For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority (Col 2:9-10).

Blessed are those who see themselves as those in Christ. To them belongs the same fullness of God that lives in Christ. It is important to know that there are two statements in this verse: the first one states that the fullness of the Deity lives in Christ, and the second one states that the same fullness has been given to us “in Christ.” The crucial factor that connects the two statements is in the phrase, “in Christ.” Without it, God’s fullness would mean nothing to us. No matter how wonderful Christ is with all the fullness of the Deity, we would be still nothing without being “in Christ.”

Needless to say, the important spiritual reality behind this is the covenant God made with us through Christ. A covenant binds two partners together. With this new covenant, we have become one with Christ, who as a man died for our sins, and was raised from the dead. And on the basis of this oneness with him, you and me, who believe him, have been brought into his kingdom, God’s family, having the same Father, and now enjoy the same fullness Christ has.

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Col 1:13-14).

And, if you are in Christ, you are to live in Christ. Since you now exist in Christ, you have no choice but to live as one in Christ. Apart from him, you can do nothing.

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness (2:6-7).

Thus, any teaching or idea that distracts you from this lifestyle, or anything that hints that you can still live by not being rooted and built up in Christ is from the devil, not from God. This world is filled with such teachings, thoughts and attitudes, so we always need to stay alert spiritually not to be taken captive by them.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ (v. 8).

If you are a Christian and still have difficulty seeing yourself as one in Christ, look at the words Jesus spoke about you. For instance, the following are the words he spoke in his prayer to the Father the night before he died.

I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word (John 17:6).

Try to see the sense of responsibility Jesus expresses in these words: these disciples, who have been given to him, are completely under his dominion and care. You exist in the same way in Christ. “You are mine!” he says. And make sure that you accept and obey every word God speaks to you. When Adam and Even ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by obeying the serpent’s word, they stopped belonging to God and came to belong to the devil. By obeying God’s word, you continue to live in Christ.

I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them (vv. 9-10).

God loves all people on earth, both believers and non-believers. But the way he deals with them is not the same. The difference comes from whether a person belongs to him or not. Note that he prayed, “I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.” Let us humbly accept these words and continue to live in Christ, rooted and built up in him.

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Col 1:13-14).

If you are “in Christ,” you belong to Christ, and are in his kingdom. There are two, and only two, different spiritual kingdoms: one is the kingdom ruled by Satan, and the other the kingdom ruled by Christ. The former is expressed, according to the above scripture, as “the dominion of darkness,” and the latter “the kingdom of the Son he loves.” Every human belongs to either of the two kingdoms. We, who are now in Christ and in his kingdom, used to belong to Satan in the past, and were in his kingdom with the rest of people in the world. But through “redemption, the forgiveness of sins,” which we came to have in Christ, God “brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.” It was through Christ that we were redeemed and were brought into his kingdom. And for this very purpose, Christ was sent to this world.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together (vv. 15-17).

Note the expressions, “by him,” “for him,” and “in him.” Christ already existed when nothing was created yet—even before Satan existed. All things in heaven and earth, spiritual and physical, were created by him, for him, and in him. Thus, everything initially belonged to him, and still does. It is important to know that the dominion of Satan happened to humanity against the will of God, and Christ came to this world to stop such a dominion and put everything under his feet. And we, who are in Christ, have been transferred to the kingdom of his own family.

Humans are all vessels. The nature of each vessel is determined by what is contained in it: if you are led by Satan, you are his slave and carry out his desire, but if you are led by the Spirit of God, you are his son, and do the will of your Father. The choice is yours, and whichever you choose, the one you accept and belong to determines your existence and nature. If you are in Christ, you are a new creation, the righteousness of God, and more than a conqueror.

God is love, and he loves. When he loves, he does so as he loves himself. That is why Jesus said, “love your neighbor as yourself.” Loving yourself means loving those who belong to you—your husband, wife, children, etc. It does not mean, of course, that you should hate, should not love, or do not need to love those who do not belong to you. God does love all people, but he loves those who belong to him with a special kind of love. Jesus prayed to the Father the night before he was crucified, saying:

I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word (John 17:6).

In Jesus’ mind, all disciples are his: they are given to him. He also said:

I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours (v. 9).

Jesus did not pray for the world in the same way as he prayed for his disciples. Those who have been given to him are very special to him. That is who you are in Christ—God’s “treasured possession.”

Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exod 19:5-6).

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority (Col 2:9-10).

