Genesis 1-2
Introduction
It is always a joy to speak to our student body at North Greenville University. I am genuinely grateful for this trust and privilege. I hope you will allow God to speak to your lives through this video. In a world where the Bible and the notion of God as Creator is largely rejected, where science has become a belief/faith system for many with its tenets and ever-changing and inconsistent reality, and where Christianity has been regulated by the enemy to be destroyed rather than life-giving truth, does creation matter?
The Big Questions of Life
Charles Colson and Nancy Pearsey wrote a book, How Now Shall We Live, in 1999, that is more relevant today than the year they penned it.[1] Their book focused on constructing a worldview that is Christ-centered and addresses four of life’s big questions. Worldview simply stated is the lens through which a person views and makes sense of the world. Philosopher Ronald Nash defines worldview as “a set of beliefs about the most important issues of life.”[2] It is a conceptual framework by which we interpret and judge reality.
The worldview perspective of naturalism argues that everything occurs naturally. There is no God or created order. Therefore, people are accountable to no one. Human reason is sovereign and the final authority in life. Nothing can trump human reason from this worldview.
Colson and Pearsey argue that human reason is incapable of answering the big questions of life. The questions addressed in their book are:
- Where did I come from and who am I? This question addresses origins, what it means to be human, and defines a person’s purpose for life. Creation addresses this question from a biblical worldview.
- What has gone wrong with the world? The record of the fall of the first humans in Genesis 3 responds to this question.
- What can be done to fix the world? Redemption through Christ is the only hope for the world (2 Cor 5:21; Eph 2:1-10).
- How now shall we live? God restores humanity to himself through redemption. As the redeemed, believers are to live lives reflecting what God is like to a fallen world.
In today’s message, I will, with the help of the Holy Spirit, address the first of these questions; “Does Creation Matter?”
In the Beginning, God
The book of beginnings, Genesis, is the resplendent opening of both the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Scriptures. The Scriptures introduce God, the Creator, and humanity, the creatures he made in his image.[3] God is in the beginning before creation came into being. He is the eternal being who has always existed. Since God predates creation, he created the world out of nothing, creatio ex nihilo. All of creation extends from God. He brought the world into being by the power of his Word. When God said, “Let there be light,” there was light. Nothing can resist the hand, voice, or wishes of the sovereign, eternal God. All that exists finds its essence flowing from the Creator.
Richard M. Davidson presents an argument that Genesis 1-3 is set apart from the rest of the Bible as a prologue to all that will follow in the Scriptures.[4] John Rankin summarizes the growing conviction of biblical scholars: “Whether one is evangelical or liberal, it is clear that Genesis 1-3 is the interpretive foundation for all Scripture.”[5]
Science offers relative explanations based on current available data. It is always subject to change. For instance, prior to the work of Galileo, the scientific and religious communities agreed that the earth was the center of the universe, and everything revolved around it. Based on Galileo’s work, people today are in general agreement that the earth is infinitesimally small and in our solar system, the earth and all other planets revolve around the sun. Observable scientific discoveries are always subject to change as the available data increases. The Big Bang theory has several problems related to the biblical account. Current scientific theory dates the origin of the universe to approximately 20 billion years ago which many evangelical believers find unacceptable. Even if the Big Bang theory was true, it offers no explanation in regard to cause, nor does it shed light on why the universe is so astonishingly complex.
The Bible begins with the words:
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,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day (Gen 1:1-5, ESV).
Image Bearers of the Creator
God created you. You may ask who then is God? When Moses encountered God at the burning bush in Exodus 3-4, he asked God what he should say to the Israelites if they asked him the name of the God who sent him. God responded, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you'” (Exod 3:14). Douglas Stuart in his commentary on Exodus states that I am means, “I cause to be.” God is the first cause; he created all things. He is both the Creator and sustainer of all that is. God is active and present in his creation, and he is the Lord of history. Stuart translates the name God gives to Moses in this passage as “I cause to be because I cause to be.”[6]
You are fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of the Creator. You are a person of worth, created in the image of God to relate and live. Grady Nutt paraphrased this assessment with the words, “You are you. You are good because doesn’t make no junk.” You are a unique person of unimaginable worth and value because you are created in the image of God. As people distinctively designed by the Creator, humans are the only part of creation with the ability to reflect what God is like. We have no light of our own, but we can reflect the light of our heavenly father to a broken and fallen world. Our mission is to know God, to be a disciple, and to make disciples of others. The chief end of humanity is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.[7]
The God who causes to bespoke the world into existence as recorded in the first chapter of the Bible. He simply made a declaration and it was done. Throughout the creation narrative, God consistently judges the results of his creative work as “good.” The climax of his creative activity is the making of human beings. Genesis 1:26-27 states,
Then God said, “Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” So God created man in His own image, He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female” (ESV).
