In the Beginning, It was not So

Everything has a Beginning

Everything we see today has a beginning. Formal education, politics, democracy, philosophy, science, medicine, etc. Ideas have beginnings. Even the institution of marriage has a beginning. Our generation has come to a place where there is no clear-cut definition or distinction about sexuality, gender, marriage and raising children. The fresh water from the river of morality has travelled so far from its source. Close to the gigantic sea of modernism, it losses it's freshness and bears the taste of the salty sea. Nonetheless, there is a definition for marriage and sexuality. Let the well-meaning people take a trip with me back to the beginning, as we see marriage from its very source.

The popular phrase 'in the beginning, it was not so,' is Jesus' profound reply when questioned about marriage. Jesus teaches about marriage and sexuality with reference to the beginning. He further goes on the mention the origin of the 'makeshift' laws they were currently living by. He said it was the hardness of their heart that allowed God permit Moses to give laws regarding divorce. This teaches us a number of things. Every culture or philosophy we imbibe has an origin. It could either be God or not. Another point to note is that when our hearts are hardened, we get a makeshift commandment. When there is a perfect, why settle for the temporal? When there is a celestial, why settle for terrestrial? When there is an eternal, why settle fit the ephemeral?

Matt 19:4-6 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Matt 19:7-9 They say unto him, Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning, it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.

Man is made in the image of God. Marriage is a prototype of the relationship Christ intends to build with His Church, the bride. Marriage isn't just a mutual agreement, it is a union. They have become one and no longer two. When these truths are hidden from anyone's heart, man no longer appreciates who he is made to be. He changes the image of the incorruptible God to that of a corruptible man, beasts and other demeaning creatures.

Honestly, many truths of the kingdom cannot be understood intellectually. We need to follow instructions to experience them. We need to be in great relationships to have a glimpse of God's great care. We need to build great families to teach our kids by experience the fatherhood of God. We need to practice love and forgiveness to appreciate what great sacrifice Jesus made on the cross. We need to keep our homes intact to prove God's word that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Even though the grace to do all these come from God himself, the manifestation comes by our obedience.

Our Way or His
Gen 6:3 And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

God need not struggle with us while making His demands. Man's days will be over shortly; like vapour and midst that disappears in the sun; like a flower that withers in no time. And then His will shall eventually and eternally be established. It is the Son the father loves that he chastises. If you feel pressure to do right, you are experiencing the restraints of chastisement. Woe is he whom the Lord Has abandoned to himself. The hardness of his heart will drive him to unimaginable depravity. Only homes, relationships, principles and structures established as it was in the beginning will abide forever.

Man of faith rejoice, the pervasion today will pass away shortly. Man of hope prepare, make sure everything you built will last. Man of love, take the reconciliation you have received to many others. Everything that bears the sign 'In the beginning it was not so' will soon pass away. And everything that bears 'as it was in the beginning' will abide forever.

More About the Beginning

After the first 5 posts, I would like to back up a little. In this post I would like to examine different words that capture the concept of the beginning. As usual, one word cannot deliver all we need to know. The limitations of one are covered by the other. However it comes, enjoy it, test it and hold on to truth.

The Source
We have discussed the beginning as a person and not just a period in history. God is the beginning. His existence is the basis for everyone thing. By Him all things were created. We are because He is. Life is because He is. Science says the sun is the fundamental source of energy, even the energy that is in a form impossible to trace back to the sun. Nature always has an eternal story to tell. The scriptures say God is the fundamental source of life. He opens his arms and satisfies the desire of every living thing. He is not only the source but the sustainer. When everything is traced back we find God. When time is rolled away, we see God. When technology is traced back we hear the proclamation of God 'dominate.' God is the beginning, the source.

A fool says in His heart that there is no God. A fool says that there is no beginning.

The First
In addition, the beginning is also the first in succession. Jesus is the beginning of the creation of God. The first born among many brethren. Jesus prayed in John 17 that the Father restores the glory that He has before the worlds were made. Conforming into the image of Christ is a restoration to the original intention and creation of God.

The Intended
God had foreknowledge and predestined all for an explicitly defined purpose. This thought, this idea is the beginning. God knows the end from the beginning. He declared the end from the beginning (Is 46:10). God doesn't have contingency plan. He has a perfect plan. He had purposed the end right from the beginning. Hence, the beginning is critical in gravitating towards the end God intended. We need knowledge of the beginning. We need a revelation of the beginning to actualise God's purpose. Eschatology will remain an unresolved puzzle until we draw our lines from the beginning. God declared the end from the beginning. The beginning holds the end. God's will will intimately prevail over all. His will is the end. His intention is the end and He declared it from the beginning.

