Good and Bad
I have always found the creation story beneficial to understanding God's intent for the world. I call myself a creation theologian. I think it has a nice ring to it. What I mean by this is that I believe we can understand a lot about who God is, who we are, and what God's purpose for our life is through the biblical account of creation. For me, the creation story paints the picture of life in relationship with God before sin comes in and distorts everything. When we read the creation story we see what God intends life to be for us and what he desires. In Genesis 1 and 2, we see how you and I can live in perfect harmony with God and the world. Everything was good and just as God created it to be. There was no separation between God and his creation. We read that God created everything and it was very good.
Why does God create?
Have you ever reflected on this? The Bible is clear the God creates all things. God creates the moon, the stars, the earth and everything in it. He creates the plants, the animals, the dirt, the water, and he creates humans. Everything is created by God. But, why?
Does he have to create?
Is he lonely and needs someone to play with?
Does God want something or someone to control?
If we read the accounts of creates we can understand that God does not have to create. He just chooses to create. God doesn't need us. God is all-powerful, all-knowing, present even before time existed. He speaks and it is so. He does not need us. God isn't lonely. We are told that in the beginning, before anything is created, God exists as a community, the Trinity. We are told that the Spirit is hovering over the waters, and creation happens as the Word of God goes out. When it comes to the point in creation that God considers the creation of humanity, God says, "Let us make mankind in our image." God is not lonely. God also does not want to control. We see that after God creates humanity he then gives them the command to steward and subdue all that has been created. So, why does God create?
Love is the answer
God desires us. He does not need us. He does not have to have us. He wants us. You are loved and desired by God. He creates because he loves us. God is love and works out every detail of creation so that you and I can experience love as well. Don't miss this. God creates us so that we could experience an intimate, loving relationship with Him. God works out every detail of creation so that you and I can experience real love. He does not want us to have a false or fake love. Love that is forced is not love at all. Love has to be chosen. God knows this. Every detail of creation illustrates that the God of love creates so that his creation could know and experience the love of God and the love of one another.
Free will is necessary for Real Love
In order for love to be real, there has to be the possibility for us to not love. For creation to be good, there must be everything necessary for the fall built into the details of creation. There must be a boundary. If there is no boundary or nothing off limits, then do we really have a choice? We don't. Boundaries are necessary for us to have free will. In order to choose God, there must be an opportunity to choose something else for it to really be a choice.
There also has to be built into each of us the ability to not only do good but also to do bad. If we are created with only the ability to do good than our choices are not really choices. We are "programmed" only to do good. So, we would not be able to actually make any choices. If we are programmed we don't really experience anything real. God desires a real relationship with us. He wants us to experience real love. We can see this in the details of the creation story. We see this in the way in which we have the ability to both do good and to do evil. This is also necessary for us to experience authentic relationships with God and others.
The boundary in creation is not just any tree
The only tree in the garden of Eden that Adam and Eve are told not to eat from, the one boundary that is off limits, is the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Don't miss this detail. You see God's original intent is that humanity, you and I, would not have to wrestle with trying to figure out what is good and what is bad. We are not even supposed to mess with knowledge of good and evil. Knowing what was good and bad was not up to us. We are not supposed to try to eat that fruit. When we do it distorts God's creation. When we do it moves us away from God's intent for our lives. When we try to eat that fruit we try to do something we were not created to do and quite frankly we are not capable of doing? Remember, in order for us to have free will, we have both good and bad in us. The bad in me will distort my ability to understand what is good and what is evil. It can trick me. The evil in us will convince us those good things are actually bad and those bad things are actually good. We are not designed to have knowledge of good and evil. This is why it is the one boundary that God sets up.
This is why we struggle with questions like "why do bad things happen to good people?" or "why do good things happen to bad people?" We don't have the knowledge for it. And we don't have access to the tree either. Yet, we still try to say that some things are good and some things are bad. We argue and divide because we disagree on what is good and what is bad. We think we know but when we look at the details of the creation story we discover that you and I don't know what is good and what is bad. It was never intended for us to have knowledge of good and evil and still today we lack this knowledge. Knowledge of good and evil is to be left up to God. It is off limits to us. To go there is to go out of bounds. But, the serpent still tries to deceive us. And we continue to fall for his tricks. We are easy prey. Tempted, we grab for the low hanging fruit instead of leaving knowledge of good and evil to God.
