God created the cosmos from nothing.
God formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed life into him (Genesis 2:7, 21)
God established an innumerable host of angels to serve as His own eternal ministers of good (Hebrews 1:7)
God sustains the entire universe by the Word of His power (Hebrews 1:3)
While we praise God for His creative power and marvel that He is the divine originator of every physical thing in the cosmos, there is something more startling than that. His acts of creation are majestic, but the present creation is to be completely done away with at some predetermined point and replaced. There is another work which is accomplished by our Father that can never be undone, and will never need to be redone. I am speaking of His work of redemption. The Psalmist described it this way:
“He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap.” – Psalm 113:7
Our Father has (countless times over) stooped in grace at the pitiful, plaintive cry of some burdened soul in order to lift them to safety and hope. This is not some casual, random act of God but, rather, His chief demonstration of who He truly is. While the astounding display of the physical creation speaks clearly of His power, His commitment to redemption speaks to us of His infinite heart. This great God is a God of compassion, mercy, love and faithfulness. Does He thunder in righteous judgment? Yes, and He will again. Does He punish evildoing in His own time? Indeed, and all who have done evil and not received His forgiveness might well tremble. Will He ultimately purge all rebellion and sin by the foretold, not-yet-seen destruction? He must do so, for He has promised this. Yet when we look carefully at what He has said in His book we cannot deny that this God of the scriptures has welcomed any and all who will believe in Him to experience exemption from the coming judgement. He has promised a final justice, yet do not forget that He has offered a full pardon for any who will trust Him. There is no need to fear: the strong and mighty hand that will ultimately crash the last gavel is also the hand which presently raises the poor and lifts the needy.
Those who have experienced the lifting need never fear the extinguishing. Those who have been caught by grace must never doubt His power to finish what He began. Those who sense intermittent heart-struggles over how unfit they presently are for Heaven must resolve to remember that He will give the final death-blow to all that is presently lacking in them. He has not yet finished you, child of God. You are His work in progress. Redemption has begun for you, but you rightly sense that it is not yet completed in you. He has commenced with you, but not yet completed you. Today is a terrible day for you to despair over your incompleteness because it is premature for you to do so. It would be like agonizing over three o-clock because it is not fiveo’clock Wait for your Redeemer to show you His finished product. Until that moment comes, trust that His design includes a final coat of shine which cannot help but to be applied on your behalf – that shine will never fade, nor dim, nor corrupt. He loves you far too much to come up short, friend. Father is an Artist, and He never wearies of the canvas on His easel.