Creation

The Bible tells us that God created everything that exists.
Before anything existed, God was there. He was always there.
It is impossible for us to grasp that God has no beginning. We are made by Him, we should not think we know more or know it better than He Who created us.

God created the heavens and the earth.
God created it all out of nothing. God created all matter.
We read in the Bible, in Genesis 1:1-2 : In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep.
Then God started to make everything out of this matter. In six days He created order in the formless matter and He filled the earth with its creatures.
On the last day, when the earth was ready and complete, God created the human beings, Adam and Eve, and gave them the task to rule over this creation.
They received the mandate to work in this creation and develop it, and by so doing to enjoy God’s beautiful creation and glorify God.
At the same time, they were to live with God in a relationship of love. God came to them and spoke to them, and He told them to love Him with all their heart and soul and mind.

The purpose of the life of mankind was that they should use God’s creation in such a way that they would honour God with it.

 

Sin

However, it didn’t take long for mankind to become arrogant. While looking around in God’s wonderful creation and going to work in it, they discovered that instead of using it all to the glory of God, they could just as well go on their own ways and use it all for their own greed and selfishness. And it was Satan who tempted them to do so. Satan was an angel, created by God, but Satan also was not satisfied with his own position and rebelled against God. He took many of the angels with him and they became demons: enemies of God.
Satan came to this earth and when he saw Adam and Eve working in God’s beautiful creation, he wanted them to become his allies and fight with him against God. So he tempted them to sin, and Adam and Eve in their foolishness and greed thought that it sounded nice, to keep everything for themselves instead of using it to honour God. They wanted to be their own god and they also rebelled against God.

God had warned them beforehand already, that they could not be like God. God made it clear to them that they were created to live with Him in a relationship, and if they would do differently, they would not be able to continue to live. If they would disobey God and turn against Him, then they would surely die.
That is what happened. When Adam and Eve decided to go on their own ways and listened to Satan, and they disobeyed God, then death came into this creation. Adam as the head of the entire mankind, declared war on God, and as a result he plunged himself and all his descendants, the entire mankind, in deep misery. It is through this disobedience of Adam and Eve, that mankind is corrupt, evil, and not able anymore to develop this creation to the glory of God. We read about this in the Bible, in Romans 3:11-12 : “There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
That is indeed how it is. Not one of us is able to good, leave alone to restore this creation and redeem it from the eternal curse. If God would not come with a solution for this, then that would mean that mankind and this entire creation would end up in eternal suffering and death.
Eternal death does not mean that we cease to exist, but eternal death means that everything that is good and all love will be removed from this life and it will only be misery. The most miserable misery you can imagine.

 

Salvation

God did not want it to end this way. God did not want to destroy His beautiful creation and He did not want mankind to die eternal death. Therefore God made a plan to redeem mankind from eternal misery.
However, God is just and God cannot and will not change His mind. When God said that on the day that mankind sinned against Him they would surely die, then He spoke the truth. Therefore, in order to redeem mankind from eternal death, God had to reverse the curse that came into this creation through the sin of mankind. God cannot do as if sin did not happen, because then God would go against what He first said. That would be totally impossible, because then God would not be God anymore. That goes against God’s entire being.
The only way to reverse the curse is that mankind had to pay for its sin, by first dying eternal death and then defeating eternal death. The power of eternal death and misery must be broken by mankind itself, and mankind must still fulfill the mandate which it received with its creation.
No human being would ever be able to first die eternal death and then defeat eternal death. The power of death is too great for mankind. But God decided that His own Son would become a human being and as human being He would do what no one of mankind was ever able to do: He died eternal death and then He defeated eternal death and rose from the dead. He came to life again and now we will receive with Him this new life, this eternal life.

The Bible tells us in the Old Testament, which is the first part of the Bible, how God prepared everything so that His Son could come on this earth as a human being. It was a long way, with His people Israel. A way which showed time and again how weak and sinful mankind was. The Old Testament tells us about the unfaithfulness of God’s own people. Even after God called them by name and revealed Himself to them, they still didn’t want to believe Him and went on their own ways. This makes it abundantly clear to us, that there is no other way to salvation than through God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who became human and as human took away the curse over our sins and redeemed us as God’s people.

War

However, after Christ defeated eternal death and made it possible for mankind to receive salvation, mankind did not want to believe it and continued on their own ways. Therefore Jesus Christ Himself had to go and preach to mankind that there is salvation only through Him. He made a number of disciples, and instructed them and told them to believe in Him. And when He returned to heaven, He told them to go out into the world and proclaim to the entire world that Jesus Christ is the only Saviour and only by believing Him, there is salvation and there is new, eternal life possible.
The disciples went out into the world and preached this wonderful message of salvation. Many believed and became followers of Christ. However, there were also many who resisted this preaching and did not want to believe it. Because it told them not to put their trust in themselves and not to follow their own desires, but to turn to Jesus Christ and repent from their disobedience to God and from their sins. Several of them even actively try to hinder the preaching of this wonderful gospel, because they see it as a threat to their lifestyle. And behind that we see Satan working again, who does not want us to return to God, but wants us to remain at his side and continue to destroy what God had so beautifully made.

 

New Creation

The Bible ends with the promise that this war will not continue forever. It will come to an end and Satan will be defeated. All those who did not repent from their sinful life will be defeated with him. And then God will make all things new. All those who believed Christ will become perfect and receive eternal life. The whole creation will be made new and we will live with God and with Christ and with each other in a beautiful relationship of perfect love for ever.