“God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”
Creation was “very good.” God Himself declared this to be the case. Yet, if in spite of citronella candles, mosquito coils, or insect repellant liberally applied to exposed skin you have ever been driven inside by mosquitos during the warm days of summer, I doubt that few will be tempted to say that mosquitos are good. Mosquitos are one symptom of a flaw in our view of the creation. In addition to these tiny vampires, I suppose one could add gnats, wasps, black flies, and house flies, to say nothing of ants who seem to grace every summer picnic, even finding their way into our kitchens in their unending, restless search for food. Any of an astounding number of vicious flying or crawling insects compel us to wonder what could ever be thought to be good about their presence. And if these pests are of questionable value, how is it possible to think anything good about any of a number of arachnids such as spiders and scorpions.
I dare say that at one time or another you have wondered why God even bothered to make mosquitos! I know that I have groused on more than one occasions, “When I get to Heaven, I’m going to ask God why He made mosquitos!” We might question how bacteria that cause multiple deadly and debilitating diseases, spirochetes that infect the body and leave us weakened and vulnerable, viruses that destroy our lives, or even prions that can ravage the brain can be “good?” How can a virus such as the one that causes SARS, or the Covid-19 virus, be categorised as “good?”
When we allow our thoughts to turn to other aspects of the creation, we would likely question how any of a number of weather phenomena such as tornadoes and hurricanes, droughts and floods, blizzards and dust storms can be considered “good?” Beyond the various destructive elements of nature, we probably question how the evil witnessed in society can be “good.” How can a mother deserting her child, or a father abusing the children God entrusted to him to protect, be “good?” There is a lot about creation that doesn’t seem all that good.
The Apostle Paul has provided a partial answer to our quandary when he writes, “The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” [ROMANS 8:19-22]. What we see is not what God intended. In fact, what we witness in nature today reveals something of the beauty the Creator intended, but without the purpose it had at the first.
There are bad things in creation, and there are bad things about creation as we see it now. However, what we witness is not what was intended, not what the Creator created. There was a dark intervention that left an indelible mark on the creation. We suffer from that darkness, and the whole creation is marred by something dark.
The simple answer to the hard questions that have been raised is that we are no longer living in the first blush of creation. We now live in a fallen state between the initial goodness of creation and the new heavens and the new earth which is promised for those who look to the Living God to restore things to a state of full harmony. The world in which we now live, the only world that any of us have known, is marked by the brokenness resulting from the world having been plunged into ruin by the sin of our first parents. Though God pronounced all that He had made as “very good,” sin has ruined the creation. This is an issue that must be explored if we understand the glory of God and what He is doing at this time. God helping us, I propose that we study this issue today.
THE CREATION WAS GOOD — Let’s allow our minds to carry us back to the first blush of the creation. It isn’t difficult to do this since the Lord God has provided us with an account of what took place at that time. God called all that is into existence. When God spoke, that which He spoke came to be. It didn’t take millions of years for things to eventually assume their shape. Therefore, we read, “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God 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 1:3-5].
God spoke again, and the heavens appeared [see GENESIS 1:6-8]. Again, the LORD spoke, and the land and the seas came into existence [see GENESIS 1:9-10]. Viewing His work, God saw that what He had brought into existence was good [see GENESIS 1:10b]. On the third day of Creation, God called forth all the vegetation that would provide nourishment and convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. Witnessing the earth sprouting with greenery, God saw that this, too, was good [see GENESIS 1:11-13].
The fourth day witnessed God calling forth the lights in the heavens, creating time and preparing for navigation through trackless seas and across vast continents. When the sun, the moon, the planets, and the stars had been brought into existence, God saw that what He had done was good [see GENESIS 1:14-19].
The very next day, God commanded that the waters should swarm with all that would live in the seas and in the rivers and the streams of the earth. He also called forth the birds of the heavens to be present on the earth. All that God created on this day were blessed and all alike were commanded to reproduce, multiplying in the waters and on the earth. Again, what God had made was pronounced to be good [see GENESIS 1:20-23].
On the fifth day, God called forth all the animal life that would live on the earth. Surveying His handiwork, God pronounced it good [see GENESIS 1:24-25].
