The Wisdom Of God In Assembling -- By: Earl D. Radmacher

Journal: Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society
Volume: JOTGES 26:51 (Autumn 2013)
Article: The Wisdom Of God In Assembling
Author: Earl D. Radmacher


The Wisdom Of God In Assembling

Earl D. Radmacher

President Emeritus and
Distinguished Professor of
Systematic Theology Emeritus
Western Conservative Baptist Seminary
Portland, OR

I. Introduction

There is nothing more important to God than relationship. From all eternity God Himself has perfectly modeled relationship in the very nature of the triunity of His being. When He created mankind, He created us in His image. Moses, reflecting on the events of the sixth day of creation, wrote, “Then 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” (Gen 1:26-27). Thus, mankind was to experience relationship and belongingness even as modeled by their Creator.

Their commission to have dominion over the creation was not to be carried out in isolation, but in relation. “God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it’” (v. 28, italics added). This is reinforced by the second account of creation, when the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him” (2:18). Thus, God took Adam through the educational experience of doing a virtual taxonomy on all the beasts of the field and the birds of the air, but “for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him” (2:20). There was the absence of genuine relationship and, consequently, fellowship.

The Lord God became the first surgeon and solved the problem of the absence of needed relationship by using the anesthetic of a very “deep sleep,” taking a portion of Adam’s side and forming

a woman, whom He then brought to him. Ronald Allen catches the excitement of Adam’s response to this new relationship: “This is now means ‘At last bone of my bones.’ Adam’s wording is poetic and exalted—seeing Eve was a shocking and exhilarating experience because the match was perfect.”1 Not only did God create mankind to exist in a relationship providing for the basic human need of belongingness, but He also modeled perfect relationship from all eternity and practiced it with His creation. The Genesis account of activity in the Garden of Eden makes it clear that the Creator Himself sought close relationship with the first family, “walking in the garden in t...

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