Bonded with Christ; In the Beginning…

September 30

In our last time together, we talked about the vital importance of being eternally bonded with Christ – about making Him the central Figure of our lives.

I wanted to take the time to expand upon that thought – because it is more important than we tend to realize. Our bond with Jesus is at the core of everything that is truly Christian – and we need to understand and apply this truth in our lives…

  

To begin, I want to take you back to the beginning.

The Book of Genesis begins with this statement of fact: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” What we are not told, is the why?

But, as we read Genesis 1-2 a very interesting understanding emerges. God made everything, and then He Personally formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of Life (Genesis 2:7).

This is a picture of the Almighty imparting His Own life-essence (the God-Life, as we mentioned a few days ago) into His created being. Adam was unlike all the other created creatures. He was the focus of God’s attention. He was endowed with abilities that were just like his Creator. He was given a mind to reason, a will to choose and to act, and emotions to experience everything in the depths of his spirit. And he was given a task. A divine duty: to have “dominion” over all the earth (Genesis 1:26).

In short, God created the whole universe and placed man in charge over the whole earth. God gave him the capacity and the capability to rule… and placed the earth under his care and responsibility.

It was all designed to work like this… God, in constant communion and fellowship with man, would rule the earth through man. Human beings would be the embodiment of God’s purposes and will as they lived in unbroken relationship with their Creator. Instituting His will, through their daily lives.

So we have… connection. And communion. And relationship. Resulting in God working through man to accomplish His will on earth as it is desired from heaven.

So in this bond and connection, God and man worked in harmony to accomplish God’s purposes on this earth. From the outset, this appears to be God’s plan.

Then… sin enters the mix. The connection is lost. The communion is hindered. And man begins to lean upon his own devices. He is no longer centered in God’s will and purposes… he is seeking his own will and purposes.

Man, left to his own devices, becomes self-interested, self-consumed, self-serving. Deep within, he knows he should be more. He could be more. He has a gnawing need to reconnect with his Creator – but finds that reconnection so elusive. Man loses sight, almost completely, of what he was supposed to be – what he was supposed to do… what life is all about…

Until Jesus entered the scene.

The New Testament refers to Jesus as a manner of “second Adam,” (1 Cor. 15:45-49; Rom. 5:14-19) in part because Jesus is the revelation of what each of us was designed and created to be. When Jesus showed up, He showed us all what God, originally, had in Mind for each of us!

Jesus lived in harmony with the Father. He communed with Him. He was bonded with Him in eternal connection. He lived seeking the Father’s will in every situation. And everywhere He went, He brought the benevolent rule of the Creator to people whose lives had been ravaged by sin, calamity, infirmity and (even) death.

  

But the news gets better still.

Tomorrow, we’ll look more closely at what our own restoration/reconnection with God really means to us.

Prayer Focus: God, open the eyes of my heart to see the fullness of all You have done for me, to restore and reconnect me with You.

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