During the latter part of the 1980’s, certain parts of the then Orange Free State Province experienced torrential rains causing flooding. I remember visiting our friend’s farm in Glenn, along the Modder River. The floods created substantial damage to many farm lands, ruining crops and causing the death of many animals. What stood out for me was the extent of the flooding. The river was filled to overcapacity resulting in the waters moving upwards covering the entire farm’s lands for more than a kilometer on both sides of the river. The land slopped towards the river, so standing on higher ground, one viewed well over two kilometers of water as far as the eye could see. You could not see the land at all. It was all covered up. This covering caused a type of darkness or invisibility where you could not see the water covered crops.
1) This is in a way a picture of part of:
Ge 1:2 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.
(1) The waters were not the oceans. The mass of water covering the whole earth dispels the argument that these waters were our oceans. This water covering caused the darkness. Nothing could be seen on this “formless and empty” place. Man could not live on the earth as it was in this condition … total water cover and total darkness. We will get to this water again and what happened to it during God creating and also at the start of the Genesis flood at the time of Noah.
(2) The Spirit of God hovering. There are those who have said the “Spirit of God hovering” was a mighty wind … a moving wind or air in motion. This they say is something God created. Yet as we have already seen, there was no chaos, confusion or disorder. The Spirit hovering was God in control! Notice the word “hovering”. How can hovering mean a wind when the Spirit was constantly present and in control? Rather, things were well ordered and exactly as God wanted them to be.
(3) Monergism. This word is used for God alone, working by His Spirit to regenerate a dead soul to life in Jesus Christ without the cooperation of the person being saved by grace. Some commentators use this word (monergism) for God creating. He alone, without any help prepared the earth for man’s habitation. The point being, the earth was formless and empty with darkness covering the surface of the deep … and God alone, without any help shaped an environment for the human being to call home.
(4) The nature of Genesis one. We have already shown that Genesis one is not mythology. These events actually took place. They are historical events … meaning, Genesis one is historical. It reports actual events that took place.
2) Let’s prove this statement by what the Bible has to say about creation.
(a) The starting place is faith. Only true believers in Jesus Christ are able to exercise true faith in God which leads to an understanding of:
Heb 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
Saving faith in Jesus Christ leads to the ability to grasp that God spoke the creation into being out of material that was not visible.
(b) The believer, through faith does not forget that creation was as God spoke.
2 Pet 3:5 But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
To forget this important fact that God created by His Word simply means to reject it.
(c) Paul is speaking about God being the One who infused spiritual light into the souls of those who exercise faith, says
2 Cor 4:6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
He draws from the creation narrative where God spoke physical light to show it is God’s ability to speak spiritual light into the soul of man.
(d) Man created in the image of God.
1 Cor 11:7 A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man.
The human being did not evolve, he was created, and created in the image and glory God.
(e) Jesus Himself draws from Genesis one to remind people that God is the Creator of the race.
Mt 19:4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female.’”
3) The Bible and Science. The Bible and Genesis in specific never claims to be a book on science. However, when Genesis one is correctly understood it guides our understanding of science.
Ps 119:130 The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.
The mind that is lost in sin might be a brilliant mind as well as an educated mind, but until salvation by grace through faith occurs in the heart of a person, that person cannot understand the Bible because when coming to the Bible one needs to come through faith. Put simply, the one born again will be better able to grasp the content of Genesis one because such a person come to the Bible through faith! In other words, the believing reader, in approaching the Bible experiences the Holy Spirit giving special revelation to grasp the veracity of the Genesis one text.
4) Solar days. A solar day is a day governed by the sun … a twenty-four hour period. If you read Genesis 1:3–13, you will find the text dealing with the first three days of creation. These three days, although there was light, were not solar days because the only on the fourth day (verse 14-19) did God create the sun, moon and stars. Although the “periods”, days one to three could be seen as periods longer than twenty-four hour periods, we have already established these were twenty-four hour days.
5) The Word of God is efficacious. Efficacy means the capacity to produce a desired result. The Words God spoke have the capacity to produce the result He desired. His Word is so powerful it produces a desired result. It accomplished the purpose for which it is spoken. We need to grasp that the Word of God and God cannot be separated. The Word is not independent of God.
Jn 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
The Lord Jesus is the Word and creation was through Him. Here we find the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit engaged in creation (Genesis one and John one). In the same way that the Word is efficacious, so is the Atoning Death of the Lord Jesus. His Cross, promised (through the Word) by the Father produced the desired result without any human or spirit beings involvement. He chose a people before the creation of the world and during the course of the world’s history He comes to this planet to provide forgiveness of sin for all the elect. They shall be brought to redemption. Jesus’ atonement is efficacious grace in action. Marvel at this … all souls chosen before creation shall be redeemed. The Cross is efficacious!
Our glorious God and Father, thank You for faith which enables faith to believe You created as You tell us in Genesis chapter one. That You too for the new creation secured through the efficacy of the cross. Amen.