Gordon Wenham notes that the creation narrative seems to slow down when it comes to the creation of humans, indicating that this is the climactic event of the narrative.[8] The creation of human life is the last and most important aspect of the creation account. James Montgomery Boice points to the creation of humans as the pinnacle of creation. From this point forward, the story of Genesis focuses on people who not only live in rebellion against God but are also the recipients of God’s special love and redemption.[9] God created us in his image. Adam and Eve were set apart from all of creation to bear the image of the Creator and were commissioned to rule over the rest of the created order.[10] As creatures fashioned in the image of God, men and women of all ethnicities reflect what God is like and serve as his representatives in the world. Humans are like God in some moral aspects, having a sense of right and wrong and the ability to make moral (or immoral) choices. People reflect God’s likeness when they are obedient to God’s Word, holy, and righteous. On the other hand, they are unlike God when they sin against the holy character and nature of God. Bearing God’s image brings both great privilege and great responsibility to humanity.[11] Being created in the image of God means that humans are his representatives on earth and are held accountable as such. People of all ethnic distinctions have the ability to enter into personal relationships with God, speaking with him and enjoying fellowship with him.[12] As image-bearers of the Creator, humans have the unique ability to reflect who he is and what he is like to the rest of humanity. At the conclusion of his creative activity, God is both satisfied and delighted in his creative work. He pronounces the whole of creation as “very good” (Gen 1:31). The creation narrative celebrates the splendid activity of God’s work and the provision of God for his creatures.
Racism
God created all of humanity in his image with equal dignity and worth. All people, regardless of their ethnic heritage, socioeconomic background, nationality, or gender are created in the image of God. Therefore, any notion that one ethnic group is superior to another is clearly outside of the scope of revealed biblical truth.[13] Racism in any form is an affront to God and a rejection of his plan for humanity. To replace one form of racism with another is never a noble or godly endeavor.
With the horrific death of George Floyd and the emotions that followed, our culture created an environment where people gave money to support people and organizations, many of whom played on the passions of Floyd’s tragic death to turn considerable profits for which there was no accountability. People became millionaires using well-intended donations from givers who wanted to make a difference and believed they were doing the right thing. While white privilege is an undeniable reality in our culture, so are many other kinds of privileges that are being ignored by the culture at large. The tendency of our current culture is to magnify and celebrate expressed views that agree with our political persuasion and ideology, but all opposing views must be silenced while demonizing those who hold to opposing views. Such processes are antithetical to historic views of higher education and critical thinking. While racism in every form is always wrong, Critical Race Theory (CRT) has been difficult to define in a uniform way. Many of the beneficiaries of CRT are ironically white supremacists by their own definitions and have gained a great deal of wealth and notoriety from their writings, beliefs, and training. If there is any data that shows the leaders of these movements have given sacrificially to the cause they claim to champion, I am not privy to that data.
Personal opinion is far too unreliable to offer eternal answers. Many sociologists refer to race as a social construct. The Bible addresses only one race in the creation account; the human race. If the Bible is true and reliable as I believe it is, it was never God’s intention for any race to claim supremacy over other races. We are all created equally in the image of God. Yes, creation matters.
Spiritual Warfare
The first two chapters of Genesis are the only portions of God’s self-revelation that occur before sin and rebellion entered the world in the garden of Eden. The story of the fall in Genesis 3 answers the second question posed by Colson and Pearsey, “What has gone wrong with the world.” I wish I had time to address that question this morning. Chapter 3 offers the abrupt arrival of a sinister character who initiates spiritual warfare, a battle that is raging in our world today. The first two chapters of Genesis offer a prelude of what is yet to come. We have already examined the issue of the ungodly nature of racism. The first words of Satan, the archenemy of God who appears in the form of the ancient serpent in Genesis 3 (see Rev 12:9), is to question, twist, and contradict God’s Word, offering his own counterfeit version of reality based on his personal opinion. This is an effective strategy that the enemy continues to employ to entrap others.