The Created
God moved from thinking to doing. He conceived us then created us. Sin is an aberration of perfection. Sin is simply altering the will of God. Sin is an alternative to the plan of God. When sin manifests, there is a change. What we are left with is no longer the original. What we are left with is no more what God created. What God created is the beginning. Everything else is either an exact image or an adulterated one.

The Best
Some more words used to interpret the beginning are the best, the choicest, the chief. In physical reality, when one thing comes before the other, we say the former came first. However, when we say something is the best, which came first becomes immaterial. The beginning, as it manifests in the realm of time always comes next. Abram then Abraham; Sarai then Sarah; Rehab the Harlot then Rahab the righteous; Jacob then Israel; Saul then Paul. Even when is is generations apart, the natural manifests first hoping to deceive the very elect. Saul then David; Adam then Christ and many more. Even when it comes to the inanimate, the tares manifest first before the wheat.

However, in all these comparisons, we aren't confused about which is better. This better part is the beginning. Though it is manifest in eternity. It manifests in the realm of time usually not as the first. But it was the intended. Apostleship was the beginning for Paul but he went the Pharisee way at first. Ezekiel was predestined to be a prophet but He was born a priest. Our present reality might not be what God intended, but what God intended is undoubtedly the best.

The Eternal
Heaven and earth will pass away but not a single stroke of God's word will pass without accomplishing its purpose. This word is that which was with God in the beginning. This was was God. The beginning not only speaks of what was there when time started ticking. It emphatically suggests the eternal state existent before time broke away from eternity. It is the same that will continue to stand as sin, death, corruption and all their fellow intruders pass away. The eternal was the seed, it is the fruit. The eternal was the beginning, it is the end. Only the eternal will abide. Everything built according to God's eternal counsel will stand. Whatever tree that wasn't existent in the beginning will be rooted out irrespective of how deep or how far the roots have grown. God will shake all things once again. This time both the heavens and the earth will be shaken. Only the things that spring out from God himself, who is the Eternal One and the Beginning will abide.

Reconciliation and Restoration

Many words describe the conversion of an individual into Christianity. Some of the words are new birth (John 3:3), adoption (Rom 5:8), engrafting (Rom 11:24), translation (Col 1:13), reconciliation (2 Cor 5:18), redemption (Eph 1:7), restoration, liberty (Gal 5:1), salvation (Luke 19:9) and so on. This is not a basis for confusion or contradiction. Salvation is a spiritual process. One word in the human language is incapable of articulating what happened or what started at that moment, hence, the many words and analogies. However, each word complements the other and accommodates the limitations of the other.

For instance 'adoption' describes salvation with reference to one's life before Christ. It describes the once lost and now found phenomenon. However, new birth captures the inability of our destiny to be held to ransom by our past. We are entirely new. Also, birth caters for any limitation of the word adoption and eliminates any discrimination that might come as a result of the cultural prejudice against adoption. Salvation defines the new birth experience as a deliverance from looming destruction. Translation defines the same occurrence as a change of citizenship. A single word cannot convey the whole truth. All together, we have a more accurate perspective.

The focus, as we might have guessed is redefining salvation with reference to the beginning. I particularly pick interest in the two words in our title: reconciliation and restoration. They both make reference to a state which was lost and now recovered; a relationship that was broken and now being restored; a nature that was compromised and now salvaged from the ruins. Man's birth isn't his beginning, God's creation is. God's creation predates our birth. His works are perfect. Salvation is man's return to the image of God and not corruptible man as we know him today.

Reconciliation
Reconciliation in basic terms implies that there are at least two parties involved. It implies there was past, there is a present and a future. The past here is the cool-of-the-day kind of interaction between Adam and God. Not just the visitation but the inhabitation. Man's creation was completed when He received the breadth of God, the spirit of God. In the beginning, God dwelt in man. As a matter of fact, man started to live only when He was inhabited by God. But there is a present. The image of God is compromised by sin. The spirit of God departed from man and He died, insensitive to God. Life became a countdown rather than progressing light. As our days are, so our strength depreciates. This wasn't God's will. It's the exact opposite of Moses' prophetic declaration to Asher. However, it is not over.

2 Cor 5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

Jesus was manifested to restore man's relationship with God. Remember, this relationship is not just about being in good terms. It is more of a union than a cordial relationship. By Jesus we can receive God again into our heart. By Jesus we can enjoy veil-less worship. By Jesus we can say 'Abba, Father.' When we are in Christ, we are a new creation. Old things pass away and all things have become new. The broken relationship passes away and the original, ever fresh, ever new, ever progressing God-Christ union breaks forth.

Restoration
While reconciliation emphasises on the God-man relationship, restoration puts all is eggs into the actual nature of man. Salvation restores the man God made. His crown of glory and honour is restored. The nature that is capable of dominating over creation is restored. The nature that is capable of replenishing the earth was reborn.

Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

God made man and employed him to tend the Garden based on his qualification as the image of God. However, he lost the spirit of God, his certificate and guarantee of his competence. He fell short of the crown of glory and honour. Consequently, He lost his job too. Man was created and ordained to do good works. Works of multiplying Godliness, replenishing the earth, subduing it and having dominion over all. Works of making the earth Heaven's annex. But in Christ we are restored to our job post. God's spirit returns to us and we are restored into His image.

Like a Dream
Psa 126:1 A Song of degrees. When the LORD turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.

When the Lord turns the captivity of His people, their slavery and subjection to sin and death seems like a dream. Dreams are short compared to the length of life itself. They virtually have no effect on life itself. The effect of our salvation will make life like a dream. It's exciting to know that all our suffering and shame will pass away like a dream. It is even more interesting to know that the times we think we have had fun are nothing compared to the reality of eternity. The dreaded moments of Godlessness and hopelessness pass like a dream. Time folds up and eternity continues as it was in the beginning. This time bigger, better, brighter and more appreciated.

The Original Man: Man as God Made Him

(Part 4 in 'The Beginning' Series)
What is Man?
Psa 8:4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?

We often read this passage as God giving responsibility to man out of pity. We interpret it as: man is worthless, God is only empathetic. But this isn't the case. Our worth is sourced in God. However, God is not just relating with us out of pity. God has a purpose for creation. He has a purpose for man. He made man with a purpose and that purpose is why He is so mindful of us and constantly interfering. He is always devising strategy to make sure we do not fall short. He is confident that we will rise up to this responsibility, so He makes all things needed for life and Godliness available. This passage gives an explicit answer to the question of why God is overly concerned about man of all the billions of species that exist. This passage addresses it from the beginning- the most accurate perspective ever.

We must understand that God didn't create everything first and began to find use for them later. God doesn't practice modernism. He said to Jeremiah: before you were formed I knew you and assigned and predetermined that you would be a prophet. God had a purpose for man and he was made for that purpose.

Psa 8:5-6 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:

Permit me to paraphrase:
God, who did you make man to be that you are constantly thinking of Him? Why do you always check up on him, intervene when He falls, assists when He asks and even just being with him for the fun of it? I see. You made him next in line to your very self; You made a crown for him from the same elements from which Your own crown is made - glory and honour; You put him in charge of all the works of Your hands and made nothing else to be above him.

Now, I think this is close. This Psalm reveals man's identity from the beginning. It reveals man as God intended.

Adam, the Son of God
Gen 5:1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;

Adam was made in the image and likeness of God. Luke 3:38 calls him the Son of God. But there is something shocking about verses two and three of Genesis chapter five. The same man who was made in the image and likeness of God begat sons later, but in his own image. At that point man had fallen from the image and likeness of God and so couldn't bear children after that kind. He had to bear children after his new fallen image. This image is Man as we see today. However, it was not so in the beginning. Every reference to Adam in the New Testament about bringing sin and death is Adam in his fallen state. In the beginning, it was not so.

The Last Adam
When the Author of Hebrews would introduce Jesus, He introduced with the same 'purpose statement' of man in the beginning. He called Jesus Son, Brightness of God's Glory, Express Image of His Person, Made next to God, Heir over all things etc. This is the Son that God intended Adam to be. This is the man Adam was made to be. God didn't just say 'let us make man in our image and likeness,' He went further to 'male and female created He them.' It wasn't just an intention, it became creation. It wasn't just a thought it was the beginning. He, that is Jesus, is the beginning of the creation of God.

Rev 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

That All be Conformed
Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

We understand that Jesus is the beginning of the creation of God. We understand that He is the Son. This passage, I believe, is the definition man's destiny. In lieu of this, I have some questions to discuss. What does it mean to foreknow or to be foreknown? What does it mean to predestinate or be predestinated? What does it mean to conform or be conformed?

Foreknowledge is the type of knowledge that is gotten before the manifestation of such knowledge in reality. Foreknowledge about man is an awareness and understanding about man ever before He was created. Predestination is a determination of purpose or destiny before the reality or manifestation of the object in view. To be predestined is to have the course of life or path of life charted out even before creation. This is what was amplified in Jeremiah's call:

Jer 1:5. Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

We see foreknowledge and predestination in effective. Another manifestation of foreknowledge and predestination was the introduction of David eight years before he was born. God already knew him as a man after His own heart and ordained him to be King.

1Sa 13:14 But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.

God has foreknowledge and has predestined every element of creation. God foreknew all men and has predestined all to be conformed to the image of His Son. This image is not just an intention of God. He was manifested in creation. He was manifested in beginning. He was with God We are called to be conformed to the image of Christ who is the Beginning of God's creation - the original man.

Understanding the Beginning: What is the Beginning?

