Creator, Father, King #20

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

STARTING TOMORROW, WE WILL transition from our opening study of God’s character and attributes to an exploration of God’s creation of the universe. But first, we have a big question to tackle: What was God doing before he created everything?

Have you ever considered this? It’s a fascinating question to ponder. After all, the triune God is eternal, so the Father, Son, and Spirit existed infinitely before the fixed point in time when they decided to bring the cosmos into being with powerful words, as described in Genesis 1.

Theologians call the pre-creation period “eternity past.” The Bible leaves much of eternity past an unexplained mystery, yet there are Scripture passages here and there that hint at God’s activities.

The brief glimpses we get are amazing.

What’s It Mean?

In Jesus’ prayer of John 17, he twice refers to the glorious fellowship that the Father and Son (and by implication, the Spirit) shared in eternity past:

• Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began. (verse 5)
• Then they can see all the glory you gave me because you loved me even before the world began. (verse 24)

Jesus gives us an incredible peek into his preincarnate relationship with God the Father and the mutual love and glory they shared before the eternal Son took on human form to die for our sins. But wait, there’s more!

Look at today’s verse. Before God laid the foundations of the earth, he was designing his great plan of salvation for humanity. More specifically, he “chose” everyone who would be saved by grace through faith in his Son (Ephesians 2:8-9). In eternity past, God “predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will” (Ephesians 1:5, ESV).

Before he said, “Let there be light,” God was sovereignly pouring out love on his children—prior to anyone’s birth. Wrap your mind around that!

Now What?

For more of the Son’s preincarnate existence with the Father, read John 1:1-3.

Did You Know?

One of God’s names that speaks to his eternal nature is the Ancient of Days (Daniel 7:9, ESV).