We should never lose sight of the fact that everything God has created, He is created for His own glory. But, His own glory. is never adversative. to his children's good. And he has done this also for our good.
There is so much to unpack when it comes to Genesis chapter 1, much more than the days of creation. God made all things for His glory, and as you'll hear today, He also made all things for our pleasure. This is the Friday edition of Renewing Your Mind. I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and it's great to have you with us.
This has been such an enriching week for me as we've walked through these early messages from Dr. Ferguson's brand new series, Theology for All. I trust you have been helped as well, and I hope you've already requested access to all 36 messages. If you haven't, there's still time. Simply request access when you give a donation before midnight tonight at renewingyourmind.org.
But be quick as only hours remain.
Well, let's go now to Genesis chapter 1 to consider God the Creator. We are continuing these introductory studies to Christian doctrine with a reflection today on God the Lord as Creator. We looked previously at this title that God gives to himself in Exodus chapter 3 when he speaks to Moses. and says, when the people ask you what my name is, Tell them I am. has sent you.
And we might think for a moment that it's strange for us, first of all, to think about God as Lord, revealing himself to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus chapter 3, and then go back to speak to God, the Lord, as Creator. That might seem at first sight to be the wrong way around. Don't we speak first of all about God as Creator, Genesis 1 and Genesis 2, and then move on to Exodus 3 to speak about him as the Lord. But there's more than one reason why this is a legitimate way for us to think. The first is that God did not become the Lord.
At the burning bush. He already was the Lord. And he was that same Lord at creation. Because he was that same Lord. eternally.
So I am. precedes creation. And not only that, but there's a very interesting thing that we find when we read through the scriptures from the beginning, and perhaps a puzzle when we come to Exodus chapter 3. God says to Moses, By my name, Yahweh. By my name.
I am. I was not revealed to Abraham and to Isaac. And to Jacob. And it looks as though he's saying to Moses, Moses. This is the first time anyone has ever had disclosed to them my personal name, just as we saw when we were talking about the Trinity, that it's only when Jesus is about to ascend that for the first time in history, in a sense, we learn how to pronounce God's name properly.
Never before in the history of redemption had God been called Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Yes, little indications that this was so. But here for the first time, as I suggested earlier on, we have God's Christian name. And what we have here in Exodus chapter 3 seems to be God's Exodus name, his redeeming name. But this is not actually the first time the word Yahweh is used in the scriptures.
It's used way back in Genesis chapter 2. In Genesis chapter 12, when we are introduced to Abraham. The first thing that we are told is it was the Lord. L O R D block capital letters In our modern English translations, indicating this is Yahweh speaking.
So how do we solve this conundrum? That God says to Moses, this is the first time anyone has ever known me as Yahweh. And yet? Earlier on in Genesis, it's very clear. that Yahweh is active, Yahweh is speaking, Yahweh is working, Yahweh is making covenants with his people.
Well, I suppose the simplest way to try and understand it is to use a kind of analogy.
So I might say in 1914, when World War I broke out. President Reagan. was three years old. We understand that he wasn't then president. But he was one and the same person who became President.
He wasn't known as President Reagan. But he was the same person. who was President Reagan.
Well, that's a poor analogy, but it is an analogy to the fact. that there is no point in time, no point in eternity, where God is not the great I am. And there are some reasons for us to grasp this. But it's only In the light of the Exodus, that Moses writes Genesis. I wonder if that's ever crossed your mind.
Moses did not write Genesis. Before the Exodus. but after the experience of the Exodus. And so in a sense, what Moses understands is this. that it's encountering God as the Redeemer.
That he comes better to understand that God is also the Creator. And that carries some very important lessons for us. It underscores for us there is only one God and Lord. And that was important in the ancient world where people believed there were different gods who did different things. The same God who brought creation into being.
is one and the same God who brought redemption. into being. And what's so significant about that is this. that if it's God the Redeemer who brought creation into being, And God the Creator who brought redemption into being, then what at the end of the day redemption is going to mean? is restoration to what God originally intended us to be in our creation.
And it's not possible, I think, to overemphasize that today. That redemption is the restoration of humanity. Think about that in terms, for example, of modern-day humanism. What the Bible teaches us is that modern-day humanism. is on the high road to confusion.
Because it's lost sight of what makes us truly human. It's God who makes us truly human. It's God, the Creator, who makes us truly human. And it's also a very significant indication of how the Bible will unfold. what it means to be sanctified.
People have all kinds of ideas of what sanctification means. In its essence, sanctification means that we are actually now being made truly human. That's a very important principle for us, I think, to grasp in the church, isn't it? We have people in the church who have all kinds of ideas of what sanctification means. And sometimes they're very metallic ideas of what sanctification means.
