So, last time I left you hanging with prophets and angels trying to figure out what the gospel was all about. That’s kind of an interesting picture to me visualizing prophets trying to figure out what they are writing about. But let’s see if there are a couple of things that can encourage us personally today. I’d be interested to hear if you thought of anything.
The first thing for me is that the prophets were writing about our salvation. The text says they realized that it was not for them, but for us. Verse10 mentions prophesies about the grace we would receive. When one reads the Old Testament, the sense is that there is a lot of law there and not too much grace. After Saul was converted and became Paul, he wrote abundantly about grace, and we sometimes wonder if that was something new that he just made up. His background was in the Old Testament law, and so when he was converted, he had new eyes to see the manifold grace of God revealed in the Old Testament by the prophets.
In verse 11 the Bible calls the Holy Spirit the Spirit of Christ. It’s interesting to visualize Jesus’ spirit inside of prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah pointing out and predicting the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow from that. The whole of the Bible is a unified narrative of God at work to accomplish His purposes.
And finally, in verse 12, we find that the gospel that has been proclaimed to us by a pastor, or parent, or someone else, are the very things that the prophets were writing about so long ago. And that gospel that we hear that draws us to Christ was proclaimed by the Holy Spirit. When the gospel is preached, it’s not just another kind of lesson like you might hear a lecture on World War I or how to solve algebra problems. When the Word of God is preached, the Holy Spirit is at work along with the Word He inspired to bring salvation to people. It is a powerful thing that Peter is describing here – something that spans the centuries and millennia of time just to reach you.
Last time we looked at 1 Peter 1:9 where we discovered that as we love and rejoice in a Savior we have never seen, we are receiving the purpose and goal of faith, the salvation of our souls. Today we are going to begin thinking about verses 10-12. Here is verse 10 of that section:
“Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully…”
In order to really grasp what Peter is saying here, you should read verses 10-12 several times. I don’t want to go too deeply into this, but I do want to draw several important truths from it. Since I don’t want to make this too long, I’ll give you the gist this week and draw the lessons from it next time.
What Peter is saying here is that the prophets of the Old Testament – people like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, etc. – these prophets tried really hard to figure out what kind of salvation they were prophesying about. The Spirit of Christ was inspiring them to write, but they didn’t understand what they were writing about, and so they took out their imaginary magnifying glass and tried to dig deep to understand.
What God revealed to them was that they were not writing about something related to them, but they were writing about the things you and I would be taught centuries later. And at the end of verse 12 we find out that even the angels really wanted to look into this as well to figure out what this teaching about the suffering of Christ was all about.
Lord willing, next week I’ll share a few things that I took away from thinking about this. In the meantime, you read this section many times over the next week and see what thoughts you come up with.
Last time in our meditation on First Peter, we saw that 1 Peter 1:8 focused on the fact that even though we haven’t seen the Lord, we still love Him and are filled with inexpressible joy filled with glory. But of course, the end of verse 8 was not the end of the sentence. Verse 9 goes on to say, “obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
As I think about this, what that short phrase is telling me is that my possession of the faith Peter speaks about in verse 7 – the faith that is more precious than gold – is the evidence of salvation. Here’s what I mean by that: Verse 9 begins with the word “receiving” or “obtaining.” This is a present tense verb. That means that through faith we love one whom we have never seen, and we rejoice in that, and in so doing we are presently receiving the outcome of our faith. That outcome is the salvation of our souls.
“Outcome” is another interesting word. Some translations use the word “end.” The Greek word is telos. A telos is the goal and purpose of something. Our English word “end” is not quite the right word because “end” often means the stopping point. A potter might be working on a lump of clay with the intent of creating a beautiful vase. The telos of his project is a beautiful vase. But the actual end of the project might be when the vase falls from his tongs after it has been fired. A broken vase was not the potter’s telos but it was the end of the vase.
The goal, target, purpose, and outcome of faith is the salvation of our souls. As we have faith in the Christ we have never seen, we rejoice with inexpressible joy. In doing so we are presently receiving the telos of faith which is the salvation of our souls. Take some time this week to let that sink in.
Good Morning! It’s that time again when we take the opportunity to take a few minutes to meditate on God’s Word. We’re thinking through Peter’s encouraging message to those who are scattered throughout their known world. Today I want us to think about the first part of 1 Peter 1:8.
