When God Wills to be God :: Genesis 1:1-2:3

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In the name of Jesus. Amen.

In the beginning, when God spoke, he said, “Let there be Light,” and there was Light (Gen 1:3). The Word of God brings Light. To hear the Word of God is to be enlightened. The Word of God enlightens you in The Faith. This Faith, the Faith, because there is only one Faith, comes through hearing, and hearing through the Word of God. ... The Word ... The Light ... The Faith. That is how it was in the beginning, for that is how God does what he does when God wills to be God for another. 

In the beginning, when God spoke, he said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Gen 1:26). Through the Word and the Spirit, God spoke man into being. YHWH Elohim ... the Lord God, if you prefer ... formed the man of dust from the soil and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being (Gen 2:7). ... The Word ... The Breath ... The Life. That is how it was in the beginning, for that is how God does what he does when God wills to be God for man.

1.

This man ... enlightened by the Light of The Light from Light, and who shares God’s breath ... was placed in Paradise. He was next to God, and he was destined to live in the Light with God ... happy and full of gladness and according to the holiness given when God breathes his Holy Breath. Is it any wonder Jesus later said, Amen, Amen, I say to you, whoever hears My Word and has Faith in the One who Sent Me has eternal life (Jn 5:24).

But man allowed himself to be deceived by the adversarial Lord of darkness and death, and he assented to knowing evil. Man turned toward darkness, surrendering the Light of Life, giving up the Breath ... the Life ... the Faith. Elected for immortality, man, who had been destined to be an eternal companion of God, chose instead mortality. He chose the Enemy ... the Lie ... the adversary. He scorned the Author of his own life. He paid homage to his own destruction ... and he began worshiping the bloody assassin of humankind! Man, as it were, bent the knee to the charming kiss of sin! 

2.

In so doing, man fell from Light to Darkness ... from holiness to sin ... from Life to Death. 

This is what happens when men and women speak their own Word in an effort to create their own beginning ... their own tradition ... and to know something they think would be better than good. While they thought it looked like a good idea, Saint Paul reminds us in Romans that: Asserting to be wise, they became fools, and they changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an icon. ... They exchanged the truth about God [for] the lie ... They worshiped and served the creature [rather than] the Creator (Rm 1:22–23, 25).

And so, man ... that man ... the arrogant man ... your man and my man ... the prideful man ... the deceived man ... the Old Adam has been dying and returning to the earth ... dust to dust (Gen 3:15). As though he lives in perpetual darkness, man gives to his children the inheritance of his own fallen nature ... the gift of darkness and death and dust ... faithlessness.

And you ... O Hearer ... Are you but a spectator in the audience of this play? 

Are you not also an actor on this stage? 

You might wonder and inquire, What is the evidence that we are the children of That Man ... the inheritor of that dark and that hopeless existence? 

Well, here is the proof, O Sinner 

... We prefer pride over humility; 

... We prefer promiscuity over chastity; 

... We hold grudges instead of sharing peace;

... We submit to slavery instead of freedom; 

... We protect death instead of preserving life; 

We set ourselves above God;

... We hurt instead of help; 

... We hate instead of love; 

... We rob instead of give. 

... We destroy instead of save; 

... We divide instead of unite.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, when nature becomes unnatural ... when the world embraces sexual unions outside of marriage and trades the natural power of creation for the neutrality of sterility and barrenness ... when all of humanity is seen in the ancient and sad Egyptians ... we are ... each of us ... one of the firstborn of Egypt, overshadowed by the cold hand of death.

So it is when God is ... ... ... s.i.l.e.n.t.. 

3.

But oh, the Marvel of hearing God’s Word!

AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING, WHEN GOD WILLS TO BE GOD, HE SPEAKS INTO THE DARKNESS, HE BRINGS ORDER OUT OF CHAOS, AND LIGHT THAT ENLIVENS

4.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … And the Word became flesh, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth (Jn 1:1, 14). This Word is the Light and the Life. This Word gives man the Breath. ... [This Word is] the true light that gives light to all men.

This Word of Light is The True Man who the True God willed to be ... The Only God who is enfleshed. He is the Word who speaks and enlightens ... who speaks and expands ... who speaks and gathers ... who speaks and sprouts ... who speaks and brings forth life in the water and in the air and on the earth. This is the Word who speaks and creates life in his image, in his likeness ... and gave us dominion over all the earth (Gen 1:26). All things have happened through him, and without him nothing has happened that has happened (Jn 1:3). He is God.

5.

Although we didn’t see it coming, this is now the day the Word has made. When God’s presence took the form of man ... [doing] nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility [counting] others more significant, emptying himself, and taking the form of a slave, born in the likeness of men ... he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death of the cross (Php 2:3, 6-8). For that is how God does what he does when God wills to be God for man.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, lest there be any doubt among us ... it is precisely because the Word of God in the Flesh ... the Word of God who enlightens and enlivens men ... the Word of God who is God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, Begotten not Made ... He Himself died on a cross ... for you. That’s right, God died on a cross for you. Then ... the Word of God, who is God, emerged from the empty tomb to ... Let [his] light shine before others, so that they may see [his[ good works and give glory to [our] Father who is in heaven (Mt 5:16). For that is what God wills to do as he saves ... even you.

The Word Made Flesh paid the penalty for sin that you could not pay. He allowed God to show mercy and justice through the Word in action. In the cross God glorifies his compassion. Whereas you deserve death for ignoring your sin, iniquity, and transgression ... trying to hide it in the darkness of your life ... Jesus stood in your place, letting his light shine forth. 

He was and is sinless ... the Light of the World. He was and is holy. He was and is the Righteous One ... the Lamb of God who willed to take away the sin of the world. For that is what God does when he wills to be God for another. And now the angels are still singing about it, saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace (Lk 2:14) ... 

He is not dead! .... He is risen! ... He is risen indeed! ... Hallelujah!

God who wills to be God has brought order out of chaos and light that enlivens. 

Now in Christ we see the Wisdom of God because in Jesus the Father creates man anew. ... Now we see the Power of God, because through his Spirit, Jesus preserves us in faith. ... Now we see the Truth of God, because Jesus is the image of the Father, full of grace and truth. ... Now we see the Righteousness of God, because by his passion and death he provides sinners with the forgiveness of sins. ... Now we see the Redemption of God, because by his blood he has atoned for the whole world. ... Now we see the Sanctification of God because Jesus is the Destroyer of sin, making us holy just as he is holy. ... Now we see the Resurrection of God, because Jesus brings those wrapped in death to be clothed anew with the white robe of a sanctified flesh. ... And we see that the Marriage Feast of the Lamb in his Kingdom truly has no end! For that is what God continues to do as he wills to be your own!

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them. And God blessed them. 

And he has blessed you. Because it is finished in accordance with God’s will! 

6.

That is what one sees when God speaks and we hear, and in hearing receive Light, and in receiving Light, we see and know that God wills to be our God ... In Jesus’ name. Amen!

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