But when someone is sanctified... One of the things that we notice about them Is an increase in a beautiful and attractive. Humanity. And now we could have learned that, of course, from the Gospels and the Epistles, because this is what is true of Jesus. Jesus is the perfect man.
But it also helps us to understand that the whole process of redemption from beginning to end. Is a process in which God is restoring us to what we were created to be. By his redemption. and then transforming us. to what we were originally destined to be.
And all this, in a sense, is already embedded in the opening chapter of the Bible. It's a chapter about God as Creator.
Now, if I were to ask you, what is the single most important thing about Genesis chapter 1? I suspect there would be many Christians today who would say the really important thing about Genesis chapter 1 is the length of the days of creation. But if you think back to Moses. It's very doubtful, isn't it? that that was a question that troubled Moses.
And I think it's demonstrable. that it wasn't the big issue. For Moses.
Now that may be an important question. It may be a difficult question. But what I want to emphasize is it's not the message of Genesis chapter 1. And I want us to think just for a moment then about What is the message of Genesis chapter 1? I want to suggest that that message is sevenfold.
First of all, Genesis chapter 1 indicates to us. In uh preliminary way that creation is the work of God, the Trinity. We hinted at this in our previous study. God the Father. speaks the word.
God the Spirit hovers over the original mass of creation. and brings order and light and fullness. into that creation.
So when we think about the created order, much more I think than we usually do. We need to reflect on the fact that this is the amazing work of God, the Trinity. The old Latin theologians used to have an expression to describe the work of the Trinity: opera ad extra, the works. outside of the Trinity, opera ad extra trinitis. Indivisa sunt.
They are indivisible. In everything God does, he always does it in a Trinitarian way. And we need to remember that when we think about creation, and we see it in Genesis chapter 1. Second thing that we need to note about creation is it's a work of amazing divine power. The theologians have another Latin phrase because they wrote in Latin, many of them.
They loved little Latin phrases and theologians always have, haven't they? Creatio ex nihilo. or sometimes creatio in Nihalum. Creation out of nothing. and creation into nothing.
And this is the most extraordinary indication of divine power.
Sometimes Exegetes of Genesis 1 have brought this out by the way in which Genesis speaks about the creation of these great lights. for the day. And for the night, and how God made them. And in the older translations, there is a little addendum to those words. And also The stars.
As though the creation of the stars were But almost like a Let me add just another little detail to my creation. And when, as we Do now we are able to explore the vastness of the universe. What amazing power to bring this into creation. Actually, what an amazing power this would be if there had already been something that God created our cosmos out of. But what is the greatest demonstration of divine power?
is that he created it out of nothing. I sometimes wonder what would happen if the scientists in their exploration, some of them, by no means all, but some of them, I think determined to show that there is no Creator. What would it be like if they got to the omega point of all things and were able to look over? I don't think it's actually possible. It's not a coherent idea.
But they were able to look over to what happened before or what was before, and they said there was nothing there. There was absolutely nothing there. You Christians, don't you understand there was nothing there? And the newest Christian who had read Genesis chapter one, I think, could say. Have you not been listening to me?
I've been trying to tell you. that God created the world out of nothing. And into nothing.
So of course there was nothing there.
Now We would be fooling ourselves if we thought that we could grasp what this means. We know absolutely nothing that is created out of nothing. And so this is an amazing, an amazing indication of divine power. But not only divine power, in the third place, the creation. is a work of divine genius, isn't it?
If you just think about the variety in any area of creation. the solar variety in the solar system. the human variety. The animal variety. The God who created the rabbit created the giraffe and the hippopotamus and the elephant.
The god who created the little goldfish created the whale. What an imagination God must have. to be able to speak our world into being. And to demonstrate this beautiful genius by the sheer variety of all things. It is an amazing thing, isn't it?
How God creates things out of the dust of the earth. He creates animals. He creates human beings in Genesis out of the dust of the earth. And when we think about that variety, we are surely lost in wonder, love, and praise. There's a fourth element in creation.
And it emerges in Genesis 1. It unfolds in the rest of the Bible. And in a sense, it's still unfolding in our history. and that is the sheer vastness of God's understanding. What he has embedded in creation.
If you think of what we are discovering today technologically. Everything we discover today technologically. Is the way in which we can employ or discover. what God originally embedded in creation. And we know we're only at the beginning.
We know there is so much more. But We will never create out of nothing. At the end of the day, we are We're always engineers. We are employing in whatever sphere what God has invested in creation. if you think of these little objects without which we are frightened now to go anywhere.
The powers. The powers that Enable these little machines to operate. They're all embedded in the original created order. Perhaps if Adam and Eve hadn't fallen, we would have discovered them more rapidly. But we do discover them.
