1. Creation, Genesis 1:1

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1 1. Creation, Genesis 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 1 Question: Why are we here? Trajectory Verses: John 1:1; Colossians 1:15-16; Ephesians 2:10 We can t live without nature pets, green belts, outdoor outings. Yet we can t seem to live in nature either. We build houses, wear clothes, and process food. Why do humans have such an awkward alliance with creation? It hasn t always been like that. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Why? So that humans could enjoy what God made. Yet it is clear that humanity has lost touch with the creator and, consequently, is out of balance with creation. To move toward realignment with both God and his creation we need to understand several things: (1) Who created this world? (2) Why God created this world? (3) How God restored creation? Who Created This World? Every artist has his fingerprints in his work. Knowing the creation gives a glimpse into the nature of the creator. The Bible teaches that God is Father, Son, and Spirit. Christians call this The Trinity. Though the clearest expressions of God s triune nature are found in the New Testament, all three members of the Trinity peek from behind the curtain of Genesis 1:1-3. Obviously, God the Father was the architect. His divine design is expressed in the opening phrase of the Bible, God created. This sounds simple. Yet it is decisively different than anything on offer in other ancient religions. Sure, some other creation accounts sound similar to Genesis. The closest is a Babylonian story from the seventh century B.C. called Enûma Eliš (pronounced enúma élish). It has a primal god, chaotic waters, and ordering of the elements just like the biblical account. This is true for a handful of other ancient creation stories as well. However, one thing that sets the Genesis account apart is that God created the elements out of nothing. Every other story assumes that matter is eternal the gods fashioned the world like children with Play Dough. The Bible, however, asserts that 1 All Scriptures are from the English Standard Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted.

2 God alone is eternal. Hence, creation is an extension of God rather than god(s) being a part of the creation. This excludes beliefs like Hindu pantheism (multiple gods) and Greek mythologies which see gods in inanimate objects like wind, waves, or animals. It also excludes Darwinian evolution that portrays matter as eternal and often winds up elevating the creation over the creator. God is separate from and above his creation. He cares for what he made like you care for a garden, a piece of art, music, or something you built. You protect, display, and enjoy the creation of your hands. Think of this: What God made with his hands he put in our hands to care for. That responsibility is extraordinarily affirming! The idea that God, the Father, created the earth is common core among the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. However, there is another element added by Christians absent from the other perspectives: The Spirit as engineer. Genesis 1:2, The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. The word hovering expresses a vibration or quaking. The Spirit works to bring order to the chaos. It is similar to a mother thirty minutes prior to dinner guests arriving. The Spirit is intent on ordering the creation of the Father so that it is a nurturing and life-giving environment. This concept shoots through a handful of passages describing the Holy Spirit s ongoing care for creation. For example, Genesis 2:7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. The Hebrew word for breath is literally spirit. God the Spirit was the animating force when man was made from the dust. This is equally true of the animal kingdoms. Psalm 104:30, When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. Every animal that has breath is sustained by the Spirit. God the Father created; God the Spirit creates. The Spirit is intimately involved in the very fabric of our earthly environment. He is the ongoing force of God which gives life, breath, and sustaining energy. When humans ignore the Spirit in creation, the earth becomes a resource to be consumed rather than a gift to be nurtured. The elements become mute, no longer declaring the glory of God (Psalm 19:1-3). We miss God in the thunderstorm and wind, the bloom of a flower, or the majesty of the Rocky Mountains. Our environmental insensitivities betray our ignorance of the Spirit s continued care for

3 every element of our earth. We wind up confining worship to a building on Sunday rather than the expanse of the universe. Consequently, society exchanges the love of the Spirit for the law of the jungle. God the Father is architect. God the Spirit is engineer. This leaves God the Son as responsible for construction. He did the heavy lifting, so to speak, during the creation of the earth. This is seen in Genesis 1:3, God said, Let there be light, and there was light. If we lay that alongside John 1:1-3, we see the mechanics of creation: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. The Word, we learn in John 1:14, is Jesus before he came to earth in the flesh the pre-incarnate Christ. Before he was Messiah, he was fully God, the embodiment, as it were, of God s spoken word. When God gave the command, Jesus the Word turned the command into a creation. The Apostle Paul affirms this idea in Colossians 1:15 16, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through him and for him. What happens when we ignore the role of Jesus in creation? Typically, salvation becomes a future spiritual state in heaven rather than actual earthly reality. Of course there is a future New Heaven and New Earth. Nonetheless, Jesus, the Creator is equally interested in your life here and now. So there you have it, the Trinity embedded in the first three verses of Genesis. God is the architect, the Spirit is the engineer, and Jesus is the builder. All three are unique and essential to creation. If any of these are ignored, we run the risk of misalignment with creation as well as our fellow human beings created in God s image. Why God Created This World? Some suggest God created because he was lonely. That s impossible to prove and pretty hard to swallow. God had angels in abundance. They could communicate, sing, perform, and do who knows how many things to entertain, serve, and otherwise delight God. Furthermore, God had himself. God is a community Father, Son, and Spirit. They love, communicate, and enjoy each other

