In the Beginning, God

Genesis 1:1
Richard Spencer | Sunday, October 31, 2021
Copyright © 2021, Richard Spencer

This sermon is the first in a series that will take us through the book of Genesis. The name Genesis comes, as most of you know, from the Greek. Our English word is a direct transliteration of the Greek word, which means origin, or beginning. It was the name given to the book in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. In the Hebrew Bible, the name of the book is taken from the first word of the book, which is Berasheth and means, in the beginning. And so, Genesis was simply the translation of that name into Greek.

Genesis was written by Moses as were Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. It is extremely likely that Moses had much of the history that is presented in Genesis handed down to him by his ancestors, but it really doesn’t matter for our purposes to what extent that is true. We know that God spoke to Moses and we know, as we are told in 2 Peter 1:21, that “prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” So we know that Genesis was revealed to Moses by God even if and when he used pre-existing materials. We also know for certain that direct revelation from God was involved since there are things in Genesis, like the very beginning, that no man could possibly know without God revealing them to him.

Now many professing Christians today don’t think that the Old Testament is very important, but that view is opposed throughout the New Testament. The Old Testament is consistently viewed as an historically accurate account of the creation, fall and history of God’s chosen people. And it lays out God’s plan of redemption. We often see the Old Testament being quoted or referred to as the authoritative source to decide a matter once and for all. For example, you can go home and look at Jesus’ responses to Satan in Matthew 4, Verses 4, 7 and 10. Or you can look at Matthew 26 Verses 24 and 31 and Mark 14:21 where Jesus refers to Old Testament prophecies about himself, or Mark 14:27 where Jesus refers to the Old Testament prophecy of the sheep being scattered, or Acts 1:20 and 15:15 where the apostles quote the Old Testament in making decisions. Or many, many other places. Search for the phrase “it is written” in the New Testament and you will be astounded.

And while the entire Old Testament is important for Christians, the book of Genesis, in particular, is extremely important. For example, Paul refers to it extensively in presenting God’s plan of salvation in the book of Romans where he tells us that all mankind was represented by Adam and that his fall affected all of his descendants. As Paul says in Romans 5:12, “sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned”.

Paul clearly considered Genesis to be real history and to have great significance for Christians. It is impossible to understand his arguments in the book of Romans if you do not understand Genesis.

And Jesus Christ himself also viewed Genesis as historical and important. For example, he referred to Abraham numerous times, perhaps most famously when he said, “I tell you the truth, before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58) And even Jesus’ declaration “I am” hearkens back to the Old Testament. It is a clear reference to the Hebrew tetragrammaton, which is usually translated as Jehovah, or Yahweh. It emphasizes God’s transcendence – he is the self-existent Creator. He exists necessarily and independently. He alone is self-sufficient. Matthew Henry wrote that “the greatest and best man in the world must say, By the grace of God I am what I am; but God says absolutely – and it is more than any creature, man or angel, can say – I am that I am.”[1] All of this evidence leaves us with one rather obvious conclusion; that the Bible itself assumes Genesis to be a factual account of creation and early history.

And Genesis is an apt name for this book, because it does tell us about the origin, or beginnings, of many things. It is, in other words, a book of first principles. For example, in the book of Genesis we have revealed to us the origin of the universe itself, the origin of all plant and animal life on earth, the origin of man, the origin of the family, the origin of civil governments and the origin of God’s chosen people.

In Genesis we also learn about the fall of man, God’s promise of a redeemer, God’s provision of justification by faith, God’s anger with and punishment of sin, God’s sovereignly choosing a people to be his own, God’s miraculous delivering and preserving of his people, God’s providential control of all the affairs of man, and God’s absolute control over nature.

In addition, Arthur Pink pointed out[2] that in the book of Genesis, God is revealed as the Creator-God, the Covenant-God and the Almighty-God. And we have hints of God’s trinitarian nature. We also learn about the wiles of Satan, the truth of God’s sovereign election, the truth of justification by faith, the eternal security of believers and the importance of prayer. And we see a foreshadowing of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and of God’s judgment on the wicked.

Meredith Kline wrote that in Genesis, “what stands out is the sovereignty of the divine purpose and the omnipotence of the Redeemer-Lord. The irresistible process of election; the miraculous origination of the promised seed and their supernatural, spiritual transformation; the remarkable preservation of the covenant family amid the world powers – the entire history proclaims God’s absolute authority and total control over nature and nations in the furtherance of his redemptive purpose”.[3]

Brothers and sisters, the point is simple. The book of Genesis is the foundation for the entire Bible, it teaches us the first principles we must know to understand and properly apply God’s Word to our lives. It is impossible to correctly understand the rest of the Bible without knowing and believing what is revealed to us in Genesis. And the first section of Genesis, which has quite reasonably been called the prologue to the book, consists of Genesis Chapter One, Verse One through Chapter Two, Verse Three.

