God
speaks, and all creation snaps to attention like an army following orders on a
parade ground. Every atom is under His sovereign command. Split one atom and the
energy produced can power or destroy a whole city.
Second, God makes Himself
known to us more clearly by His holy and divine Word as much as we need in this life, for God’s glory and for our salvation.The
Bible is God’s Word written and Jesus is God’s Word incarnate. Thus, God’s Word
written, reveals God’s Word incarnate (John 5:39). The Spirit reveals the Son
who reveals the Father (John 14:9, 26; 15:26). “In the past God spoke to our
ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these
last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things,
and through whom also He made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s
glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His
powerful word” (Heb. 1:1-3a).
If
we want to know what God looks and acts like, we look at Jesus as the Scriptures
reveal Him, and not how we wish Him to be. And if we want to know of God’s
power and abilities, we study His creation. “For since the creation of the
world God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine
nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made,
so that people are without excuse” (Rom. 1:20). Therefore, through our five
senses as human beings, God reveals Himself to us through His creation and His
written Word, the 66 books of the Bible.
Remember,
it’s all about Jesus. How so? “All things were created through Him and for
Him” (Col. 1:16a). We begin in Genesis chapter 1.
We’re
All Theologians
Theology
has become a scary word to some Christians. However, theology is the study of
God. The word theology comprises of two Koine Greek words, (θεολογία),
formed from theos (“god”) and logia, (which has to
do with λόγος (logos) meaning “word.”) Thus, for the
Christian, theology means God-Word.
Our
understanding of God comes from our study of God’s Word written, wherein is
revealed God’s Word incarnate. As Reformed, we believe that Scripture interprets
Scripture. Another way of saying this is that the Word interprets the Word.
Thus, we use Jesus, the “express image” or “exact representation” of God to
study God and His creation. Christ is the glass we look through to magnify God.
We cannot and will not see God (or His Kingdom) without Christ (John 3:3).
Notice how the Belgic
Confession in Article 12 speaks of the beginning of creation. Under
the heading, The Creation of All Things, it says, “We believe that the Father, when it
seemed good to Him, created heaven and earth and all other creatures from
nothing, by the Word—that is to say, by the Son…”
If
we may be permitted to paraphrase the opening verse of the Bible, we might say
that the Father spoke His Word and Their Spirit brought forth creation. “For
there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the
Holy Spirit; and these three are one” (1 John 5:7, NKJV). Herman Bavinck
reminds us that, “The Father is pre-eminent in the works of creation
and redemption; He represents the Trinity; hence, He is often called God, even
by Christ. Nevertheless, the Son and the Holy Spirit are also God.
Notice
that the three Persons in the Godhead are mentioned in the following, “And the
Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let
there be light’; and there was light” (Gen. 1:2b-3). Thus, the Father
(God) speaks His Word and Their Spirit brings into being whatever is commanded.
“By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host
of them by the breath of His mouth” (Psa. 33:6). “By faith we understand
that the universe was created by the word of God” (Heb. 11:3a, ESV). “[The
Word] is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (Col. 1:17).
Therefore, Christ is the glue that holds all creation together.
Logos is the New
Testament equivalent of Old Testament Debar, which, among other things,
generally means “word,” “matter, or “promise.” In the Bible, Debar can also
refer to a spoken word, a command. In Genesis 1 God spoke ten words or commands,
i.e., ten times we read, “and God said, ‘Let there be…, Let Us…’” etc., as He
spoke things into being.
The
Word Interpreting the Word
Much
has been made of the word ‘day’ in Genesis chapter 1. Are the days listed 24-hour
periods or undefined expanses of time? This may seem like a strange way to go
about reading the Bible, wondering if a day really means a 24-hour day or some
undefined amount of time. What does an approach like this do to the rest of the
Bible, if we can’t be sure if the words mean what we think they mean? To be
sure, day can mean various things depending on context. Back in Adam’s day, during
the day as opposed to during the night. However, a plain reading of Genesis 1
would seem to suggest the Moses meant the days as 24-hour days.
