The Gospel According to Genesis: When We Trust God, Part 2

Posted on January 24, 2020 by Jason

In Genesis 12:1-3, God speaks of the great blessing He will bestow upon Abraham. In fact, God uses the word “bless” five times in His call of Abraham. 

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Genesis 12:1-3

Jewish interpreters see this as a deliberate counter to the fivefold occurrence of the word “curse” in Genesis 1-11: 

  1. Genesis 3:14, The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock…”
  2. Genesis 3:17, And to Adam he said…”Cursed is the ground because of you…”
  3. Genesis 4:11, “And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood…”
  4. Genesis 5:29, …and he called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief…”
  5. Genesis 9:25, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” 

Five blessings, five curses. Interesting coincidence? Or is something more going on here? 

I think it is pretty obvious that God is at work, through Abraham, to bless His creation. God promises to bless Abraham so that he will be a blessing to others. In fact, through Abraham and his descendants, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Starting with Abraham, God sets in motion His plan to make right all that is wrong in the world. 
This blessing begins with covenant faithfulness and trust. This is one of the deep truths of the biblical story. As we have already seen, rebellion is the problem. Human sinfulness is active rebellion against God — it  distorts the image of God in us and damages our relationships with one another and with God. This is the great curse that we read about in the first chapters of Genesis —  and sin is a curse that is still at work in our world today. 

But here in Genesis 12 we see the solution to this problem: faithfulness — in the form of God’s promise to bless. God’s faithfulness to His promises is the key to overcoming the power of the curse. Abraham’s response to God’s promises is instructive for us — he trusted God and God counted it to him as righteousness. 

And today, the key question looms for us, the same question God posed to Abraham: Do you trust God? 

It needs to be said that trust didn’t always come easily for Abraham. And I take some comfort in that because trust doesn’t always come easily for us either. It’s certainly not as easy as preachers sometimes make it sound. There are times in Abraham’s story when he tries to take matters into his own hands — all that business with Hagar and Ishmael, for instance. On more than one occasion, he lies to a king by saying that Sarah is his sister rather than his wife. 

This is not to say that Abraham was necessarily unfaithful, only that exercising faith can be a bit of a challenge sometimes. And Abraham’s failures are usually the result of his own impatience. He grows tired of waiting on the Lord. God doesn’t always operate quickly enough for our tastes. I guess that’s one of the dangers of entering into a covenant relationship with an eternal being — His sense of timing is rarely going to square up with ours. 

 But through it all, God seems to say to Abraham, Do you trust me? 

And despite his flaws and his failures, Abraham keeps answering back, Yes, Lord, I trust you. 

In the hands of an interpreter like Paul, we learn that Abraham is the template of faith for us as well. In Galatians, Paul reaches back to the covenant agreement God made with Abraham and notes that it was founded upon trust. Speaking of Abraham, Paul quotes Genesis 15:6, And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. Then Paul goes on to say: 

Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. 

Galatians 3:7-9

Paul is able to see the fullness of the blessing that began when Abraham took that first step out of Haran, away from his father’s house and toward an unknown land. What began that day has truly become a worldwide blessing, Paul says, for now it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. The true children of Abraham have likewise responded to the call of faith. Specifically, they have put their trust in Jesus as God’s Messiah — for He is the means through which God is acting to bless.

Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. 

Galatians 2:16

The blessing God brings to the world through Abraham is the faithful, trusting obedience of His Son, Jesus, the Messiah. Jesus is the culmination of Israel’s story. Like Abraham, Jesus left his father’s house; he became a wanderer in a foreign land. Throughout His ministry, Jesus will say, “The Son of Man has no place to lay His head.” At the critical hour, Jesus faced the same temptation Abraham faced — the temptation to take matters into his own hands. In the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His crucifixion, Jesus asks, “Father, would you remove this cup from me?” The kind of trust God requires doesn’t always come easily, even for Jesus

But this doesn’t make Jesus unfaithful — not anymore than it made Abraham unfaithful. In Jesus we find faithfulness and trusting obedience modeled perfectly and completely. In that all important moment in the Garden, as Jesus asks His Father to remove this cup from Him, we can only imagine the dialogue between them. But somewhere in there, I wonder if the question came from the Father to the Son, the question that defined that moment in Gethsemane just as it defined Abraham’s life, just as it is the controlling question for you and for me. 

