"God Created"
[Genesis 1:1-2:4]
January 27, 2008 Second Reformed Church
Last week we began what, if the Lord wills, will be a three week look at beginnings. Last week we saw that God is Eternal and Triune. God existed before the creation and before the creation of time. And we saw that God created because it pleased Him to created -- not because He had any need to create.
Last week we thought about the "when" of creation in the sense of what it told us about God. Keeping that in mind, let us now think about Who created, how the creation occurred, and what was created.
Who created? Well, the sermon title is, "God created," so there is not much mystery in this question. In our Scripture, we are told that "in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." But let's remember that we saw last week that God is a Single Being Who exists in Three Persons -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Which Person created? Or did more than one Person create?
In the first verse of Genesis, we are told that God created. The word that is used for God is Elohim. This is a plural word in Hebrew. Out of context, we would translate this word as "gods," but since we know that the Hebrews only believed in One God, we translate it as "God," yet there is an understanding that there is a plurality in the One God.
Look at verse twenty-six of chapter one: "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.'" That is a correct translation, God speaks to Himself in the plural because God is One God, but Three Persons, as we know from the doctrine of the Trinity.
So, more than one Person of the Trinity was involved in the creation, but were two Persons involved, or all three?
In II Kings 19:15 we read, "And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said: 'O Lord the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth, you have made the heaven and the earth.'" In this Scripture, Hezekiah uses the Name, YHWH, to address God -- that most personal, most Holy Name of God.
When we come to the New Testament we read, "And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, 'Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them'" (Acts 4:24). The Hebrew word, YHWH, is replaced with the Greek word, Theos. And in I Corinthians 8:6a, "yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist." Here, we are told that Theos is the Pater. This God is the Father.
The testimony of the Scripture is God the Father created.
Let us look at Genesis 1:2 -- in our pew Bible, we read "the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the waters." You may have noticed a footnote that reads, "Or while the spirit of God or while a mighty wind." Technically, out of context, these are all correct, the word ruach means "life-force, wind, breath, spirit, Holy Spirit," and one must determine which it is from the context.
Other than our pew translation and some modern scholars, Christendom has historically understood ruach to be referring to the participation of God the Holy Spirit in creation. That's why I have altered the reading of this Scripture for the past two weeks. It makes more sense in the context that "God the Holy Spirit was hovering over the face of the deep" than to say that is was windy.
The question of the participation of God the Son is much clearer: "there is...one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist" (I Corinthians 8:6b). "For by [Jesus] 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" (Colossians 1:16).
Thus, all Three Persons of the Trinity -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, created all that is.
But how?
If we believe the science text books in our public schools, billions and billions of years ago, there was this infinitesimal speck of dense matter that always existed, and it blew up. It spread throughout the universe, and accidently, by chance, formed into one-celled organisms, which, over time, accidently, by chance, became human beings. Of course, science also denies that matter is eternal, and there is not one shred of evidence to support a speck of dust accidently, by chance, over time, becoming me...
"By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible" (Hebrews 11:3). The Scripture tells us that God, Who is a Spirit, and always existed, outside of time, before time, before the creation of anything, including matter -- God said, "Let there be..." and there was. By the power of God's Word, time and matter came into existence -- everything that is. God spoke all that is into existence. God didn't take stuff that was and make it into everything that is -- no, once there was God and nothing else, then God spoke the word and creation occurred.
How did God create?
We can believe the textbooks, that scientists say that though they don't believe in the eternality of matter, there was at least once piece of eternal matter that, one day, for no reason, blew up, and accidently, by chance, created everything that is...
Or, we can believe that God is so great a Being that God spoke the Word and brought everything into existence for His Pleasure.
God created everything other than Himself. Hebrews 3:4, "For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God." Revelation 4:11, "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."
Now, let us understand that "in the beginning," God created everything that is by His Word, but let us also understand that God also uses secondary causes to create. In other words, God created and continues to create with matter and through others now. The initial creation was spoken into existence -- creation ex nihilo, we say -- but God now also uses matter and others to create through.
We see this in our Scripture, after God brought the animals and plants into existence, God commanded them to be fruitful and multiply -- the creation was continued through the plants and animals reproducing through their own systems of reproduction, rather than God calling each one into existence.
And God did not call humans into existence, we're told that Adam was created out of the dirt in the Garden of Eden: "Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature" (Genesis 2:7). Also, Eve: "So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man" (Genesis 2:20-21).
But, what exactly did God create?
God created time, space, and matter.
God created light and darkness.
God created water and the heavens.
God created dry land.
God created plants and trees.
God created the sun, moon, and stars.
God created the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and every other creature that exists on land and sea and sky.
And God blessed all the living and told them to multiply -- God continues His creation through the course of reproduction through plants and animals.
And God created humans -- male and female -- you and me.
God created everything that is -- except for Himself.
What shall we say to this? That the Triune God created everything that is by the power of His Word and continues His Work of creation through natural reproduction?
We've heard the most appropriate response already: "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created" (Revelation 4:11).
Let us praise our God. Let us look at and consider the creation and praise our God.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, Mighty Creator, He Alone Who is worthy of all praise from all creation, we lift up Your Name and praise You and rejoice in You this morning. Great are You, O God, and worthy to receive everlasting praise from us for everything that is, for the love and joy and awe You instill in us through Your creation. May we be a pleasure to You. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
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