It’s worth taking some time to look at what we know about the creation and what the Bible tells us about where it’s going. What really is real and what is not. What is lasting and what is temporary.
In the beginning God created a physical infrastructure in order to create a family in His image and likeness. That creation is 13.8 billion years old, and two of the four main forces at work are gravity and electromagnetism. Gravity is very weak and needs a lot of mass, rocks, molten iron, etc., the size of the planet, to attract smaller mass, such as human beings. Electromagnetism, on the other hand, is very strong. It’s the force that holds atoms and molecules together. But it can’t be so strong that it influences gravity because we would then float out into space. These are very specific forces, created within a specific time frame so that God’s human creation could thrive in an environment designed to support a life form made in His image. Without that specificity there would be no image, no likeness.
More importantly, it’s not just our outward appearance that’s made in God’s image and likeness, but our brain in which our character and personality are housed. It’s where the spirit in man gives us consciousness, and where God’s spirit can come into play and begin to improve our character.
So, if we’re created in His image and likeness, what is God’s image? Through Scripture we know that God is love (1 John 4:8), and that love is a character trait. Our Creator, our Father, built this entire universe so that He could create His family likeness. His holy, righteous character.
Yet even the spiritual creation is sometimes expressed in physical terms. In Ezekiel 28:12-13, Lucifer’s music is described as a pipe, a wind instrument, but God on His spiritual level of existence doesn’t need wind. Likewise, the garments of Lucifer, before his rebellion are described in physical human terms, jewels and precious gems.
God is working on a very different level and mindset than we are. The physics behind the spirit in man and consciousness is an unknown for us, a little bit like wind instruments in heaven or in outer space. How consciousness works is a big mystery to science. A lot of money goes into research, but with few conclusions. But it’s not a mystery to us. We understand what science does not. Science is looking for the what, but we already know the why.
We are developing a spiritual relationship with our Creator because the physical is going to draw to a close. It will reach the end of its usefulness according to God’s timing. The book of Zephaniah provides a description of what will happen to the physical creation: “Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured…,” (Zephaniah 1:18).
Man relies on money, on gold, as the solution to so many problems. But it isn’t working. Right now Satan can use the physical things to tempt us to wander away, to do anything except our created purpose, and that is to have a relationship with God. But eventually, that will end, and the physical will no longer serve God’s purpose. It will roll “up like a scroll…” as God inspired Isaiah to record it in Isaiah 34:4.
We live in this physical world, but we don’t want to lose track of what is real. That is key. This life is not about the physical. It’s about our minds, and the character we build during our physical life. This life is about choosing everlasting life and becoming a living example of that way now, teaching it in the future, and living it for all eternity. Because, in the end, character is all that’s left.
Ben Orchard