On the sixth day of creation, God created man and the helper that would always stand with him to fulfil the destiny for which God created them. At the time of creating the man and woman, God assigned to them the work that they were to perform. This is what is written of God’s final day of creation. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
“And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so” [GENESIS 1:26-30].
According to the Word, God surveyed all He had done during these six days of creation, and He was pleased. The work was perfect. Harmony reigned on the earth and throughout the universe. Therefore, we read, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day” [GENESIS 1:31].
Creation was very good. It seems to imply there was no pestilence, no mutation from benign features to malignant. Perhaps viruses were present, but there was no mutation into virulent forms of viruses that could sicken or even kill those creatures that God had placed in His world. Bacteria were part of creation, and they were not malignant, causing injury and harm to those living in the world. And mosquitoes were present, but they did not carry diseases that threatened health and life. Moreover, because God pronounced the creation “very good,” we can be quite certain that mosquitoes did not drive our first parents to distraction by dive-bombing their faces or biting their exposed arms and legs. Black flies didn’t buzz their faces, forcing them to close their eyes and these pests didn’t crawl on their noses. Ticks didn’t invade the sacred spaces of their bodies. Murder hornets didn’t threaten our lives and swarms of pine beetles didn’t ravage the forests which God created. Creation was very good.
It is generally accepted that for all the problems in nature, we live in a beautiful world. It is true that “the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” [ROMANS 8:22]. Yet, for all that, the creation presents glimpses of the intent of Him Who called all things into being. There are blizzards, but who can argue against the purity that cloaks the earth when the first snow has blanketed the ground? To be sure, there are tornadoes, but the gentle zephyrs that cool us in the heat of a summer day remind us that we serve One who delights to do good things for His own. I’ve often marvelled when watching the grace of a mighty grizzly bear as she overturns massive boulders to find a snack which will delight her. I’m always delighted to catch a fleeting glimpse of a pack of wolves loping between the trees of the forest. I still delight to observe the gentle care of a cow moose cleaning her newborn calf and urging the little creature to stand so it can suckle. Watching these creatures that God created gives me great delight, though I know that they can be dangerous if I forget caution.
In my years in the laboratory, I frequently marvelled at the exquisite design of the Master Designer as I teased apart multivariate enzymes, or as I traced His handiwork while I worked out the biochemical mechanisms that regulate life. How intricate is His design, how carefully crafted are those cells whom He has created. We were once taught that the cell was simply a sack filled with a gemisch of chemicals and minute bodies to carry out all the functions of the cell. Now, we know the cell is highly organized, with each part working together in a delicate dance of life.
This is what the Psalmist meant as he mused concerning the LORD’s work.
“O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.”
[PSALM 139:1-6]
Then, the Psalmist got down to work, writing,
“You formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.”
[PSALM 139:13-16]
I am not an accident, a mere happenstance resulting from some cosmic blunder. I am not the fortuitous product of an unobserved crash of cosmic dust eons past, an event buried in the dark, unwritten history of the universe. I am the product of the hand of the Creator; and He has given me my being that I may glorify His Name. Perhaps the jaundiced eye of some person considers me to be less than perfect, but the hand of a Master Designer gave me my being. I am anything but an accident. I have purpose! I have a reason to be! The Living God has given me my being and He has called me to honour Him. Say with me:
• I am not an accident!
• I am not a mistake of the cosmos!
• I have purpose!
• I am loved by the Lord of Love!
• He designed me for His glory!
SIN ENTERED INTO THE WORLD — We know that the creation was very good, but what happened to allow the negative to mar this good creation? In this context, recall the sweeping statement delivered by the Apostle Paul as he wrote the congregation in Rome. “Sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” [ROMANS 5:12]. Sin came into the world through one man!
Perhaps people would wish to place the blame for our fallen condition on our First Mother, but God consistently calls out Adam as the one who plunged the race into sin. The dark story of the ruin of creation is recorded in the first book of the Bible. In that account, we are able to read what happened. “The serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made.
“He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?”’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”’ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
“And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ And he said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.’ He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.’ Then the LORD God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate’” [GENESIS 3:1-13].
