by Rick Combs
[This article is an excerpt from my new book The Greatest Epic of the Ages to be released in June of this year.]
All is Good in God’s Creation!
In order to understand what things were like “in the beginning”, we can look ahead to the final goal of reconciliation in the end.
Revelation 21:1-6 gives us a view of the end in part, 3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new”.
This is coming from the One who says in verse 6, “…I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.”
With this view of the end of things, we understand better Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
We see from our Revelation 21 verses that there is a new heaven and a new earth. What is in heaven is descending down to the earth. This indicates a synchronization of both realms. Heaven and earth are coordinated and operating as a unified system like the conductor of an orchestra keeping everything synchronized. All things in heaven and earth are summed up and organized in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Colossians 1:16 tells us that God created all things in heaven and earth by and for his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. “All things” include “thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers”, “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him”.
Jesus Christ, the Lord of lords is over all of creation, both in heaven and earth.
This is a picture of the beginning. It is important to realize that “in the beginning” is a period of time when God created, before Day 1 of the re-creation narrative beginning in verse 3. Genesis 1:1 is a summary verse in which God created the heaven and the earth in a perfect state. When we come to Genesis 1:2, we find water, space, darkness, and the elements already present.
Heaven and earth are open and working together. The angels during this time before the rebellion are administrating and worshiping God. There is complete unity between God and His creation.
You can almost hear the glee and elation! “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God” (Revelation 21:3). This is a picture of the beginning.
This was the fellowship, communion, oneness, and intimacy between God and men in the beginning when God created the heaven and the earth. The two realms flowed together as one with the second person of the Godhead filling all in all.
As it is in the end, so it was in the beginning.
God’s initial creation was perfect. Everything that God made was beautiful, there was no sin anywhere. The creation was designed to live forever and to have eternal life. The foundation upon which the whole of creation is built is eternal life.
As God is eternal, so His intention is that creation have the capacity to live as one with Him for all eternity. Therefore, reconciliation and the promise of salvation always carries with it the “hope of eternal life” (Titus 1:2).
Jeremiah 10:12 “He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion”.
With wisdom, God set forth His creation with preplanning, thoughtfulness, and detailed design in providing Eternal Life. The master builder knew what was useful, proper, and necessary. God did nothing without His wisdom.
Eternity is full of light because God is there, and He is Light. There is no darkness at all. What God creates is full of light. God and His creation is full of the Glory of God.
1 John 1:5b “…that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all”.
Revelation 21:22-23 “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof”.
This is a very interesting statement, “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it”. No need for a temple for God to dwell. The people are the temple. This is the height, the zenith of communion and intimacy. God dwells as one with His people.
As it is in the end, so it was in the beginning.
Verse 23 tells us that there is no need for the sun and moon. For the Glory of God lights up the city, New Jerusalem. Everything is full of light. This lets us know that when God initially created heaven it was full of light. For where God is, there is light.
As it is in the end, so it was in the beginning.
Then something happens!
Isaiah 24:1 “Behold, the LORD lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface, and scatters its inhabitants”.
This is not God’s original creation of the earth. This is His judgment. But why?