The Creation: God Has Revealed Himself
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse" (Romans 1:18-20 ESV).
All of us know the story of creation. It is a story that is so fantastic, wonderful, and yet simple, that we have remembered it from our childhood and now we share it with our own children. And it may be, perhaps precisely because of its simplicity, that we are content to relegate the Bible’s account of the creation to our childrens’ Bible classes while the adults study the “deeper” subjects. But is the account of creation really just a “story” for little children?
Let’s first consider that "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV). If God has revealed something to us, it is because He wishes to teach us what is valuable for our spiritual growth and service.
In his powerful exhortation to the Christians in Rome, the apostle Paul appealed to the creation as the singular act which by itself proves the existence of God. He reasoned that God is righteous in His wrathful indignation against those who reject Him, because by the creation men should clearly recognize "his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature" (Romans 1:18-20 ESV). When we look at the creation, we should see the living God who is behind it all. Even people who have never read the Bible are responsible for recognizing that God exists, because He has shown Himself in the work of His hands (see Psalm 19:1-4). We who have been so richly blessed as to have a Bible in our hands should look more deeply at the creation, examining the way God has revealed His work and His character to us in Genesis chapter 1. What can we learn from the creation account about the eternal power and divine nature of God?
Genesis 1:1-2: Before the Beginning
The heavens and the earth were created by God "in the beginning" (Genesis 1:1). This being the case, then what existed before the beginning? The only plausible answer is: God! The Creator necessarily must exist before His creation. God is an eternal being: He already existed before the beginning, and He will continue to exist after all of the creation has been undone (see Isaiah 41:4; 44:6; 2 Peter 3:9-12). God is a powerful being: He had the power to create from nothing "the heavens and the earth" – that is, everything that exists in our universe, both on our planet and outside of it (see Hebrews 11:3; Acts 17:24; Colossians 1:15-17). The Creator is necessarily lord over all of His creation. God, by His eternal power, both created and now governs the heavens and the earth.
"And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:2 ESV). God is Spirit: He is not material like His creation, and will not be found by material means. A true search for the God of the physical creation will be a spiritual search (see John 4:23-24; Acts 17:24-25, 29).
The State of The World in The Beginning
The earth, in the beginning, was “without form”: before God used His eternal power to bring His creation to order, all was in chaos (Genesis 1:2). Even more, the earth was “void”, or empty: before God worked on His creation, there was an immense nothingness, a deep and empty abyss. Finally, the earth lay in darkness: before God brought the light, there was only a deep and penetrating dark. It is from these aspects of the original circumstances of the earth that we begin to watch God work in Genesis 1, which teaches us a great deal about His nature and character as the divine being.
Genesis 1:3-5: In the Darkness, God Makes Light
The first thing we need in order to walk securely is light. Fittingly, the first thing God does in His creative work is to convert the darkened state of the earth into light. God is light by His very nature (see 1 John 1:5-7), and everything that He does is meant to manifest the light of truth.
Note that God created light – just as He made nearly all of His creation – simply by the power of His word! "And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light" (Genesis 1:3 ESV). God spoke, and it was so (see Genesis 1:6-7, 9, 11, 14-15, 20, 24). The power of God both to fashion and to maintain His creation resides in His word! (see Hebrews 1:1-3). This fact should be extremely comforting to us, because the same powerful word that He used to create the world has been placed with much love right into our hands by Him! When we truly understand this, we will be much more careful in the way we see and use the Bible. Who are we to change anything in such a powerful word as this, in order to make it seem “more palatable” to our ears or to the ears of those to whom we are preaching it? With the power of this word comes the great responsibility to follow and to teach only that which God has revealed. After all, He is the Lord, and it is His word that has the eternal power of creation (see Isaiah 55:6-11).
Genesis 1:6-10: In The Chaos, God Makes Order
Having resolved the issue of light, God then converted the chaos into order. Where the earth was without form, God created and separated the blue sky (the atmosphere), the solid earth, and the seas. The creative power of the word of God puts all things into their proper place and order.
When we contemplate the word of God, we generally think in terms of commandments, like the ten commandments, for example. Another word for a commandment is an order. The nature of God is to command order, and His orders are given literally to organize and maintain His creation. When the creation disobeys the orders given by God, the result is disorder. This becomes obvious when we look at the world around us today. Disorder is everywhere - murder, adultery, homosexuality, addictions, sicknesses, etc. – because man (a part of God’s creation!) has rejected the order that God commands in His word. It will only be possible to enjoy the perfect order that God has commanded when we obey and teach others to obey the order He has established in His word.
Genesis 1:11-25: God Fills The Void
After having created a well-organized world with plenty of light, God looked at His creation and saw that it was still empty. We quickly begin to see that it is God’s nature to fill all things with good, to His glory. He transformed the empty state of the earth by placing plants on the land, planets and stars in the heavens, and animals on the land, in the waters, and in the sky. We can see that God made all things to have order, right down to governing the orderly reproduction of the species of plants and animals by His word (Genesis 1:11-12, 21, 24-25).
Genesis 1:26-31: The Reason Behind It All
Once everything was perfect and well-ordered according to God’s plans, He created man and placed him in the midst of all He had made. Looking carefully at the creation account, we can see that God made everything already thinking of this final part of the process. Why create and then separate the light from the darkness? Clearly God did not need the light, since He existed before it did! Why separate the dry land from the heavens? God is Spirit and doesn’t need a physical place for His residence (see 1 Kings 8:27; Acts 17:24). Why make the plants and animals, the stars and the other planets? God did not make these things for Himself, but for the man He was planning to create. Genesis 1:14 shows us that one of the reasons God made the “lights in the expanse of the heavens” was so that they could serve as “signs”. The only part of all creation that is capable of observing and understanding signs is man. And since God had not made a single human being when He prepared the lights, we can conclude that man was in God’s plan from the outset. In fact, the Bible teaches us that the salvation of man was in God’s plans even before the beginning of creation (see Ephesians 1:3-5, 11, 2:10, 3:8-11).
When we look at the creation, therefore, we should find ourselves amazed at the eternal power of God – and even more with His eternal purpose to save man from the disorder brought about by his own disobedience. God made all of the heavens and the earth for man’s dwelling place precisely so that the man should look upon it all and seek Him (see Acts 17:22-31).
Conclusion: A New Creation In Christ
When we look at our society there is no doubt that we have made disorder out of the order God established. But God, by the lovingkindness of His divine nature, still desires to restore the order, and for this He sent His Son, Jesus (see Ephesians 1:10). God sent Jesus as the answer to all the disorder, that in Him He might create a new world that is obedient to God’s orders. The apostle Paul said "... if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV). Where there is darkness, Jesus Christ says, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12 ESV). In a world of chaos, Christ establishes order and unity by His church: "There is one body and one Spirit – just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call – one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all" (Ephesians 4:4-6 ESV). Where there are empty lives, it is Jesus Christ who "...fills all in all" (Ephesians 1:23 ESV).
It is the responsibility of each and every person to recognize that God exists – and to seek Him. The general revelation of God (that is, the mere fact of His existence, as evidenced by creation) in itself renders us “without excuse” if we reject Him. However, if we are truly to escape the disastrous effects brought on by our disobedience, we will need much more than just the recognition that God exists. Paul warned: " The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead" (Acts 17:30-31 ESV). Jesus Christ came to produce a new work of God’s creation, one wrought in the hearts and souls of men. May we seek God in Spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24), repentant of our disobedience – sin! – and obeying the orders of God in Christ, so that He can make us brand new creatures by the eternal power of God!
- by Carl D. Ballard