Do you trust me? 

And Jesus replied, Yes, Father. I trust you. Not my will but Yours be done. 

How about you? Do you trust Him? 

The greatest blessings of all come when we place our trust in Jesus, the One who completes the will of God — the One whose trusting obedience is counted to us as righteousness. In Him we find redemption, the forgiveness of our sins, and the promise of life both meaningful and eternal.

Do you trust Him?

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The Gospel According to Genesis: When We Trust God

Posted on January 20, 2020 by Jason

In our Genesis study, we’ve spent the last two weeks talking about A God Who Creates and A God Who Makes Promises. Today we want to build on that by looking at the extraordinary power of trusting in God. Today we’ll focus on the story of Abraham in Genesis 12. 

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him…

Genesis 12:1-4

Abram — later known as Abraham — was 75 years old when this happened. Abraham and his people were originally from a place called Ur; they later settled in a land known as Haran. But God comes to Abraham and tells him to leave the security of his family and this familiar place to set out for a land unknown to him. In asking him to leave Haran, God is asking Abraham to leave the land where his father was buried. 
Put yourself in Abraham’s place just for a moment. What questions would you have if you heard what he heard? 

  • Where are we going? 
  • How long will it take to get there? 
  • How will I make a living when I get there? 
  • What language do they speak there? 
  • Most importantly: What am I supposed to tell my wife? Do they have a Target and a Starbucks there? (Questions my wife would be asking?!?)

Abraham surely had his own version of questions such as these. But none of his questions are voiced here in the text. Instead, the question that undergirds the whole episode doesn’t even come from Abraham, but rather from God. By calling him in this unique way, God seems to be posing one simple but essential question for Abraham — and it’s the same question God puts to us as well. 

God’s question to Abraham is His question to everyone.

Essentially, God is asking Abraham to trust Him. “I know you have questions, but here’s my question: Do you trust me? Because I’m going to be right there with you on this journey.” 

And this is how Abraham responded: 

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him…

Genesis 12:4

Because of this, Abraham is known as “the father of faith.” He demonstrates that his ultimate allegiance is with God. In our world, we might think nothing of moving across the country to take a lucrative position with another company. We might think, “What’s the big deal? Abraham left home.” But it didn’t work this way in the ancient world. To leave the security of family and friends often meant becoming a defenseless wanderer in hostile, unknown territory. To set out like this without “your people” was to be an exile on foreign soil. 

But that’s what Abraham does. He leaves behind the security of the familiar, setting out into the unknown, to follow the call of the Lord. In response, Abraham says, Yes, Lord, I trust you. 

In our modern times, faith is often defined in terms of belief. In fact, the two are synonymous for most of us. But biblical faith is much more than what you believe to be true at an intellectual level. Biblical faith is always action-oriented. It is just as much about what you do as a result of that belief. What we call “belief” is certainly a part of that, but so is loyalty and allegiance and — in my opinion, this is the best word of all — trust. Because trust is a relational term. 

The Bible tells us that Abraham trusted in God rather than the false gods of his family. Centuries after Abraham, Joshua delivered this word from the Lord to the people of Israel. 

And Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many.’”

Joshua 24:2-3

There’s a contrast here between Abraham and his family. God says that Abraham’s father and brother served other gods. In that regard, they were like most of the people in their day. But the text seems to be contrasting Abraham, implying very strongly that God chose him because he broke from the tradition of his father and worshipped the One True God alone. As God would later say, “You shall have no other gods before me,” — and Abraham is the template for this kind of faithfulness.  

And here we see a primary feature of biblical faith — trusting in God, even when it seems we are standing alone. 

Trusting in the One True God means forsaking a lot of false gods — all false gods, actually. And the Bible is honest about this: that’s not always going to be popular. Like Abraham, you might feel like a defenseless wanderer in hostile territory, an exile on foreign soil.

But when we trust in God, He promises that we are never alone. Never will I leave you, nor will I forsake you. God makes that promise in both the Old Testament and the New Testament in our Bibles so that we will understand His unwavering faithfulness to us when we trust in Him. When it seems we are standing alone, we are actually standing with the One True God who believes in making and keeping His promises (as we said last week). 

So we’re back to this idea of trust as a relational term. Abraham demonstrated faithfulness — not simply because he believed the right things about God, but because he put his trust in him. There’s a big difference there. 

