By
David Watson
What does the
Bible say about God’s motive for creating us? He
made us to have fellowship with Him. "Then God said,
‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness ...
’ " (Genesis 1:26, NIV).
"Then
the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as
he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and
they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’
" (Genesis 3:8,9).
As the hymn
"In the Garden" says, "He walks with me,
and He talks with me, And He tells me I am His own."
What a high calling to be God’s friend — to
have fellowship with Him personally. He shows us insight
into His very nature by the way He created all things.
When He created the heaven and earth, He spoke them into
existence saying, " ‘Let there be light,’
and there was light" (Genesis 1:3). But when He came
to man, the Bible says, "He formed man from the dust
of the ground" (Genesis 2:7). In other words, by
this action He shows us His desire to have personal fellowship
with us. He touched us. He formed us with His love and
longed for us to love Him — not by forced love, but
by a genuine love. The result — He gave us a free
will.
The picture
is then developed further, "For God so loved the
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life" (John 3:16). First Timothy 2:3,4, also says,
"God our Savior … wants all men to be saved."
Here we see God’s desire from the very beginning
was that "none should perish." But we also see
that our friendship with God was to be genuine. There
is a choice between friendship with God or friendship
with the world.
So some might
say, "How then can a loving God send anyone to hell?"
The answer: God doesn’t send anyone to hell. People
choose where they will spend eternity. Others might say,
"Why did God make hell in the first place?"
Matthew 25:41 says, "Hell is prepared for the devil
and his angels."
God doesn’t
cause us to be saved or lost — we choose. His desire
from the very beginning was to be our friend — for
eternity in Minneapolis.
David
Watson, D.Min., former pastor of Central Assembly of God
in Springfield, Mo, is an instructor at North Central
Univeristy.
