Creative Power of Jesus

 

Last night we were at a dinner party hosted by a refugee family. We laughed most of the time and ate some delicious food. Before the meal, someone mentioned the quilts I’d made for them so out they came, and those guests who had not seen them were open-mouthed. I was praising God that part of being made in His image is being creative.

After dinner, one of the refugee family said something about her design skills and since none of the guests had seen the evidence, out they came. She is a remarkable artist. We were all open-mouthed at her drawings and watercolors.

This morning’s devotions are about the creativity of Jesus Christ. The key verse follows the one that tells how God revealed Himself. It says:

But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. (Hebrews 1:2)

Think this way: Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, that same Word that God spoke brought the universe into existence. This means that Jesus Christ is also is the agent through whom God created the world and all things. It sounds a bit like science fiction, but it is not at all an invented thing like AI or human technology. The Bible is clear that Jesus did it and that He has the power to do it. While humans are creative, we are nothing in artistic skill compared to Him:

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:3)

As it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. (Romans 4:17)

I try to imagine life with His creative ability. As MacArthur suggests, I’d enlarge my house, have an acreage with a horse, and a perfect occupation, or I could sit on my patio and make money! Fortunately, God did not give us sinners the power to create something out of nothing. Our creative abilities do not go that far.

The ability to create ex nihilo (out of nothing) belongs only to God. Since Jesus creates that way, His divine nature is declared. Remembering the words in Genesis, His creation was “good” until humanity sinned and changed it. This required that God intervened with great mercy, grace and love to restore what He had made. This is our desire and our hope:

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. (Romans 8:19–21)

The word used in Hebrews 1:2 for world is not the usual “kosmos” but “aionas” which appears in only one other verse: “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” (Hebrews 11:3) It can mean far more than the visible world and certainly includes space, time, energy and other less visible entities than rocks, trees, and people. The power of Christ to create is far beyond cloth sewn together or lines and shapes on canvas or paper! He used no hands in the process; He just spoke it and all things appeared.

While most of the world accepts some sort of spontaneous ‘big bang’ theory, the idea of God speaking as the source of creation has been ridiculed. Is it harder to believe that creation has a design and an Author than it is to believe it just happened?

PRAY: Jesus, I know that You are God in human flesh, but also that You are the Word of God who created all things. You have given me a love for words, for precise communication. These thoughts remind me of that amazing book, “The Humiliation of the Word” by Jacques Ellul. Everyone should read it and see the parallels between images replacing language and how the world views You. While the wonder of creation awes me, Your ability to open human hearts to eternal truth is staggering!

PONDER: Think today about the ability of Jesus to use all things to transform His people into His image — not fully for we cannot speak worlds into existence, but we can use our words far more effectively than we do when it comes to bringing glory to His name.

 

 

Made in God’s Image

 

 

READ Isaiah 11–15

Yesterday’s Memorial Service was a most incredible experience. The man who died had deeply affected his children, grand-children, and great grandchildren. As they shared what he did in their lives, seeing the fruit of it was easy. For one thing, everyone is determined to make this world a better place. No one mentioned biblical principles, yet the ideas of goodness and righteousness shone forth.

Somehow, this man who died at age 104 left a family profoundly altered by a goodness they didn’t seem to realize. As we glorified the work of God, they seemed willing to acknowledge it and if they read the today’s portions of Isaiah, may even cheer, “So be it!”

The prophet speaks of Jesus this way:

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. (Isaiah 11:1–4)

Jesus has the rare attitude of unselfish judgment. We saw hints of this in the family who were impacted by their forward-thinking patriarch. He was fair-minded. He was also interested in everything and everyone, seldom drawing attention to himself. He had a PhD; I didn’t know that. He played wild tag with his granddaughter in public places; I didn’t know that. The list is long of what he accomplished.

He did know the Gospel and wanted Ben Franklin’s epitaph said at his funeral. His life demonstrated love for people and our planet. I wondered if he had ever said words like this:

“I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, that you might comfort me. “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you will say in that day: “Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. (Isaiah 12:1–4)

I wondered if he rejoiced at God’s plan for the wicked as Isaiah said, “Wail, for the day of the Lord is near; as destruction from the Almighty it will come! Therefore all hands will be feeble, and every human heart will melt . . . . I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the pomp of the arrogant, and lay low the pompous pride of the ruthless.” (Isaiah 13:6–7; 11)

Probably not. He was more apt to think of ways to change the way things were done, rather than criticize those who were foolish in their actions. That attitude had a profound affect on his family. It also affected me. I find it easier to point out the foolishness of calling evil good and good evil. My cousin might shake his head but instead of pointing fingers, he worked on theories to change, to produce something that would cause, “the whole earth is at rest and quiet; they break forth into singing.” (Isaiah 14:7)

Some of the family did not want spiritual overtones in the Memorial, yet when I shared how God answered my prayers for this man, all faces reflected acceptance and thankfulness, some saying, “That needed to be said.”

My hubby and I agree that the hand of God was involved to build a biblical attitude in his family without drawing verbal attention to Himself. For us who know Him and His ways, His presence in our cousin’s life was incredibly obvious. We came away from the events of yesterday and the honor given to this incredibly special man filled with praise for the Lord for what He can do and humbled to realize how He shapes lives for His purposes, even the lives of those who say, “I don’t have faith like you do, but I’m not against it.”

One thought runs through my mind: when anyone marvels at the beauty of a flower, God does not shout at them, “Look what I made” — He merely makes them aware that this flower is incredibly lovely. He can do the same with all of us whom He created in His image.