Foundations 1: Who is God–Genesis 1

 1. Background

Our starting point with God must start with a simple statement, “In the beginning God”. No explanations–no test tubes exist to do experiments on God, just a simple message that is either accepted by the reader or not. No matter if you accept or deny this statement if you want to know any more about this God, then we must start with who He is, the God who is there.

2. What Can We Learn about God?

In the beginning, God was there, and we were not.

He created all that exists. He did not merely rearrange cosmic material but instead created all that we can sense from nothing. Our relationship to Him must reflect that He is God and we are the created. We are created beings in His world, and our very life flows from His sustaining power. Though God gave us a special place in His created order, we do have the authority to make judgments of Him, but He does have the authority to make judgments of us.

On a much smaller scale, one who develops and creates a piece of art has the sole authority to decide what to do with it once it is completed. The artist may choose to put it on display or decide to scrap the project and do something else. No other opinion has the deciding power like the author.

But someone here might object: “But what gives God the right to make judgments against me?”

Because God is Creator, He has the right to do with us as He pleases just as much as He can with non-animate objects. Our life exists because He has decreed it. Furthermore, Verse 26 and 27 explains, He especially made us in His image.

 And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Genesis 1:26-27

This unique mark is given and the privilege to govern His creation to us emphasizes our responsibility to Him. Someone today might object to what is written in His word, but in the end, He is God, and the world’s diversity of opinions cannot alter that.

Paul, the Apostle, brought this truth to bear on the Athenians whose religion contradicted only one Creator God. Instead, they held that there are many gods who all have their distinct realm of power. Today there are many polytheist religions in the world. But when Paul traveled to Athens, he explained that God affects everything in our lives, but nothing we possess could ever change or reduce Him. (Acts 17:24-25)

If wisdom were the only factor in our decision to fear God’s word or not, then it would be more than enough reason to what God expects from whom He has created in His image. Very early, just after the creation narrative, God reveals in His word that if we do nothing worthy of judgment, then we will be accepted of Him; there would be no need for His judgment against us.

 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.

Genesis 4:7

If we do right, then there is no need for judgment. If there is judgment today, that only can point to the guilt of the judged one. In the beginning, God created a good world that functioned without disorder. There is no judgment to be seen in the first two chapters of the Bible because there was no transgression–no death, no decay, no disease, no sin.

3. How does this Passage Point to Jesus?

Judgment at the cross.

Our world is no longer the world of Genesis 1 and 2. If you haven’t taken to time yet to read chapter two, please do so now and observe the harmony and delight between God and man. They enjoyed each other’s company without a guilt present and with no sin to hide.

But once sin has entered in by chapter three, humankind lost their intimacy with their Creator, having rebelled against Him. They knew shame and now had something to hide. The guilt of sin left them without access to God, who is Holy and is without sin. God drove them from the garden and His presence without a way back to the relationship with Him they once enjoyed. But before they left, God clothed with the skins of an animal, the first sacrifice. This sacrifice did not remove their sin but was a sign that God did not immediately enact judgment upon them. A plan of God was set into motion, but a sacrifice nevertheless had to be made for sinners.

By Genesis 6, the entire world was thoroughly corrupted by sin.

 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

Genesis 6:5-7

God is a God who will judge sin. His willingness to show mercy in no way takes from His sense of justice and righteousness. As the Creator-Judge of His creation, He will condemn all that sits in rebellion against His created order. If death should come onto all sinners, then it is right and just. It isn’t shocking that a judge would judge when a crime has been committed. But it would be arguably wrong for a judge to forgo judgment when justice demands it. Therefore, God’s mercy is the more shocking event between God’s judgment and compassion in the Bible.

God shockingly finds favor in one man, Noah, and his family. God’s plan of mercy will rest on Him and continue to rescue sinners from judgment. God’s redemptive plan ultimately leads us to God’s own Son, who chose to be the ultimate sacrifice for sin. This sacrifice, unlike the one made in the garden, actually does remove sin.

24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

Romans 3:24-25

There is redemption in Christ. The reason why there is redemption no other is because no one besides God can call you “back, to redeem. What I mean is, the action of redemption implies something was lost but is now being bought back. Can another god call you “back”? When did you ever belong to the “gods.” Where human beings made in the image of Zeus or Buddha or some other being? Is not humanity stamped with His mark since the beginning? Being sold under sin is a condition only God can purchase us back from.

The resurrection is the ultimate sign of God’s redemptive plan in Jesus alone. What other means do you have that can rescue you from the grave? Will you trust your strength or your dilapidated sense of goodness? He alone is the means of rescue and return of sinners back to God.

God’s motivation behind all this is the goodness of His heart. His love is unfathomable and is the reason we should all be wood into His presence. When anyone grasps the magnitude of God’s love and what He is willing to do for His enemies, let alone His children, how can there remain any more skepticism of His character?

Yes, God is fiercely angry over our sin. But Christ was the propitiation supplied by God. If we were somehow able to propitiate God’s wrath with our sacrifice, then God could now say that we are saved freely by His grace. In the end, God satisfies His wrath through His own sacrifice–His plan, His Lamb, His Righteousness!

Even the faith that is required to be saved is all of Him.

Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

Romans 3:22

But what isn’t faith something I do? Isn’t it something I produce? No, even faith is a gift. Roman’s 10:17 explains how faith is produced, and it isn’t by anything we do, but God delivers the word to you in the form of the Gospel. (So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.) Hearing the Gospel message provides the grace and means to faith needed to receive God’s righteousness. The end result is that no one can boast on their own works, logic, or intelligence. If it weren’t for God giving the Gospel message, there would be no salvation!

4. Application:

As a young child, I heard the gospel message. With my unlearned lips, I confessed what God had told me. I am a sinner in need of His son for salvation. If it weren’t for God finding me first with His Gospel message, giving me the grace to understand and repent, I would still be lost today in my sin and ignorance of God. All glory to God who saves sinners through His own counsel!