In that prologue we are told about the original creation of the universe, including all of the plants, animals and, of course, man. The prologue famously begins, in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This morning we are going to consider only the first four words, which are also the title of my sermon, “In the beginning God”. And my first point this morning is just the first three of those four words, In the Beginning.

I.       In the Beginning

What an amazing statement that is, in the beginning. Just think about it for a moment. It speaks about an indefinite period of time prior to the creation of this universe. In fact, we can’t meaningfully speak of time before the creation because time is a part of creation. We experience time as a succession of moments. The past is over and we can only remember things that happened before, while the future is unknown to us. The present is fleeting, you can never grab ahold of it. As soon as you think of it, it recedes into the past. We see the passage of time as a constant sea of change. Everything gets older, everything decays, everything and everyone changes – except for God and his sovereign plan.

In Malachi 3:6 God tells us, “I the LORD do not change.” And in James 1:17 we are told that “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” We cannot imagine what it is like to not be creatures of time, but God is not subject to the limitations imposed on us. God created time and he does not experience it as we do.

The Bible makes clear that God is not subject to time as we are. In fact, Moses himself spoke about this in the only psalm ascribed to him. In Psalm 90:2 he wrote, “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” The phrase “from everlasting to everlasting” does about as well as our language can do in describing the fact that God is eternal, which we truly cannot understand. And in Verse 4 of that psalm Moses declares of God, “For a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by, or like a watch in the night.”

We also know that God knows the future just as completely as he does the past. In Isaiah 46:10 God says, “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.” And in Psalm 139:4 David declared, “Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD.”

Friends, we simply cannot fathom eternity. We cannot comprehend God’s aseity, the fact that he is self-sufficient, he exists eternally, independently, necessarily. But it is true. In the beginning there was no matter, no energy, no laws of physics, no time and certainly no man. The Bible begins with God alone. God is not a part of this universe of matter and energy. He does not have a physical body as we do. As Jesus said in John 4:24, “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”

And so, in the beginning God – nothing else existed, but God alone. And yet, God was never alone in the normal sense of that word and that brings us to my second point, God is triune.

II.      God is Triune

We have a small hint of God’s plurality in the Hebrew word used for God in the phrase we are considering, in the beginning God. The word used for God in that phrase is Elohim. That word is in the plural. While this is certainly no proof of the Trinity, it is also not without significance and is consistent with the teaching of the Bible as a whole.

It has been suggested that this plural represents a so-called “plural of majesty”[4] and those who espouse this view will sometimes use the example of Alexander the Great and other rulers who occasionally referred to themselves in the plural. But Wayne Grudem points out that there is no other example in ancient Hebrew writing of this kind of use of the plural, so this is a conjecture with absolutely nothing to support it.[5] It is not a so-called plural of majesty.

In addition, we see this use of the plural in other places in Genesis. For example, in Genesis 1:26 we read that “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness’”. The great 20^th-century Hebrew scholar E.J. Young called this statement “the first adumbration of the doctrine of the Trinity … in the Bible.”[6] And similarly, in Genesis 3:22 we read that “the LORD God said, ‘The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil.’”.

It seems clear that right here in Genesis 1:1 we have an indication, albeit not explicit or specific, of the fact that God is triune. And while we only see it implicitly here, God’s triune nature is clearly taught elsewhere in the Bible.

In John 1:1 we see a deliberate echo of Genesis 1:1. John wrote that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And from the rest of Chapter One of John’s gospel it is abundantly clear that the Word is Jesus Christ, the second person of the holy Trinity. We are told in John 1:14 that “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

And we know that this eternal Word participated in the act of creation with the Father. In John 1:3 we are told, “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.” And in Colossians 1:15-16 we are told that Jesus “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.” And when it says that Jesus is the firstborn over all creation, that does not mean that he was himself created, it is speaking about his preeminence as the eternal Son. Note that all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible were created by him and for him, so he cannot himself be created.

And the Bible also clearly teaches that the third person of the Trinity is the Holy Spirit. We first hear about the Holy Spirit in the second verse of Genesis One, where we are told that “the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.”