“God
called the light ‘day’, and the darkness he called ‘night’. And there was
evening, and there was morning – the first day” (Gen. 1:5, NIV). The Word,
who was in the beginning with God, asks the following rhetorical question, “Are
there not twelve hours of daylight?” (John 11:9a, NIV). Twelve hours of
daylight the Word refers to would line up with what He, as God, says in Genesis
1:5, “God called the light ‘day.’” Also, Jesus says, “For as Jonah was three
days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be
three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt. 12:40). Notice
that Jesus, here, differentiates between days and nights, just as God in
Genesis 1:5 does. So, let’s side with the Word interpreting the Word here and
settle with 24-hour days in Genesis chapter 1. Says author and theologian,
Kenneth Gentry,
Too many
Christians dismiss six-day creationism as naive. They usually do so in order to
avoid being mocked by evolutionist Christians. This is unfortunate because
there are many scholars who hold to six-day creation. Perhaps a survey of some
of these names will be encouraging to my readers. The Six-day Creationist view
that I hold, and which I present and defend, stands upon the exegetical
observations of well-argued, long-standing, traditional orthodoxy — an
orthodoxy including many noteworthy biblical and exegetical scholars from the
past and the present.
Older noteworthy
scholars include the following:
· Martin Luther
(1483–1546): “Moses spoke in the literal sense, not allegorically or
figuratively, i.e., that the world, with all its creatures, was created within
six days, as the words read.”
· John Calvin
(1509–64): “God himself took the space of six days” to create; “six days were
employed in the formation of the world.” …
· Robert L. Dabney
(1820–98): “the sacred writer seems to shut us up to the literal
interpretation,” noting that “the natural day is its literal and primary
meaning.”
More
recent advocates of six-day creation include the following:
· Geerhardus Vos
(1862–1949): “the days of creation were ordinary days.”
· Louis Berkhof
(1873–1957): “the literal interpretation of the term ‘day’ in Gen. 1 is
favored.”
· H. C. Leupold
(1891–1972): “when the verse [Gen. 1:5] concludes with the statement that the
first ‘day’ (yôm) is concluded, the term must mean a twenty-four hour period.”
· Robert L. Reymond
(1932–2013), Professor of Systematic Theology: “[I] can discern no reason,
either from Scripture or from the human sciences, for departing from the view
that the days of Genesis were ordinary twenty-four-hour days.” …
· R. C. Sproul
(1939–) of Ligonier Ministries: “For most of my teaching career, I considered
the framework hypothesis to be a possibility. But I have now [2006] changed my
mind. I now hold to a literal six-day creation.” …
Westminster Larger
Catechism,
Q. 120. What
are the reasons annexed to the fourth commandment, the more to enforce it?
A. The reasons annexed to the fourth commandment, the more to
enforce it, are taken from the equity of it, God allowing us six days of seven
for our own affairs, and reserving but one for himself, in these words, six
days shalt thou labor and do all thy work: from God’s challenging a special
propriety in that day, the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: from
the example of God, who in six days made heaven and earth, the sea, and all
that in them is, and rested the seventh day: and from that blessing which God
put upon that day, not only in sanctifying it to be a day for his service, but
in ordaining it to be a means of blessing to us in our sanctifying it,
wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath-day and hallowed it.
Westminster
Shorter Catechism,
Q. 9. What is
the work of creation?
A. The work
of creation is, God’s making all things of nothing, by the word of his power,
in the space of six days, and all very good.
So, along with Scripture, we
understand that God created creation “in the space of six days.” “For in six
days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all
that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore
the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it” (Exod. 20:11).
It’s
All about God’s Glory
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Whether
stargazing from a mountaintop or through a telescope into deep space, we are
observing something of God’s almightiness. We ought to give Him the glory as
Creator. As Christians, we thank God, thereby glorifying Him, before eating
even the simplest of meals. How much more then ought we to thank Him for revealing
Himself to us by His creation and His Word? “Therefore, whether you eat or
drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31). Our
giving thanks to Him is an act of worship. To give God glory is to worship Him.
Westminster Confession of Fath, chapter 4, Of Creation,
It pleased God the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, for the manifestation of the glory of His
eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, in the beginning, to create or make
of nothing the world, and all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in
the space of six days, and all very good.
