Genesis 1:1-2:4a From beginning to end, the Bible
regards God as the Creator of heaven and earth.
The Holy prophets simply assume that the story Genesis tells of God and
man and creation is true-- and explains the world as we know it.
When Jesus taught
on men and women and marriage he went back to the first chapters of
Genesis. The Holy apostles did the
same.
For nearly two
thousand years the whole Christian church has confessed: I believe in God—the Father almighty, maker
of heaven and earth. The Lutheran church
confesses the same: I believe that God has
made me and all creatures. Our own
church body teaches that “God has created heaven and earth in the manner and
space of time recorded in the Holy Scriptures by God’s almighty creative word
in six days and we reject every doctrine which denies or limits the work of
creation as taught in Scripture.”
For thousands and
thousands of years, to be a believer in God- IS to believe that the words that we have before us in our Old
Testament lesson today tell us the truth about God and the world and ourselves. That truth is what we are considering in our
meditation on God’s Word this morning. By the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,
Moses wrote: “In the beginning God-- created the heavens and the earth.”
Before there was space—before
there was time—before there was matter—there was God. He simply is—and was—and always has been—and
always will be. When Moses asked God his
name at the burning bush so he could convey it to the enslaved Israelites, God
answered and said: Tell them I AM has
sent you.
God is not a part
of creation as pagans believe—God is not the creation of man as humanists
believe—God is the Creator of both the world and mankind—and he has
accomplished the creation of all that exists in heaven and on earth simply- by-
the- power- of- his- Word.
In six days, God
called into existence everything that exists-- such is the power of his
Word—and so it still is today. God’s
Word ALWAYS accomplishes its creative and saving purpose. When God says: you are forgiven—you are. When God says: you are my child—you are. When God says: you will live with me forever—you will.
And so who is this
God who simply IS? Who is this God whose
Word always accomplishes its creative and re-creative purpose? Is he simply an impersonal force in the
universe?
No! The God of creation is the Holy
Trinity—confessed in the creeds of the church—believed in by the hearts of all
who will be saved—and revealed in the pages of the Bible from the very first
verses of Genesis. Moses writes:
In the beginning, God
created the heavens and the earth. 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. And God
said…Let there be light.
The God who IS—the
God who is from everlasting to everlasting—the God who created the world—IS the
Holy Trinity: the Father who creates—the
Son who is the Word through which the world is created and re-cr4eated in his
death and resurrection—and the Holy Spirit who bears witness to it all—One God
in three persons, there at the beginning, creating the world—One God in three
persons saving the world through the Father’s plan, and the Son’s work, and the
Spirit’s witness. THAT IS THE TRUTH
ABOUT GOD.
The idea that the
world simply came into being on its own- or that it has always existed- or that
it is the product of some kind of random cosmic event- is not found in the
Bible.
The Bible teaches
that a personal God of love and wisdom brought it into existence by the power
of his word and called it good.
Believers for thousands of years have simply affirmed what the Bible
teaches and what we can observe around us.
Only in the last
150 years or so has there been a serious assault upon the biblical doctrine of
creation.
Now, the Bible is
not a biology or chemistry or geology textbook.
The Bible does not set a date for creation. Christians do not object to the idea that a species
can adapt to its environment.
But what we do
object to—what we reject out of hand-- is the idea that the world around us is
the result of a blind, meaningless process lasting billions of years where
trillions of accidents, one after another, somehow all worked out just right
for the world that we live in to exist.
That idea is
absurd on the face of it and completely different than our own experience-- and
everything that we observe around us.
None of us sits
down to our laptop to do our homework or surf the Internet and say to
ourselves: isn’t this machine a marvel
what the sands of time and bits of substances have been able to manufacture all
on their own. Ridiculous! We know that some very, very smart people are
responsible for that computer and how it works.
And as complex as a computer is—it is nothing compared to the human
brain or the human eye or even the simplest cellular function of life.