(NB: This is the third part)
We have seen that the beginning isn't merely an event or a period in time. God himself is The Beginning. Truly, that is all there is to it. This revelation puts every bickering about time and the existence of God to rest. However, the scriptures further reveal that the beginning is a 'state of creation.'

Behold, It was Very Good
When God made all things, He looked at it and said 'good.' However, there was still work to do. He saw the works of His hands but He didn't see and accurate reflection of Himself. So, He continued creation. However, when He made man, His report was 'very good.' This is the Beginning. The beginning is the state of completed creation; the moment when creation was complete; the moment when man assumed responsibility. God put all things in place and made man to kick it off. The beginning is the state of creation when God took His rest.

The word 'created' depicts completion. It reflects perfection. It portrays satisfaction. Whatever would warrant God to take His rest is indeed a complete work.

In the Beginning, it was not so
Mat 19:4-5 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?

Mat 19:8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

My motive here isn't about divorce or the hardness of man's heart. I only intend to examine the phrase 'in the beginning, it was not so.' We see that at the beginning, there was order. In the beginning, there was man-male and female at that. In the beginning, there was marriage. There was order and sanity. Unlike popular notions where the beginning is perceived to be characterised by 'nullness and voidness.' Some versions of the Bible translated Gen 1:2 as 'the earth became null and void.' The Hebrew word translated 'was' actually means 'became.' This again corroborates the fact that creation is complete and the beginning is the moment of bliss, when God took His rest.

Righteousness, Peace, Joy
1Ch 17:9 Also I will ordain a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, and they shall dwell in their place, and shall be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness waste them any more, as at the beginning,

This is another snapshot of the beginning. God ordained a place for man, He planted them and established them. There were no children of wickedness to torment or terrify them.

Isa 1:26 And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city.

Again, the city of righteousness is used to define the beginning. At the beginning, the dwelling of God's people was a faithful city.

The Beginning: A State of Perfection
The beginning is a state of perfection and completion. It is a state of synchrony between heaven and earth; where God can transverse both realms without man hiding in shame and fear. It is the state in which man is a perfect reflection of God. The beginning is the state in which creation was subject to man; the days that man was still awake to dominate, replenish and subdue (Matt 13:25 says that man slept and the enemy came and sowed tares). The beginning is a literal heaven and earth as one.

Prelude to The Beginning

'Understanding the beginning is the beginning of understanding.' - Debo Adesina

Where did all things begin? What happened in the beginning? When did the clock start ticking? What was the earth like at the beginning? What was man's routine at the beginning? What was man's duty at creation? Why did God make man? What exactly dies sin deprive is of? When sin is done away with, what is left of life? What is man's destiny? Answers to these questions and many more will continually move in unending cycles if we do not seek answers from the very beginning. I strongly believe that the beginning is a very strong and formidable foundation to base doctrine and all understanding.

Our knowledge of the beginning will help us understand so many other things. Our knowledge of the beginning will help understand sin more than ever. Our glimpse of the beginning will help us know the height from which man fell. Our knowledge of the beginning will help us appreciate redemption and know to which height to which we were restored at the cross. Our knowledge of man's duty at creation will help understand the essence and purpose of life. Knowledge of the beginning will help us lead such a life that perfectly matches that which God intended.

For the whole of this month, we'll be dwelling on the theme "The Beginning." When the foundation is in place, the building has remarkable potentials. We can rise to any height if we have the right basis. We can know the hope of our calling, the riches of the glory of God's inheritance in the saints and the exceeding greatness of His power towards us who believe. Unfortunately, there are so many truths we cannot bear because our foundation didn't have that in consideration. We had foundations customised to our denominations such that any external brick or truth unlike what we are familiar with becomes repulsive. This attitude is a great defence from error. However, is also a great mitigant to genuine truth.

We often have to constantly patch our fundamental beliefs to accommodate finer details as more mysteries are unveiled. The entirely of the word of God is truth, when we can't accommodate some because of weight or peculiarity, what we have is still partial. Understanding the beginning will put a lot more things in perspective. Not that all knowledge will suddenly be revealed to us. But as we get a little here and a little there, all learning and revelation will converge into one grand purpose. If we know, for instance, that all things were made of gold in the beginning, when we see stubble we would discard it. And when we see gold even in it's unrefined and crude state, we would covet it.

Understanding, the beginning will help us identify what we have and where we are. It would help us appreciate what we have received. It will help us anticipate what we would become. It will help us know how all things are working together for good. It will help make sense of every sermon. It will help put all doctrine in it's right place.

As we take a trip back to the beginning, 'The One who was' is capable to reinforce our foundations and make it capable to hold the structure of the temple to which the Lord wants to make our lives. May the Spirit of Truth himself lead us to all truth and make every human input obvious and harmless. Our one true desire is to know Him who is from the beginning. May our desire be fulfilled.