FoundationAl DoctrineS of Genesis
Since June 13th, 2021, I have been preaching from the early chapters of Genesis. We are learning a lot from these early chapters. We are especially learning foundational doctrines that inform every- thing we believe as Christians. The list of foundational doctrines has gotten too long for me to review each Sunday morning so I thought I would share them with you in a blog type format.
GOD IS - We cannot get any more foundational than that. Everything we believe springs from that truth. Genesis begins the Bible by saying: "In the beginning God.." Yes, God is. He really is real. He lives; and without that truth everything else we believe is nonsense. Although some people all through time have held that there is no God (Psalm 14:1) - those of us who look to the Bible as our authority have no other belief - God is.
GOD IS ETERNAL - Genesis 1:1 said, "In the beginning God made. " The passage did not say that God came from somewhere and then God made. The assumption of Genesis 1:1 is that at the time of creation God already was. Psalm 90:2 states it this way,".. from everlasting to everlasting, You are God." As hard as it is for us to imagine, God had no beginning. He has always been. His eternal name says this same truth - He is Yahweh - the eternal “I am."
GOD IS GOOD - God took each step of creation, He saw that what He had made was good. God made nothing that was not good. This is a big step in one's theological thinking, but it is a necessary step. God created all that came to be in such a way that creation reflected the very character of God. That God was and is only good reproduced itself in His creation - it was all good. Good and evil are not equally eternal. Only the good that springs from the heart of God is eternal. In light of the fact that there is much evil in the world when we make this statement, "God is good," we are taking a leap of faith into the person of God. But unless this is true, we will never know if good is truly good or just what I want good to be.
GOD MADE ALL THAT IS - The early chapters of Genesis make it clear that everything in the universe that we can see (and even all that we can't see) was made by God. As John said in 1:3: "All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being." If we look into the farthest reaches of space to see the edge of the cosmos, we have only looked at the creativity of His hands. From the tiniest quantum particle to the massive walls of aligned galaxies (like the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall) all were made by Him.
GOD CREATED FROM NOTHING - This is a great truth that stretches one's mind to the infinite. God made all that is, but God did not use any preexisting ingredients to make what He made. The early chapters of Genesis tell us that God spoke, and it was - for example: "God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light." All the ancient creation myths tell stories of the cosmos being formed by various gods out of the body parts of other gods. When these stories are laid beside the Genesis story we are struck with awe and wonder. God made all that is out of the creative power of His Word.
ALL GOD MADE WAS GOOD - We have already seen that God made all that is, and He made it all from nothing. We must now recognize that all God made was good. God himself said so over and over again. As you read Genesis 1:1-31 you will see this phrase: "and God saw that it was good." Finally in Verse 31, "it was very good." It does not seem to be a big step to see that God made all things good. But with this confession must come its corollary - He made nothing that was not good. He made no evil. Evil cannot be attributed to God's good creation. From what or where or whom does evil emerge is another question; but we must conclude with this doctrine that evil does not arise out of God.
THE HIGHPOINT OF GOD’S CREATION WAS HUMANKIND - God made everything in a span of six creative steps called "days" in Genesis 1. The progress of the story goes from light on day 1 to humans at the end of day 6. There is no doubt in the reader's mind but that this movement intentionally identifies the man and the woman as the pinnacle of creation. All that transpired prior to the making of man and woman was preparatory for them. Of all God's creation, humans were of greatest value.
GOD MADE THE MAN AND THE WOMAN IN HIS IMAGE / EQUALLY IN HIS IMAGE - Chapter 1:26 and 27 use the words "image" and/or "likeness" (so does 5:1) to describe how humans reflect how God uniquely made them. Theologians struggle to explain what image and likeness mean. They do not all agree. However, it is safe to say "His image" is what makes us different from all else in God's creation. Nothing else has it. It is also safe to say that in some way our essential maleness and femaleness reflect something within the divine nature. That's a big step and a hard one but it must be concluded from the words: "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female (emphasis mine) He created them."
