The Story of God: Creation
Genesis 1:1 – 2:25
We are doing a new series called “The Story of God,” in which we are tracing the purpose of God from eternity past to eternity future. Last week we looked at what God was doing in eternity past, and we saw that God has always existed, that there was never a time when He was not. And that from eternity past God has been full of joy in beholding His glory in the three persons of the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And then we asked why – if God was full of joy – he would choose to create? And we saw that God created in order to display His glory, so He could share with created beings the joy of beholding His glory.
And this morning we want to look more closely at Creation – the truth that God created everything that is. The crucial verse on Creation is the very first verse of the Bible – Genesis 1:1. Let’s turn there together. If you need a Bible go ahead and raise your hand and one of the ushers will bring one to you. Genesis 1 is on page 1 in the Bibles we are passing out.
Look at what the Holy Spirit had Moses write as the very first word in the Bible –
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
That is one of the most rock-your-world verses in the Bible. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
Everything that exists has its beginning in God. God “created,” and this is a rare Hebrew word which is only used of God, and describes creation of something out of nothing. And what God created out of nothing is “the heavens and the earth,” which is everything. So everything that exists was supernaturally created out of nothing by God.
But can thinking people really believe this? The idea that everything was created by God immediately raises some questions.
For example, doesn’t evolution disprove supernatural creation? First of all, micro-evolution – evolution within species -- is not a problem. People bred Dachshunds so they could burrow into badger tunnels, and people bred Chihuahuas so Taco Bell could do their commercials, and people bred Pugs so none of us would feel unattractive. Micro-evolution is not an issue.
The issue is macro-evolution; evolution between species. Is there evidence that we human beings were not created, but came from primates who came from more primitive organisms all the way back to some primordial pond. Is there any evidence for that?
Let’s say that here we have a skeleton of a gorilla, and over here the skeleton of a human being. There’s similarities, right? Lots of similarities. But does that prove that the human evolved from the gorilla? Not at all.
Here’s a quote from Steven Stanley, who got his Ph.D. from Yale, taught Geology at John Hopkins University, and he’s a paleontologist (one who studies fossils) --
The fossil record does not convincingly document a single transition from one species to another.
Here’s a quote from Phillip Johnson, who used to be professor of Law at UC Berkeley –
If evolution means the gradual change of one kind of organism into another, the outstanding characteristic of the fossil record is the absence of evidence for evolution.
So evolution doesn’t disprove supernatural creation.
Another question is, doesn’t the age of the earth disprove supernatural creation? The answer to that is “no,” for a couple of reasons.
One is that the ways scientists measure the age of the earth depend on assumptions which may or may not be true.
Another is that creation can give the appearance of age – like when Jesus turned the water into wine the wine would appear to have been a lot older than it was.
Another reason is because the Bible does not say how old the earth is. Bible scholars differ over whether the seven days are 24-hours long. That certainly could be true. But even if that’s true, it doesn’t require a young earth, because we don’t know how long the earth was in the condition described in 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.
So the age of the earth doesn’t disprove supernatural creation.
One more question: why are there two descriptions of Creation given in Genesis 1 and 2? When you read Genesis 1 and 2, you see that there’s one description given in 1:1 through 2:3, and then another description starting with 2:4. So why two descriptions?
I would encourage you to read both of them carefully. The first description describes God’s creation of everything, but the second goes into more detail on how God created Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. The two accounts are different, but complementary. There’s no contradiction.
Now with that in mind, let’s go back to Genesis 1:1. Listen again to what Moses tells us – and let this rock your world:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
What we saw last week was that God chose to create so that He could display His glory and share with us the joy of beholding His glory.
So how does Creation display God’s glory?
First, Creation displays God’s transcendence, His supremacy. Here’s a picture of the Milky Way (this is not an actual photograph; this is scientists’ best guess). Scientists tell us our Milky Way is 100,000 light years wide, and each light year is 6 trillion miles. Our Sun is located here; it’s so small you can’t even see it. The farthest we’ve been able to travel through space is to Mars -- and the distance of that trip is so small it wouldn’t even come close to showing up on this picture. And scientists tell us there are at least 50 million galaxies like this in the universe.
So how big is a God who speaks a word – and a universe is instantly created with 50 million galaxies 100,000 light years wide?
So why would God create such a huge universe? That’s a lot of wasted space. It’s because His purpose is to display His glory – and the sheer size of the universe blows us away with how big God is.
Some night go outside and look up at the stars and ponder just how big God is. How much bigger than everything that exists – and let God’s infinite supremacy rock your world.
Second, Creation displays God’s authority. Think of it. At one moment there’s nothing but God. Nothing else; just God. Then God speaks – and a massive universe comes into being. His word creates the universe. His word. That’s authority.
So think of something you are worried about right now. Maybe it’s your job, or your health, or your kids, or something else. If God has authority to create 50 million 100,000 light-years-wide galaxies – then He can handle that problem.
And think of some area of your life where you are having a hard time submitting to His authority. But can you see that God has rightful authority over you, and me – since He created us?
