The topic of Creation has been an evangelical hot topic in recent years.

Usually, when the subject comes up, we automatically think about the Creation vs. Evolution debate, or we consider whether there was a literal six-day creation vs. a “day age” theory. There is an abundance of literature on these subjects and for good reason. The questions and discussion about things like the origin of man are very important and Christians should enter into that dialogue. However, the Biblical Theological theme of Creation goes beyond these common quarrels about chronology and duration, so please understand that my aim is not to resolve any of these disputes on the subject. Remember our goal throughout the Central Themes in Biblical Theology series: to see what the Bible says, with a particular focus on how it says it and what it is emphasizing.

As a further disclaimer, this is not my attempt to articulate the entire Biblical Theological theme of Creation. Instead, I want to introduce you to it and, perhaps, spark your interest to study it more.

In the beginning, God…

Have you ever heard someone say something along the lines of: “That’s the kind of God I could believe in,” or “I couldn’t believe in a God like that?” This assumption that we could actually choose what kind of God we want to believe in is blown out of the water in the first verse of the Bible, “In the beginning, God…” (Genesis 1:1). The question for you and I is not what kind of God we can believe in, it is what kind of God is already there. His existence is assumed, and consequently what he is like follows.

The first thing that God actually does—the first thing that is predicated of God—is speak (Genesis 1:3). This is an expression of power. It introduces something that runs right through the entire Bible, God is a talking God—a God who speaks. Think about that. The fact that God speaks means that he is a God who reveals. Not only does the fact that he spoke light into existence express power, but this transcendence makes himself known to finite humans.

God Creates

Notice, in this opening passage, that God is the starting point. He made everything, and he himself is unmade. In this truth, there is an absolute difference between the Creator and the created. It shows God’s self-sufficiency. He needs nothing (Acts 17:24-25). We do need something, based on the simple nature of our origination. We need God in order to exist, thus we are utterly dependent and insufficient in, and of, ourselves. This truth of God’s independence and our dependence is the foundation stone of grace! There is nothing we have (or are) that could sway God to act on our favor. So, even our very life and breath is evidence of God’s grace, of his showing us unearned favor. God is also personally involved with his creation. He does so by exercising his perfect love and his just wrath.

Personally involved in his wrath… how does that work? Think about it: this idea of a righteous wrath. It implies that God be personally involved in his creation. He is wrathful against sin because all sin is ultimately committed against him, the Creator. He responds because he cares to. The best example of this personal involvement in scripture is the cross of Christ. We see the wrath of God—meant for us who believe, in every right way possible—being absorbed and satisfied by God’s own Son (Romans 3:23-25). It doesn’t get any more personal than that. Moreover, the cross wonderfully demonstrates God’s personal involvement in blessing his creation, since it is the single, greatest act of love that has ever occurred.

Creator God means a God that is involved.

God’s Purpose for, and Relationship with, Man

This Biblical doctrine of Creation is what establishes our accountability to God. The truth is that God created man with intention. We rebel against this intention—against his intention—when we sin. Because of this, we are put in a place of infinite dept to an eternal God. While sitting in a class lecture, I once heard Don Carson declare with passion, “No, I can’t back off entirely… the truth of the matter is that God made you, you owe him, and you will have to give an account to him.” The Creator is repeatedly described as seeing all that he makes as good. He is making moral decisions of good versus bad, inevitably saying that evil did not come out of the world the way that he intrinsically made it!

With the creation of Man we are introduced to the concept of 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” (Gen. 1:27). What does it mean to be created in the image of God? Does it have to do with speech, beauty, relationships, or the ability to know? Looking at how the phrase is used in scripture, it never gives a concise definition of the term. But, if we put the pieces together as the story progresses we could articulate it by saying, “God is the creator, we are created. We are from the dust and to the dust we will return. There are still these and other distinctions, but apart from these distinctions, human beings are created to image God.” And what happens to this image of God during the Fall in chapter three? Is it lost completely? At the risk oversimplifying, the answer is no. Man still carries the ability and responsibility to exercise authority; however, the abuse of this authority by humans is a result of sin, not of the authority itself. It is not demolished, but tainted by sin.

And even still, by his grace, us humans continue to have relationships with God.

When I look at the book of Job and the Psalms and consider the peculiar place of God’s favor that human beings have over all creation, I stand in awe and wonder (Job. 7:17, 15:14; Psalm 8:4, 144:3). We must learn, as Job does in chapters 38-41, that the healthiest way to respond to creation is to put our hands over our mouths and acknowledge how much we don’t know.

A New Creation

As we trace the thread of creation through Scripture, the Creation theme grows even grander, and we meet the idea of a New Creation in the New Testament. Paul says that when salvation occurs, we become a “new creation.” We are created anew. We are given the ultimate promise is of a new heaven and a new earth. Romans 8: this fallen and cursed order is in “travail” waiting for the restoration of all things. As a part of the glorification of the saints he creates this new world order.

In sum, as we contemplate the role of creation in the great divine narrative, there should be a sense of awe in all of us at the grace that God has shown us through it. Consider how we literally have no place in determining what God should and shouldn’t be like according to our preferences. Consider how this God has revealed himself to us through words. And, we are infinitely accountable to this God in every way, as we are his creatures. We belong to him. The only way that his intention can be fulfilled in us is through our becoming a New Creation by faith in Jesus Christ.

Praise God, our Creator, for such a sweet, sweet gift.