Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:11-12

When God started to create living things on the earth, He started with seed-bearing plants, and also trees that would bear fruit with seed in it. God seems to go out of His way to make a point about the ‘seed’ within the plants and fruit. God also explains how the seed would go on to produce whatever its kind was.

For example, an orange seed will grow to produce an orange; likewise an apple seed will grow to produce an apple. An apple would not become an apple all by itself; rather it was the seed within it that would make an apple come into being. So right from the beginning, we witness God revealing an eternal truth to all mankind:

In order to produce the right kind of fruit, you need to start by having the right kind of seed!

One of the amazing realities we have entered into, through accepting the gospel of God’s grace, is that we have now been equipped to bear fruit to God, not by our own zeal, passion or persistence; but rather because the seed of righteousness, that is Christ, has been placed in us!

The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ. Galatians 3:16

God was already talking about the power and importance of ‘the seed’ right from the beginning of Genesis, because He has always known that His Son would become the seed that would empower all mankind to bear fruit to God!

So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. Romans 7:4

The good news is that we accepted all that Christ did on our behalf upon the cross, we died with Christ, and in that death the seed of Adam died within us also. Just as we died and were buried with Christ, by the power of God we were also resurrected with Him and made a completely new creation! This new creation was made with the seed of Christ! It is this very same seed within us now that now produces it’s kind of fruit!

The reason we now bear the fruit of the Spirit, is because we have the seed of the Spirit within us! We have been made new through the body of Christ, and just as an apple seeds will certainly produce apples, we can rest with confidence and assurance that the seed of Christ within us will certainly produce the fruit of Christ in our lives!

We don’t need to live our lives in a panic that we are failing God by not producing the fruit he desires, because we live with a revelation that it is not by our own zeal, discipline or persistence that we produce the kind of fruit He desires. It is because the seed of Christ is in us; and that seed, by the grace of God, will grow; because God is the one who makes all the good fruit in our life grow!

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 1 Corinthians 3:6-7

God wants us to rest in the reality of our new covenant with Him. When we simply allow the New Covenant of God’s grace to be the reality we live by, it allows us to walk effortlessly in the way the Spirit desires. How glorious it is that we understand it’s not our self-effort that produces heaven’s fruit, but rather it is Christ in us; He is heaven’s seed, and our hope of glory!

And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so.  God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:9-10

We can read in the scripture above that, by the word of God, an enormous shift took place on the earth. God had decided that he wanted to gather all the water to one place, in order that the land could appear. God was revealing just how powerful His Spirit was to gather and make one, in order to make something else appear. In this case the “land” appeared.

How interesting that it was only when God gathered the water together to one place that the land could then appear. In the Old Testament, God’s promises were always connected to a ‘land’ he would one day give his people access to. The promise of God was found in a ‘land’ that he had prepared for His people.

Now we know that the actual physical land in Israel was only a shadow of the better things to come, that being Christ. The reality is always found in Christ, and, in my opinion, seeking to understand the ‘promised land’ is no exception. When we seek to understand the scriptures from the perspective of knowing Jesus, we can understand that the place of blessing and fulfilment of God’s promises are not found in a physical land, but rather found in Christ! He truly is the ‘land’ of promise; in Christ is where the fullness of God’s grace is found; it is only there that God’s people can fully receive their promised inheritance.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1

The promise that we can all live in Christ was indeed promised to all of us, right from the beginning. The question however, was how could God give this promise to all mankind, when all mankind was so divided? The Israelites were convinced that God’s promises were only for their nation, and the gentile nations all had their own ‘gods’ with their own promises attached. There were division not only between Jews and gentiles, but between the rich and poor, the slaves and free, men and women. Divisions ran down every aspect of life.

Before God could give his gift of living in Christ to all mankind, He had to make us all one, that we would no longer be divided, and that is what the finished work of Jesus upon the cross accomplished for us all! The sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross not only made the way for us to be forgiven, but also for all of us to be made a new creation, that all mankind could be gathered together to one place, to be made one body that we could together be heirs of the promised inheritance of God!

