The God Class of Life

The psalmist rejoiced because God has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all. God is king and he intends to fulfill and accomplish everything he has ever purposed to do. He is not worried about the economy or climate change or swine flu or whether Iran is enriching uranium. He is not walking around in heaven with furrowed brow wringing his hands and wondering what to do. God has no “Plan B” to fall back on and he doesn’t need one. He already knows the end from the beginning and is prepared to protect and provide fully and completely for his children no matter what might happen.

When Adam sinned and seemingly ruined the divine plan, God was not caught off guard. Before creating man, before creating time, before creating eternity, when there was only, as Gene Edwards says it, the all of God, the Lamb was slain in the mind and heart of God. The cross was not “Plan B” to fix what the first Adam messed up. It was always God’s plan. The saints of the early church proclaimed that Herod and Pilate and the religious leaders gathered together to do against Christ what God had determined beforehand to be done—to crucify him on the cross. In the same way, God determined that Jesus would rise from the grave on the third day and because God is king and in control, all the power of Rome, of religion, and of the rebellion of sin could not keep him in the grave.

Do you get the picture? God is not worried. He takes whatever hand is dealt to him and turns it into a winning hand. He is the strategist of all strategists and he is the king of all kings. He never fails to work all things (even bad things) together for good and for the accomplishment of his eternal purposes.

Now this is the clincher. We have to believe. John 3:15 says that whoever believes in the Son of God has eternal life. Since only God is eternal (actually existing before eternity because eternity was in him before he was in it), then eternal life is God’s life. We have equated eternal life with heaven. That may be part of it, but eternal life is far more. It is God’s life now. John 3:36 says that whoever believes on the Son already has eternal life—even before going to heaven. Through faith we step into a new class of life: the God-class of life. And we can have it right now here on earth no matter what the circumstances are around us.

When we are worried we are obviously not experiencing God’s kind of life. We are worried because we do not believe the Son and are in that moment cut off from God’s life. But when we believe in the Son and the love of God that was demonstrated on the cross for our salvation, then in that moment of faith we see that our Father is in control. We then can rejoice in the adventure that awaits us as we watch our Father do his will on earth as it is done in heaven. Through faith we enjoy God’s life now and live in heaven’s reality even though we are on earth. This is salvation indeed.