And like everything else, it's a reminder to us. Every time we use anything that is a quote invention of modern technology, we need to remind ourselves it's not a creation of modern technology, it's an engineering. of the powers that God has invested in creation. Fifthly. We should never lose sight of the fact that everything God has created He is created for his own glory.
We spoke about the mutual relationships of the Trinity in a previous study. And it's a wonderful way for us to think about creation. To think about the Father bringing this wonderful world into being. for the pleasure of his son. and for the joy of his spirit.
And Christ, the word of God, being the instrument of creation. in order that creation might be for his father's pleasure. And the Holy Spirit hovering over the waters and beginning to bring this orderliness out of the darkness and the lack of order in the original stuff of creation, and doing it as a kind of love present. for the father and for the son So, that not only in our redemption, but in the whole act of creation. We Understand that God does all things for his own glory.
But His own glory is never adversative. to his children's good. And he has done this also for our good. There's a sixth thing that we should not us. And many of the best Reformed theologians, I think, have understood this very well.
that there is a special grace in creation. We Christians tend to think of the word grace as related to sin.
So People might define God's grace as his demerited Kindness. The sonos. But God didn't become gracious. Only when man fell did he. God didn't.
Change. and become gracious. His response. To the future tragedy of the fall was the determination to be savingly gracious, but The God who became savingly gracious to us was always gracious. We mustn't think that God before creation was any less gracious.
We mustn't think that the God who made Adam and Eve was less gracious when he created them. Then when you redeem them, He was always gracious. He was always kind. He was always Generous. It wouldn't surprise me that some of us, even when we were young children, lay in bed after our parents had put the light out and hoped we were sleeping.
And in some childish form or another. We asked ourselves the question. Why am I here? Why is anything? Here.
And here is the fundamental answer. Because the God we have is a gracious God. And then seventhly. What we need to see in Genesis chapter 1 is it's going somewhere.
So, if I were to ask you, where is Genesis 1 going? What is the apex? What is the telos? What is the goal? of all of these creating acts of God.
And it's very clear when you read Genesis chapter 1. that the goal is ourselves. But goal. is the creation of man and woman as the image. of God.
And even when you read through the passage, there's a rhythm in the passage, isn't there? And then suddenly that rhythm. is changed. I wonder if you've ever noticed that. The rhythm is dramatically changed.
And the creation of man and woman It's put, as it were, into a different kind of order. from the creation of all. Other things. because what he has had in view from the beginning. what he had in view in the darkness.
what this spirit had in view as he hovered over The waters. was that we would be created. And there are many indications that this is where God has been going. But not only are there indications that this is where God was going from the beginning. But do you remember that refrain that runs through Genesis?
God said. It was sore. And it was good. God said It was so. And it was good.
God said it was so. And it was good. And then only when he has, as it were, arrived at his original goal. Do we read? It was Very good.
And this is really one of the most amazing things about creation. But God has made all things for his own glory. But he's also made all things for our pleasure. Um One of the reasons why it's helpful to notice that Moses is writing Genesis 1 and what follows from the perspective of the Exodus. Is That the context of the Exodus is a country and a people and a world.
Whereas Paul says, having rejected the worship of the Creator, We have started worshipping creatures. And so isn't it so significant? In the Exodus narrative. that there is judgment after judgment after judgment after judgment on the objects of worship. In Egypt.
Not least. the god of the river Nile. And Moses, as he experiences the redemption of God, is looking back on the original creation of God. And seeing how, in the world in which he lives, men and women had, as Paul says in Romans chapter 1. exchange the glory of God.
and started worshiping the creature. and the creation. And at the end of the day, that's where everyone who isn't a Christian is, isn't it? And that's why the redemption of God. is such a marvellous act of the Creator's mercy.
That was Sinclair Ferguson, concluding this week's time in his new series, Theology for All. This is why Renewing Your Mind exists, to help people know who God is. And this week we've learned about the true and living God. The God who is Trinity is the is Lord and his Creator. Theology for All has just been released, and you can gain lifetime digital access to all thirty-six messages and the study guide when you give a donation at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343 before midnight tonight.
Use this series in your home school or in a small group study. And use the Renewing Your Mind journal that we'll send you to take down all your notes. But be quick. Give your gift at renewingyourmind.org or by using the link in the podcast show notes. And thank you for your support.
We couldn't release this program 365 days a year to a global audience without it.
Well, have you considered that ideas can be dangerous? Why? because ideas have consequences. And next week, RC Sproul will walk us through some of the most powerful ideas that have shaped the Western world.
So join us all week, beginning Monday here on Renewing Your Mind.