To put it differently, Abraham went out not knowing where he was going. But this wasn’t blind faith because Abraham knew God. His act of trust was rooted in his relationship with the Lord. 

The Scriptures never call us to what is often referred to as “blind faith.” But over and over again, in times of uncertainty, the biblical story gives us glimpses of people putting their trust in God. Even though Abraham sets out for an unknown land, we cannot call this blind faith. Do you know why? Because even though Abraham didn’t know where he was going, he knew the One who called him and promised to guide him. Abraham could say, “I don’t know exactly how all of this is going to go but I know the One who says He’s going to go with me on the journey.” He could say as Paul would later say in 2 Timothy 1:12 (words that are echoed in the classic hymn), But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed. 

That’s true biblical faith. It’s putting our trust in God, trusting that He joins us on the journey. 

And so, God says to Abraham, Do you trust me? And in word and in deed, Abraham says, Yes, Lord, I trust you. 

Through these words, the one God is saying the same thing: Do you trust me?  How will you answer? 

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NFL Playoff Picks: Championship Games

Posted on January 19, 2020 by Jason

So last week, we added the College Football Championship Game to our picks. Everyone picked LSU except Sunny, so here are the updated standings.

Joshua: 8-1

Jason: 7-2

Sunny: 5-4

Abby Kate: 5-4

Jackson: 4-5

So there are only three games left and Joshua has a one game lead on me. I have to make up some ground on him this weekend. Here are our picks:

Joshua is taking the Titans and the 49ers, so I’m going Chiefs and Packers. Sunny takes the Packers and Titans. Abby Kate and Jackson are taking the Titans and 49ers. I need to go 2-0 to win this thing.

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The Gospel According to Genesis: A God Who Makes Promises, Part 2

Posted on January 16, 2020 by Jason

There are a couple of important points to make about the flood story: 

  1. The flood account reveals God’s wrath against sin. 

The flood story makes clear that God’s wrath is kindled because of sin. We’re reminded of the foundational truth of Genesis 1 — that we were made in the likeness of God, created to image God. But sin corrupts and distorts that image — it has the power to “uncreate” God’s good creation. And God doesn’t like it when anyone or anything gets in the way of His purposes. So His wrath burns against sin and it’s power to uncreate. 
In the story of Noah, we see that God does not turn a blind eye to the sin in the world. He pronounces judgment — because He would fail to be the just and holy God if He ignored sin and its power. 

Years ago, there was a church in town that had an interesting slogan on their sign. It wasn’t one of those church signs that was changed out every couple of weeks, either; it was permanent. Just underneath the name of the church, the sign said, “God’s not mad at you, no matter what.” And that always struck me as an odd thing for a church to put on the sign because the Bible is filled with story after story of God’s anger burning against sin — AND against people who commit those sins. Throughout the Old Testament, God tells Israel that His anger burns against them. Jesus expresses anger in the form of righteous zeal when he cleanses the temple in His ministry. 

Based upon what I find in the Bible, I think it’s entirely possible for God to be mad at me sometimes — in fact, in those times when I’ve committed sins even though I knew what I was doing was wrong, I think God was DEFINITELY mad at me. 

If we assume that God has somehow mellowed out with regard to His attitude toward sin, we should think again. We would do well to remember the Israelite picture of God as a Divine Warrior. After He delivered them from the hand of Pharaoh, Moses sang, The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name, (Exodus 15:3). This was on the heels of the parting of the Red Sea — similar to the flood account in that they are both acts of judgment and deliverance through water. And both stories reveal God as a warrior who always fights against the “uncreating” power of sin. 

It seems that we should hear the flood story as a dire warning. God does not take sin lightly. It is a grave matter to Him. The sin in our lives is a problem that needs to be addressed. And thankfully, that’s the other important part of the flood story. 

  1. The flood account reveals God’s covenant-making, promise-keeping character. 

God is a divine warrior, but He is much more than that, too. God is a covenant-making God. He does not desire to wage war against you, but against the sin in your life. He knows full well the power of sin, but He responds by entering into covenant — by making promises and keeping them. Think about that: God’s way of fixing what is broken is to make promises.

This points us to God’s faithfulness as an enduring hallmark of His character but also as the most powerful force in the universe. The reason we can have hope today is because God makes and keeps His promises. 

