Genesis 1 - In the Beginning

The first chapter of Genesis has been the subject of many debates and arguments amongst Christians - even among those who claim to hold to the infallibility and inerrancy of the Scriptures. In this record of creation, some have been convinced that we are to read the chapter literally, and to understand God to have created the world in a literal six-day period. Others have said that the word 'day' can be used in the Bible to mean a long period of time, and that the creation could have taken place over a prolonged period. Especially last century, some evangelical conservative scholars took this view, in order to show that Genesis 1 was compatible with scientific evolutionary theory.

Our purpose is to approach the story of Genesis devotionally, to ask in this series of studies - what do we learn in this chapter to help ourselves from day to day? What are the main emphases of Genesis 1? It seems to me that when we look at this chapter, full of its account of the origin of the world, several things stand out:

(1) The Greatness of God

Very often we talk of the world being created - we describe the creation in the passive voice. But Genesis 1 is not passive. It emphasises God's sovereign action over and over again. God was. God created. God said. God divided. God made. God called.

When you read carefully through this chapter you will see that the emphasis time and again is on the action of God - His action, His sole, sovereign action, in creating all things out of nothing.

Several aspects of that greatness emerge:

(i) God's eternalness - before the world was made, God was. He is the uncreated creator, the unmade maker. He is from everlasting to everlasting, before and above all things. We have an account of the origins of all things, but not of the origins of God. He is the source from which all things emerge, but he emerges from nothing. His greatness is to be seen in that he is infinite, unbounded, eternal. He works in time. He creates time. But he is above time. We can only stand open-mouthed and wide-eyed at the glory of this revelation, that such a God as this stands before us on the pages of the Gospel.

(ii) God's power - He speaks the word and it is done. There is no consultation, and no delay. The moment he commands is the moment of instant fulfilment and instant obedience. He said, Let there be light - and so it was.

(iii) God's holiness - everything he made was good. It reflected his own goodness, his own perfection, his own holiness. He stamped his impress on all that he made. The New Testament puts it this way: since the creation of the world God's invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead (Romans 1:20). God's great glory and perfection are written large with his own finger in the works that he has made.

(2) The Dependence of the World

The second aspect of the doctrine of creation is the dependence of the world. All of created reality proceeds from the divine act of God's will in creation. Nothing that is made does not come from him. He made all things, and without him nothing was made that was made (John 1:3). The importance of this is seen along several lines of thought.

(i) The word and the command of God are alone sufficient to bring the world into being.

The world does not create itself. God brings it into being out of nothing. There is immediate creation here, by which the word and its enactment are simultaneous, and suddenly there is a world. There is no hint of evolution here. To be sure, the laws written into the natural order are such as to allow for development and for growth. But these very laws themselves are written into the creation by the lawgiver, the Lord of Glory.

(ii) The word of God alone is sufficient to sustain and maintain the world. God does not become an absentee landlord, who sets the whole thing in motion and then leaves the world to run its own course. He creates, and he cares for what he has created. His greatness is seen as much in the aftercare and the attention he lavishes on the world as in the creation itself.

Part of the madness of sin, Paul asserts in Romans 1, is that man asserts his independence of God, and stands aloof from God. Only those who are aware of their need, and who know that they are completely dependent on the God of creation and Providence, are able truly to worship him.

(3) The Uniqueness of Man

The final strand in the story is the creation of man, in an altogether unique way. God does not say "Let there be man" as he said "Let there be light". He takes counsel, and with deliberation he constructs man out of the dust of the ground, in his own image. These separate aspects of the creation narrative bring us face to face with the grandeur of man as the crowning glory of God's creative work. It is a theme to which the writer returns in chapter 2; let us marvel at the wisdom and the glory of God, who invests man with a unique and unparalleled dignity, setting him over the works of God's hands, and giving him a unique place in the world.

This is the God we worship; and he deserves our highest praises and our complete devotion.