Reading the New Testament, we often come across expressions like “in Christ,” “in him,” “in whom,” “by him,” “through him,” etc. Such expressions are especially used exuberantly again and again by Paul in his letters (more than160 times). In the above scripture, Paul first states that “all the fullness of the Deity”—the very essence and qualities of God like his love, holiness, righteousness, might and glory—dwells in Christ who has come in the flesh, and goes on to state that we believers today have come to be filled with the same “fullness” in Christ.

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness (vv. 6-7).

So, he urges us to live (lit. walk) “in him” having been rooted, and being continually built up “in him.” But what is the meaning of the phrase “in him”? How can we walk in him?

In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead (vv. 11-12).

Circumcision was instituted by God as the sign of his covenant (Gen 17): it symbolizes the fact that the one circumcised has entered into the covenant with God and is now bound by the terms of the covenant. However, the circumcision discussed here was “the circumcision done by Christ (lit. the circumcision of Christ)”—his death and resurrection, which our baptism is the symbol of. Baptism was instituted by Jesus under the new covenant as circumcision was under the old covenant: it signifies the spiritual fact that we have been united with Christ in his death and resurrection (cf. Rom 6:3-5). In other words, both the circumcision of Christ and baptism signify the special spiritual status of union that the believers have with Christ. This is the meaning of the phrase “in Christ”: if you are in Christ, you are united with him, and belong to him.

We humans are easily affected by what is around us. What we belong to affects and determines our personality, thoughts and way of life. Thus, what or whom we belong to is very crucial: if you belong to God, you will live and be blessed, but if you belong to Satan, you will suffer and die. Eve chose to have union with Satan by listening to him and accepting his word. Adam followed her by listening to her. By accepting God’s word, you come to be united with God, and by accepting Satan’s word, you come to be united with Satan.

See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ (v. 8).

Every person has a choice of accepting God’s word or accepting Satan’s word. Jesus, too, was given that choice, and tempted in the same way we are.

The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread." Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone (Luke 4:3-4).’”

Jesus never accepted Satan’s word, but rather, he always had union with the Father by accepting his word. In the same way, all believers should remain united with Christ by having his words remain in them. Know that you are in Christ, and apart from him you can do nothing (John 15:5).

Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn out its seven pillars.

She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table.

She has sent out her maids, and she calls from the highest point of the city.

"Let all who are simple come in here!" she says to those who lack judgment.

"Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed.

Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of understanding (Pro 9:1-6). “

The Bible teaches that wisdom existed before the creation of this universe, and all things were made by this wisdom (cf. Pro 8:22-31). According to John’s gospel, this wisdom is called “Word (logos)”, and it is Christ himself, the very source of God’s life and creation (John 1:1-4). The book of Proverbs says:

She (wisdom) is a tree of life to those who embrace her;

those who lay hold of her will be blessed (3:18).

If you eat from this tree of life, and feed yourself with wisdom, you will live. And this wisdom calls and shouts, “Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed.” Here, the Hebrew word for “food” (lehem) literally means “bread.” Note that two things are served in this meal—bread and wine.

Try to see how this comes to be linked with the bread and wine we take as communion—the body and blood of Jesus. He said:

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day (John 6:54).

Jesus is the bread of life coming down from heaven. His “fresh” and “blood” are the food and wine that the personified wisdom in the above passage of Proverbs offers. Christ is the wisdom through which the universe was created, and the tree of life to those who embrace him.

It should be remembered, however, that beside the tree of life, there was another tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden—the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So, the above passage in chapter 9 of Proverbs goes on to say:

The woman Folly is loud;

she is undisciplined and without knowledge.

She sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the highest point of the city,

calling out to those who pass by, who go straight on their way.

"Let all who are simple come in here!" she says to those who lack judgment.

"Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!"

But little do they know that the dead are there,

that her guests are in the depths of the grave (Prov 9:13-18).

The woman Folly also calls and shouts, “Let all who are simple come in here!” She, too, is offering some kind of wisdom to those who come to her: “But little do they know that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the deaths of the grave.” What kind of wisdom is this? In fact, it is not wisdom, at all. It only looks “desirable for gaining wisdom.” Be careful. It teaches you how to steal water and how to eat food in secret. If you learn from her, you will end up paying a very high price—painful toil, the sweat of your brow, and death. Instead, God’s wisdom shouts:

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;

and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost (Isa 55:1).

The bread and the wine that the true wisdom offers are all free. You legally buy them “without money and without cost.” In fact, somebody has already paid the price for you—his own life. So, come and eat this meal! He prepares a table before you in the presence of your enemy—no more dishes of defeat, regrets, worries, sickness, poverty, or death. This meal will keep you going in the lifestyle of creation.

