A Christmas Carol: WK 1 - MON
A Plan Before the Foundations of the World Ephesians 1: 3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. (NLT)
1 Peter 1: 18 For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. 19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 20 God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake. (NLT)
Today, we venture back to Christmas Past, but our beginning lands long before the time we often think it does. We often believe that our story starts with those famous words, “In the beginning, God created…” (Genesis 1:1, NLT) But if that were true, what was Paul and Peter talking about in the passages shared above?
Paul says, “even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us…”
Peter reflects, “God chose [Jesus] as [our] ransom long before the world began…”
So if I understand correctly, we were thought of by God long before He spoke our world into existence. Maybe this is what God was getting at when he called the prophet Jeremiah and said, “I knew you before I formed you…” (Jeremiah 1:5a, NLT)
Long before God knit us together in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139), he knew us, thought of us, even loved us. Maybe like a child sitting in front of a wrapped Christmas present, he couldn’t wait to create us and share us with the world.
But our passages for today don’t just speak to God knowing us before he made us, they speak to a plan; a plan of rescue. A plan to adopt us; from what? To offer a ransom for us; to whom? What did God have to be ready to have happen even before the foundations of the world?
It all comes down to true love. You see, true love always has a choice and is never forced. If God wanted us to love him, truly, He’d have to give us the choice to not love him. It was the only way to guarantee that our love for him would be genuine, pure, and true. But should we choose to not love him, not trust him, not believe he was good and who he said he was, well, that’s why he had a plan. And as we’ll see, knowing the risk, he would still create us. Why? Cause that’s what love does.
1 Peter 1: 18 For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. 19 It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. 20 God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but now in these last days he has been revealed for your sake. (NLT)
Today, we venture back to Christmas Past, but our beginning lands long before the time we often think it does. We often believe that our story starts with those famous words, “In the beginning, God created…” (Genesis 1:1, NLT) But if that were true, what was Paul and Peter talking about in the passages shared above?
Paul says, “even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us…”
Peter reflects, “God chose [Jesus] as [our] ransom long before the world began…”
So if I understand correctly, we were thought of by God long before He spoke our world into existence. Maybe this is what God was getting at when he called the prophet Jeremiah and said, “I knew you before I formed you…” (Jeremiah 1:5a, NLT)
Long before God knit us together in our mother’s womb (Psalm 139), he knew us, thought of us, even loved us. Maybe like a child sitting in front of a wrapped Christmas present, he couldn’t wait to create us and share us with the world.
But our passages for today don’t just speak to God knowing us before he made us, they speak to a plan; a plan of rescue. A plan to adopt us; from what? To offer a ransom for us; to whom? What did God have to be ready to have happen even before the foundations of the world?
It all comes down to true love. You see, true love always has a choice and is never forced. If God wanted us to love him, truly, He’d have to give us the choice to not love him. It was the only way to guarantee that our love for him would be genuine, pure, and true. But should we choose to not love him, not trust him, not believe he was good and who he said he was, well, that’s why he had a plan. And as we’ll see, knowing the risk, he would still create us. Why? Cause that’s what love does.
- What does it mean to you to know that God loved you even before He created you?
- If God created our world with a plan to save it should we reject Him, what does it say about Him that He still chose to create us?
- What do you love and would be willing to do anything for?
By Paddy McCoy
Crosswalk Portland
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