Genesis 1 tells us that, unlike Paul Gaugin, we can know where we came from because we have been created by God. That God is the Sovereign Creator of the whole universe is the basic fact that gives life meaning and purpose, and the foundation on which our life must be built. This is the fundamental truth that both the structure and content of Genesis 1:1-25 presents to the reader, as we marvel at God forming what was without form before filling what was void, and doing so personally and perfectly. And it is on this basis that the rest of Scripture presents its portrait of the unique Lord of all, exposes the scandal of human rebellion, deepens our understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ, and whets our appetite for the promised new creation.
The author of Knowing God writes in his foreword about those ‘who look at God, so to speak, through the wrong end of the telescope, so reducing him to pigmy proportions, cannot hope to end up as more than pigmy Christians.’1J. I. Packer, Knowing God. Second Edition (Hodder & Stoughton, 1993), 8. Genesis 1:1-25 is a powerful antidote to such small-minded Christianity. In contrast to many misleading worldviews, such as materialism, polytheism, accidentalism, and humanism, it introduces us to God as our eternal Triune Sovereign Creator, and drives us to adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and praise. Unlike those who seek to delete God, and others who seek to downgrade or downplay God, Genesis 1:1-25 tells us that God is real, personal, has existed for eternity, created all we see including ourselves, and is utterly without equal. The staggering truth that God is our Sovereign Creator should lead us to love God more deeply and long to live in God’s world in God’s way and for God’s glory.
David J. Atkinson, The Message of Genesis 1-11: The Dawn of Creation. Revised Edition [The Bible Speaks Today] (IVP, 2021).
Henri Blocher, In the Beginning: The Opening Chapters of Genesis (IVP, 1984).
C. John Collins, Genesis 1-4: A Linguistic, Literary, and Theological Commentary (P&R Publishing, 2006).
R. Kent Hughes, Genesis: Beginning and Blessing [Preach the Word Series] (Crossway, 2004), 15-39.
Derek Kidner, Genesis [Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries] (IVP, 1967), 47-62.
Kenneth A. Mathews, Genesis 1-11 [Christian Standard Commentary] (Holman Reference, 2022), 61-117.
—
- 1J. I. Packer, Knowing God. Second Edition (Hodder & Stoughton, 1993), 8. ↩︎