The sign of this covenant promise is the rainbow. God says, I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. In the Scriptures, the word “bow” usually describes a weapon of war — like “bow and arrow.” I think we’re certainly right to think of it this way in light of the destruction of the flood. The Divine Warrior has been engaged in battle against sin and wickedness. But now, on this side of the flood, the “bow” is not a weapon of war any more. The bow God sets in the clouds is a reminder of peace. It is the sign of the covenant treaty. It signifies that God has laid down His weapon. One Jewish rabbi says the rainbow symbolizes this because it is a bow pointed away from the earth. God says He will never again destroy all flesh in this manner — and the rainbow stands as the eternal reminder of this covenant.

This may the most important point of all: God believes in promises — He believes in making promises and keeping those promises. The rest of the Scriptures testify to His covenant-making, promise-keeping character: 

  • Psalm 105:8, He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations…
  • In Revelation 4, John is granted a vision of the heavenly throne. And around the throne he sees a rainbow (Rev. 4:3), an eternal reminder of God’s covenant with all humanity. 

The flood account tells us of the great power of God’s promises. And these covenant promises find fulfillment one day in Jesus, the Messiah. 

For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you…was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. 

2 Corinthians 1:19-20

God’s covenant-making, promise-keeping character is most fully demonstrated in Jesus. Everything God ever promised comes to fulfillment in Him. 

Today, we need to hear this as a strong word against sin. If there is sin in your life, repent and turn to God. Ask for His forgiveness, for His wrath is kindled when we sin — because of sin’s power to “uncreate.” But the flood story also reminds us that God’s response to sin is to provide a cleansing through water. In 1 Peter 3, Simon Peter compares this to baptism. Speaking of the flood, the Apostle says: 

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ…

1 Peter 3:21

There is an act of new creation that comes through the water. It comes through confessing our sins but also through confessing the lordship of Jesus. It comes through the cleansing flood of being immersed in Jesus — that’s what the waters of baptism represent. And it comes through His gracious promise to redeem you and to make you whole.

God believes in making and keeping promises.

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Why You Should Read Your Bible

Posted on January 14, 2020 by Jason

These guys with Messenger International point out something fascinating about the power of reading the Bible four times a week. God’s Word is powerful.

Reading the Bible 4X per week from Messenger International on Vimeo.

Posted in Scripture, Video | Leave a comment

NFL Playoff Picks: Divisional Round

Posted on January 11, 2020 by Jason

So we began our annual NFL Playoff Picks last week. Joshua and I had a pretty good week; not so much for Jackson and Mom. Here’s how we fared:

Jason: 3-1

Joshua: 3-1

Abby Kate: 2-2

Jackson: 1-3

Sunny: 1-3

Now it’s time for our picks for the Divisional Round:

Sunny:

  • 49ers over Vikings
  • Titans over Ravens
  • Chiefs over Texans
  • Packers over Seahawks

Joshua:

  • 49ers over Vikings
  • Titans over Ravens
  • Chiefs over Texans
  • Packers over Seahawks

Jackson:

  • Vikings over 49ers
  • Ravens over Titans
  • Chiefs over Texans
  • Packers over Seahawks

Jason:

  • 49ers over Vikings
  • Ravens over Titans
  • Chiefs over Texans
  • Packers over Seahawks

Abby Kate:

  • 49ers over Vikings
  • Titans over Ravens
  • Texans over Chiefs
  • Seahawks over Packers

Can’t wait for these games to get started.

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The Gospel According to Genesis: A God Who Creates, Part 3

Posted on January 8, 2020 by Jason

We’ve been talking about the biblical truth that God is our Creator. But the biblical story points to a force that works against God’s purposes in creation. It’s a force that undoes the good of God’s original creation. In this way, it is a force that “uncreates” what God sets out to create. That force is called “sin.” We don’t like to talk about sin — it doesn’t do much for our self-esteem and our happiness, so often times we avoid it. But this is another foundational truth in the scriptures: we’re all guilty of sin. 

So here’s how this works: we are made in the image of God, made to reflect His light and His love and His goodness. But sin corrupts the image of God in us. We could say it pollutes that divine image, distorts that divine image; it changes the way we look. So Sin is the great “uncreator” because it creates something other than what God would intend. We may be made in God’s image, but there are times when we don’t look very much like that because sin has corrupted that image almost beyond recognition. Sin always does this — it distorts the image of God in us, driving a wedge in our relationship with God and also our relationship with others. The Bible is very clear on this one — sin is a game changer. 