We also read about the Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts. When Ananias and Saphira lied to Peter about how much money they received from selling their property, we read in Acts 5:3 that Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit …”. And then Peter goes on to say in Verse 4, “You have not lied to men but to God.” In addition, the words of God are attributed to the Holy Spirit in Acts 28:25 and Hebrews 10:15, the actions of God are attributed to the Holy Spirit in Hebrews 9:8, and the words of the psalmist are attributed to the Holy spirit in Hebrews 3:7.

There is also a clear implication of the deity of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 3:16, where Paul asks the rhetorical question, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” In Romans 8:9 the Holy Spirit is called both the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. In John 14:26 Jesus tells his disciples that “the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” But then in John 15:26 Jesus says, “When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.” Therefore, the Holy Spirit is sent by both the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit is also called the Spirit of truth.

There are many more verses we could look at, but that is enough to show that the Bible clearly teaches that God exists in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we know that God was never truly alone. There was perfect fellowship in the godhead even before God created this universe.

And that is an important point because God did not need to create, which is my third point, God did not need to create this universe.

III.    God Did Not Need to Create this Universe

In the beginning God was perfect all by himself. He didn’t need fellowship and he didn’t need anything else. That is obvious from the fact that God had existed eternally prior to the creation of this universe.

In addition, the fact that God created this universe displays his personality, his power, his wisdom and his sovereignty. It displays his personality because only a volitional, personal being makes decisions and acts on them. It displays his power in the vastness and complexity of the universe and, most clearly, in the fact that he created it out of nothing. We are told in Hebrews 11:3 that “By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”

God’s creation displays his wisdom in the complexity and beauty of nature. As David declared in Psalm 19:1, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” And the creation displays God’s sovereignty. It was his perfectly free sovereign choice to create and he therefore has authority to govern and judge all things. He didn’t need to ask anyone’s permission and no one has the power to thwart even the tiniest part of his plan. He has chosen to redeem a people for himself and he will accomplish it, just as he accomplished the initial creation.

We must also take note that no man was present to see the creation, in fact no creature was present, no one but God was there. And because no one was there except God, we know that the creation account was revealed to Moses by God as I noted earlier. Therefore, since we know from the Scriptures that God is an intelligent, personal being, he must have had a reason, a purpose, for revealing all of this. God wanted Moses, and by extension all of his chosen people – in other words, you and me – to know what is contained in this book. And that is my fourth point, God has a purpose for his revelation.

IV.    God has a Purpose for his Revelation

I must note before we get into this point that God had a purpose for all of his revelation, not just the Book of Genesis. We are told in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

But it is interesting to consider why God chose to reveal as much as he has about the creation itself. Most of the Book of Genesis and, indeed, the entire Bible, presents events as experienced by men and women, who could write down the things that happened. But the earliest chapters of Genesis are one of the places that contain information no man could possibly know about unless God revealed it to him. Therefore, it makes sense to ask why God chose to reveal it. What does he want us to learn from this material?

And I don’t think we need to look very hard to get at least a partial answer to that question, because the Bible points back to the creation many times. For example, in Psalm 8:3-4 King David wrote, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” God revealed himself as the Creator-God in part to humble us and cause us to focus on the Creator/creature distinction, which is of fundamental importance to a proper, biblical worldview. John Calvin began his Institutes of the Christian Religion by writing that “Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”[7] And one obvious, fundamental difference between God and us is that he alone is the Creator and we are just creatures. He alone can create out of nothing. E.J. Young called this “the fundamental doctrine of all Christianity.”[8]

Isaiah also points back to God as the Creator many times. For example, in Chapter Forty, where God comforts his people, we read in Verses 21 and 22, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.” And in Verse 28, “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.” God can comfort us precisely because he is the omnipotent Creator. Friends, God wants us to hear and he wants us know that he is God. He revealed the creation to us so that we would know this important fact: In the beginning God.

And when the prophet Zechariah delivered his second great oracle about the coming Day of the Lord to the exiles who had returned to Jerusalem, he began, in Zechariah 12:1 by saying, “This is the word of the LORD concerning Israel. The LORD, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the spirit of man within him, declares:”. In other words, Zechariah called on the fact that God is the Creator of all things to lend authority to the message and to indicate that God, who is able to create this universe, is also able to perform all that he has promised his people.

The apostle Paul implicitly referred to God’s power as the creator when he argued about the resurrection of the dead before King Agrippa. In Acts 26:8 we read that Paul asked, “Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?” Paul’s reasoning is obvious and perfectly sound. If God is able to create all things, then of course he is also able to raise the dead.