Today, people work and labor for various needs—food, clothes, housing, educations, etc. They have no doubts about this lifestyle, and even think it is a great virtue to work for living. Yes, they are right in a sense: the Bible urges Christians to work diligently and earn the bread they eat (Eph 4:28, 1 Thess 4:11-12, 2 Thess 3:10-12). However, it should be remembered that the lifestyle of working for our needs is a result of our sin according to the Bible.

To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, `You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return (Gen 3:17-19)."

This is how destruction came to our world. We work and eat our food “through painful toil” and “by the sweat of” our brow. We eat “the plants of the field,” yet they do not nourish our body well. Against this lifestyle, God commanded his people to live in the following way:

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;

and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

Why spend money on what is not bread,

and your labor on what does not satisfy?

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,

and your soul will delight in the richest of fare (Isa 55:1-2)..

This is entirely a different lifestyle. If what Gen 3:17-19 describes is a destruction lifestyle, this one is a creation lifestyle: we buy and eat, but “without money and without cost.” And how can we change our lifestyle from the former to the latter? The book of Jeremiah goes on to say:

Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.

I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David (v.3).

It is by listening to God’s word and coming to God that you can change your lifestyle from that of destruction to that of creation. The covenant, here, refers to the covenant God made with David. But note that it says, “I will make …” in a future tense indicating that it had not happened yet at the time when God spoke this oracle. The book of Proverbs has the following passage:

Wisdom has built her house;

she has hewn out its seven pillars.

She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine;

she has also set her table.

She has sent out her maids,

and she calls from the highest point of the city.

"Let all who are simple come in here!"

she says to those who lack judgment.

"Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed.

Leave your simple ways and you will live;

walk in the way of understanding (Prov 9:1-6).

The feast is prepared for you by God, and you are only to come, eat and drink. It is not difficult at all to see what the “meat” and the “wine” mean in the perspective of the New Testament. Read also Psalm 23 with the same thought in focus.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters, …

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me; …

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Ps 23).

Isn’t it amazing to know that the Lord himself “prepares a table before” us while our “enemies” try to stop us from eating, but are not able to? Only the “goodness and love” of the Lord, not any of destruction, will “follow” us. Note the verb, “follow.” We do not need to go out and seek them, but they will follow us!

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;

and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come,

buy wine and milk without money and without cost (Isa 55:1).

We see another important aspect of creation work that God did for us. This way of description belongs to type 2 of creation in Gen 2 and 3: it begins with a condition without water, and creation occurs with the springing up of water. The above oracle begins with the picture of drought and a famine. The verb to buy is shavar, which means to ‘buy grain for food.’ The phrase, “Wine and milk,” symbolizes the productiveness of the land as God’s blessings. It helps if you realize that the way to buy grain without paying money is reminiscent of the story of Jacob’s sons who went to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain (Gen 42-45): each time, their money was returned to them! Obviously, Joseph is a type of Christ.

Why spend money on what is not bread,

and your labor on what does not satisfy (v. 2a)?

Here, God speaks of something beyond physical bread. People spend so much money and time trying to get what they eat and what satisfies them that they die actually without getting what they really need and what really satisfies them.

Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,

and your soul will delight in the richest of fare (v. 2b).

Here, the word shama’ (to hear) is used twice—once in imperative and another in infinitive—showing a strong emphasis: “Listen and listen,” or “Make sure you listen.” Listening to God and his word is the first step we need to take.

Give ear and come to me;

hear (shama’) me, that your soul may live.

I will make an everlasting covenant with you,

my faithful love promised to David (v. 3).

Note, here, another imperative “come to me” in addition to “listen” and “give ear.” When this oracle was given, the Jews were in the Babylonian captivity. To go to God meant to return to him through repentance. The best illustration of this going back to God is found in the parable of the lost son.

When he came to his senses, he said, “How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death (v. 17)! …

This son came to remember how good and generous his father was. He wanted to go back to his father, but he had committed a terrible sin against the father.

… I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.” So he got up and went to his father (vv. 18-20a).

It was good that he decided to go back to his father.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him. The son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son (vv. 20-21).”

From this point, the parable is silent as to what this son did or said. And read the next part, and meditate upon it.

But the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate (vv. 22-23). …

I wonder how this younger son reacted to all this that the father did for him. Did he refuse to receive what the father offered him? No, he accepted and received everything given to him. Did he pay for it? No, a thousand times no! He had nothing to pay with. All he did was that he repented, and went back to the father.

