God’s gaze

   
Did you ever think about what God had on His mind before He created the universe? Now of course none of us know the answer to that question really, because we cannot know the mind of God. After Job and his friends spent days talking and contemplating the attributes of God we see in chapter 38 of Job where God begins to speak: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you possess understanding!” (Job 38:4) Again we read in Isaiah 55:8-9 that we cannot even come close to God’s thinking:



“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)


I would like to think that God had a plan in mind even before He began the act of creation. Some have said that a man like Michelangelo could look upon a raw stone and see the moving, living form trapped inside. His statue of David is a piece of art that has lasted through centuries of time; but once it was nothing more than a large stone with Michelangelo walking around it looking at it, thinking about that first blow with the hammer and chisel. As he broke away the excess stone the life-like image of David appeared.






Now we know that Michelangelo made something from something else; God, on the other hand, made something from nothing. If He didn’t have something He needed, He created it. I suppose that is the essence of the difference between “Creationism” and “Darwinism” or evolution.






Evolution must start on the premise that “something” was already available (Big Bang, ocean, etc.) and from that available “something” life forms began to evolve. In the beginning of many evolution books, especially text books, on about the second or third page tucked away in the middle of a paragraph, inside a sentence is a little phrase that usually says, “the inorganic became organic.” The writer then moves, without fanfare, to build the theory of evolution on the foundation of that little phrase without ever stopping to explain how that event happened.




The difference is that God created something from nothing. He then formed mankind from the soil of the ground. God then did something that answers the question about the inorganic becoming organic: God breathed into the man’s nostrils the breath of life. The man came alive with actual life from the Creator God, animated with a soul and spirit that gave him a conscience no other part of the creation had. Man had a spirituality that had capacity to link with God’s Spirit and commune with Him and have relationship with Him. (Review this by reading Genesis chapters 1 and 2.)






God is credited with being all-knowing (omniscient), all-powerful (omnipotent) and everywhere present at the same time (omnipresent). Knowing that about Him only stands to reason that He doesn’t do anything haphazardly, unknowingly or without thinking. Therefore, I would like to believe that He had very deep thoughts about what His creation would be prior to His creative actions.






I wonder if He didn’t see the fall of mankind from the perfect relationship even before it actually happened; I wonder if He didn’t see the entry of sin into His creation at the beguilement from Lucifer (in the form of a serpent) long before it actually happened. At that very moment when sin entered into a world of perfection, God seemed to have a plan in mind that would heal that wound and bring mankind back into a relationship with Him (See Genesis 3:15 for details). He knew that there would be a great separation between Himself and His creation, mankind. So He created a plan of redemption for those who wanted to choose Him over Satan. Adam and Eve had chosen Satan over God and thereby brought death and ruin into the creation. But God’s plan was to reconcile all of mankind to a position and opportunity to exercise free will and choice to choose God to regain that close relationship and receive life with Him.






The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the Christians in Ephesus and with the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit explained the plan God had even before the foundations of the world. The following is that account:


"1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:


2Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.


3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:


4According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:


5Having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,


6To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.


7In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;


8Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;


9Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:


10That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:


11In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:


12That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.


13In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,


14Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory."  (Ephesians 1:1-14 KJV)


It seems that what God may have had on His mind prior to creation was the plan to redeem us from sin and death. He wanted to establish a plan where He completed the work that required sacrifice and in order to do that He needed to do it Himself.


His plan, established prior to the “foundation of the world” was to complete the requirements of sacrifice to pay the price of sin and overcome the power of death and separation from Himself to His creation, mankind. His plan made a way for anyone who believed in Christ to accept Him, be washed in His blood and be saved into an eternal relationship to be with Him forever. The plan was “predestined” even before the presence of sin, and became the only plan acceptable to God as a means for salvation.


Those who exercised their choice to yield to Jesus Christ the Son of God would be making their choice to be saved by God only on His conditions of accepting the blood of Jesus and yielding to Him and be covered by that specific redemptive blood. It is that blood of Jesus that takes away our sins through the work that Jesus did on the cross to present Himself as a perfect, unblemished (paschal lamb) that allows us to be adopted as His sons (and daughters) through Jesus Christ, because that is what He willed and was given through His grace.


God does not “cause” us to be saved or unsaved by forcefully directing us against our will. He has “predestined” His plan for redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ, and only when a person chooses to accept God’s grace and yield himself to Jesus Christ through accepting His sacrifice, does the person enter into the “positional” place of adoptive child and be justified in God’s sight.


From my perspective, to sum it all up, I think I know what was on God’s mind before He began the work of creation. I believe He was thinking about me. And if you are reading at this very point in this article, and you have accepted Jesus Christ and have been buried with Him into His death and raised to a new life in Him, God was thinking about you too.


Now if you are outside of Christ and have not yet believed in Him or accepted Him as your Redeemer, you need to accept Him, be buried with Him in His death through baptism, be raised up to walk in a new life with Him, yield to Him as your LORD as well as Savior, and receive the gift of His Holy Spirit so you can grow in Christ. Associate yourself with a Bible-believing group of Christians and begin to gather with them to worship and continue to learn and grow in Christ. Submit yourself fully to Him and be assured that even before the beginning of creation, God was thinking of you as well.

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