Walter Bruggemann argues that Genesis 2 should not be viewed as a separate, parallel account of creation, but rather as a more in-depth reflection on Genesis 1.[14] Boice agrees, citing Matthew 19:4-5 as evidence that Jesus affirmed the unity of the creation account in Genesis 1 and 2. Jesus quotes from both Genesis 1 and 2 in this passage, regarding the two chapters as a harmonious unit.[15] In Genesis 2, God demonstrates great care in creating Adam. God meticulously formed Adam out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and Adam became a living being. Each human being, regardless of race or culture, is created in the image of God with the same care taken as when Adam was fashioned. The man is placed in the garden where God gives him the liberty of eating from any tree in Eden with the exception of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This prohibition is for the good of the man. God wants to protect the man, his image-bearer, for anyone who eats of the forbidden tree will die. Freedom has no meaning without boundaries. Of all the created order, man alone possesses the potential for making moral decisions, with the potential to reflect the character and likeness of the Creator.[16] God desires for his human creatures to live in a love relationship with him and with one another.[17]
The Question of Gender
God created humanity as male and female. The creation account states clearly that God created Adam and Eve, a male human being and a woman who was declared a suitable partner for him. Note the text states that God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. The Creator chose to make two distinct sexes who complement each other. God made each of us for his purpose. Gender dysphoria is the strong desire to reject the sex assigned to a person at birth (from the Creator) in favor of the gender identity that the person desires (at the time). Ultimately, this is an attempt to displace the authority of the Creator with personal opinion and cultural pressure, positions that are highly valued by many in our world today. If there is no God, then I am accountable to no one and can do with my body, mind, and soul whatever I choose. Such thinking always leads to chaos, lawlessness, and destruction.
Title IX was created to ensure female athletes were afforded the same opportunities as male athletes. There was uniform agreement in society that men and women are different. Am I going too fast? Let me state that again. Men and women are different not only physically, but in many other ways as well. Body and muscle mass is different for men and women. The reason we have men’s and women’s sports are so a woman can compete against other women with more equal standing and men can compete with other men. Males who declare their choice to be females still have superior bodies and muscle mass. Therefore, allowing men to participate in female sports takes away the equal opportunity for females to perform in competition destroying the original intention of Title IX. In light of the gender role confusion, we are also seeing more people pushing for the legalization of polygamy, polyandry, sexual molestation, and incest, which all will likely become legal in the next few years if God tarries and does not send a spiritual awakening to the United States. All these issues undermine the Creator’s purpose in creating both male and female. Now before you turn off this message, let me be quick to say that I recognize same-sex attraction is real for many in our culture. In fact, our culture has intentionally pushed for this gender confusion and delights and celebrates every convert. If you struggle with same-sex attraction, you are not alone. Reach out to our counselors and campus ministry team who will love you, pray with you and for you, and will look to the Scriptures to find God’s authoritative answers for the questions with which you wrestle. Do not feel that you need to fight this battle alone. Many of our faculty and staff will walk through this journey with you.
Creation matters not only because it answers the question of where did I come from and who am I as a unique creation of God, but it also addresses the issue of purpose. One of the things I love about this generation of students is that the Creator has instilled within them an intense desire to make a difference in the world. As a university that is unapologetically Christ-centered, biblically faithful, academically excellent, and mission-focused, North Greenville seeks to develop students who will are transformational leaders for the Church and society. Humans are designed to find purpose and meaning in knowing God and living out his purpose for their lives as divine image-bearers. Believers have no light of their own, rather they reflect the light of the Creator by reflecting the image of what he is like to an unbelieving, fallen, and rebellious world.
Conclusion
Creation does matter.
- You are created by God. He desires to live in relationship with you.
- You are created in his image; all of humanity has equal dignity and worth
- You are created as male and female.
- You are accountable to the Creator.
- You were created with purpose, to make a difference in the world as the Creator leads and guides you.
Would you bow your head and spend some time reflecting on creation? The sovereign God of the universe wants to assist you in discovering the origins of life, answering the question of identity, and lead you to discern his divine purpose for your life. Answering the big questions of life begins with a personal relationship with the only God who made you. Would you recognize his authority in your life? Are you willing to repent of your sin, turn away from it, and ask for God’s gracious forgiveness, redemption, and restoration? Will you receive Christ by faith as the second person of the Trinity, fully God and fully man? Do you believe Jesus died for you bearing the punishment you rightly deserved to set you free from the bondage of sin and to give you eternal life?
Others of you who are believers may be struggling with the sin issues of racism and gender dysphoria. Your battle may be with lust, selfishness, pride, rebellion against God or some other issue that I did not even address in this sermon. If the Holy Spirit is convicting you of some sin in your life, repent of that sin and by faith receive the precious forgiveness and restoration of the Lord.
