In the beginning
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 (NIV)
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Some books are famous for their opening lines, for example Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities (I will leave you to supply those lines, or to look them up). But it is hard to think of a more memorable – and significant – opening line than this: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
God just did it. He created the entire universe, all of it, from the tiniest microbe to the most distant galaxy. He consulted no one (apart perhaps from the Son and the Holy Spirit). He did not have to persuade anyone else it was a good idea. He did not have to get anyone’s permission to proceed. He did not have to overcome any opposition to do so. He did not do it because anyone else told him to. He just did it.
That means the universe, us included, and all of life, is a gift of God. He made everything because he wanted to. There was nothing else and no one else there that he was responding to. The universe is there, and we are here, because God wanted us to be. We tend to think that ‘grace’ has to do with God’s salvation, and of course it does. But that is not when God began being gracious. He has always been gracious. It is his nature to give.
It means we are, and always have been, utterly dependent on this Creator God who “himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else” (Acts 17:25). The Fall, then, and our sin can be seen as a ‘declaration of independence’, fancying that we can live – and even live better – without God telling us what to do. But it just that, a ‘fancy.’ I mean, how can I declare independence from the God who created the heavens and the earth?
It also means the universe belongs to God, all of it. He made it, and made it out of nothing. So, it is his. That means that we can be confident of our salvation, because there is nothing in the universe powerful enough to stop God doing what he intends to do. It means we can expect him to restore all of creation, and not only to rescue a part of it, because it all belongs to him. It means he will not let us destroy planet earth, if that is possible, because it is his planet earth.
“Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour, for everything in heaven and earth is yours” (1 Chronicles 29:11).
“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being” (Revelation 4:11)
Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)