GOD LIVES IN RELATIONSHIP WITHIN HIS OWN PERSON - oh my. This one is tough. All God made reflects Him in various ways. His creation reflects His power, His majesty, is complexity, and His grandeur. Even more, His creation reflects God's inner essence. Making humans in relationship and for relationship did not happen by accident. Because God is a relational being He created humans to live in relationship with Him, with each other, and with the whole created order. In the New Testament we find the relationship that God has within Himself described in Trinitarian terms. God existing as Father, Son, and Spirit is another way to say that God lives within Himself in a perpetual loving relationship. (No doubt this one is hard!)
GOD MADE US IN RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM - I mentioned this in #9 but I need to add just a bit more. Living in relationship with God is not one of the reasons He made us; it is THE reason He made us. To not live in a right relationship with God is to be cut off from God and therefore, to be cut off from our source of life. Only death can follow losing our connection to the Divine. God made us to have perfect fellowship with Him and only in that condition is life right and good.
THERE WAS ONE OPPORTUNITY TO GET IT WRONG - God made our first parents, Adam and Eve, and put this perfect couple in a perfect environment (the Garden of Eden). Life was idyllic in the garden and the best part of it all was the unfettered access they had to God. Everything in the garden was available to Adam and Eve. But for His own reasons (which we will later explore) God made one part of the garden off limits. The fruit of a particular tree in the garden could, by eating it, make a person knowledgeable concerning good and evil. God had made the pair devoid of this knowledge, but one act of disobedience would provide it. Everything was right. Only one thing was wrong.
AT LEAST SINCE ADAM AND EVE WE HAVE HAD A MALEVOLENT ENEMY - It seems it would never have occurred to our first parents to eat of the forbidden fruit. They did not question God's prohibition. But an outside agent planted doubt in our parents' minds. Genesis tells us almost nothing about the reptile who tempted Eve. He was subtle and crafty. However, the aim of the tempter was to overthrow the trust Adam and Eve had between themselves and their trust in God. The serpent intended evil. The serpent in the Genesis story is largely unnamed until Revelation 20. There we learn that the serpent in this story was more than just a snake - he was the perpetual enemy of God and of humankind.
THE ESSENCE OF SIN IS THE DESIRE TO BE GOD - That one really jumps out at you doesn't it. This truth is revealed when the serpent says to Eve: "…..you will be like god..." What made the forbidden fruit desirable was not its appearance, but it was the potential to eat it and live at an entirely different lev-el. Eve began to doubt the goodness of God's character. She must have thought that God was really trying to keep something desirable away from her and from her husband. She had all the fruit in the world. She did not have God's knowledge. She wanted it. Adam wanted it too. "Who is God to keep anything from me. I can and will be like God." With that thought, they both ate.
SIN RESULTS IN DEATH - God first showed the forbidden tree to Adam and Eve, He warned them that eating the tree would result in death. In their attempt to be "like God," they ate it but at that moment there was no apparent death. This one's a bit tricky for life, as made by God, is both physical and spiritual. It seems that physical life is dependent on the function of organs and appetites. But spiritual life is dependent on a vital connection to God. Like Alzheimer's disease which leaves a functioning body but steals the personality, sin leaves a living body but terminates the connection one has with the essence of life - God. Sin results in spiritual death. On the day they ate, they died.
A FREE AGENT IS BETTER THAN AN OBEDIENT ROBOT - The question begs to be asked: "If God had the power to make the universe why didn't He use some of that power and stop this wrong from happen-ing?" It would have been so easy for God to intervene. He could have stopped the serpent. He could have stopped Eve. A whisper. A cleared throat. A shout. Anything could have prevented the tragedy that now transpired. The early chapters of Genesis, however, lead us to understand that there is no love relationship between a robot and its creator. For love to exist between persons there must be the freedom to not love. Love cannot be coerced. The only part of God's creation (as it is written) that could freely love Him was also the only part of God's creation that could choose not to love Him. Adam and Eve were not robots but were free moral agents. When God gave our first parents free-dom, He knew that a relationship of love was worth the risk of disobedience.