There may be others of you who are wrestling with your purpose for life. God is likely calling some of you to serve as cross-culture missionaries in your neighborhood or among the people groups of the nations around the world. Others are being called out to serve as pastors, youth pastors, worship leaders, teachers, children’s ministries, etc. It seems that it is a rare student these days that is responding to God’s call to serve as a pastor, but every church needs a pastor. Are you willing to respond to God’s call on your life? Like Jesus’ disciples, are you willing to abandon everything for the sake of God’s call?
If God is calling you to respond to this message in any way, let us know by texting your response instructed at the conclusion of this video. May the Creator and sustainer of all that exists direct your lives and comfort you with his presence and peace. To God and God alone be the glory for his saving and enduring work in our lives. Let me pray for you.
[1]See Charles Colson and Nancy Pearsey, How Now Shall We Live (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 1999).
[2]Ronald Nash, Worldviews in Conflict (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992), 16.
[3]Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15, Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 1 (Waco, TX; Word, 1987), 5.
[4]Richard M. Davidson, “The Genesis Account of Origins in The Genesis Creation Account and Reverberations in the Old Testament, ed. Gerald A. Klingbeil (Barrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2015), 59.
[5]John Rankin, “Power and Gender at the Divinity School,” in Finding God at Harvard: Spiritual Journeys of Christian Thinkers, ed. Kelly Monroe (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), 2003 quoted in Richard M. Davidson, “The Genesis Account of Origins in The Genesis Creation Account and Reverberations in the Old Testament, ed. Gerald A. Klingbeil (Barrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2015), 59.
[6]Douglas K. Stuart, Exodus, The New American Commentary, vol. 2 (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2006), 120-21.
[7]The Westminster Shorter Catechism, https://opc.org/sc.html. Accessed on August 31, 2021.
[8]Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15, Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 1 (Waco, TX; Word, 1987), 27.
[9]James Montgomery Boice, Genesis: An Expositional Commentary, vol. 1 (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1998), 87.
[10]Kenneth A. Mathews, Genesis 1-11:26, The New American Commentary, vol. 1A (Nashville, TN: Broadman and Holman, 1999), 160.
[11]Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 442-50.
[12]Wenham, Genesis 1-15, 29-33. Wenham refers to five primary ways of understanding the meaning of the terms image and likeness in this passage. (1) Image and likeness are distinct from each other with image representing the human ability of reason and human personality, each reflective of the Creator, while likeness refers to ethics and morality. Wenham rejects this notion because the terms are used without distinction as synonyms in Genesis. (2) Image reflects the mental and spiritual facilities humans share with God. Wenham warns that such a view is difficult to pin down opening the possibility of commentators gravitating toward imposing their own values on the text. (3) Image refers to a physical resemblance between humans and God. This definition of image is consistent with how the term is used in Genesis and in other places. Wenham, however, points to other passages that express that God does not have a material existence and his invisibility in dismissing this interpretation. (4) The concept of being created in the image of God makes humans God’s representatives on earth. More than the idea that kings and leaders function as representatives of God, this interpretation affirms that every man and woman is a representative of God. (5) Being created in the image of God gives people the capacity to relate to God. Therefore, a human is able to have a personal relationship with God. Wenham admits the difficulty of determining what, created in the image of God means in Genesis.
[13]Rodney M. Woo, The Color of Church: A Biblical and Practical Paradigm for Multiracial Churches (Nashville: B & H, 2009), 10.
[14]Walter Bruggemann, Genesis: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Atlanta: John Knox, 1984), 37. Richard Hess agrees that the account in Gen 2 does not contradict the preceding account but focuses on a different emphasis. For more on this discussion, see Richard S. Hess, “Equality With and Without Innocence: Genesis 1-3,” in Discovering Biblical Equality: Biblical, Theological, Cultural, and Practical Perspectives, ed. Ronald W. Pierce, Rebecca Merrill Groothuis, and Gordon D. Fee (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005), 82.
[15]Some liberal scholars have argued that Genesis 1 and 2 represent two dissimilar and even contradictory accounts. Boice traces this view to Jean Astruc’s work on literary sources in Genesis. Astruc argues that the use of Elohim in Gen 1 and Jehovah in Gen 2 demonstrates that the accounts have different origins and should be viewed as separate accounts. Such a view is the fertile soil out of which the JEPD theory of literary sources of the Pentateuch grew. See Boice, Genesis, 107-10.
[16]Wenham, Genesis 1-15, 40.
[17]Mark J. Boda, “Old Testament Foundations of Christian Spirituality,” in Dictionary of Christian Spirituality, ed. Glen G. Scorgie et al. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011), 41.