We also learn from the creation story that God does not leave humanity even when they eat fruit they are not supposed to eat or are not designed to be capable of eating. He still loves us. He still provides for us. He still works to restore us back to His original intent. He still desires an authentic, intimate relationship with us. He still wants us to choose to love Him in return.
Love Today.
In Christ's love and mine,
Doug
Why does God create?
Have you ever reflected on this? The Bible is clear the God creates all things. God creates the moon, the stars, the earth and everything in it. He creates the plants, the animals, the dirt, the water, and he creates humans. Everything is created by God. But, why?
Does he have to create?
Is he lonely and needs someone to play with?
Does God want something or someone to control?
If we read the accounts of creates we can understand that God does not have to create. He just chooses to create. God doesn't need us. God is all-powerful, all-knowing, present even before time existed. He speaks and it is so. He does not need us. God isn't lonely. We are told that in the beginning, before anything is created, God exists as a community, the Trinity. We are told that the Spirit is hovering over the waters, and creation happens as the Word of God goes out. When it comes to the point in creation that God considers the creation of humanity, God says, "Let us make mankind in our image." God is not lonely. God also does not want to control. We see that after God creates humanity he then gives them the command to steward and subdue all that has been created. So, why does God create?
Love is the answer
God desires us. He does not need us. He does not have to have us. He wants us. You are loved and desired by God. He creates because he loves us. God is love and works out every detail of creation so that you and I can experience love as well. Don't miss this. God creates us so that we could experience an intimate, loving relationship with Him. God works out every detail of creation so that you and I can experience real love. He does not want us to have a false or fake love. Love that is forced is not love at all. Love has to be chosen. God knows this. Every detail of creation illustrates that the God of love creates so that his creation could know and experience the love of God and the love of one another.
Free will is necessary for Real Love
In order for love to be real, there has to be the possibility for us to not love. For creation to be good, there must be everything necessary for the fall built into the details of creation. There must be a boundary. If there is no boundary or nothing off limits, then do we really have a choice? We don't. Boundaries are necessary for us to have free will. In order to choose God, there must be an opportunity to choose something else for it to really be a choice.
There also has to be built into each of us the ability to not only do good but also to do bad. If we are created with only the ability to do good than our choices are not really choices. We are "programmed" only to do good. So, we would not be able to actually make any choices. If we are programmed we don't really experience anything real. God desires a real relationship with us. He wants us to experience real love. We can see this in the details of the creation story. We see this in the way in which we have the ability to both do good and to do evil. This is also necessary for us to experience authentic relationships with God and others.
The boundary in creation is not just any tree
The only tree in the garden of Eden that Adam and Eve are told not to eat from, the one boundary that is off limits, is the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Don't miss this detail. You see God's original intent is that humanity, you and I, would not have to wrestle with trying to figure out what is good and what is bad. We are not even supposed to mess with knowledge of good and evil. Knowing what was good and bad was not up to us. We are not supposed to try to eat that fruit. When we do it distorts God's creation. When we do it moves us away from God's intent for our lives. When we try to eat that fruit we try to do something we were not created to do and quite frankly we are not capable of doing? Remember, in order for us to have free will, we have both good and bad in us. The bad in me will distort my ability to understand what is good and what is evil. It can trick me. The evil in us will convince us those good things are actually bad and those bad things are actually good. We are not designed to have knowledge of good and evil. This is why it is the one boundary that God sets up.
This is why we struggle with questions like "why do bad things happen to good people?" or "why do good things happen to bad people?" We don't have the knowledge for it. And we don't have access to the tree either. Yet, we still try to say that some things are good and some things are bad. We argue and divide because we disagree on what is good and what is bad. We think we know but when we look at the details of the creation story we discover that you and I don't know what is good and what is bad. It was never intended for us to have knowledge of good and evil and still today we lack this knowledge. Knowledge of good and evil is to be left up to God. It is off limits to us. To go there is to go out of bounds. But, the serpent still tries to deceive us. And we continue to fall for his tricks. We are easy prey. Tempted, we grab for the low hanging fruit instead of leaving knowledge of good and evil to God.
We also learn from the creation story that God does not leave humanity even when they eat fruit they are not supposed to eat or are not designed to be capable of eating. He still loves us. He still provides for us. He still works to restore us back to His original intent. He still desires an authentic, intimate relationship with us. He still wants us to choose to love Him in return.
Love Today.
In Christ's love and mine,
Doug
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