(In 2017, I wrote this series for the 40 days prior to Easter to prepare our hearts and minds for the significance of Jesus’ resurrection.  I’m reposting the series now for the 40 days after Easter to encourage us to follow through, living in the risen Savior and King.)

If you’ve been following this series over the past several days, you know that we’ve been looking at images of Christ in the creation week. I hope that the pieces of the puzzle are beginning to come together for you. For when we have a clearer understanding of our Lord and His plan for His people from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, we will have a more informed faith to guide and encourage our prayer and our obedience to Him, and we can rest in His work even when we don’t see the immediate results.

If this is your first time joining us, you can view a seven-minute summary video of all eight principles in the Introduction to the eight “P”s of the gospel.

As I’ve been meditating and praying over the first several chapters of Genesis for years, the following seems to be another way of summarizing what we see in this graphic blueprint of the gospel:

The first three days of creation picture the “how” of the gospel. Jesus brings Life by His gracious presence, His spiritual protection and His abundant provision. He comes, rescues and blesses.

The fourth day of creation pictures the “what” of the gospel. Jesus calls us and enables us have an increasingly intimate relationship with God through His specific works on our behalf. He is our rest (Sabbath), our ransom (Passover), our purity (Unleavened Bread), our promise of new life (First fruits), our growth as His people (Weeks/Pentecost), our returning King (Trumpets), our final security (Atonement), our complete sufficiency (Tabernacles) and our final home (Eighth day celebration).

The fifth day of creation pictures the “where” of the gospel. Jesus sends us to live His love in dangerous and undeserving places.

The sixth day of creation pictures the “who” of the gospel. Jesus created us to live in His image as Prophet, Priest and King. Respectively, we are to live the Word, worship and work of Christ for the head, heart and hands: the whole gospel to the whole person.

And, although God didn’t create anything after the sixth day, He clearly intended us to understand the Sabbath as one of the foundational pieces of the gospel. For the seventh day pictures the “why” of the gospel. Jesus secures our eternal life and joy by following Him in faith for His glory, not seeking our own way for our glory.

Consider the following brief video.

This day of creation demands that we choose at the fork in the road: to cling to God and follow Him by faith to experience all of His glory or to blaze our own trail to build our own reputations. So here’s a few questions to prompt your discussion and prayer.

What will you or I choose today, childlike faith and obedience or a maverick spirit of independence?

How would our closest friends describe us, as changed people who truly seek the Lord’s will and glory or stubborn people who seek our own?

What are some of the lures that mislead us to trust in knowledge more than faith, to act independently more than dependently, and to seek immediate partial gratification more than waiting on our perfect Lord?

How does the life of following Jesus by faith for His glory paradoxically provide the greatest joy, confidence and maturity?

I pray that this mini-series within the 40-day series had been helpful to you. I know it’s been much deeper and possibly more difficult to follow, but isn’t a deeper understanding of our Lord worth the work?

Remember, one of the Lord’s recurring themes in His Word is the call to bear fruit. Building on that metaphor, I strongly encourage us to root ourselves more deeply in Christ every day – not just in our minds, but in our spirits and relationships, too. (Psalm 1, Matthew 13:3-9 and 18-23, Colossians 2:6-9, etc.)

And He will bless us as we do.

If you’d like to know more about who publishes the articles, videos, and other materials on tools4trenches, you can click on the picture of me and my wife.