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God Loves His Creation, Deeply

God loves his creation. Not just human creation, but all of it. (That is argued below).
When you truly love someone else, then you would rather harm befell yourself than that it befell the beloved one. You are more concerned about insults directed at the beloved than insults directed at yourself.

(Christ died, because of that. "The insults directed at them fell on me.")
God's love is infinite (so to speak).
Therefore God is more concerned about harm and insults coming to his creation than harm and insults coming to himself.

(Insults to the creation? How can I insult a tree? By treating it as less than a tree, for example by thinking of it merely a raw material for my economic processes. Insults are not only verbal, but attitudinal.)
God therefore set up a hedge of Law to protect his beloved creation.
Going against this Law is not just an insult to God, but also leads to harm against what God loves.
We usually accept that, because of his power and authority, God will not tolerate insults against himself. We know that well, but we forget the more important truth ...
Because of his love for his creation, God will not tolerate harm and insults against it.
He will judge, and judge rightly.
We thus see, incidentally, that God's justice does not stem only from his authority, but more deeply from his love. His justice is designed to protect his creation.

God's justice is because of God's love,
not in spite of God's love

God pronounced his creation Good (Genesis 1, Psalm 8).
The whole creation will be part of Christ's inheritance at the end of time (Romans 8).
The whole creation rejoices in God (Psalm 104).
The whole creation groans because of human sin and evil (Romans 8).
The whole creation rejoices to see the 'sons of God', i.e. those humans who have matured sufficiently to have God's own attitude and heart (Romans 8).
God repeatedly showed he wanted us to act so as to preserve and keep non-human creation. (e.g. into the ark, e.g. last verse of Jonah)
God wanted the sabbath rest to apply not just to humans but also to animals (Leviticus 25)
"God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son" not just humanity. (John 3:16)
".. that whosoever believes in him shall have everlasting life" refers to the special place that humans have as keepers and stewards and 'gardeners' of God's creation. (John 3:16)

God made humans to represent God to the rest of creation. (Genesis 1, 2: Imago Dei)
Humans are to be shepherds of creation; (Genesis 1, c.t. Ezekiel 34)
So that the rest of creation could experience something of God through humans; (Romans 8)
When the natural world experiences God, it rejoices. (I Chronicles 16:32; Psalm 96:11; 98:7-8; Isaiah 55:12)
So should it not be that when the natural world experiences humans (image of God) it should also rejoice?

Does it rejoice? No, the earth is destroyed by us.
Destruction of the creation is because of our sin. (Hosea 4:2-3)
God will "destroy those who destroy the earth" (Revelation 11:18)
Yet God has opened a way by which human beings can return to God ... (John 3:16)
So in their innermost parts believers have their attitudes changed by the Spirit of God and become mature in Christ (Galatians 5:22-3; Ephesians 2:10; Ephesians 4:15)
And this is why "The creation waits with eager longing for the (mature) sons of God to be revealed." (Romans 8:19)
And THAT is God's plan of love to the beloved creation.

This page, "http://www.abxn.org/beloved.creation.html", is offered to God as on-going work. Comments, queries welcome.

Part of his www.abxn.org pages, that open up discussion and exploration from a Christian ('xn') perspective. Written on the Amiga with Protext.

Created: 5 November 1998. Last updated: 11 February 2018 Found this unfinished; finished it and uploaded it.