God
reveals His character in His creation and in His Word. No doubt there is a
relationship between those ten words spoken by God and the ten words, as in the
Ten Commandments. It is no accident, therefore, that before He speaks His ten
words of creation, God reveals that He is the One who created us. Likewise,
before He gives His ten commandments to His people, (which were written in our
hearts upon our creation, Rom. 2:14-15), He reveals that He is the One who has
redeemed them. Both instances have a preamble, and in both instances, (Creation
and Redemption), human beings are to worship and serve Him as Creator and now,
after the Fall, also as Redeemer.
The
opening verses of the Bible are covenantal, where we see that there is a
preamble stating who the covenanting party is, which includes a bit of history.
We see God identify who He is, i.e., Creator, then He is gives us a bit of
history of what He has done for us, i.e., created us in His own image, giving
mankind dominion, a place for us to live, and supplying us with food etc.
It’s
All about the Word Becoming Flesh
When
it comes to the Word becoming flesh to redeem creation, Herman Bavinck says, “The
incarnation has its presupposition and foundation in the Trinitarian being of
God.” Thus, neither the Father
nor the Holy Spirit clothed Themselves in human garb but only Jesus. However,
we must be care when we speak of Jesus. The God-Man Jesus only began to exist
in human form from the point of His conception by the Holy Spirit in the womb
of the Virgin. Prior to that He was the eternal Word, who, when the time was
right, became also a man. “But when the fullness of the time had come, God
sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Gal.
4:4). Therefore, Jesus did not have a human body that He brought with Him from
heaven. This is laid out for us in Westminster Confession of Faith, chapter 8. Of Christ the Mediator, paragraph 2,
The Son of God,
the second person in the Trinity, being very and eternal God, of one substance
and equal with the Father, did, when the fullness of time was come, take upon Him
man’s nature, with all the essential properties, and common infirmities
thereof, yet without sin; being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost,
in the womb of the Virgin Mary, of her substance. So that two whole,
perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably
joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. Which
person is very God, and very man, yet one Christ, the only Mediator between God
and man.
Though
all three Persons are involved in each work, the Father is usually referred to
as Creator, the Son as Redeemer, and the Spirit as Sanctifier.
And though the same Triune God, theologians refer to Him by two descriptions, the
ontological and economical Trinity. The ontological Trinity is
God in and of Himself in eternity and the economical Trinity is God in relation
to creation in time. Genesis 1, what we are looking at, is speaking of God in
relation to creation.
Imagine
a novelist, say, JRR Tolkien, entering into his novel, The Lord of the Rings,
and playing a role therein. This is kind of like the Triune God in eternity
past writing a story in which He plays the star role, where He is going to step
into His creation. Nothing is left to chance. This is what is meant by, “when
the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son.”
Throughout
Scripture, from the Fall of man in the garden, to the beginning of the New
Testament, the Son would make cameo appearances. Some examples are, “And they
heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool
of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of
the Lord God among the trees of the garden” (Gen. 3:8). “Then Jacob
was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day”
(Gen. 32:24). “And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a
flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was
burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed” (Exod. 3:2).
“And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted his eyes and
looked, and behold, a Man stood opposite him with His sword drawn in
His hand. And Joshua went to Him and said to Him, “Are You for us
or for our adversaries?”” (Josh 5:13). Examples could be multiplied. These are
called Theophanies, which means temporary God appearances. A better word
for what we are looking at is Christophanies, temporary Christ
appearances. These are manifestation of God.
When
the Word became flesh, Christ became one divine Person with two natures
forever. Therefore, Jesus is not two Persons, a God Person and a human person.
He in one Divine Person with two natures and will remain such forever. This is
what is meant by His being fully God and fully man.
Christ,
by highest heaven adored,
Christ,
the everlasting Lord,
late
in time behold him come,
offspring
of the Virgin’s womb:
veiled
in flesh the Godhead see;
hail
th’incarnate Deity,
pleased
with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus,
our Immanuel.
