Creation: Redeeming Chaos

CREATION: REDEEMING CHAOS

February 10, 2013

We begin our new series today on the redemptive plan of God as seen throughout the Old Testament and finally revealed in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The story of the coming of Jesus Christ into this world begins not in the Book of Matthew, but in the Book of Genesis. The shadow of Christ can already be seen in the early verses of the first chapter of the Bible. In Genesis 1:26 God said, “Let Us make man in our image, in our likeness . . .” It wasn’t until John 1:1-5 that Jesus was identified specifically as being with God at creation. John said, “He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.” Jesus Christ was there from the very beginning with God involved in creation.

But prior to creation, the Bible tells us several things that Jesus was involved in:

1. Fellowshipping with God – John 17:5 “And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”

2. Creating angels – Job 38:4, 7 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand . . . while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?”

3. Planning for the Church. Ephesians 3:9 “and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery (Church), which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.”

4. Adopting us into His family – Ephesians 1:4 “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will”

5. Preparing for the future Kingdom – Matthew 25:34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ’Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.”

6. Providing salvation for the world – 1 Peter 1:18-20 “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.”

When you look at the Word of God, even before creation, God was already thinking about us. And when you look at the overarching theme of Scripture you will find that it is: God’s redemptive plan for mankind. Whether it is through Noah or through God’s covenant or through the sacrificial system, God’s redemptive plan is clearly seen throughout the entire Old Testament.

This morning we are going to look into the first chapter of Genesis, at two important truths about creation ….

1. CREATION WITH GOD – CHAOS TURNS TO ORDER

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Genesis 1:1-2

In the first two verses of Genesis we find God creating the heavens and the earth and it says that the earth was formless and empty. In the original Hebrew text, the terms “formless and empty” were meant to convey the idea of confusion and disorder. God created the earth to be inhabited, but for a short period of time before he created the light, the water, the land and plants, the sun and the moon and the stars, the water creatures and the birds, the land animals and finally man, before He did all that, the earth was void of anything. In other words, there was confusion and disorder.

And yet, God turned all that confusion and chaos and gave it order and He placed the billions of stars and plants in the universe and all of them are orbiting in an orderly fashion. Did you know that the movement of the planets of our solar system is so precise that scientists can calculate exactly where a planet will be hundreds of years in advance?

Also, by observing the stars, we can actually calculate time. The Naval Observatory is basically the world’s time keeper. They are responsible for keeping the precise time used worldwide for everything from banking to the GPS devices in cars. They do so by making observation of the stars and adjusting their master clock accordingly.

So if God had just left things the way they were in Genesis 1:2 and had not penetrated the darkness with His words, there would be no life, only confusion and disorder. And yet God took all that darkness and all that confusion and disorder and He set the universe in motion.