4 in their diversified unity. There is nothing lacking in God s own person that required him to create someone to keep him company. So, why did God create? We need to look no further than Psalm 102:18, Let this be recorded for a generation to come, so that a people not yet to be created may praise the Lord. Every generation that God created from our primal parents in Eden to our own unborn children has a singular divine purpose to bring God glory. This shouldn t come as a shock. The fingerprints of God in our own souls drive us in the same direction. Why do we dress fashionably? To look good. Why do we decorate our homes? To impress company. Why do we present a gourmet meal with such panache? To please others and receive praise. Is it not our internal impulse to create for other s pleasure and our own praise? So, too, God creates with the same impulse. When we look at our own genetic complexity, we are awestruck. The fingerprints of an infant, the visual stimulus of the eye, the electrical synapses of the brain our bodies are works of art. From Olympic spectacles to ballet, from the NBA to National Geographic, we are stunned by God s handiwork. The Psalmist expressed it well: For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother s womb (Psalm 139:13). Every sonogram and sunset, every sculpture and sonnet are promptings to praise a God with wide-eyed wonder. Even inanimate objects like mountains and rivers, stars and rainbows, without a spoken word, acclaim their creator (Psalms 89:12; 148:5-10; cf. Ecclesiastes 12:1; Isaiah 43:7; Revelation 4:11). This is why creation is God s primary apologetic (Romans 1:20, 25). By seeing his fingerprints in the world, we are drawn to his portrait in the Word his own son, Jesus Christ. Just as the sun, moon, and stars praise God by doing what they were designed to do, so too the human species offers its highest praise by alignment with our design. We were made to manage the creation of God. Ephesians 2:10, For we are God s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. What makes this more amazing and what raises the stakes is that God, through the incarnation of Jesus and the ongoing integration of the Spirit in this world, intends to be a hands-on ruler not a distant despot. God is personally and perpetually involved in creating and recreating his masterpiece of this world with the help of humans.

5 How God Restored Creation? This world is a wreck. It all went south in Genesis 3 when Eve was seduced by the Serpent. That moment of indiscretion gave birth to a cascade of consequences. None of this took God by surprise. Nonetheless, it did take his breath away. He was distraught over the condition of the creation he so cherished. This leads into the story of the flood (Genesis 6-8) when God hit reset on the world. God knew this was not a permanent fix. As the first couple fell in the garden, so Noah s family failed after the flood, so too Abraham s nation rebelled. Notice, the plan of God all along was to bring a fallen creation back. He began with a couple, then a family, then a nation, and now his mercy extends to all the earth every tongue, tribe, and nation. The recovery of Eden is the story of the Bible. The finale, of course, is the story of Jesus. By his blood he would recreate the human spirit by renewing us through his own Spirit. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17; see also Galatians 6:15; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10). It is not a quick fix nor an easy solution. This restoration is not merely for humans but for all creation. The Apostle Paul expressed it like this: For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now (Romans 8:19, 22). Key Points: Each member of the Trinity plays a vital role in creation. God created for the same reason we do: For others pleasure and our own praise. Just as God created the earth, we are to continue to recreate a world reflecting his love. Action Step: Identify one small thing you could do today to help restore Eden where you live. Further Resource: Gonzalez and Richards, The Privileged Planet (2004). Questions for Discussion: 1. What do you enjoy doing to connect with creation?

6 2. What is the consequence of ignoring God, the Spirit, and or Jesus as creator? How have you seen this play out? 3. Share something you created and how you feel about it? 4. Share what you will do to carry out the action step above.