Reading: Psalm 90; 1 Corinthians 15:44-49
God exists from eternity and to eternity. There is no limit. The eternal God decided within eternity, that it was good to create. God created the heavens and the earth.
The earth is created in the realm of time. The heavens are created in the realm of eternity. Nevertheless, even the eternity of heaven is not the complete eternity as God is eternal. God’s eternity surpasses the eternity of heaven. God is without limit. The heavens have their limits. The angels don’t know everything (see 1 Peter 1:12).
God, however, is from everlasting to everlasting (Psalm 90:2). God existed before anything was created. God is not created. God is and was and is to come.
The heavens are in the realm of eternity because there good is absolute and evil is absolute. When certain angels rejected God’s goodness and rebelled against God, they became absolute evil and there is no way for them to return to God. And angels who remained faithful to God, do not change either and will remain absolute faithful.
When we say that God is eternal, that doesn’t mean that God exists in eternity, as if eternity would be something greater than God. Eternity was also created by God, in the sense that the heavens are eternal. The eternal heavens were created by God. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The angels are eternal beings, nevertheless, they are created by God. Only the triune God surpasses eternity. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who is true God, also surpasses eternity, and by His divine power, He could conquer eternal death, which He died in His human nature. Thus He could bear in His human nature the burden of God’s wrath, and obtain for us and restore to us righteousness and live (Lord’s Day 6 of the Heidelberg Catechism).
In 1 Corinthians 15:44-49, Paul speaks about a natural body and a spiritual body. Now we live in a natural body. This body will die and it will be sown in the earth as a seed, like grain. And in the resurrection of the dead, a spiritual body will be raised. There Paul says that the first one, the natural body, is from the earth, made of dust. The second is from heaven.
Our natural body is mortal, it can die. Our spiritual body is eternal. It cannot die.
Key Text: Psalm 90 : 2: Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.
Meditation: God is from everlasting to everlasting. He is the Creator of everything. What does this tell us about God’s wisdom, compared to human wisdom? What does this tell us about the Bible compared to human philosophies? Whom do we trust?