Before There Was Anything, There Was God

Before there was an Earth beneath your feet, there was God. Before the first star burned, before time was measured, before mankind took its first breath, God was already there. He wasn’t born. He wasn’t created. Nothing existed before Him that could have made Him. Moses wrote, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” — Psalm 90:2 KJV. That is where the human mind begins to struggle. Everything we know has a beginning. Every building had a builder. Every child had parents. Every life has a birthday. But God doesn’t belong to the created universe. He is the reason there is a universe at all. When Moses asked what name he should give Israel, God answered from the burning bush, “I AM THAT I AM.” — Exodus 3:14. Not I was. Not I will become. I AM.

Then God spoke—and creation obeyed. Genesis doesn’t introduce God by attempting to prove Him. It begins with Him: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” — Genesis 1:1. Light appeared because He commanded it. Seas were given boundaries. Land appeared. Vegetation grew. The heavens were filled. Animals walked the earth. Then God created something different. Us. Genesis 1:27 says mankind was created in the image of God. Humanity wasn’t an accident wandering through an indifferent universe. Human beings were created deliberately, given life, purpose, responsibility, and fellowship with their Creator. Genesis 2:7 describes God forming man from the dust of the ground and breathing into him the breath of life. Every breath mankind has taken since exists because the Author of life first gave it.

And mankind rebelled against Him.

That is one of the most uncomfortable truths running through the Bible. The problem was never that God abandoned perfect people. People walked away from a perfect God. Adam and Eve disobeyed. Cain murdered his brother. Violence eventually filled the earth. Nations turned toward idols. Israel repeatedly wandered from the One who delivered them. Kings became corrupt. Prophets were rejected. Again and again mankind chose creation over the Creator. Yet another pattern runs beside mankind’s rebellion throughout Scripture:

God kept reaching for man.

He called Abraham. He delivered Israel from Egyptian slavery. He gave His law. He sent prophets. He warned. He disciplined. He showed mercy. He promised restoration. Throughout the Old Testament, something greater was coming. Isaiah spoke of One who would be “wounded for our transgressions” and “bruised for our iniquities.” — Isaiah 53:5. Humanity had created a problem humanity couldn’t repair by itself. Sin separated mankind from God, and no amount of money, intelligence, power, reputation, or human achievement could erase it.

Then came Jesus Christ.

John opens his Gospel with words that reach back beyond Bethlehem: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” — John 1:1. Then John says, “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” — John 1:14. Jesus didn’t arrive merely to tell mankind that God existed. He came to reveal the Father. Jesus said, “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” — John 14:9. Not because Jesus and the Father are the same person, but because the Son perfectly revealed the character, will, holiness, truth, and love of the Father who sent Him.

And then we reach perhaps the most misunderstood picture of God the Father.

People sometimes imagine the God of the Bible as an angry Father standing far away while a loving Jesus tries to convince Him not to destroy humanity. Scripture gives the opposite picture. The Father sent the Son because the Father loved the world. John 3:16 begins, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son…” The cross wasn’t Jesus protecting humanity from a Father who didn’t love them. The cross was part of God’s plan to rescue people who had rebelled against Him. Romans 5:8 says, “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

Think about what that means.

The Creator didn’t owe mankind salvation.

We were the ones who walked away.

Yet God made a way back.

Jesus was mocked, beaten, spit upon, scourged and crucified. He died. He was buried. And on the third day, He rose from the dead. The Gospel became God’s invitation to a fallen world: believe in Christ, repent, confess Him, obey the Gospel, be baptized into Christ, and rise to walk in newness of life. Acts 2:38 records Peter telling those convicted by the Gospel, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” God wasn’t simply offering mankind better behavior.

He was offering reconciliation.

But there is another side of God modern culture sometimes prefers not to discuss.

God is love.

But God is also holy.

He is merciful, but He is also Judge. Ecclesiastes 12:14 says, “For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing.” Hebrews 9:27 says, “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” The God who knows how many stars exist also knows what happens behind closed doors. Nothing is hidden from Him. Every secret. Every lie. Every act of kindness nobody noticed. Every injustice nobody punished. Every thought mankind thought was buried forever.

God sees it.

That should terrify the rebellious—and comfort those who have suffered injustice.

Because evil does not get the final word.

God does.

And yet this same God wants something astonishing from mankind. He doesn’t need our money. He doesn’t need our buildings. He doesn’t need our popularity. Acts 17:25 says He is not worshipped “as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.” The Creator of everything isn’t lonely without us.

Yet He wants us to know Him.

Jesus summarized mankind’s greatest responsibility: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” — Matthew 22:37.

That brings us back to where we started.

Before you existed…

God was there.

Before your parents existed, God was there.

Before America, Rome, Egypt, Abraham, Adam, the oceans, mountains, Earth, sun, moon and stars…

God was there.

And when every empire has fallen, every fortune has been left behind, every human body has returned to dust, and time itself has carried this world to the end God has appointed…

God will still be there.

You will spend your entire earthly life surrounded by things that eventually disappear.

Your youth will disappear.

Your possessions will belong to someone else.

Your body will return to the earth.

Your name will eventually become a memory.

But the One who gave you life will remain.

The greatest question isn’t whether you became rich, famous, admired, powerful, or successful.

It is whether you knew the God who gave you every breath you ever took.

He was God before your first breath.

He will still be God after your last.

And somewhere between those two moments…

you have to decide what you will do with Him.

“Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” — Ecclesiastes 12:13 KJV