The story- of the creation of the world- that
is told in the first chapters of Genesis- DOES however correspond to what we
can observe and know from science: that
we live in an orderly universe—that simple life preceded complex life- that a
world for life to live in preceded them both- and that living things reproduce
according to their kind.
The first chapter
of Genesis is the story of a mighty, wise, loving God who created the universe
and all that is within it and ordered it in such a way that trillions and
trillions of events and processes and living things all correspond to one
another—moment by moment-- in such a way that life exists- and is supported-
and continued. THAT IS THE TRUTH ABOUT
THE WORLD.
The scientific
disciplines- and those who work in them- exist only because the first
scientists believed in and worshipped the God of creation and knew him to be a
God of wisdom and order whose handiwork in the universe could be observed and measured--
and assumptions made on the basis of that scientific work.
All true science
still follows that pattern and when it does not—as with evolution—it is because
scientists have abandoned that for which they are trained—for that which they
are not trained—and that is theology.
They and all who follow them in denying the Creator have substituted the
false god of their own intellect for the one true God and forgotten that they
are his creatures. God said:
“Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the
birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over
every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
With
these words we come to the purpose and pinnacle of God’s creation and that is
the creation of mankind—male and female together—created in the image of God.
We are
creatures—not gods—and certainly not the God WHO IS. Instead, we are living beings, created by
God.
But neither are we
merely creatures like plants and
animals—for we were created in God’s image.
Almost from the
beginning, mankind has rebelled against this truth that we are creatures of God. Adam and Eve wanted to be their own
gods—deciding for themselves what was best for them—and their sin continues to
this day with each of us chafing under the yoke of our creaturely-ness.
But mankind’s
rejection of God’s created order- and his relationship to man -also goes in the
opposite direction—away from claiming
divinity for ourselves-- to regarding human beings as merely creatures.
We are told that
we are no different—and certainly not any better-- than any other creature—that
we are simply animals—at highest point in the evolution of primates to be
sure—but in the end, no different in our essence from any other primate.
Believing that lie
is why so many people live like animals--at the mercy of their biology-- with
any call for them to live as moral creatures seen as the worst kind of
imposition and interference with the slavery they call freedom.
To those in our
culture who would raise the human person up to the place of God and make man
the measure of all things—the bible says that God is God and we are his
creatures.
To those in our
culture who would tell us that we are merely animals at the mercy of our basest
instincts, the Bible says that we were created in the image of God.
That we are
creatures made in the image of God IS THE TRUTH ABOUT OURSELVES and that reflected
image of God- in man- is exactly what we see in these verses that deal with our
vocation as parents and stewards. The
Bible says:
God created man in
his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created
them. And God blessed them. And God said
to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have
dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over
every living thing that moves on the earth.”
The love that
exists between the three persons of the Holy Trinity was creative and
productive—and it resulted in the creation of the world around us and
especially the creation of mankind in God’s image.
That there is a
human race is because the Triune God created us as the fruit of his love --to
receive his love. And created in the
image of God-- mankind (male and female) become partners with him in bringing
forth new life-- to love and care for.
The love that
exists between a man and a woman in marriage is —by God’s design and
intent—procreative—it brings forth children as the fruit and recipients of their
love-- just like God did in creating mankind.
And the command of
God given to mankind in the beginning to “fill
the earth, subdue it, and have dominion over it” is our calling to make a
world for our children by being stewards of God’s gifts to us-- just as he
created a world for us to live in—in the beginning. The vocation of parents and stewards is one
place where the image of God in man is clearly revealed.
These first few
chapters of Genesis are not myth—they are not legend—they are not the best
story that pre-scientific peoples could come up with to understand their own
existence. They are the truth about God,
the world, and ourselves.
They reveal that
there is one God in three persons who created everything that exists. They explain just exactly how the world
around us came into being—as the product of a powerful and wise being. And they tell us about ourselves—that we are
created in God’s image to be people of love who work to create a world of
beauty and goodness for those we love.
Amen.
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