From the beginning...

It's Easter week - the time when Christians around the world reflect on the horror, majesty, and wonder of Christ's work on the cross for us. Truthfully, we [ought to] reflect on this every day of every week. The cross is central to the very notion of Christianity. But, Easter is a fitting, special season of reflection for those who know Christ.

I recently bought Logos Bible Software (which will be the subject of a future post) and set up a new 'reading plan' in there. Ironically or providentially, yesterday the following passages were on my list.

The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
cursed are you above all livestock
and above all beasts of the field;
on your belly you shall go,
and dust you shall eat
all the days of your life.
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.” (Ge 3:14-15, ESV)

This passage is referred to by some cool theologian-types as a 'protoevangelion', the first articulation of the Gospel message in Scripture. Here, within the first four pages of your Bible, is the notion that one would come and suffer injury in order to crush the power of the Enemy. Isn't that amazing? It's even more shocking when one considers that God was not shocked at this development. He wasn't improvising a response to some unforseen set of circumstances... "Oops! No how in the world am I going to fix this?"

Instead, the triune God was trumpeting the beginning of a redemptive work fashioned, for His own glory, before the universe was called into being.

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. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Eph 1:3-10, ESV)

The unfolding, and our understanding, of the plan of God takes place in time. We are finite beings who live our whole lives as bound by this strange, linear construct we call time. Days and minutes pass, we grow old, life waxes and wanes. When we look at Christ's atoning death, we see it as an event, a point in time, somewhere around 2000 years ago. And that's true... But God had purposed that moment of history in the unsearchable, eternal counsel of His will. Before Adam drew his first breath, the cross was planted on the horizon and the glorious end of human history was written.

Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. (1 Pe 1:10-12, ESV)

All through history, people who loved the Lord were watching, waiting, and crying out for salvation. The prophets all pointed to and heralded its coming over and over... But now we know. Now, by God's grace, we can see the glories of Christ in the Gospel - glories that astonish even the angels in the throne room of God.

On Easter, we join our voices with the choirs of Heaven as we extol the mystery, beauty, power, and wonder of the cross... The glory of the Son of God who ransomed sinners is not just for now. It was established before time, and will continue into eternity.

He is Risen!