In the biblical story, the goodness of God’s creation is undone when Adam and Eve eat of the fruit that was forbidden — fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God had already declared His creation to be good, but He had also declared that something was not good — specifically to eat of this fruit. And this is important: when they reach for this fruit, Adam and Eve are seeking to define good and evil for themselves. They are not simply reaching for a meal they’ve never had before; they are reaching beyond their station, reaching for God-like status. 

We are made in the image of God but we are NOT God. We are incapable of defining good and evil apart from outside revelation from God. In fact, we often call evil good and good evil as it says in Isaiah 5:20, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness. Adam and Eve sin when they decide it’s a good thing to disobey the direct command of God. And I think we understand that because we do the same thing, do we not? We reach beyond our station, we forget our place. In our world, evil is being called good and good is being called evil so much that it will make your head spin. 

This is the sobering bad news of the biblical story. God looks at sin and it’s work of “uncreation” and He says, “This is very bad.” And I bet you can look at the consequences of sin in your own life and reach the same conclusion. I know I can. Sin keeps me from being the person God created me to be and it damages my relationships with other people. 

But this is exactly where we need to look at the Genesis story through the lens of the Jesus story. The image of God is corrupted by sin; we’ve established that. But the good news is that God has acted in Jesus to restore the divine image in us. Only in Jesus are we able to live according to God’s purposes once more — through His death and resurrection. 

The writers of the New Testament talk about the work of Jesus as “new creation” work. He rose on the first day of the week, which takes us back to the first day of creation in Genesis. If sin has the power to “uncreate” Jesus sets out to re-create — to redeem us from our slavery to sin, to reconcile us back to God, and to restore creation to God’s original good purposes. 

And, to echo what God said in Genesis, this news is very good. It is very good news that we don’t have to be slaves to sin any longer. 

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 

2 Corinthians 5:17

This verse contains Paul’s favorite phrase: “in Christ.” Paul is always contrasting the difference between being “in Christ” and to not be “in Christ.” To not be in Christ is to continue to live in the land of uncreation — to remain beholden to sin and it’s corrupting, perverting, distorting power. But to be in Christ is to live in an entirely different realm — it is to become a new creation. 

And when we become a new creation, we are set free to once again pursue the purposes for which God created us — we are free to image Him once more. This includes the good works for which He created us. 

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. 

Ephesians 2:10

When we are “in Christ” we are created anew. And Paul uses a unique word here — we are God’s “workmanship.” Paul intentionally uses the Greek word poiema — from which we get our English word “poem.” It’s a word that refers to a creative composition, like a poem, a sculpture, a song. In essence, Paul says that when we are in Christ, we are God’s masterpiece. God’s original good purposes are restored to us and we are free to pursue the good works He has prepared for us. 

When we are in Christ, God once again looks at us and says, “This is very good.” 

To be in Christ is to be a new creation. 

Posted in Culture, Devotional, Faith, God, Gospel, Imago Dei, Jesus, Scripture, Theology | Leave a comment

The Gospel According to Genesis: A God Who Creates, Part 2

Posted on January 7, 2020 by Jason

The Bible begins with this universal truth: God is the Creator. Not only are we all created by God; we’re also created a particular way, for a particular purpose. According to Genesis 1:27, all humanity bears the image of God. 

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. 

Genesis 1:27

Not only does God tell us that He is our Creator, He makes it very clear that we are made “in his own image.” This is another foundational truth of the Scriptures. Every human being is important in the eyes of God — because He creates each person in His image. This gives intrinsic value to every human life. You are important to God because you were made in His image. This is part of humanity’s universal identity. 

And this is a radical truth — everyone we love is made in the image of God; but so was everyone we struggle to love. We don’t get to pick and choose on this one. God, as Creator, has determined that every human life matters because every human life bears His image. 

When I was young, we sang a song about this in Sunday school. It was called “Jesus Loves the Little Children.” And the song said that everyone, no matter the color of their skin or their nationality, all are “precious in His sight.” Some of you might remember that song. It’s rooted in this idea from Genesis, the idea that God has created us to bear His image. Easy to apply to children, but what about grown ups? I think the point is the same…

So who is “precious in His sight?” Everyone. 

