Compelling Love

In his book, “Creation’s Heartbeat”, Dr. Yonathan Fass analyzes with great depth the first four Hebrew words in Genesis 1:1  including some twenty words that are included in those first sixteen letters. He writes on page 165:

The entry code to the Bible declares that the heartbeat of creation is the Creator’s loving kindness expressed through sacrifice to make relationship. All that follows can be read – is to be searched and understood – in this light. Here is where God is to be found.

Continuing on page 166, he writes,

A severe dilemma is posed by the first verse in the Bible. When unpacked, these same few words provide a profound resolution. The overwhelming themes are the divide between Creator and creation and how the Creator bridges this gulf and maintains relationship with His creation through covenant sacrifice. To understand these two themes and their outworking in history is to understand God’s heartbeat for His creation and thus creation’s heartbeat for Him. That is why the entry code is contained within the Bible’s description of the first creative act. The heartbeat is the Messiah who provides the bridge. To discover that heartbeat is to discover who we are.

The covenant sacrifice comes not from creation but from God.
If we come upon corruption and destitution and murder, they come from us, not from God. The Messiah takes all that on himself. This taking on is the purpose and cost of the sacrifice. God’s loss is great. Our own failures, mistakes and terrors, however great, are taken out of the way – swallowed up – if we will permit that.

“Come now and let us reason together” says the Lord.
“Though your sins are as red as scarlet, they will be as white as snow.”
Isaiah 1:18

Through this, kinship with Him becomes possible.

The good news of God’s salvation made possible through the Messiah is further proclaimed in Isaiah 52:

7 How beautiful upon the mountains
Are the feet of him who brings good news,
Who proclaims peace,
Who brings glad tidings of good things,
Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”
13 Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently;
He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high.
14 Just as many were astonished at you,
So His visage was marred more than any man,
And His form more than the sons of men;
15 So shall He startle many nations.
Kings shall shut their mouths at Him;
For what had not been told them they shall see,
And what they had not heard they shall consider.

The loving kindness of God expressed through the Messiah is further
described in Isaiah 53:

1 Who has believed our report?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant,
And as a root out of dry ground.
He has no form or comeliness; and when we see Him,
There is no beauty that we should desire Him.
3 He is despised and rejected by men,
A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him;
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs
And carried our sorrows;
Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

The Salvation of the Lord is for all peoples, as declared in Psalm 96:

1 Oh, sing to the Lord a new song!
Sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, bless His name;
Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.
3 Declare His glory among the nations,
His wonders among all peoples.

7 Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
Give to the Lord glory and strength.
8 Give to the Lord the glory due His name;
Bring an offering, and come into His courts.
9 Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!
Tremble before Him, all the earth.

Jesus Christ, Yeshua the Messiah, declares God’s loving kindness in John 3:16:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

The fitting response to this ultimate loving sacrifice of God is described in
2 Corinthians 5:

14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

Paul adds in Romans 12:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

By giving ourselves to God wholeheartedly through the Savior He has sent, we will be fruitful and our tears will be turned to joy, as described in Psalm 126:

1 When the Lord brought back the captivity of Zion,
We were like those who dream.
2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing.
Then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
3 The Lord has done great things for us, And we are glad.
4 Bring back our captivity, O Lord,
As the streams in the South.
5 Those who sow in tears
Shall reap in joy.
6 He who continually goes forth weeping,
Bearing seed for sowing,
Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
Bringing his sheaves with him.

David Krause, dhkrause@neteze.com, 5/17/2012