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men) — remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.  For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace. Ephesians 2: 11:15

So in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Romans 12:5

Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Colossians 3:11

God didn’t just gather us together, so that there were many people in the one place, but still remained inherently different. God made each of us a brand new creation! That means that he made us all new, no longer with our old identities that drove us to be hostile and divided, but with our new identity that bonded us together in perfect unity!

The gospel truth is that God has gathered us all together, regardless of our backgrounds, and in Christ made us a new creation, He truly made us one, so that the promise of God, that we freely receive now that we are  in Christ, could truly manifest in our lives! Remember who you truly are! You are not your old self, but have been made brand new! We are heirs together with Christ! We are citizens of a better kingdom; God’s glorious kingdom. Remember, by the grace of God, we are one!

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. 2 Corinthians 1:20

God called the expanse “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day. Genesis 1:8

Yesterday I looked at how God separated the water below from the water above. The heavenly water was kept separate from us and an expanse was put between us. God called that expanse “sky”. God’s throne is above the heavens, or as God puts it in Genesis 1:8, above the sky.

The sky marked the barrier. No one, it seems, could pass through it in order to receive the heavenly water, the water of life. Yet God opens up his communication with mankind, in the account of Genesis, by making it clear that there is more from God, it was just wasn’t available to us yet.

God was already making a promise to us. He was making a promise of better things to come. The writer of Hebrews testifies of these better things that God has now given us through Jesus.

The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. Hebrews 7:18-19

Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. Hebrews 7:22

But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises. Hebrews 8:6

God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. Hebrews 11:40

In the Old Testament, all the promises God had made also had a barrier to them. No matter how hard God’s people tried to break through those barriers, they failed. Because the Law demanded from them what they simply could not give. And so, although all these promises were made by God, mankind still had the problem of the barrier. How can anyone break through that expanse God had established in order to get to the better water, and the better promises?

What we could never do, God allowed His Son to do on our behalf!

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. Hebrews 4:14

Jesus is the reason we now receive all the better things that God promised through the Old Testament. The most important of those being the New Covenant! God himself saw fault with the Old, and promised to introduce a better one, and He did that through His Son Jesus!

For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant. Hebrews 9:15

We can rest with assurance that we will now receive from our Father all his promises, because in the New Covenant that Christ established for us, all the promises are given as a gift based on God’s grace, and not as a payment for our good works. Praise God, by faith in Jesus we may receive our promised inheritance!

And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” ⁷ So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. Genesis 1:6-7

Have you ever wondered what God was talking about here when he said he wanted to separate water from water? Before God even introduces the concept of water, he makes it crystal clear that there are two types of water. The first water is found on the earth, but the second water is only found in the heavens!

Now when God talks about the water above, He is obviously not talking about rain, for that only comes from clouds, and they themselves are still under the sky (and water that comes from rain is actually just water from the ocean that has precipitated). So we see God clearly presenting the glorious gospel truth of a heavenly water. It is the same truth that Jesus later made even clearer to us all while speaking to the Samaritan woman by Jacob’s well:

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:11-14

Only Jesus can give us the water that is from above. God never separated the water of the world from the water from Heaven because He wanted to keep it from us; rather it was to show us that there is another water available, living water!

Once again, we find God preaching the gospel of His Son right from the start of the Genesis account! Now what is really incredible is that at the start of the Bible God talks about the heavenly water, but it is from a perspective of separation. However, when we read the final statements at the end of the Bible, we find God still talking about the heavenly water, but this time it is not about separation, but an invitation! It’s about inclusion!

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. Revelation 22:17

God is no longer keeping the living water separate, the good news of Jesus Chris, and the power of His finished work upon the cross is that He has opened the way for all of mankind to come to God and receive the water that is from above, and never thirst again!

I’m just amazed at how God has been preaching the gospel right from the beginning! How glorious is our beloved Father and our Saviour Jesus!

