Silent Sabbath

Saturday: Genesis 1:26, 2:1-3, 7, John 1:1-14, 19:28-30,

On the sixth day of creation God said;

"Let Us make man in Our image, according to our likeness... So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Genesis 1:26,27

On that day God formed the man Adam, the first human being, from the dust of the ground.  Then He breathed the breath of life into him and Adam became a living soul. Genesis 2:7 On the sixth day God finished His marvelous work of creation. Then on the seventh day He rested from all of His work. We are told in the gospel of John that God created everything through the Word, who is Jesus Christ. (John 1:1-5, 14) Now consider the death of Christ and Him lying dead in a tomb. How could that be? The Creator of Life laying dead in a tomb?

On the sixth day of Passover week, Jesus Christ, the Son of God was crucified.  His arms were stretched out across a wooden beam and His beautiful hands that touched and healed people were now nailed to the cross, securing His death.  As He hung there, a breath away from death, He said:  "'It is Finished!' And bowing His head, He gave up His Spirit."John 19:30 NKJ  He breathed His last breathe on this earth as a human on the sixth day of Passover Week. He was taken down in the evening and laid in a tomb for preparation day for Sabbath. His body needed to be put away.

On this sixth day of His Passion, He finished His work. He died in our place to reconcile us with God; and then on the seventh day He rested in the tomb. On that holy Sabbath day the author of life laid lifeless. He rested from all His work. The Creator who spoke Creation into existence lay silent... in a cold dark tomb. What was this Work that Christ accomplished? And why was it necessary? 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. On the first day, He created light. The second day He created the sky... the third day, the land, the sea and plant life... the four day, the sun, the moon and the stars... the fifth day, sea creatures and birds... then on the sixth day, after creating animals God created something completely unique and different.

On the sixth day of creation "God said, 'Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us.'" Genesis 1:26, 27 Amazing! The God who created this incredible, intricate universe created a creature to be like Him, us, human beings, created in the image of God!. There is something sacred about us, different than any other creature. God made us in His own image, His own likeness to be like Him! He didn't just make us and leave us on our own either. He made us to be companions; so He could walk with us and talk with us.

How did He make us? ".. the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.' Genesis 2:7 NKJ  After speaking the rest of creation into existence, God formed the man from the dust of the earth. He breathed with His own breath into the nostrils of this lifeless man; and brought him to life! Then God planted a garden and He put the man in it. It had beautiful trees that grew fruit for the man to eat. They could eat the fruit from any of those trees, except for the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

At the end of the sixth day, the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. On the seventh day God rested.  He blessed the seventh day and declared it to be holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation. Genesis 2:1-3

Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, walked with God and talked with Him in the garden. But they did not obey Him, and ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were banished from the garden, God could no longer be in the presence of sinful man, and they were now subject to eventual death. From that time on prophecies emerged of a Chosen One to come who would reconcile people with their Creator. Someone perfect had to die in their place. With an inheritance of sin, there would be not one person, no not one that could be saved by their own merit. The scripture also speaks of the beginning of creation in the book of John.

"In the beginning the Word already existed.
      The Word was with God,
      and the Word was God.
 He existed in the beginning with God.
 God created everything through him,
      and nothing was created except through him.
 The Word gave life to everything that was created,
      and his life brought light to everyone.
 The light shines in the darkness,
      and the darkness can never extinguish it."

John 1: 1-5 NLT

Who was the Word? Lets look further for more clues:

"He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son." John 1: 10-14 NLT

The verses above describe Jesus Christ.  He is the Eternal Word, who spoke creation into existence, the One and Only Son of God Almighty! He came into the world, the very world He created, only to be unrecognized and rejected by His own people. However when we believe in Him (completely rely, trust and cling to Him) we have the right to become children of God, once again... cleansed of the sin that separated us, that we may once again walk with Him and talk with Him in our minds and hearts. Yes, Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word, the one who made us to be like Him... chose to set aside His divinity, to become a human. He was born as a helpless baby and subjected Himself to human parents... human rulers. All these people descended from Adam and had an inheritance of sin. However God still had a plan for reconciliation. His unfailing love and faithfulness are greater than our sin!

He became like us in every way and lived the full human experience in a sinful world; yet He was without sin. He experienced temptation, pain, hunger, betrayal, grief when a loved one dies, and even a brutal death. He was betrayed and denied by His friends. The most religious, who were waiting for Messiah, pressured the Roman governor to put Him to death. Messiah came, stood before them and they didn't recognize Him, they completely missed their visitation from God, though He walked among them. (Luke 19:42-44). All these things were occurring during the week of our Lords Passion. Below is the beginning of this post. I use it once again to thread the whole story together. The last passage is powerful in light of Christs death.

On the sixth day of creation God formed the man Adam, the first human being, from the dust of the ground. Then He breathed the breath of life into him and man became a living soul. We are told in many instances in the Bible that God created everything through Jesus Christ.  Now we see Christ dead in a tomb.

 On the sixth day of Passover week, Jesus Christ, the Son of God was crucified.  His arms were stretched out across a wooden beam and His beautiful hands that touched and healed people were now nailed to the cross, securing His death.  As He hung there, a breath away from death, He said:  "'It is Finished!' And bowing His head, He gave up His Spirit."John 19:30 NKJ  He breathed His last breathe on this earth, as a human on the sixth day of Passover Week. He was taken down in the evening and laid in a tomb. It was preparation day for Sabbath and His body needed to be put away.

On this sixth day of His Passion, He finished His work. He died in our place to reconcile us with God; and on the seventh day He rested. On that blessed and holy Sabbath day the author of life laid lifeless. He rested from all His work. The Creator who spoke Creation into existence lay silent... in a cold dark tomb. He who raised Lazarus from the dead was laying dead in a tomb. However, as we know, He will not stay there. Come back tomorrow for the rest of the story.

Here is a final passage:

"Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. 

He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, 

for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. 

He made the things we can see 

and the things we can't see 

such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. 

Everything was created through him and for him. 

He existed before anything else, and holds all creation together.... 

He is the beginning and supreme over all who rise from the dead. 

So he is first in everything. 

For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 

and through him God reconciled everything to himself. 

He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ's blood on the cross. 

This includes you who were once far away from God. 

You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions.  

Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. 

As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, 

and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault." 

Colossians 1:15-22 NLT