We must recognize that God alone is the Creator. If we think about that fact, it will cause us to realize that we must look to him alone to discover the purpose of life. We must look to him alone to know how to live properly. And we must worship God alone. God’s revelation – the Bible – is our only infallible, authoritative guide to faith and conduct.

Throughout the ages men have worshiped all sorts of things. They have called the sun and moon gods, they have called various animals gods, they have imagined gods of thunder and so on. Men have made so-called gods out of wood and stone and gold. But the psalmist tells us why we should sing and declare the glory of the one true and living God among all the nations. In Psalm 96:5 we are told, “For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.”

And in Jeremiah 10:8-11 we are told that people who worship idols “are all senseless and foolish; they are taught by worthless wooden idols. Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz. What the craftsman and goldsmith have made is then dressed in blue and purple— all made by skilled workers. But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath. Tell them this: ‘These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.’” Notice the defining difference, these idols did not make the heavens and the earth, but the true God did and therefore the earth trembles when he is angry. Again, let me say that we are to hear and to know that God alone is the Creator, in the beginning God.

And don’t think that our modern western society is any better than these ancient societies because most people don’t worship literal idols made by craftsmen anymore. Our society is filled with idols and idolatry. Idols of money, power, athletic ability, beauty, fame and so on.

And so we see that one purpose God had in revealing the creation to us was to humble us and cause us to revere and worship him alone and to look to his Word alone as our ultimate guide.

But there is even more, the phrase in the beginning God also implies that God had a purpose in the sense of a final end in view. Where there is a beginning, an end is implied. And that is my fifth point, God had an eternal purpose for creation.

V.      God had an Eternal Purpose for Creation

God chose to create the universe, and since we know from the Scriptures that God is an intelligent, personal being, we can deduce that he had a reason, a purpose, for choosing to create. And God has revealed to us what that purpose is elsewhere in the Bible.

In Isaiah 60:21 God is speaking about the final state of his redeemed people, his church, and he says, “They are the shoot I have planted, the work of my hands, for the display of my splendor.” Both the English Standard Version and the King James Version translate that last phrase as saying that God might “be glorified” rather than saying for the display of his splendor.

God also refers to his redeemed people in Isaiah 43:7 saying, “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” We also see this same purpose spelled out in the New Testament. In Ephesians 1:12 Paul says that we were chosen “in order that we … might be for the praise of his glory.” And he also wrote in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that “we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” This is why we are commanded, in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

God’s ultimate purpose in creation is the manifestation of his own multi-faceted glory. And he is accomplishing that in everything he does. First and foremost, he will be glorified in his chosen people, those whom he is redeeming out of this world to be part of his church.

Six times in the Old Testament God refers to his chosen people as his segullah, his treasured possession. The first reference is in Exodus. In Exodus 19:5-6 we read that God spoke to Moses in his capacity as the representative of the Israelites and said, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

The church is referred to as the bride of Christ (see Ephesians 5:25-27 and Revelation 19:6-9), it is referred to as the body of Christ (for example,
1 Corinthians 12:27 and Ephesians 1:22-23), it is referred to as the Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19), it is referred to as God’s inheritance (Deuteronomy 9:26) and the members of the church are referred to as members of God’s household (Ephesians 2:19 and 1 Timothy 3:15). We are God’s adopted children (Romans 8:14, 23). We are also told that we are citizens of heaven (Philippians 3:20) and in Revelation Twenty-One we read about the new heaven and the new earth and the eternal Holy City of God, the new Jerusalem, and we are told in Revelation 21:3-4 that “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Brothers and sisters, in the beginning God and in the end God. And if you have surrendered fully to Jesus Christ in this life, you will be with him in the end. And it will be glorious beyond description or imagination. God himself will wipe away every tear. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain. We are told in 2 Peter 3:8-13 to, “not forget this one thing … With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. … the day of the Lord will come like a thief. … That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.”

The passage we just looked at from Revelation 21 continues, in Verses 5-7, to tell us, “He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’ Then he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ He said to me: ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son.’”

Hallelujah! Jesus Christ is the Beginning and he is the End. And so, when this opening phrase of the Bible speaks of the beginning, it implies that there is also an end.

But that end is not an end in the normal sense, it is itself the beginning of an eternity in a new heaven and a new earth. God will restore all of creation and remove all the effects of sin.