God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. Genesis 1:4-5

I have been sharing over the past few blogs just how much God is revealing the reality of His Son Jesus throughout the opening few verses of Genesis. In only five verses we have already read about Jesus ‘the beginning’, Jesus ‘the light’, and Jesus ‘the day’.

We can also see something really important happening at the same time, and that is how God was making it clear that there is Jesus, and then there is everything else that is not Jesus.  God introduced the reality of Jesus (the light), and then He makes it clear that Jesus is separate from the reality of the world (the darkness). In the same way God names Jesus specifically as ‘the day’, and then goes on to show that He is separate from everything else, by naming everything else ‘night’. I’m sure to the Father, Jesus is so wonderfully glorious that nothing can compare to His light!

Jesus has always been God’s chosen saviour; He has an exclusive ministry that no one else in all of creation could also receive or partake in.  God never intended for there to be any other way to come to Him except through His Son Jesus, and we can already see God revealing the exclusive ministry of Jesus right from the beginning of the Bible.

Jesus Himself plainly declared this gospel truth while he was walking the earth: Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

The truth however, is that God is not ultimately about separation, but rather inclusion. It’s God’s desire for all mankind to be saved and included in Christ, but it was also important for God to introduce the understanding of separation so that mankind could accept the one way of salvation. God knew that man would seek to invent his own ways of salvation, and so right from the beginning of the Bible we see God making it clear that the ministry of Jesus is separated from any other manmade ways of salvation.

We see God continuing to teach this truth in repeated patterns throughout the Old Testament. There is a repeated theme that clearly shows who God’s chosen one is, and who is clearly not. We see it with Abel and Cain’s offering, with Isaac and Ishmael, and ultimately with Israel and the gentile world. All of these were leading up to the wonderful moment when Jesus would come in flesh and blood into the world and fulfil the work the Father had given Him to complete from the beginning of time.

The good news is now that Jesus has finished His work of salvation; God has torn down the walls of separation, and has made all of mankind, who call on the name of Jesus, one in Christ! God is now proclaiming inclusion, for the gospel of God’s grace is the good news that all of mankind can come freely to God through the perfect finished work of Jesus.

Jesus was set apart, so that He could bring us all in! This is the wonderful mystery of the gospel that the Apostle Paul spent His whole life preaching. The good news that now we are included, we are accepted and we are considered one in Christ!

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (that done in the body by the hands of men) — remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Ephesians 2:11-18

God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day. Genesis 1:5

The first thing in the Bible that God specifically names is ‘the day’. Now ‘the day’ turned out to be a very important part of God’s creation process. In fact, everything that was made, was made through ‘the day’, so I guess God felt he better make it perfectly clear just what everything was being created in and through, by declaring it’s name to us all, and that name was ‘the day’.

Now it’ s also important to point out that ‘the day’ was actually just another name for ‘the light’. It was the very same light that God sent into the world, the very same light that God declared ‘good’ and the very same light that God now called ‘the day’.

So we can see from God’s perspective that ‘the light’ he sent into the world and ‘the day’ that everything was created in and through are actually one and the same! Now isn’t that incredible!

It is incredible because just as we know that ‘the light’ was Jesus himself, we can also see that ‘the day’ was the very same Jesus, the one whom everything was created in and through! Jesus truly is ‘the day’ that everything was created through, just as he is ‘the light’ of the world!

The Apostle John testifies to this very same wonderful truth in the opening statement of his gospel: “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” John 1:3

How amazing to see that the very first name that the Father Himself declares to mankind is the name of His Son Jesus! Throughout the entire first chapter of the Bible we can see God’s declaration that no matter what has been made, it was all made in and through his Son, who is ‘the day’!

God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. Genesis 1:4

When reading through the first chapter of Genesis, it’s interesting to note that God doesn’t mention anything about creating man until verse 26, but in the first four verses He has already talked about Jesus several times! Before God had spoken a word about Adam or his plan to create man in His image, He spoke about sending His Son, the Light, into the world!