The
incarnation is all about God sending His Son into the world. Why? Redemption. “And
she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will
save His people from their sins” “For God did not send His Son into the world
to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John
3:17). Thus, Jesus came into the world to redeem His people and place for them
to live with Him on earth forever.
If
I said that I was a father, you would wonder who my offspring was. The word father begs the same
question. We have seen the Father sent His Son into the world. It is here that
we need to look a little closer at the Triune nature of God.
Creation
is All about the Trinity
The
first act of creation was the Creator preparing to send the Redeemer into the
world. After the Redeemer’s work of redemption was completed, both Creator and
Redeemer would send the Sanctifier into the world to apply that redemption.
Thank You, O my
Father
For giving us Your
Son
And leaving us
Your Spirit
’Til the work on
earth is done.
The
Holy Spirit, working with the Word in our hearts, is the One who brings us into
communion or fellowship with God through Christ. “The grace of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with
you all. Amen.” (2 Cor. 13:14).
It
is common to begin at the cross when talking about Christianity. This is
because the cross is the heart of the Gospel. “For I delivered to you
first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose
again the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3). However,
when we ask, who is this Christ that died for our sin? We must start with
what the Bible starts with: God. “In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth.”
There
are many cults, such as Jehovah’s Witness, Mormons, Islam, claiming their Jesus
is the right Jesus. However, unless you have the Jesus of the Bible, your
belief in Him is in vain. Jesus is God the Son, the second or middle Person in
the Trinity. Judaism, like the other cults, rejects Jesus because it rejects
the Triune nature of God.
The
great Bible Commentator, Matthew Henry, commenting on Genesis 1 writes,
The author and
cause of this great work—GOD. The Hebrew word is Elohim, which
bespeaks, 1. The power of God the Creator. El signifies the
strong God; and what less than almighty strength could bring all
things out of nothing? 2. The plurality of persons in the Godhead, Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost. This plural name of God, in Hebrew, which speaks of Him as many
though He is one, was to the Gentiles perhaps a savour of death unto death,
hardening them in their idolatry; but it is to us a savour of life unto life,
confirming our faith in the doctrine of the Trinity, which, though but darkly
intimated in the Old Testament, is clearly revealed in the New. The Son of God,
the eternal Word and Wisdom of the Father, was with Him when He made the world
(Prov. 8:30), nay, we are often told that the world was made by Him, and
nothing made without Him, John 1:3, 10; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2. O what
high thoughts should this form in our minds of that great God whom we draw nigh
to in religious worship, and that great Mediator in whose name we draw nigh!
The
words of Genesis 1:26 makes the Triune nature of God all the clearer where it
says, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” It is
understood that when God created man in His own image, He had the future Jesus
in mind, who is “the express image of His person.” “And we all, who with
unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His
image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit”
(2 Cor. 3:18, NIV). The Spirit works with the Word in our hearts to transform
us. Thus, the Spirit of Christ, i.., the Holy Spirit, comes to us with His
Word.
We
see in the New Testament, for example, that Jesus, the Word, “spoke the word
[logos] to them” (Mark 2:2; cf. 4:33). An Old Testament example would be, “After
these things the word (debar) of the Lord came to Abram in a
vision: ‘Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very
great’” (Gen. 15:1; cf. 15:4). Thus, the Word comes with the Word.
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The
Word of God brings to us God’s revelation. We will remain humble for as long as
we remember that it is all about Jesus. We wonder how there can be light in
creation because the sun was not created until the fourth day. This is only
because we have not properly understood what it means where it says, “Then God
said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light” (Gen. 1:2b-3). If we
remember that creation is not all about us but all about Jesus and God’s glory,
then we will begin to understand what Jesus means when He says, “I am the light
of the world” (John 8:12). If
we keep our eyes on Jesus, not only we will begin to understand this fallen
creation better but also the redeemed creation, especially when it is fully
renewed. “The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine in it, for
the glory of God illuminated it. The Lamb is its light” (Rev. 21:23).