"Sing, O barren woman, you who never bore a child; burst into song, shout for joy, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband," says the Lord (Isa 54:1).

These words, which sound paradoxical, were not simply spoken to comfort barren women. For the historical background of this oracle, we need to go back to the time of Jeremiah and that of Ezra-Nehemiah—the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity, and the restoration of the city and the people. The Bible contains many stories of barren women: for instance, Sarah the wife of Abraham (Gen 11:30ff), Rebekah the wife of Isaac (Gen 25:21), Rachel the wife of Jacob (Gen 30), the wife of Manoah, the mother of Samson (Judg 13), Hannah the mother of Samuel (1 Sam 1), and Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist (Luke 1). God used these women, and called their children before they were born. The above scripture prophesied about the redemption and the restoration of Israel whom Yahweh once divorced, but it also applies to those who are Jews inwardly, the Israel of God, children of promise today. We are the results of God’s work of creation through Jesus Christ.

Paul, by quoting from the above passage in Isaiah, explains the spiritual status of those who are in Christ as follows:

These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. … But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written: "Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children … because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband (Gal 4:24-27)."

We were born not from the earthly city of Jerusalem, but from Jerusalem that is above. God’s creation occurred not on Hagar, but on Sarah who was barren. The children who were born from Sarah are children of promise, and God’s unfailing grace and blessings are upon them.

Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities (Isa 54:2-3).

God, the Creator, is the husband of our mother.

For your Maker is your husband--the Lord Almighty is his name-- the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth (vv. 5).

This husband loved his wife so much that we were born.

"For a brief moment I abandoned you, but with deep compassion I will bring you back. … with everlasting kindness I will have compassion on you," says the Lord your Redeemer (vv. 7-8).

The reason this wife was abandoned was because she committed adultery: not that he abandoned her, but rather, she abandoned him by going to another man. In spite of all this, this husband loved her.

"To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again. Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the Lord, who has compassion on you (vv. 9-10).

Creation occurs where there is love. Without love, there is no creation. Hatred is darkness and brings destruction, but love is light and brings creation. Let us love one another to bring this light of creation around us.

Yet I am writing you a new command; … because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. … Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him (1 John 2:8-11).

She (wisdom) is a tree of life to those who embrace her;

those who lay hold of her will be blessed. (Pro 3:18).

When man was driven out of the Garden of Eden, he lost the access to the tree of life, which resulted in　his death: the spiritual death first, and eventually the physical death came to him. But the above scripture reveals that we now and still have the access to this tree through wisdom. Wisdom is the word of God, and is ultimately the person of Jesus Christ. Through his death and resurrection, the tree of life has been restored and became available to those who believe in him. Death has been swallowed up in victory, and we, who are in Christ, are new creations!

This, however, does not apply automatically to all humans who live today. The above scripture teaches that wisdom is a tree of life only to “those who embrace her.” In other words, you need to seek it. The same book says:

I (wisdom) love those who love me,

and those who seek me find me (8:17).

If you seek wisdom, it gets bigger and bigger like a snowball, but if not, it gets smaller and smaller, and even the wisdom you have will melt away.

Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult;

whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse.

Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you;

rebuke a wise man and he will love you.

Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still;

teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning (9:7-9).

If you want to teach wisdom, teach those who already have it. This is so true. The truth is that those who do not have wisdom do not know the value of it, and that is why they do not seek it: actually, they do not feel like seeking it, and they cannot seek it. So, if you still want to teach such people, you will first need to let them seek wisdom. And in order to let them seek it, you will need to teach them how valuable wisdom is, and that is not easy! How can we do that? The book of Proverbs says:

The rod of correction imparts wisdom,

but a child left to himself disgraces his mother (Prov 29:15).

“The rod of correction” is the help of God’s love for those who do not seek wisdom. And the reason we do not know the value of wisdom is that we have many other things that look more valuable than wisdom—the world and everything in the world, the cravings of the flesh, the lust of our eyes, etc. These are all, of course, deceptions caused by Satan. He always tries to distract us from our spiritual focuses and concentration. This concentration is called “holiness.”

Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness (Heb 12:10).

The lifestyle with this type of spiritual concentration is quite observable in the earthly life of Christ everywhere, but it can be particularly observed just before his death. Read that part of the gospel, and try to see what he went through by paying attention to the differences between his lifestyle and that of his disciples in terms of the spiritual concentration. For instance, read:

An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. "Why are you sleeping?" he asked them. "Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation (Luke 22:43-46)."

