In a recent post, I shared an overview of a revelation the Spirit presented: how ‘heart knowing’ that the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8) makes it impossible to believe that, as a son of our Father, I could ever lack for provision. Brevity being of necessity in the TL;DR (‘too long; didn’t read’) world of internet communications, I hit the high points. I hope now to present a series of Breadcrumbs to lead others toward that same moment when this reality goes from ‘head knowledge’ to ‘heart knowledge.’

Let’s start by putting John’s declaration, in the 13th chapter of Revelation, into context. In the first three chapters of Revelation, John, here on earth, is given prophecies to deliver to seven contemporary (with him) churches. But starting in the fourth chapter, the scene changes: ‘Then as I looked, I saw a door standing open in heaven, and the same voice I had heard before spoke to me with the sound of a mighty trumpet blast. The voice said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must happen after these things.” And instantly I was in the Spirit, and I saw a throne in heaven and someone sitting on it!’ (Rev 4:1-2, NLT) From this point on, everything that John records is what he saw and heard and experienced in heaven, where the concept of ‘time’ as an immutable linear entity doesn’t exist.

Why is this important? Well, there in the 13th chapter, John goes out of his way to point out the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world, placing it squarely within the framework of ‘time’… but at a time other than where we, from our human standpoint, experienced the event. Indeed, John himself was there when the Lamb was slain within the human framework of time, so how could he here be declaring it happened ‘from the foundation of the world’? Because, from the standpoint of heaven, where ‘time’ is not immutable, this was indeed when the event occurred. From the moment God decided to create humans, the Lamb was slain, for God knew full well that was the only way He could bring this creature He intended to create back into fellowship with Himself.

So let’s take a quick look back at the recorded history of the creation. Genesis 1:26a (NLT) tells us, ‘Then God said, “Let us make people in our image, to be like ourselves…”’ Who is ‘us’ in this verse? John 1:1-3 (NLT) says, ‘In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn’t make.’ So, the answer becomes obvious: Jesus. Jesus was there, and agreed with his Father to create mankind.

Paul says, in Galatians 3:16 (NKJV), ‘Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ.’ The point here, which many seem to miss, is that God entered covenant with Christ for the salvation of humans. The covenant was between Father and Son, and mankind was simply the beneficiary of it. The keeping of the covenant has nothing to do with us, else it would be as worthless (in a redemptive sense) as the law, which was a covenant between God and the Children of Israel, when they refused to accept their status as beneficiaries of the prior covenant. We’ll likely expand on that at a later time, but for now, what we need to know is that God the Father and God the Son struck covenant to redeem mankind.

Now, if the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world, the covenant, of necessity, was made at that time. For the blood of the slain Lamb was what sealed the covenant. And so, we have the Son striking a covenant that called for His own sacrificial death, with the Father, for the benefit of human beings who had yet to be created. How much more clearly can we see that our own efforts have nothing to do with the covenant by which we become the adoptive children of our Father? The benefits of the covenant are our inheritance… but the keeping of that covenant has nothing whatsoever to do with us. It’s God’s covenant with Himself, so He will see to it that it’s conditions are fully met.

So why create humans in the first place, if all of this was such a necessary but devastating cost before He could even begin the process? We’ll look at that in the future. But next time, we’ll look more deeply at God knowing the ending of things from the beginning, another linchpin in our understanding of the inevitability of Father’s provision for us.