How true it was when the early Apostles boasted about the eternal plan God had concerning Jesus and His coming!

“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” 1 Peter 18-21

It’s clear that Jesus was not God’s emergency plan in response to Adam’s fall. Jesus was never ‘plan B’; on the contrary, it seems that there has never been another plan in God’s mind besides Jesus! God actually put His entire hope in His Son before the creation of the world. What trust He had in Jesus, and Jesus did not fail Him! He finished everything the Father asked him to do perfectly!

It is no surprise then that we find the Father declaring in verse four of Genesis that Jesus being sent into the world was ‘good’, for Jesus is the very essence of God’s ‘good news’ to the world.

It’s also wonderful to know that even today, God’s plan is continuing to work itself out in such a powerful way all across the globe. As the light of Christ continues to shine, those living in darkness are drawn to him, and they too are transformed to be light in the Lord.

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Ephesians 5:8

Now that we are in Christ, we can live at peace with God, for the light of Christ is continually shining upon us. In fact it’s even better than that, because the light is not only shinning upon us, but by the grace of God we have actually become light in the Lord!

God really is incredibly wonderful

“Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.” Genesis 1:2-3

As I stated in my previous blog entry, the first words of the bible recorded were “In Christ”. Pretty awesome that the concept of being “in Christ” was the very first concept God shared with us all, but what about the first words that God Himself spoke to us? They are spoken in verse three, where God said “Let there be light” and there was light.

The earth was formless, it was empty and it was covered in darkness, and then God in his grace said “Let there be light” and then everything changed. God literally sent the light into the world, and that decree brought about a truly wonderful transformation!

So who is the light? In the gospel of John, Jesus declares the glorious truth: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

So here we see that the very first words God declared to the world was actually “Let Jesus be sent into the world” and He was! So if the first concept God shared with us was about being ‘In Christ’ then the first word God spoke to us was ‘Christ has been sent to us!”

Perhaps we could even be so bold as to paraphrase the first 3 verses of Genesis to say:

“In Christ God created the heavens and the earth; and by God’s grace he sent His one and only Son into the world to give them the light of life!”

Isn’t it incredibly wonderful to see the gospel message being proclaimed by God right from the very first three verses of the Bible! Woohooo, we serve an amazing God who has truly known the beginning from the end, and has planned our glorious salvation from before time began!

This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Saviour, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. Timothy 1:9-10

Praise God, the gospel of God’s grace truly was God’s all consuming passion right from the beginning, ever from before time began!

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1

It’s interesting that the very first concept God expresses to mankind, is the concept of being “in” something. In this case, God communicated to us that “In the beginning” he created the heavens and the earth.

“In”… why do you think God chose that to be the first concept those seeking Him would ponder about? God could have said anything as the opening lines of communication. He could have declared that He was the almighty God. He could have declared that He demanded obedience. Instead, He chose to talk about being ‘in’ something. Wow, I find that very interesting!

What about the next two words “the beginning”? Well, let’s remember what Jesus declared so powerfully in the book of Revelation: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.” Rev 21:6

So here we can see, by Jesus’ own admission, that the beginning is not at all a moment in time, but rather a person! And that person is the almighty person of Jesus! Think about that, Jesus “is” the beginning.

So now when we go back to the opening line of Genesis, but read it in its correct “Christ context” we can see that the first thing that God actually communicated to mankind was “In Christ, God created the heavens and the earth”!

It begins to now make sense  why God communicated the concept of being ‘in’ something before he communicated anything else, because to the Father there is nothing more important than mankind getting a revelation that can be “in Christ” too!

It’s really awesome to be able to read about the glory of being “in Christ” right from the very first words in the Old Testament! The life story of Jesus is quite literally in every verse of the Old Testament, we only need to have eyes that see Him

I can’t wait to share more pictures of Jesus from the book of Genesis in my next blog.