The harmony that our first parents had known was forever destroyed through the exalting of their will over the revealed will of the Creator. Now, ruin reigns over the creation. We assure ourselves that we are moving toward fulfilment. We reach and we grasp for what we have convinced ourselves will make us happy. We grasp for what we imagine will satisfy the longing in our soul—permanence. We believe that if we can but achieve this permanence for which we long, we will be satisfied and fulfilled. Instead, with each goal we reach, we realise that the permanence we crave is slipping through our fingers like sand when we grasp it.
The permanence we imagine will make our lives complete slips from our grasp as we attempt to grasp it. The things we love, the things that matter most to us, are all being stripped from us as we move inexorably toward death. In this world, death reigns. Paul summed this growing disappointment precisely when he wrote, “Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam” [ROMANS 5:14a]. Still, women attempt to look as if they are nineteen forever, and men think that if they can but dress with a bit more pizazz or let what hair remains grow a little longer, at least the illusion of permanence will persist.
Nevertheless, I know that all my achievements will be forgotten soon after I die. Whatever education I may have attained, whatever brilliance of mind may be ascribed to me, the multiplied books I’ve read—all will be forgotten shortly after my death. The few people that know me will themselves follow me to my long home. As I grow older, the futility of life becomes increasingly evident. The moments of joy that came as three children graced our home flees away until my wife and I are left sitting together before the fireplace, lost in memories of what once was. Then, at last, one of us will be gone, and the other will be left with nothing but the memories of what once was. That lonely old man, or that lonely old woman will be removed from familiar surroundings and placed in a home staffed by strangers. Though we hope those strangers will be nice enough, they won’t be the old familiar friends, and the memories of who we were will slowly die. Everything that we love is stripped from us. The things we enjoy slips through our hands as though it was but water which we attempt to grasp. This is the legacy that our first parents left us when they callously exalted their own desires over the revealed will of the Living God, the Creator of heaven and earth.
If I am living for this world, I must know that it all ends in futility. Nothing of consequence is left when I am gone from this life. However, whatever I have done for the cause of Christ and His glory will last eternally. The Apostle to the Gentiles sought to turn the attention of the saints in Corinth to what was coming when he wrote, “According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire” [1 CORINTHIANS 3:10-15].
Years ago, the saints encouraged one another with a couplet that isn’t heard quite as often in this day. The followers of Christ would say,
Just one life, ‘twill soon be past,
What’s done for Christ alone shall last.
With that couplet, these dear saints were encouraging one another to lift their eyes from this moment called “now,” to look forward to what was coming.
Those impoverished souls who are living for what is afforded by this dying age, those who have staked everything on this earth, are destined for deep disappointment. Paul reminded those who lived in Corinth of the critical difference between themselves and those who have chosen to identify as belonging to this world. The Apostle wrote, “Among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,
‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,
nor the heart of man imagined,
what God has prepared for those who love him’—
“these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.”
He continued by reminding his readers, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. ‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” [1 CORINTHIANS 2:6-16].
We who are redeemed through faith in the Son of God see with the eyes of Christ. We are permitted a perspective of the temporary and of the eternal that is impossible for the earth-dwellers to have. Our perspective is impossible for the unsaved because it is a divine perspective. We see with the eyes of Christ. We understand that God has a plan, and while that plan is not always obvious to people, we see Him working His plan, ruling over the earth and overruling the plans of mankind. We realize the truth of His Word,
“Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying,
‘Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.’
“He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.
Then he will speak to them in his wrath,
and terrify them in his fury, saying,
‘As for me, I have set my King
on Zion, my holy hill.’
“I will tell of the decree:
The LORD said to me, ‘You are my Son;
today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,
and the ends of the earth your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron
and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.’
“Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the LORD with fear,
and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son,
lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”
[PSALM 2:1-12]
There awaits a day—may it come soon—when the sin-cursed world will be restored to the pristine beauty that characterized it at the first. There is a day promised when God will come to judge the wicked and to impose the balance that marked the creation at the first. Isaiah wrote of what shall be when he penned these words:
“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together;
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD
as the waters cover the sea.”
[ISAIAH 11:6-9]
The wicked shall at last be called to account, even as Malachi prophesied when he wrote, “Behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts” [MALACHI 4:1-3]. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. May your perfect will be done. Amen.
