Christian Living

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The Blank Page

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth...Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. Genesis 1:1, 26 AMP

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:1-4, 14 NASB

When you open a book to the page where the author’s message begins, you probably don’t pay any attention to the blank page before that first written page. It’s blank. There’s nothing to read. It’s dull. It serves no purpose and usually just separates the preliminary sections (the publisher’s information, the table of contents, the preface, etc.) from that first informational page.

But there’s a particular blank page in a particular book that recently caught my attention, and what’s more, I wasn’t even reading the book at the time!

On that particular day I was thinking about how God created us, how He made us in His image, in His likeness. I thought about how Adam and Eve’s disobedience to the ONLY commandment that God had given them had caused every human being to be born with a sinful nature, and how we have all sinned and separated ourselves from God and His glory (See Romans 3:23). I was about to mention to God that it’s not really fair for people to be born in this separated state. We’re born innocent enough, but within a couple of years our inbred selfish nature takes over and we’re off! We’re sinners before we even know what sin is or how to avoid it. We separate ourselves from God before we even understand the consequences! I thought, “how is that our fault, God?” “What choice do we have, other than to be sinners in need of a savior?”

It was then that God told me to consider the blank page before Genesis chapter 1.

If you open a Holy Bible to the book of Genesis, you’ll notice that the first verse begins, logically enough, with “In the beginning, God…,” and that’s probably something that you’ve known for a long time. But have you considered the blank page before the first page of Genesis?

Hold your place on that blank page and let’s go to the end of the Bible to Revelation 13:8, where you’ll see the phrase “lamb slain before the foundation of the world” (NKJV). That lamb, of course, is Jesus, the sinless Son of God. “Before the foundation of the earth,” of course, occurred on that BLANK PAGE!

I had my answer, and it had been in almost every Bible I’ve ever opened. Before “In the beginning” there was the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. When God the Father decided to create this earth, He did so with the intention of creating human beings. He created us perfect, blameless and glorious, in His image, in His likeness and with His authority (See Genesis 1:26-28 NKJV). He intended for us to remain that way. He intended for us to walk in His authority, but He never intended to force us to do so. He intended for us to resist the temptation of the serpent in the Garden of Eden, but He would never force us to do so. God did not want non-thinking robots. He has a will; he created each of us with a will and the choice to use it as He uses His.

Adam and Eve used their will to believe the lies of the serpent over the truths that God had told them (See Genesis 3). And God knew it would happen. He knew that when Adam & Eve disobeyed, they would be spiritually dead, and that once death, through sin, had entered the human bloodline, it was there to stay.

So before He created the stars, the planets, the earth, before He separated day from night or water from dry land, before He caused one animal to swim or fly or walk, and before He molded Adam from the dirt and breathed life into his lungs, God saved us from every sin, from every sickness, from every form of poverty, from every form of evil. Somewhere, before time, before the beginning, on that blank page, God the Son gave Himself for our sin. He became a pure, spotless, sinless sacrifice.

God the Father and God the Son looked ahead through more than 42 generations of our sins and mistakes, our selfishness and malevolence, and chose a point in time where a 33 year-old man called Jesus of Nazareth would allow himself to be arrested on trumped-up charges, subjected to an illegal trial, severely beaten & deprived of any humane treatment, subjected to shameful public display, and nailed to & hung on a splintered cross until dead.

And if that’s all that had happened, it wouldn’t mean much to us eternity-wise.

But that’s NOT all – because also on that Blank Page, the Father and the Son saw that Jesus would walk out of His tomb, show Himself to his followers, and then ascend to the heavens - and He Did! To this day, Jesus the Son remains seated at the Father’s right hand, and He is proof to the Father that those who believe in Him are without sin, blameless and righteous (See Hebrews 1:3, 1:13, 8:1, 10:12, 12:2 NKJV).

If you believe in the divinity and the death and resurrection of Jesus, you are re-instated to your previous, glorious position. God sees you as you were before you ever sinned. You may not feel glorious, and sin will sometimes still be a problem, but the God who forgave your sin on the blank page of His Word gives you a blank page and starts you at a new beginning (2 Corinthians 5:17).

If this is new to you, please don’t feel overwhelmed or discouraged if you don’t understand it all at once. Few people understand much at first. I was 45 when God gave me the message about the Blank Page, but I’ve been a born again Christian since age 12!

But if you see your need for a savior, if you want to be free from sin, if you want to KNOW that your eternal future is secured, and that if today should be your last day on earth, then tomorrow will be your first day in heaven, then pray this:

“God, I believe that Jesus is Your Perfect Son.
I believe He died for my sins and to make me completely free.
I believe that Jesus rose from the grave and that
He is alive with you today.
I may not understand all of this right now, but
I know in my heart that my sins are forgiven.
I know that You love me with an everlasting love and that
You want me to live with You forever.
Thank You, Father, for loving me enough to save me.
Fill me with Your Holy Spirit! Help me to learn more about you!
Thank You, Jesus, for what
You did for me before the earth was made. Amen.”

So, what’s next?

You have just assured your eternal future, and the angels in heaven are throwing some kind of party in your honor!!!

If you don’t have a Bible, by all means please get one. It is God’s love letter to you. It is the Word of God and will help you understand this new beginning and all of God’s promises for you.

If you don’t have a church home, find a good, Bible-believing church. You don’t have to join the first one you come to. Find one that is friendly and welcoming, but that also believes the whole Word of God.

Listen to the people you associate with at work or school. Ask God to show you who is a born again believer and who is not. Be friendly and loving to everyone, but I suggest you spend as much time as you can with those who God shows you are truly born again, because they will help you understand this new, wonderful life and help you grow in God’s love.

Congratulations, and God bless you!!!

Adapted from the author's website at http://www.seedwords.com/pages.asp?pageid=70539

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