“And though you have not seen Him, you love Him.” That’s true of us too, isn’t it? We haven’t seen Him. Why would we love someone we have never seen?
Peter, of course, saw Jesus and spent three years with Him. He knew Him well. Probably Peter could say what John said, “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life” (1 John 1:1). The things Peter could share with the people he ministered to are many, and because we have the entire New Testament, we know some of these same things even though we have never seen Christ or met Peter:
Jesus loved Peter even though he had betrayed Him, and He made sure Peter knew it. Remember, “Simon … do you love Me?” (John 21:15-21).
Peter saw that Jesus “went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed,” and he testified to that in his preaching (Acts 10:38).
He knew personally that Jesus was “meek and lowly” and offered rest (Matt. 11:29).
He could testify about Jesus’ death and resurrection (John 20:4).
He could tell people firsthand about the transfiguration (2 Peter 2:16-18).
He could share about the miraculous catch of fish (Luke 5)
Out of love and compassion, Jesus healed Peter’s own mother-in-law (Mark 1:29-31).
He saw Jesus’ ascension and heard the promise of His return (Acts 1:11).
… and so much more.
Can you imagine what it would have been like to hear Peter share these personal experiences? What excitement and certainty we would have heard in his voice! Peter was able to tell people that even though they had not seen what he saw, he could assure them that they could experience this same Christ by faith. We hear this excitement in the letter he has written, and through the generations this same message has come down to us. As a result, we can love the same Lord Peter loved even though we have not seen Him in person.
Last time we thought about 1 Peter 1:6. My intention had been to put verse 7 with it, but that made it a longer read than I really wanted. It’s like eating. Sometimes we need to take smaller bites and chew them longer.
Peter reminded us to rejoice because of the tremendous promises of God even when we are faced with difficult trials. Those trials are often necessary because God uses them to trim and prune us into greater godliness.
Verse 7 says, “so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
The “so that” at the beginning of verse 7 tells us there is a reason for the trials. The trials and testing we go through are the proof, the genuineness, the trial of our faith. Those three words are from three different translations. The Greek word behind them is similar to our word documentation. The trials and difficulties document the genuiness and reality of our faith. Just like a metal is tested by fire to make sure it is actually gold and not some counterfeit material, our faith is tested by trials. And the metal, even though it might be genuine gold is still perishable, whereas true faith is not.
As our faith gets tested, we ourselves have some clue as to how we are doing. If we don’t do well on one of life’s tests, we know where we need God’s work in our lives to make our faith stronger. After Jesus gave the disciples some instruction in Luke 17, the disciples replied, “Increase our faith!” That’s the request we need to make often in life.
The end of 1 Peter 1:7 tells us that this documentation of our faith will result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. The kind of documented transformation of a man or woman that remakes us and renews us into Christ’s image is only something that Jesus Christ Himself can accomplish as He works through us. The praise, honor, and glory goes to Him on that day!
We’ve been working our way through Genesis, and then we made what might have seemed like a big jump over to the book of Hebrews. The reason for that is tied directly to Genesis 2.
Genesis 2 begins with God resting on the seventh day. And the author of Hebrews picks up that truth and uses it to explain something deeper—what the believer’s true rest is. So that’s why we went there, and that’s what we’re continuing to look at.
The author of Hebrews is drawing from Psalm 95, where David reflects back on the wilderness generation. Those people had the opportunity to enter God’s rest, but they didn’t. They were disobedient. They didn’t believe. And so they missed it.
Then David says in Psalm 95, “Today, don’t harden your hearts like they did.” And Hebrews takes that and brings it right into the present—into our lives.
The Weight of “Today”
That word “today” keeps coming up, and it matters more than we usually think.
We tend to live either in the past or in the future. We think about what we wish we had done, or we worry about what might happen next week. But the reality is, all we ever actually have is today.
If tomorrow comes, it will be “today” when it gets here.
That’s true in everyday life. If someone says, “Someday I want to learn something,” that “someday” has to become today at some point, or it never happens. It’s the same with simple things—we tell ourselves we’ll get to it later, but what really matters is whether we do it now.
