GOD – Part 5
GOD as Transcendent Creator
Sunday, February 3, 2019
John 1:1-14
Everything came into being through the Word, and without the Word nothing came into being. What came into being through the Word was life, and the life was the light for all people.
John 1:3-4
Father, Shepherd, Redeemer, Personal Revealer…
Each of these roles opens our hearts to the relational and intimate love of a God who desires to dwell among us and even within us. These roles show us tangible expression of God as Love.
But there is more to God. Not that any aspect of God can be separated from this love, but on the other hand, none of these expressions of God’s loving nature can be separated from God’s holiness, or complete transcendent otherness.
Enter the roles of Creator, Priest, Judge and King.
Where the first four roles we explored show us God’s immanence, power, goodness and love, so these next four roles will explore God’s sovereignty, righteousness, purity, and transcendence. God indeed dwells within our hearts, closer than our very breath, and yet this same God breathed life into us and into all of creation before time began.
If we’re not careful, these transcendent roles become secondary because they are harder to relate too. We don’t like to be judged. We don’t feel like we need a priest. Kings are the stuff of fairy-tales and the Creator, well, he set the world into motion millennia ago so that work is complete. Or is it?
We only have to read a few chapters into Genesis before we see God’s perfect creation broken beyond recognition. We still bear the image of God, but it is marred by sin and hidden by shame.
“No more hiding,” God declares. “Behold, I am making all things new!” (Revelation 21:5)
So then, if anyone is in Christ, that person is part of the new creation. The old things have gone away, and look, new things have arrived!
2 Corinthians 5:17
God’s role as creator has not come to an end. The artist has not finished restoring his masterpiece. We are being re-created, day by day, moment by moment, until the image of God is fully and perfectly restored in us.
In what ways to you experience God as Creator in your life?
In what areas of your life is the image of God marred and broken? How do you feel about inviting God to restore and re-create those broken places?
How is God inviting you to participate in the work of re-creation and restoring the fullness of the Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven?
“You created all of them by your Spirit, and you give new life to the earth.” (Psalm 104:30)