God
speaks to us through Creation. “The heavens tell about the glory of God. The
skies show that His hands created them. Day after day they speak about it. Night
after night they make it known. But they don’t speak or use words. No sound is
heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into the whole earth. Their words go
out from one end of the world to the other” (Psa. 19:1-4, NIV). After speaking
of God’s creation, the psalmist goes on to talk about God’s Word. We must not
miss the connection between God’s creation and God’s Word.
We
have already talked about Jesus as the Logos, meaning Word. Related to
the word logos is logistics which may be defined as the detailed
organization and implementation of a complex operation. When moving men and materiel,
the military involves itself in logistics. From calculating the amount of food
rations to feed the troops, how much fuel, how many trucks are needed to
transport them, weapons and ammo, route to travel, viewing weather reports,
bridge capabilities, etc., how much more so would God need to prepare creation
for “The Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world (Rev. 13:8b) to
enter it to redeem it?
Creation
is all about Jesus, the Logos who became flesh. Before He rested on the
seventh day (4th Commandment), Scripture makes a declaration: “God
saw all that He had made, and it was very good” (Gen. 1:31a). Being creatures
in God’s creation we must not think that we have any goodness apart from God. Jesus
says, “No one is good – except God alone” (Mark 10:18b). But what about
Jesus, the Logos? Well, Jesus
was part of God’s detailed organization and implementation of a complex
operation. Jesus is God’s logistics!
In
Genesis 1 we see God organising and implementing His complex operation so that
the Word could become flesh and dwell among us. Everything was considered right
down to the wood needed for the cross, the metal for the nails to pin Him to it
and the men to crucify Him. When viewed in light of God creating the heavens
and the earth and all therein out of nothing, the miraculous raising of Jesus
from the dead pales to insignificance.
God
introduces humanity on the sixth day of creation, thereby creating the manpower
with the skills needed to put His incarnate Son to death so that He could pay
the price required to purchase creation. With Isaac Watts we sing,
Were
the whole realm of Nature mine,
That
were an offering far too small;
Love
so amazing, so divine,
Demands
my soul, my life, my all.
The
whole realm of nature now belongs to Christ. As to His humanity, Jesus is
descended from Adam (Luke 3:23-38). When the Word became flesh, though fully
God, He became also fully human. This was a continuation of God’s “Cultural
Mandate.”
Glorifying
God by Obeying the Cultural Mandate
The Cultural Mandate is also
referred to as the Dominion Mandate. God mandated it in Genesis 1 and
again after the Flood in Genesis 9. The idea is that of mankind cultivating
God’s creation to the glory of God. It is about ruling over creation as God’s
vice regents. It involves relationships as individuals, families, nations. It
goes from cultivating soil, plants, livestock etc. to space exploration.
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Then God
said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let
them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and
over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps
on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in
the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God
blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the
earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the
birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis
1:26-28.
Each
Person in the Triune God has a relationship with the other Persons. The Father
loves the Son and Spirit. The Son loves the Father and Spirit. And the Spirit
loves the Father and the Son. Thus, in the Godhead each Person loves God and
His neighbour as Himself. Part of being created in God’s image is that mankind
is to image God by ruling His creation righteously and expressing His love in
our relationships. We are to “image” God on earth by doing everything to His
glory.
God created the
heavens and the earth and all therein for His own glory. Yes, even rockets to
the moon, Mars, and beyond are to be to His glory. The science that enables us
to do these things is to be to His glory, be it physics, chemistry,
mathematics, linguistics, architecture, biology, zoology, theology, philosophy,
whatever, all of this is included in God’s “Cultural Mandate” which means that
all of mankind is to be about the business of cultivating all things to God’s
glory.
If we keep in mind that mankind was
given all authority to rule over God’s creation as summarised in the Cultural
Mandate, we will not miss the Mandate’s direct connection with the Great
Commission. “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has
been given to Me in heaven and on earth’” (Matt. 28:18).
Jesus
is All of Creation’s Commander
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God
upholds all of creation by His Word, which means that He is in command of all
things. Jesus, the Logos, the LORD of hosts, whether an army of electrons,
angels or humans, Christ is the whole creation’s Commander. Remember, it’s all
about Him!
We
already mentioned God resting on the seventh day, on which the 4th
Commandment of God’s Law is based (Exod. 20:11). As do all Ten Commandments, the
4th Commandments points us to Jesus.