And the writer of Hebrews presses that same point spiritually. Today is the day not to harden our hearts. Today is the day to enter God’s rest.
The Problem: Hearing Without Believing
Hebrews says something that can be a little uncomfortable. It says the people in the wilderness had good news proclaimed to them, just like we do—but it didn’t profit them.
Why not?
Because they didn’t unite it with faith.
You can hear the Word of God, sit under teaching, listen to a message—and it may not benefit you at all. Not because the message wasn’t true, but because it wasn’t believed.
Belief and obedience go together. If I really believe what God says, it shows up in how I live. It’s not just agreeing with facts. It’s responding to what God has said.
God’s Rest and Finished Work
Hebrews then brings us back to creation:
“God rested on the seventh day from all his works.”
Why did He rest? Because the work was finished. There was nothing left to do. He didn’t take a break so He could get back at it the next day. He was done.
That becomes the pattern.
God rested because His work was complete. And now we’re told that there is a rest for us—and that entering that rest somehow means resting from our works the same way God rested from His.
That’s where the question comes in: what works are we supposed to stop?
What Are “Dead Works”?
To understand that, we have to look at what the same writer calls “dead works.”
Hebrews 9 talks about being cleansed from dead works. And I’m convinced those works include more than just trying to earn salvation. We know we can’t earn salvation. But there’s another kind of work we fall into—especially as Christians. It’s when we try, out of ourselves, to produce something for God. We try to be better, to be more acceptable, to be more pleasing—coming from the wrong place within us.
Even as believers, we can operate that way.
Isaiah says that “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” That means there is a kind of righteousness we can produce that still isn’t what God is after.
So the issue isn’t just whether we’re doing the right things. It’s where those things are coming from.
The Subtle Shift in Motivation
I’ve seen this in my own life, and I’ve heard others describe it too. You can be doing all the same outward things—living a clean life, making good decisions—but something underneath changes. The motivation shifts.
You might be doing it for approval, or out of habit, or because that’s what you’ve always done. And from the outside, nothing looks different. But inside, something is off.
That’s the difference we’re trying to get at. And it’s not always easy to identify. It’s something you have to discern before the Lord.
Are We Perfected by the Flesh?
Galatians presses this even further.
“Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”
We understand that salvation is by faith. But then we can slip into thinking that our growth—our sanctification—comes by our own effort. The passage pushes back on that.
Just as we began by faith, we continue by faith. That doesn’t mean we do nothing. But it does mean that what we do is not coming from our own strength in the way we often assume.
God Working Within Us
Philippians brings balance to this.
“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling… for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.”
That’s a striking statement. Even the desire to do what is right—the will itself—is something God is working in us. And the doing flows from that. So when I find myself wanting to do what is right in a genuine way, that didn’t originate with me. That’s God at work.
No Confidence in the Flesh
And then there’s this:
“We… worship in the Spirit of God… and put no confidence in the flesh.”
But we tend to do the opposite. We hear what we’re supposed to do, and our instinct is, “I can do this.” There’s a kind of determination that sounds right but is rooted in the wrong place. And that’s the line that’s hard to see.
Seeing Sin More Clearly
At one point, this became very personal for me.
For a long time, I thought of my daily failures as a handful of small things—maybe two or three I needed to confess at the end of the day.
But then I started thinking about what Jesus actually said: love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.
If that’s the standard, then how often do I fall short? Not a few times a day, but constantly.
And when I realized that, it changed how I saw forgiveness. It wasn’t that I had a few minor things to clean up. It was that the whole day fell short of God’s standard, and yet all of those failures and sins were all forgiven.
The Limits of Our Effort
We can try to improve. We can raise the level a little. But the gap between where we are and God’s standard is still enormous. So when we respond by saying, “I’m going to do better,” we’re still operating in that same framework of self-effort. And that’s where the frustration comes in.
We sing things like giving everything to God, putting it all on the altar—but it doesn’t stay there. It jumps off of the altar almost immediately. That’s been my experience over and over again.
Resting in Christ Instead
What this passage is pointing us toward is something different. Not a life of trying harder from the same place, but a life of resting in Christ—trusting what has already been finished.
God finished His work in creation.
Christ finished His work on the cross.
And the invitation is to rest in that.
