Genesis 1:1. In the beginning, God…
Genesis 1:1 starts at the beginning, but what was happening before the beginning? If God did something in the beginning, then we can assume that God existed before the beginning. And, of course, the rest of scripture makes it clear that God did, in fact, exist before the beginning, before the creation of space and time.
So what was God doing before the beginning? He was loving.
In John 17:24, Jesus says that God loved him from before the foundation of the world. And in John 17:5, Jesus prays for God to restore him to the glory he had before the world existed. Before the beginning, Jesus was in the bosom of the Father, loving and being loved (John 1:18). If God IS love as 1 John 4 claims, then God was loving even before he was creating, and when he was creating, he was loving. And not just loving himself, but loving us.
Ephesians 1:4-5. 4[The Father] chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will…
God didn’t create us and then love us. He didn’t get to know us better and then fall in love with us. He didn’t wait to see how things would turn out and then he opened his heart to us. God loved us BEFORE he created us. In fact, he created us because he loved us.
You say, well God didn’t know then how bad we would all turn out. Surely if he had known the depth our our (my) sin, he would have never created us. Sorry, but you’re wrong.
1 Peter 1:18-21. 18knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
What is Peter saying? He’s saying that Christ and his cross, the shedding of his precious blood, was foreknown before the foundation of the world. What does this mean? It means God knew that if he created us in love, that that love would have to go all the way to the incarnation and the cross. And God did it anyway.
God chose us before the foundation of the world because he had chosen Christ before the foundation of the world. And Christ chose to die for us before the foundation of the world.
Oh what love.
God is not simply the unmoved mover; he was moved by his love for us. God is the personal, loving, caring, Creator of our souls. Before the beginning, God loved. In the beginning, God loved. And to the end, God will love.
Questions: Read Ephesians 1:4-5 again and let it soak in. How does knowing that you have been chosen and loved by God’s free will before time began change your view of yourself, your value, your purpose? How might you choose to live from this eternal, unconditional love today?
To Live is Christ 