01 Apr Pastors’ Update
‘Who do you think you are?’
One of our Revival Church Core Values is that ‘Everyone has equal significance and worth in God’s sight and we seek to honour and love those created in His image.’
But I would propose that one of the greatest enemies of this ambition is the belief that mankind is the result of evolutionary processes rather than the handiwork of a loving Creator.
When you and I are reduced to nothing more than the end product of the happenstance of history and natural processes of change it inevitably robs us of a purposeful identity bound up in God.
That means there is no divine creation of Adam and the breathing of His life into the first being. And there is no forming of Eve – the mother of all – from Adam’s body.
At best, this philosophy reduces God to simply the creator of a soup of matter from which all things apparently emerged.
Lost is the divine intention of God creating humanity after His image and then this being woven into the wonders of procreation down the generations.
The Bible says this of you and I in Psalm 139:14-15:
‘For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully [awesomely] and wonderfully [or distinctly] made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.’
You and I are awesome and distinct creations of God, not evolutionary accidents.
Can you agree with the Psalmist and say “I know that full well”?
It is vital that we do if our lives are to have purpose and destiny.
And without the biblical creation narrative, lost is a humanity lovingly destined to be children of God.
Our destiny is to be identified with God. The word identity means ‘to be the same as’ – having the quality of being identical.
Fish, apes, whatever, can never identify with God as Father, thus can never have an identity bound up in God. If our ancestor is an ape, not Adam, we have no identity in God.
And without a first Adam there can be no last Adam – as 1 Corinthians 15:45 refers to Jesus – and therefore no eternal destiny either.
My prayer is that you have a deep revelation of the unique value and worth of your life as someone created in God’s image.
Andy and Jane Robb
Senior Pastors