ALL OF US CARRY WITH US THE FALL OF ADAM AND EVE - When Adam and Eve sinned, they not only harmed them-selves, but they harmed all of us. Paul said it this way, "as in Adam all die..." Older theologians might say we are all guilty because they were guilty. Their fall is our fall. Using language that is more psychological than forensic one might say since the time of Adam and Eve we have all been bent or weighted inevitably to sin. However you think of it, every human since that first couple have willfully sinned against God and justly incurred His righteous judgment.
TO STEAL A GUM BALL IS AN ACT OF HIGH TREASON - Does it seem strange to you that the simple act of eating a piece of fruit brought death and divine alienation? It looks a bit like a minor infraction that elicited overly harsh punishment. But every parent knows the real reason we have rules for children is not to bridle their freedom. The real reason for rules or (better said the true purpose for boundaries is to teach children obedience which in turn keeps them safe and produces good adults. When I stole a gumball as a child my mother's stern reaction was not to teach me gumballs are bad but to teach me obedience was imperative. Our first parents' rebellion was not merely eating fruit, it was an act of high treason against their perfect creator.
THE FALLEN PATH OF HUMANKIND MOVES ONLY ONE DIRECTION - Adam and Eve ate forbidden fruit. One of their sons murdered the other one. Wow! Now that rapid rush into evil takes my breath away. I have never quite understood why every older generation is surprised that the next generation has gone so badly off the rails.
Our parents knew that we had done the same thing. The path of humankind only moves one direction. It is certainly possible for one generation to avoid the mistakes of a previous generation, but the heart of the generations is to turn further and further from its creator. Left on our own, humankind progresses away from God, not toward Him.YOU ARE YOUR BROTHER’S KEEPER - It looks like after he murdered his brother (Abel), Cain felt no remorse. Even in the presence and questioning of God he callously flung these words at God, "Am I my brother's keeper?" Isn't my life really my business? I'm not ultimately responsible for what happens to those around me am I? Well, Jesus said it this way, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." It is the golden rule for personal interaction. But even this is not passive. This truth teaches us we cannot escape our duty of love and mercy to others. We must not only refrain from doing harm, but we must also actively pursue good. You may not like it, but God holds you accountable for the welfare or those around you.
GOD IS A COVENANT MAKING GOD - The Noah Story is fantastic. Every kid knows about the ark and the animals and the flood. But few have ever learned that the greatest part of the story is in the rainbow. Beginning with Noah, God pledged Himself (rainbow was the sign) to deal with humans through covenants or through binding agreements. You can see the covenant stated in the Noah story. You can also see the covenant stated in the Abraham story. For God's own reasons, He pledged Himself to work through a particular people (the Hebrew people) and through that people He began to undertake the task of mending what humans had broken. You might say that since Adam and Eve we have been actively seeking to undo the perfection and the purpose of God's creation. Beginning with His covenant relationships, God has been working to redo what we have sought to undo.
GOD IS WORKING TO REDEEM US - We took quite a jump in the Genesis story. We went from the covenants with Abraham in chapters 12, 15, and 17 all the way to the end of the book and the final Joseph story. We jumped there because the truth that God is working to redeem us shines so clearly in his story. The brothers of Joseph had one thing on their minds - revenge against their hated brother, Joseph. But God, through His redemptive power, took their acts of evil (that were truly horrendous) and made a way for the rescue of the family of Israel - "What you meant for evil, God meant for good." And thus, we reveal the heart of God and open the door for the Christ story that is to follow when God would take the cumulative evil of this world, nail it on a cross in the person of His son, Jesus, and thereby open the way of life for all who would follow Him.
These are the foundational doctrines of Genesis 1-11. Genesis so rich in truth, I hope you will spend some time with it.
October 13, 2021
Donnie Wiltshire - Lead Pastor