The Rest of Creation

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work, which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work, which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work, which God had created and made. -Genesis 2:1-3

Six times God examines his creation and finds it good. The seventh time, he looks and finds it is especially good, “over the top” good. After this, God rests from ALL his work.

Hebrews 4 admonishes us to enter the rest of faith that receives life from Jesus instead of trying to take life for ourselves, as we did when we took from the Tree of Knowledge in Eden. Verse 3 tells us in even more decisive terms than Genesis 2 that, “all his works were finished from the foundation of the world.”

How can this be? How can God be finished working until now when so much seems to be being done and much more still needs to be accomplished? And how did the work of the cross and resurrection take place if it was not God’s work since he was done working?

May I suggest the power of goodness? When God created the cosmos and found it complete, not lacking in goodness, he created a day of rest called faith – but faith in what? Faith that God’s work had already passed the examination, that it was good and therefore could never end in misery and evil, but instead that good would gloriously overcome evil.

In creation, we not only find physical foundations or principles, but spiritual ones as well. The goodness of God was greatly manifest by creation from the beginning, and that very goodness is a living foundation that launched the history of the world into forward motion. It is likely that evil was already present at the time of the created world as we know it, and that creation was God’s response to evil’s presence. Humankind, fashioned in God’s image, was his emphatic “lid on the canning jar” in the war on evil.

The idea that arises here is that goodness is not static or impotent, but dominant and everlasting. When creation was completed, it set things in motion that only God understood. Even God’s beginning statement, “‘Let there be light,’ and there was light,” in Genesis 1:3 was a prophetic declaration (See also John 1:1-4). When God spoke these simple, profound words, Colossians 1:15 was set in motion: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” The purpose of God in Jesus Christ was born in that moment, and the pinnacle event of the cross was already certain (2Cor 4:6).

The strategy didn’t have to be as clear as the moves in a game of chess, though it may have been; it was logical from God’s perspective that Creation would move towards redemption. This is regardless of whether God had foreknowledge about the fall of humanity in Eden or not. With the simple words, “Let there be light,” God’s everlasting, omnipotent goodness travelled across the universe.

Not only was it clear that one day the cross, as God’s ultimate display of light (Acts 26:23), would make powers and principalities a public spectacle (Col. 2:15), but that God’s wisdom and goodness would be manifest through his people to the heavenly powers. (Eph. 3:10 & 1Cor. 4:9) Because of this, we who are rescued and claimed by the love of Jesus should stay motivated to walk in all godliness, knowing its tremendous reward. As Paul writes in Galatians 6:9, “Don’t lose your motivation in doing good, for at the appointed time we will gain a harvest if we don’t give up.”

The idea of potent goodness goes far beyond a ribbon or trophy concept, fulfilling for a short while, then forgotten on a shelf or in a box. What is promised is found in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15: works that are of gold, silver and precious stones are everlasting, while others of wood, hay and stubble, are crisped to nothing. What we do either counts or doesn’t count; there is no in-between. Our righteous acts are not a little blip on the screen. In the eternal scheme of things, they continue to be fruit bearing forever. True goodness bears eternal fruit, but evil can only bear death and must come to an end.

As the author of Hebrews 4:10 says, “For the one who has entered his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from His.” This word “rested” is in the aorist tense, an indicative mood denoting “a snapshot on a past time.” The rest we enter is God’s rest in Genesis 2 when he first paused in his own display of goodness. When he said, “Let there be light” it was really, “Let there be Light!” In one summary statement the Alpha and the Omega, the Author and the Finisher of our faith was born, died and resurrected, making a way of faith for a glorious bride (Heb 12:2, Rev. 22:13).

When God said, "Let there be light!" the full purpose of God was begotten in Jesus. It raced across the centuries, from the cross to the Resurrection. It wed a beautiful bride called the Church. The Word overcame every evil, displaying stunning love and amazing wisdom. The universe kissed His feet in bliss at the freedom of: “Let there be LIGHT!” That word has reached from the moment light first twinkled at the dawn of newborn stars and into your personal time and space...into your “here-and-now” in history.

Your existence and awareness of life, death, purpose and destiny is proof that the same word of goodness exists and is still at work. You serve and add beauty to what God has already established. You add value to the creation. You are part of God’s good works longed for since creation dawned. You are a branch growing out of the Tree of Life. You are part of its amazing, potent fruit. We all have a bright and glorious future because goodness has no expiration date: it will always bring amazing and permanent returns. Be at peace this day, and rest your heart in our Papa’s great goodness!