For The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue online Worship Theology course with Dan Wilt.
There is a God, one God, and he cares deeply for us. He created the universe that we live in and he created all things good. By definition, therefore, he is not contained by his creation, he is not bounded by space, time or any of the physical laws that govern our universe. He is, therefore, infinite, eternal and all powerful.
God is perfect in love, in holiness, in justice and in wisdom. He is sovereign, he rules over everything he created.
God is a person comprised of three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Each is distinct from the others yet each has being within the others, a mutual indwelling. God has perfect community in and of himself.
God created the universe because it is in his nature to do so. To create, out of nothing, the incredibly complex and breathtakingly beautiful natural order. To create a being with whom he can have relationship, a being who can join the circular dance of the trinity. To create a universe he will reign over in justice and love.
God remains intimately involved and present within his creation. He is unfathomable yet he has chosen to reveal himself to us insofar as we can know him. Our only appropriate response to this revelation is to worship him, to love him and to give our allegiance wholly to him.
We are made in god’s image. Our role is to establish the rule and reign of god by reflecting his glory into creation and articulating the clamorous praises of creation back to him. We have each been infused with something of the nature of god in that we are creative, we are relational and we have been invested with authority as rulers over creation.
In order to have meaningful relationship with us god created us with the freedom to choose whether or not to love him. Creation fell from perfection when man (and angels) chose not to love god. This introduced sin into our nature and thus separated us from god and has caused humankind to fall short of our identity and our purpose in the created order.
God will not step away from brokenness. Throughout history he has passionately pursued humankind to restore us to right relationship with him. He has yearned for a time when he can be our god and we can be his people. He has intervened and acted, both symbolically and actually, to rescue his people from bondage, slavery and exile. He has made covenant commitments that one day creation will be put right under his rule and reign, everything will be restored.
Jesus is the culmination of god’s rescue plan for humankind and for creation. God honoured all of his covenants with Israel through his son Jesus. God in his love, stepped into his creation, became man and died, sacrificially in our stead. In so doing he took the full wrath of God upon himself for our sin. Jesus is God himself bearing away his own penalty in himself. God has intervened and rescued us. He has made a new covenant with humankind based upon Jesus death and resurrection. By this covenant he has restored us to intimate relationship with him through Jesus’ sacrifice.
He has made his home with us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who is constantly at work within us transforming us, restoring us and leading us towards our proper place and role in creation.
Also, in Jesus heaven and earth came together, God’s future arrived in the present. As Jesus proclaimed, ‘the kingdom of God is near’ and then demonstrated through his resurrection on the third day – ‘the kingdom of God is here’.
God’s purpose is to restore all of creation, to put things right and to make all things new. This has been achieved through the cross but not yet actualised. God has chosen to act through us the church to bring about this restorative work. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to proclaim God’s kingdom through engaging in new creation acts such as healing the sick and being nice to our neighbours. To do this we need to engage with the people around us who are still sleeping and call them to wake up and become fully alive to what they were created to be. We need to be in our culture but not of our culture.
There will be a day when God’s rule and reign is established, new creation will be complete and we will see him face to face.
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