“In the beginning, God created…”
These are the first five words that open the Bible. The Bible never attempts to prove God’s existence; rather, it asserts that God has made Himself known to all men “in the things that have been made” and in our conscience (cf. Romans 1:16-25; Psalm 19:1-6). It is the Bible that tells us what God is like. This is important because although the “heavens declare” His glory (Psalm 19), the information gathered from nature is general and somewhat vague. It tells us that God exists, and some about what He is like but it doesn’t tell us how to be saved or to relate to Him. The Bible is God’s self-revelation, and it teaches us how to know Him.
For instance, in the first five words of the Bible, we learn that God existed before “the beginning.” He is eternally pre-existent. Before “the beginning,” God… IS. This is the meaning of God’s self-identification as the great “I Am” (Exodus 3:14). God is eternal in that He transcends the “chronos” of time. Before (and outside of) time, God… IS (Psalm 90:1-4; Psalm 93:102).
The first five words of the Bible also inform us that “God created.” Since He is before “the beginning,” we must necessarily believe that all things created were created out of nothing (cf. John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:16-17). He is the source of all things created. In a world of causes and effects, God is the chief cause of all effects. “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made (John 1:3).”
God is not merely some idea or ideal, some power or purposeful tendency to which the name of God may be applied. God is a self-existent, self-conscious, personal Being, who is the origin of all things and which transcends the entire creation but is at the same time immanent in every part of it.
God is not merely some idea or ideal, some power or purposeful tendency to which the name of God may be applied. God is a self-existent, self-conscious, personal Being, who is the origin of all things and which transcends the entire creation but is at the same time immanent in every part of it.
Because of this, there are at least three things to consider. First, of His own volition, God created so that His creation might know Him and enjoy the glory and the blessings of who He is (Genesis 1:31). He created for the good of His creation. Second, He transcends all of creation. As the Creator, He stands outside of creation, interacting with it but remaining distinct from it. There is a natural Creator-creature distinction (Psalm 100:3; Acts 14:15; 17:24-25; Isaiah 46:5,9). Third, because He is God the Creator, all creation is subject to His command and will. He has absolute authority over all creation, and as creatures, we are accountable to our Creator (Hebrews 9:27). Man, the creature, is granted limited autonomy within the parameters of His sovereign Creator. Nothing in creation exists independently from its creator, not even mankind.
In the next few posts, we will explore the fundamentals of the gospel, or “good news.” Because it is the “power of God for salvation” (Romans 1:16), there is nothing more important to consider at the first of the year than this. We begin this primer on the gospel by answering the first of four questions, “Who made us, and to whom are we accountable?” The answer is, “God created us, and it is to Him we are accountable.”
In the next post, we will answer the second question, “What is our problem?”