(Note: This article is based on the previous lesson(s). Please review these, if you have not already done so, before proceeding.)
God decided to do something utterly amazing and nearly unbelievable. Out of the overflowing love among the trinity, God decided that he would open himself up and bring another entity into the fellowship of the trinity! (Now to be clear, this other entity does not become God, but participates in the life and fellowship of God.) God will do this amazing act through Christ.
God’s ultimate plan is to find a bride for Christ, and to have a home country and a people who are his, where his will is done1. Because God is wholly good, his will is perfect. Therefore a land and people who follow his ways will bring him glory. Words can not describe how wonderful this place is. And the bride of Christ (singular) is the entity which God is bringing into the fellowship of the trinity.
Out of this desire and plan, God created the universe and everything in it, and it was good. Then God added something to it, something very special indeed. God created people “in his image”. Put another way, God created beings which, like God, were meant to be in relationships and had the ability to love. God declared that his creating was very good.
People would be God’s caretakers of creation. They would have close fellowship with him and partake in his life (through the tree of life). Out of their relationship with him, they would know how to care for creation as God intended. In other words, they would do his will on earth, there by bringing him glory. The earth was God’s land, God’s country, and mankind were his people.
People were God’s priests to creation. Not only did they participate in the life and love of God, but they also got to participate in his work fulfilling his plans. God chose to work through people, to interact with creation by means of his priests. In this way, people also shared in God’s glory.
What could be more wonderful than this? To share in God’s love, fellowship, work and even his glory? It is virtually incomprehensible. But that is God’s plan and the way he created us to be! “What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are.” (1 John 3:1).
Notes:
1 I recommend “From Eternity to Here” by Frank Viola as a book which explores God’s eternal plan.