CREATION WILL BE RESTORED — A short while ago, I quoted what the Apostle has written concerning the sin of our first parents and how death now reigns because of the choice they made. There is more to what Paul wrote, and it is essential that we see what he wrote so that we can be encouraged. Remember that Paul wrote, “Death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam” [ROMANS 5:14a].
After this dark statement of the present reality we now face, the Apostle wrote in ROMANS 5:15-21, “But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 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.
“Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
There is good news about our fallen creation. Though sin has contaminated all that we experience—the environment in which we live and even our very persons, that is destined to change shortly. I don’t want to leave the impression that something will change today or tomorrow, but you may be assured that things will not continue forever as they have since the fall of our first parents. God has pledged on His sacred honour to intervene, and His intervention will be sooner rather than later. When God does intervene, He will make the world fresh as it was at the dawn of the creation.
When God drew back the curtain that separates time from eternity, permitting the Revelator to see what was to take place, John wrote these words. “I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’”
Then, John writes something that lifts the hearts of God’s people as we look forward to what shall be. John wrote, “And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true’” [REVELATION 21:1-5].
God walked in the Garden of Eden with our first parents. At last, He will walk in visible concourse with His people as their God. The Lord God Himself will be with us, and we who are redeemed will see Him as He is. God Himself will comfort His people, wiping away any lingering sadness at what once was. The darkness that marks this present existence will be forever gone. What a marvellous hope! No more mourning! No more crying! No more pain! The former things will have passed away. God declared to John, and thus He declares to us, “Behold, I am making all things new.”
Great message, Pastor Mike; preach on! However, you failed to answer the question of why God created mosquitoes. Those miserable miniature vampires still buzz our heads when they find their way into our houses and we’re trying to sleep. They still drain my blood. The honest answer is … we don’t know the answer to that question.
All things, even mosquitos, occupied an essential place when the world was new. All creatures made a positive contribution to the world at the first. Perhaps they still make a positive contribution to the environment. Perhaps they are still necessary. As we learn more about the environment, we are constantly amazed at the interrelatedness of all creatures that dwell in this wonderful world. Truly, the Creator made a wonderful world! We know this to have been the case because God pronounced the creation, all that He had made, “Very good.”
However, we must never forget that sin has ruined God’s perfect creation. At the first, there was no possibility of a venomous snake biting someone. There were no stinging insects to drive the inhabitants of the Garden indoors during the cool of the evening. There were no violent blizzards, no hot sirocco to blast the traveller passing through the desert regions of this world. In the first blush of creation’s morning, there was no death, for death is the result of sin. We know this is the case because we have read the words of the Apostle. “Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come” [ROMANS 5:12-14].
These dark words anticipate what Paul would write shortly, when he asserted, “The wages of sin is death” [ROMANS 6:23a]. And what the Apostle has written echo James’ warning against surrendering to one’s desire. The brother of our Lord has cautioned, “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” [JAMES 1:14-15].
However, sin will not win in the final analysis. Indeed, things can look mighty dark at the moment. However, I read the Book, and sin does not prevail. I remember that the Spirit of Christ prompted the Apostle to write, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” [ROMANS 8:18-39].
We win in the end, and we are winning now because we are secure in the Risen Saviour who conquers evil and brings light and life to each of His people. John writes of the new heaven and the new earth that is coming. As he witnessed what is coming, he was permitted to see this beautiful city, the new Jerusalem as it was coming down. John heard these words, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” [REVELATION 21:2-4]. No more death! No mourning! No crying! No pain ever again. Who can relate? Truly, our God is making all things new, and it shall be as it was meant to be from the beginning. Then, I’ll know the purpose of mosquitoes. Harmony will have been restored, and again, God’s creation will be “very good.”
How different it will be then! Thus, we hear this benediction and this statement of exclusion: “Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood” [REVELATION 22:14-15].
Do you have a place in that new creation? You have the promise of a place in God’s new creation, a home in the presence of the Living God Himself, if you have put your faith in the Son of God. We call all who hear the message we proclaim to believe the Saviour who has taken upon Himself your punishment so that you can be free of all condemnation. Christ died to put away your sin and to equip you for the eternal home He is preparing for His redeemed people. Believe Him today. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
