This is the fourth post in a series of communion mediations working through the Apostles’ Creed. You can read the creed here, and the first three installments here, here, and here.
When we confess God as “Maker of Heaven and Earth”, we echo the words of Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” This is a proper place for the biblical story to begin on any number of levels. Here is one: beginning the biblical story with God’s act of creation introduces, right at the beginning, the crucial distinction between Creator and created. God makes. All else is made.
This makes, two chapters later, the rebellion of Adam and Eve all the more heinous and foolish. And for thousands of years hence, human rebellion against God continues to be both a heinous crime against the Creator, and folly of the highest level. Who are we—weak, small, and dependent creatures—to think we have the right to rebel against our Creator? How could we possibly think that we will get away with rebellion against the Almighty?
God the Maker does not need us. He is not dependent upon us. He does not owe us life, or breath, or salvation. We are nothing compared to him.
And yet, while we are nothing compared to him, we are not nothing to him. Being rich in mercy, he loves us with a great love. And so the Father, Maker of heaven and earth, sent the Son—through whom he created all things (John 1:3)—into this world to make purification for our sins (Hebrews 1:3) and to reconcile all things to himself by his holy blood (Colossians 1:20).
Jesus, through his perfect life and atoning death, was on a mission to bring rebels like you and me back to our Creator. If you will acknowledge your status as a rebel and receive the free gift of salvation through Jesus’ death and resurrection in your place, you will be transferred from the kingdom of rebellion and darkness and death into the kingdom of light - the kingdom of the Beloved Son of God the Father. The kingdom where the Creator is known, loved, and worshipped for who he is.
At the table, we celebrate the common union of all those saved by Jesus: because of the cross, we can now gladly embrace our role as God’s creatures, as children who receive all good things from him.
Lacking Cheerleaders
The following quote is from an article I wrote back in the day for an ezine called Genuine Motivation:
I want to do two things with this article, but first I want to make clear what I do not intend to do. I do not want to puff up Christians with some sense that because they are on the hard road, they are superior to anyone else. Nothing could be further from the truth. Paul says in Philippians to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Why? Because God is the one working in you, both to desire His pleasure, and to work towards it. It is not something innately great about us that enables us to walk the hard and rewarding road to life. It is the Spirit of God at work. This should not puff us up, but rather it should humble us and make us thankful that God would have mercy on us.
You can read the rest of the piece here.