Third, Creation displays God’s goodness. In the first creation account, from Genesis 1:1 to 2:3, Moses has a recurring focus on God’s goodness, as God takes the world He has created, which according to v.2 at that point is without form and void and dark – and step by step He turns it into a paradise. And Moses highlights how every step is “good.”
V.3 -- God creates the light; v.4 – the light was good.
V.9 – God made dry land separate from the water; v.10 – God saw that it was good.
V.11 – God creates plants and fruit trees; v.12 – God saw that it was good.
V.17 – God appoints the sun and moon and stars to separate the light from the darkness; v.18 – God saw that it was good.
V.24 – God brings forth animals; v.25 – God saw that it was good.
V.26 – God creates man in His image as male and female; v.31 – God saw that it was very good.
So the goodness of Creation displays God’s goodness. Before Adam and Eve sinned the earth was an absolute Paradise displaying God’s perfect goodness. The God who is supreme over everything, who is in authority over everything, is perfectly, completely, flawlessly good.
Fourth, Creation displays God’s wisdom. Think of the wisdom required to create your body. You have an automatic digestion system: you can eat a burrito, and go on your merry way while your body automatically turns that burrito into energy and skin and bones and nerves. You have an automatic healing system: you can skin your knee, put a band-aid on it, and four days later take the band-aid off and – it’s all healed!
But listen to this. Here’s a description of what happens when your eye sees something:
When light first strikes a cell in the retina, a photon in that cell interacts with a molecule which changes shape. The change in shape of this molecule forces a change in the shape of a protein, which then is able to stick to another protein. This changes the second protein so it’s able to reduce the number of cGMP molecules in the retinal cell. When the amount of cGMP is reduced, that causes the number of positively charged sodium ions to be reduced. This causes an imbalance of charge across the cell membrane that, finally, causes a current to be transmitted down the optic nerve to the brain. The result, when interpreted by the brain, is vision. (paraphrased, Darwin’s Black Box, pp.19ff).
Now think about this: during the time it took me to read that – it happened inside your eye-ball millions of times. God created that. Creation displays God’s wisdom.
Fifth, Creation displays God’s nearness. Look again at this picture of the Milky Way – 100,000 light years wide. There’s at least 50 million of them. So think of how big God is.
But then God took the earth and made it into a Paradise. Where did that happen? Well, our sun is located here. It’s too small to be seen, and the earth is even smaller. And then God created a little tiny man -- Adam. God talked with Adam. God saw that Adam was alone. God created a wife for Adam. And get this -- the God who created 50 million 100,000 light year Milky Ways walked in the garden with Adam and Eve – they could know Him personally. And now through Jesus you can know Him, too.
Sixth, Creation displays God’s mercy. At one moment Adam and Eve did not exist. Then – just like that – there they were, with life that never ends; astonishing bodies; each other; a glorious God to walk with, and all their physical needs met forever.
So what did they do to get this? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. This infinite value was given to them freely; it was sheer mercy; a pure gift.
This is what we have to understand about God. God is so full of joy in the fellowship of the Trinity, that He loves to pour out astonishing good upon undeserving people. That’s called mercy. And the greatest mercy He can give us is Himself – sharing in His joy as we behold His glory.
Creation displays God’s glory.
So how should we respond to this? This should rock your world. What a God! Think of His size, His authority, His goodness, His wisdom, His nearness, His mercy – oh, we can trust Him! We can trust Him for everything!
And our greatest joy is experienced in knowing Him – beholding His glory! So let’s turn from those other things we’ve been pursuing for our joy – and behold Him and worship Him and walk with Him!
And let me give you a specific direction for worshiping Him this morning. I think that this morning God wants to have us respond by worshiping Jesus with Communion. Now you might wonder what’s the connection between Jesus and Communion and Creation.
Paul shows us the connection in Colossians 1:15-16 –
15 He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of [that is, pre-eminent over] all creation.
16 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.
By him, by Jesus, all things were created – all things were created through him and for him. Each member of the Trinity was involved in Creation. But the Father and the Son and the Spirit all decided that Jesus would be the image of the invisible God to us – that the glory of the Trinity would be publicly displayed through Jesus.
So Paul focuses on Jesus -- by Him all things were created. Jesus Christ created 50 million 100,000 light-year-galaxies – and then stooped down, down, down to planet earth to create Adam and Eve and you and me.
And even though Creation showed us God’s size, authority, goodness, wisdom, nearness, and grace – we all rebelled against Him. We’ve profaned His infinite glory, and face infinite punishment.
But like I said last week – this was no surprise to God. God had purposefully allowed this to happen, because this would provide an even more awesome display of His glory. What did God do? He did not obliterate us.
But 2,000 years ago, Jesus - who had spoken a word and 50 million 100,000 light year galaxies were created, this Jesus was born as a baby. Became a man. On this tiny planet in the universe.
And Jesus, who created 50 million 100,000 light year galaxies, who is supreme over all, who has authority over all, who is perfect goodness, allowed himself to be nailed to a Cross and die. And He did this so that by trusting Him we can be forgiven and changed and have the joy of beholding His glory.
Our Creator was hanging on the Cross. Let’s join together this morning and worship our Creator Jesus, who displayed the glory of His mercy by becoming a man and dying on the Cross to save us.