As we go on through the Book of Genesis we will see, as you know, that everything starts off very good as it comes from the hand of God. But then sin enters the creation and brings with it pain, sorrow, death and destruction. But God’s purpose in all of this was to redeem out of the mass of fallen humanity a people for himself, his treasured possession, the bride of Christ, his adopted children, to spend eternity with him in heaven. And the bride of Christ will be for the display of his glorious grace.

The rest of mankind, those not chosen by God for salvation, will be justly punished for their rebellion. We are told in 2 Corinthians 5:10 that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” And in Hebrews 9:27 that “man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment”.

And in being punished unregenerate people will also glorify God. In Philippians 2:10-11 we are told that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Those who are chosen by God and effectually called by him will repent, believe and confess that Jesus is Lord in this life. Everyone else will confess that Jesus is Lord after they have died, and will then be sent to eternal punishment in hell. The apostle Paul deals with this uncomfortable fact in Romans 9:22-24, where we read, “What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory—even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?” In other words, hell exists for the praise of God’s just wrath and power and to make the riches of his glory known to the church, and heaven is for the praise of his glorious grace.

And so now, having considered some of what is implied by those first four words of the Bible, in the beginning God, let me close with four practical applications.

VI.    Application

The first application, which should be an obvious conclusion from what I just said about eternal heaven and hell, is that the most important thing for each one of us to do in this life, is to make sure that we belong to God. To make our calling and election sure as Peter puts it in 2 Peter 1:10. In Deuteronomy 4:29, God promises that if, “you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

Friends, that is the only thing that really matters in this life. You and I are creatures. God is the Creator, and he is the Judge. And we are all sinful creatures. If you doubt that fact, just ask your parents, or your wife, or your friends. We are all sinners. And God is holy and just and cannot bear to have sin in his presence. The new heaven and the new earth are the home of righteousness, pure unadulterated righteousness. In Revelation 21:27 we are told that “Nothing impure will ever enter [the heavenly Jerusalem], nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” So I urge you, if you have never surrendered to Christ, call on God to have mercy and save you.

The second application is that we must ponder the amazing truths implied by this opening phrase, in the beginning God. We must stand in awe of this incomprehensible, infinite, eternal and unchangeable God, who created all things out of nothing. As we have seen, we can infer from these four words that God is eternal, independent, multi-personal, powerful, wise, and sovereign. And Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:4 that God “chose us in [Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” In other words, in the beginning we were already loved and chosen by God and our salvation was certain. And, as a result, we must love him with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. We must strive to understand and obey his Word. We must work hard to put our sinful nature to death and serve him in the obedience of faith. We must long for his appearing. Fix your eyes on Jesus Christ and your eternal home, not on this earth. God is the source of all true joy and strength.

The third application is that we must be strengthened in our faith by knowing that since God was able to create this entire vast universe in all of its majesty and power, and since he was able to create all living things in their amazing diversity and complexity, and since he is able to providentially control all things to bring about the end he has ordained from the beginning, we can have absolute confidence in his promises. As the prophet declared in Jeremiah 32:17, “Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.”

Friends, you can be certain that God will save completely all whom he has chosen. As Paul said in Romans 8:30, “those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” And in Verses 38 and 39 he wrote, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Isn’t that wonderful? Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Jesus Christ came to save sinners and he does save sinners! As Paul wrote in Romans 8:1, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” Therefore, be strengthened in your faith and live a life of freedom; freedom to say “No” to sin and “Yes” to righteousness. Strive to lay hold of him and not let him go and then take great comfort in the fact that while your grasp is weak, no one is able to snatch you out of his hands.

And the fourth and final application is that we must tell others about this glorious God. All those who do not bow the knee in this life will bow the knee in judgment and spend eternity in hell. Don’t hide behind God’s eternal election. As Paul wrote in Romans 10:13-14, “‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” Oh, let us all pray that that someone would be us. God gives us a glorious responsibility and privilege. We have the very words of eternal life, the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Therefore, we must preach the gospel.

In the beginning God, hallelujah!

[1] Matthew Henry’s Commentary, Hendrickson Publishers, 1991, Vol. 1, pg. 225

[2] A.W. Pink, Gleanings in Genesis, Moody Press, 1950, pp 5-7

[3] M. G. Kline, Genesis, A New Commentary, Hendrickson Publishers, 2016, pg. 6

[4] e.g., see the study note for this verse in the 1984 NIV Study Bible

[5] Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, Inter-Varsity Press, 1994, pg. 227

[6] E.J. Young, In the Beginning, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1976, pg. 50

[7] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Translated by Henry Beveridge, Hendrickson Publishers, 2008, 1.1.1 (pg. 4)

[8] Young, op. cit., pg. 26