To Encourage You

James 1:18 “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”

What’s the very best thing that God ever did?  Have you ever thought about this?  He made the universe and we are told that when He was done with this wondrous miracle, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”  But the Bible later talks about a “New Creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).   So, if the first creation was so wonderful, why the need for something new?  Of course, the reason is that although the first creation started out good, it was subjected to a great Fall as the result of man’s sin.  It became subject to decay and death. It became so marred that we are told that “the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now” (Romans 8:22). And so God has done something that is much better.

In James 1, James is discussing the goodness of God. He tells us that every good and perfect gift that has ever been given to man has been given to us by God.  But then James points to the most excellent example of this in the verse above. He tells us that “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”  Do you hear that? Believers are called the “first fruits” of God’s entire creation.  The very best part. So, what is He talking about? Well, he says it all started with God’s own will.  We know that His will is perfect because He is perfect. And what was His will? It was to “(bring) us forth by the word of truth.”  Here James is pointing to us as the new creations of God.  It was something made new from something that was old and passing away.  It was the creation of that which was righteous and good from that which was unrighteous and sinful. It was the creation of that which will never die from that which was already dead in its sins. 

So how did He do this wonderful new thing? It was by “the word of truth.”  We can think of this as the gospel, for it’s by faith in the gospel that one receives the new birth and becomes “a new creation.” We know that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). It is by the new birth that “the old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).  But the “word of truth,” also refers to a person, i.e., the Lord Jesus Christ, the one by whom “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14).  It is only because of the death and resurrection of our Savior that the gospel exists. It was by this that God gave His greatest gift. It was the greatest demonstration of God’s mercy, power, and love.  It is the greatest story ever told. 

So, are you part of the New Creation? Are you a part of the best thing that God has ever done, a thing into which even the created “angels long to look” (1 Peter 1:12)?  What a good God we serve! What a wonder to be included in the most wonderful thing that God has ever done!