  • Male and female, they are precious in His sight
  • Old and young, they are precious in His sight
  • Rich and poor
  • Christian and atheist and agnostic and Muslim and Buddhist — because they’re humans, they’re precious in His sight.

Now, there’s a lot more we could say from the Bible about differences in worldview and religion and all of that. But as important as those things might be, they flow out of an understanding that all humanity is precious in His sight. 

And you can make the same application on the basis of economic status, race, sexual identity, political affiliation, etc. 

  • Your next-door neighbor and the homeless man on the street corner, they are precious in His sight
  • African-American and Latino are precious in His sight
  • Gay and straight are precious in His sight
  • Boomer and Millennial are precious in His sight
  • Conservative and liberal are precious in His sight
  • Donald Trump and Nancy Pelosi, both are precious in His sight
  • Auburn fans AND Alabama fans

You can take this as far as you want to take it and the point is still the same. They are all “precious in His sight” because every human being throughout history has been made in the image of God. That is a bedrock truth in the word of God — one that we have to go back and recover from time to time.

God is your Creator. That means you are precious in His sight.

Posted in Devotional, Faith, God, Imago Dei, Kingdom Values, Politics, Poverty, Race, Scripture, Social Issues, Theology | Leave a comment

The Gospel According to Genesis: A God Who Creates, Part 1

Posted on January 6, 2020 by Jason

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 

Genesis 1:1

With these words, God sets out to tell the most epic story of all. 

The Bible is the story of the God who creates. That’s one of the foundational truths in the Bible. These opening words establish God’s ownership of the entire world — the world belongs to Him because He has created it. David says the same thing in Psalm 24:1, The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it. In many of the creation stories in the Ancient Near East, things like water and the sun were considered to be divine. But the biblical story says, “No, these things were created by God.”

That’s the first verb in the Bible — create. Scholars have noted that throughout the Bible, this word is only used to describe the activity of God. Men and women don’t create; angels don’t create. In the biblical story, only God creates. So again this is one of the foundational truths of the Scriptures; you could even say it is THE foundational truth. Everything else flows out of these words: In the beginning, God created…

And in Genesis 1&2, we find the story of God’s creative work — He creates the heavens and the earth, the sun and the moon, birds and fish and “every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” God speaks and things happen — because there is always power in the Word of God. His Word has always been and always will be THAT powerful. 

And God surveys all that He has created and He says, “This is good.” And the crowning achievement of that creation is humanity. God breathes into man His ruach —His wind, His breath, His spirit — and the spark of life ignites. The first man opens his eyes to see his Creator standing over him, smiling as He says, “Now this is very good.” 

But the story we read in Genesis isn’t just a story of how it all began. This is just as much a story about how it all begins, for you and for me. 

God’s Word opens with a summons to recognize that we, too, are created beings. Just like the rest of creation, we have a definitive point of origin — a beginning. There was a moment when I wasn’t and then there was a moment when I was. We have received that same ruach — that same wind, that same breath from God that brings us to life. 
That’s the application of this foundational truth from the Scriptures: we have a Creator; we are created. God’s Word puts this identity ahead of any other identity for us. It comes ahead of any sort of gendered identity or marital identity or parental identity. It comes before any identity of work or achievement or even failure. More than anything else, you are God’s creation. This is your truest identity. 

And this also means that you’ll find your greatest fulfillment in Him — in your Creator, not in any other identity or any other relationship. 

Several years ago, I was having coffee with a friend of mine who is a marriage counselor. I was asking him about his practice and he said something that was a revelation to me. He said that one of the reasons so many marriages fail is because we put unrealistic expectations upon our spouses. We buy into the false narrative pushed on us by Hollywood and Hallmark, a narrative that says he/she is “the one”, that he/she “completes” me, makes my life perfect or whatever. We put this expectation on this flawed person to make us whole, to fulfill all of our hopes and dreams and desires — which, when you think about it, is kind of ridiculous. That’s a weight far too heavy for any flawed person to bear. And when that reality eventually comes crashing in, guess what happens to the marriage? All too often we cash in our chips and say, “I guess he / she wasn’t really the one after all.” And the relationship falls apart because we expect our significant other to do for us what only God can do. 

The only thing that can truly “complete” you is the finished work of God in Jesus Christ. God is the one who created you; therefore God is the only one who can complete you.

We are the handiwork of a God who creates.

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