times we chose to do our own thing, apart from God. As the Bible says, all of us, without exception, from the decent looking ones to the worst criminals, have sinned, and as a result, we have all moved away from the plan of God for us.
Still God did not give up His plan for us. He made a way of return for us. He sacrificed His only Son to atone for our sins so that, after having put away our punishment, He could forgive us and take us back to Him.
Many want to avoid the punishment, especially knowing that it will be in the eternal fires of hell, and they would like to be in the good books of God with His blessings. Yet many also want to enjoy the pleasure of doing their own thing, even when they know it offends God's nature. And still they assume that all of God's blessings will be on them because they have accepted Jesus as their Saviour, notionally. They want the tree of knowledge as well as the tree of life. They want to be free people living their own lives and living it up on earth to the full, and still they want God to bless them in all that they do, and give them the best in eternity too.
When Jesus, the Son of God, came to earth, He came not only to pay the price for our sins, but also to show us how to live in this sin-cursed world. He knew that we were all going to be tempted through the desires in our fallen nature (Jas.1:14) to go after 'the lust of the eyes', 'the lust of the flesh' and 'the pride of life' (1Jn.2:16). Therefore, He showed us the way we ought to live in this world – by denying ourselves when we are tempted, taking up our cross and dying to our independence, and following in the example that He has laid out for us (Lk.9:23). It is in this way that we show our love to Him and express our gratitude for the salvation He has prepared for us at the cost of His life (Jn.14:21). God has prepared a way for our return to Him, but then it is up to us to choose what we do with His offer.
Let us recollect what it was that caused us to move away from God, in order to understand clearly what is involved in getting back to Him. It was our choice to become independent of God and to live our own lives that caused our separation from God. That choice caused us to come under the wrath of God and the consequent punishment of hell. God has taken the punishment on Himself and opened the way for us to get back to Him. After we have entered through the Gate, shall we continue to live the same way that we used to before? Then we will still be independent of God. The right way is to live according to the will of God – in our behaviour, speech and thoughts – constantly seeking to know what He would have us to do in different situations. For this we have to depend on Him to provide us the strength through His Spirit (Rom.8:13).
We can understand now what is going wrong even after what we thought was 'coming to Jesus' or 'accepting Jesus as our Saviour'. We can see the reason why we are not able to experience the fellowship and the friendship with God which the Bible offers and which many godly people speak about. Is it possible that in coming to Jesus there was no acknowledgement of the need for a Saviour from our sins? Is it possible that at that time or even now there is no desire in us to stop sinning? Then we need to go back to the cross.
Why was there any need for Jesus to die on the cross? Everyone admits that He had not done anything wrong. In God's righteousness, justice and holiness there is no place for sin. However much He loved us, He just could not ignore our sins or even forgive us without punishing sin. What happened at the cross is that He took the punishment in our place. Now forgiveness is available to everyone – all who go to God in honest, sincere repentance over our sins. This is why there is no salvation from anyone else. It is only Jesus, the Son of God, who has this offer of salvation. This salvation is free for us because Jesus has paid our price. We can simply receive it from Him without having to earn it through sacrifices, penance or good works.
After we receive forgiveness, what then? If we have come to Jesus in true repentance, we will certainly want to stop sinning (1Jn.2:1). We will find that many times it involves a struggle, and we will also find ourselves failing because of the years in the past when we yielded to sin. God has provided forgiveness for our failures (1Jn.1:9). After that is when we need to learn to depend on God's help to overcome temptation (Heb.4:15,16). This is how we make the transition from our old way of sin to our new way of walking in dependence on God. The more we make this transition, the better we are able to get close to God and walk with Him. That is what God has planned for us.
Wherever you are in the situations I have described, I hope you make your way towards God. He has good plans for you. Don't miss them.