My small group at Grace Community Church in Berea, KY has been using The Gospel Project curriculum, published by Lifeway, and I really love it! The session we’re currently studying is called “God’s Story – part 1”, about finding Christ in the Old Testament. In our last session we discussed the creation story and how God designed all of nature to reflect His character. I won’t give away too much (you really should get involved with others studying The Gospel Project for yourself!) but I did want to share a thought that came to my mind during our study.
In the first pages of Scripture, the Lord repeatedly declares His creation to be “good” (Genesis 1:25). Not only does the Lord possess the authority to create an entire an entire cosmos right before His omniscient, omnipotent eyes, he also has the ability to determine what is good and what is not good.
Think back to grade school when you learned positive, comparative and superlative—you know – good, better, best. We have the ability to categorize our favorite things because God created “good”. “Good” may seem to simple a word to the ears of a culture that “loves” anything – from pizzas to our spouses – and “likes” everything – from goofy pictures to serious articles. But think for a moment, when God declares something to be “good” we instantly have an ultimate superlative on our hands.
Interestingly enough, something in creation is not good. “Then the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.’” (Genesis 2:18)
But there’s another thing God says is not good: creation being separate from Creator.
Genesis 1 and 2 lead to Genesis 3, where God’s perfectly ordered world turns to chaos when Adam and Eve – our first parents – choose their own way over the Lord’s. Because Adam and Eve rejected God, all men and women are marred by sin. But there is a way God can declare the “not good” to be “very good” again: Jesus Christ.
“For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.”
God the Father has authority to create the world, create the standard for what is good and what is not good, and has the power to make what is wrong right.
God the Father made provision for his wayward creation through His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus was fully God and fully man, able to live a perfect life without sin and able to become a sacrifice for the sins of men. Or, as 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
And that news is very good – the best.
If you’re in the Berea, KY area and are interested in joining our Gospel Project small group, please drop us a line. We’d love to hear from you!