It Was Very Good!

If I’m looking for something beautiful and majestic, what better than a holiday to the countryside or mountains? You can’t go far wrong in the majestic stakes if you’re driving through a mountainous area, looking up at those huge, rocky protrusions all around you. Or pausing for a view over vast, lush green hillsides – oh, yes, and don’t forget the lakes! My heart’s already getting excited at the thought of it! It feels like these are the crowning glory of all earthly creation! Only they are not! I realized this mistake as Genesis 1:31 hit me, “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good”. Whatever your Christian view of Creation, God saw it was good until He made man in His image - only then was it “very good”.

Now this is a bit of a shock, really. When I look at humanity I don’t see “very good”. I pretty much see the opposite. I don’t see the crowning glory of Creation, I see a mess – sometimes a very nasty mess. This may be partly the fault of news organizations, which highlight the mess rather than the good. Or maybe they’re showing Psalm 14:1-3 in action: “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.”

“Original sin” is at work here, the result of an act of disobedience towards God which had the consequence of spoiling everything. But what of the lesser known concept of “original goodness”. Humanity was made (very) good – in the image of the Good God. That being-made-in-God’s-image is what sets us apart from the rest of the majestic creation. Perhaps less “apart” as “above”?

Turns out I’m not the first to have such ideas:

“Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

…When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them?

You have made them a little lower than the angels
    and crowned them with glory and honour.
You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
    you put everything under their feet:
all flocks and herds,
    and the animals of the wild,
the birds in the sky,
    and the fish in the sea,
    all that swim the paths of the seas.

Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

(Psalm 8)

So, what happened when it all went wrong? If I were God I’d probably have torn it up and started afresh. But no! He already had a plan. To restore Original Goodness by sending a perfect Redeemer who would die for our disobedience. That was His Son, Jesus. Jesus was no reluctant sacrifice. He wanted to do it. Why? Love. Love for His Father, desiring a holy people for His Name. And love for us. Not wanting us to perish, to die in a state of disobedience.

This is cause for great happiness and will end in ultimate happiness. Let these words of Jesus from John 15:9 sink in – “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.” The love which Jesus has for us is the same love the Father has for Jesus!