He was born to die on the cross. When his life with this purpose was about to be finalized, all the noises and disturbances that had been working against him peaked. He could easily lose the concentration he had kept since his birth. Not only his enemies attacked him, but also one of his own disciples betrayed him, and all the other denied and abandoned him. It is so amazing to see that in the midst of all these distracting noises he still maintained his concentration and holiness, fighting a good fight of faith

… to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (Eph 4:12-13).

There are two things that the church needs to seek in order that it may be built up: it is to reach “unity in the faith,” and to reach unity “in the knowledge of the Son of God.” The latter is easy to understand concerning why it is necessary: it is because the church is the body of Christ, and without the true knowledge of the Son of God, it cannot function as such. Then, what about the unity in faith: why does the church need to seek it?

First of all, we need to keep in mind that the building-up of the body of Christ is creation, and it demands faith on our part in order for that creation to be realized. And regarding how faith works for creation, we see a good example in the life of Abraham: he was old and his wife Sarah was a barren woman. From a physical point of view, it was impossible for them to have a baby, but not so in faith. Faith creates things and gives life to the dead.

As it is written: "I have made you a father of many nations." He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed--the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, "So shall your offspring be (Rom 4:17-18)."

Just as God created this world by calling light when there was no light, we, by faith, call things that are not as though they were. Abraham, by faith, called himself “a father of many nations” when there was no hope in his sight.

Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead--since he was about a hundred years old--and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why "it was credited to him as righteousness (vv. 19-22)."

In chapter 15 of Genesis, we read that Abraham grumbled about his situation—no children to inherit his estate. God said to him:

Do not be afraid, Abram.

I am your shield, your very great reward (Gen 15:1)."

It was right after Abraham and his 318 men went out to fight against the kings who had come to conquer Sodom and Gomorrah. He brought back Lot and his family, together with the citizens of the cities. He saved others, but had no children of his own. So, God told him to count stars in the sky, and when he did, he chose to accept the reality that God offered—“So shall your offspring be”—instead of the reality which he had been grumbling about.

Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness (v. 6).

This was the beginning of the creation that Abraham experienced afterwards. It was not only the beginning of the creation of his life, but also the beginning of the creation of God’s people, and eventually of the creation of the whole humanity, because out of Abraham came the nation of Israel, and out of Israel came the messiah, Jesus Christ. It all started with one person who came to have faith as small as a mustard seed. Where there is no faith, there is no creation. It is by this faith that the body of Christ may be built up. The church needs to learn more about faith, and seek to reach “unity in the faith.”

From the fruit of his mouth a man's stomach is filled;

with the harvest from his lips he is satisfied.

The tongue has the power of life and death,

and those who love it will eat its fruit (Prov 18:20-21).

The first step of learning about faith is to learn the importance of our mouth confessions. Your tongue is very powerful, and it works for both “life and death”

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (Eph 4:2-3).

Note the phrase, “the unity of the Spirit.” There are all kinds of unity in which people gather and stay together, but we Christians are to keep “the unity of the Spirit.” Talking of unity, we are reminded of the story of the tower of Babel.

Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there (Gen 11:1-2).

These people moved eastward. After humans were driven out of the Garden of Eden, they moved eastward: Cain lived in the land, “east of Eden (4:16),” and the descendants of Shem in the post-diluvian period, especially, those of Joktan, lived “in the eastern hill country (10:30).” At this point, the sons of two brothers, Joktan and Peleg, were separated geographically and lived in different lands (cf. 10:25). This might be related to the fact that the more archaic east Semitic languages like Akkadian and Assyrian are distinguished from the relatively new west Semitic languages like Arabic, Hebrew and Aramaic.

They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth (vv. 3-4)."

Note the use of the subject, 1st person plural “we,” in this passage: they, in unity, desired to build something that would help them to have more unity—“a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens.”

But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The Lord said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other (vv. 5-7)."

Did the tower really reach to the heavens? Ironically, God needed to come down to see the city and the tower, and it shows their foolishness in thinking that they could build such a tower. Compare the expression “one people speaking the same language” with the expressions found in the following passage:

There is one body and one Spirit-- just as you were called to one hope when you were called-- one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Eph 5:8-10).

This “body” is the body of Christ, the church. Its head reaches to the heavens as Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, and the body with its feet on the earth connects this world with God in heaven. Christ first “descended to the lower, earthly regions,” and “ascended higher than all the heavens.”

This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men." What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe (vv. 8-10).

God once stopped us from building the tower of Babel, but he himself built the body of Christ for us.

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (vv. 11-13).

Note the expressions, “be built up,” and “attaining to the whole measure of (lit. the height of) the fullness of Christ.”