After
telling us about creation in Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of
God” etc, the psalmist goes on to tell us about God’s Law. “The law of
the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony
of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the
statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the
commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes; the
fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the
judgments of the LORD are true and righteous
altogether” (Psa. 19:7-9).
The
“Cultural Mandate” (Gen. 1:26-28) operates in accordance with God’s Law as
applied to every sphere of activity, be it mankind’s rule or relationships.
However, something went horribly wrong with mankind. We ought to be delighting
in the character of God, (the character we are supposed to be imaging), as
revealed in His Law. However, “For I delight in the law of God according
to the inward man. But I see another law
in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into
captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O
wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
(Rom. 7:22-24). God had a plan that He put into place “In the beginning…” Enter
Jesus.
“In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made
through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made … And the
Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”
(John 1:1-3, 14).
God’s
Law is Revelation of God’s Character
Character is the outward expression
of a person’s inner morals. This can be observed by the way 1 Corinthians 15:33
is translated with the words character and morals being interchangeable. “Do
not be deceived: ‘Bad company ruins good morals’” (ESV) and “Do not be
misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character’” (NIV). Westminster Larger
Catechism says,
Q. 98.
Where is the moral law summarily comprehended?
A. The moral
law is summarily comprehended in the ten commandments, which were delivered by
the voice of God upon mount Sinai, and written by him in two tables of stone;
and are recorded in the twentieth chapter of Exodus. The four first
commandments containing our duty to God, and the other six our duty to man.
If
we may be permitted to put it like this, the summary of the summary God’s Moral
Law is that we are to image the three Persons in the Godhead by, like Them in
Heaven, loving God and our neighbour as ourselves on Earth. That is what is
meant by “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 5:10).
Though
we are called Christians not God-ians (Acts 11:26), Christians
are also referred to as Trinitarian. As Reformed, as does the opening verse of
the Bible, as do the Ten Commandments (“You shall have no other gods before Me”),
we begin with God.
The
habit of many Christians is to begin at the cross and work your way back from
there to God. But how are we to properly understand the cross if we don’t first
have an encounter with the living and true God? Only then will the Spirit work
with His Word in our hearts teaching us the meaning of the cross and how it
applies to us. I fear that many have a superficial understanding of the cross
because they have a superficial or erroneous knowledge of God. In other words,
they shun doctrine as if it were a bad word! J. Gresham Machin gets at what I’m
driving at, “‘Christ died’—that is history; ‘Christ died for our sins’—that is
doctrine. Without these two elements, joined in an absolutely indissoluble
union, there is no Christianity.” To understand the Gospel
of Jesus Christ you need to know God, the Triune God. And, of course, we must
not miss the fact that it is possible to know about God in a general way
without knowing Him particularly and personally. That being said, a good place
to start to get to know God would be Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God…”
As
we saw with the Matthew Henry quote above (abbreviated here), we begin with the
Triune God, “Elohim, which bespeaks … the plurality of persons in
the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This plural name of God, in Hebrew …
speaks of Him as many though He is one…”
God
is the original one and many, unity in diversity, general and particular, all
of which is reflected throughout His creation, as one would expect. “God’s
invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been
clearly seen, being understood from what has been made.” All of creation, i.e.,
the creature, reveals something of the character of God. However, only man,
male and female, reveals the character of God in particular. We do so by our
actions, i.e., loving God and our neighbour as ourselves.
The
whole Bible, i.e., all of God’s written Word, is revelation of who God is. His
Word reveals His Word. Jesus, if you will, is God’s Moral Law with arms and
legs and a warm beating heart. Therefore, to know Jesus, is to know God because
Jesus is God. We recognise Jesus by acknowledging that, now after the
Fall, He alone fits the bill where Scripture says, “Then God saw everything
that He had made, and indeed it was very good” (Gen. 1:31).
Summary
God created creation so that Jesus
could live in it with His people.
Herman Bavinck, The Doctrine
of God, Translated by William Hendriksen, (Banner of Truth, Reprinted 1991),
266.