To live out of that reality—not striving to reach some standard so that God will accept us more, but living as those who are already accepted.
And from there, to live, to love, to serve—not perfectly, but from a different place.
That’s the rest that is being offered.
May every one of us find that place of rest each day of our lives so that we can serve God faithfully and from a true heart of faith.
We are meditating our way through First Peter. Today we are going to think through 1 Peter 1:6-7.
“In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
We learned in the previous few verses that our inheritance is reserved and guarded for us in heaven, and we ourselves are protected by the power of God through faith. These are the strong and encouraging promises that cause the joy he writes about in verse 6. But it’s interesting to note that this joy is present even though they are going through difficult trials.
We too are not immune to the trials of life. Some are just hardships that are embedded in life itself, and some may be coming because we are Christians and carry His reproach with us. In spite of the hardships, wherever they come from, we can still rejoice because the promises are so tremendously great.
You might be thinking, “my troubles are so difficult that I have a hard time rejoicing even though God’s promises are powerful and encouraging.” Discouragement is one of the fiery darts of the devil and the defense against those is the shield of faith. The author of a devotional I’ve been reading lately says that we must pick up our shield and use it. What that means to me is that I need to talk to myself as David recorded in Psalm 42, “Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me?” Put your faith to work by grabbing the promises of God, meditating on them, and then claiming them once again for yourself. Take the promises in verses 3-5 and dwell on them until your heart begins to rejoice in the surety of God’s power to protect both our inheritance and ourselves until the final day.
Before moving forward in the creation account, it helps to review where we have been. Last time we walked through the first four days of Genesis 1.
On the first day God created light. “Let there be light.” And there was light.
On the second day God made a separation. He separated the waters below from the waters above and created the expanse between them. Some Bible versions call it an expanse, while older translations use the word firmament. I mentioned the Hebrew word raka last time. Ancient people didn’t think of this simply as empty space. They thought of it as the sky itself—the place where the sun, moon, stars, and planets were set.
Then on day three there was another separation. Nothing entirely new was created at first. God separated the waters from the land so that dry ground appeared. The dry land he called earth, and the gathered waters he called seas.
But something else happened on that third day. God said, “Let the earth sprout,” and plants began to grow. Vegetation appeared with seed in it so that it would reproduce.
That raises the question of kinds. The text says plants reproduce “after their kind.” When we talked about that, I mentioned that I’m comfortable with the idea that “kind” does not necessarily mean every modern species as we categorize them. There may have been one kind of oak or one kind of maple, and over time there was diversity within that kind. When we eventually talk about animals and Noah’s ark, I don’t think Noah necessarily had to bring every kind of dog—cocker spaniels, German shepherds, and so on. There could have been a basic dog kind from which those variations came. I’m comfortable with that understanding, though if someone isn’t, that’s okay too.
Then we came to day four.
The Lights in the Expanse
On the fourth day God placed lights in the expanse of the heavens.
Light itself had already been created on day one. That sometimes makes people stop and think. How do you have light without the sun, moon, or stars? But light itself is a real thing. In the original creation, God first created light, and then later he made the things that would hold or produce that light.
Sometimes when we explain it to children, we say that God made the sun and the stars as containers for light. The light existed, and then God made the things that would bear it.
Genesis says these lights were given several tasks.
First, they were to separate the light from the darkness.
Second, they were given as signs.
Third, they were for seasons, and for days and years.
And finally, they were to give light on the earth.
It’s interesting that giving light on the earth is listed last. When we think about the sun, we usually think that providing light is its main purpose. But in the biblical description, that appears at the end of the list.
The word translated “seasons” is especially important. When we read it, we usually think of the agricultural seasons—spring, summer, autumn, winter. But the Hebrew word carries a deeper meaning. It refers to appointed times.
These are the appointed times for gatherings.
Later in the Old Testament the Hebrew people had their new moons, Sabbaths, and festivals—Passover, the Day of Atonement, and the rest. All of those observances were guided by the positions of the sun and moon. They didn’t have clocks or wall calendars like we do. Nobody could walk over to the kitchen wall and check what day or month it was. They had to keep track of time by watching the sky.
Even today the Jewish calendar is complicated because it is based on the lunar cycle. A lunar month is about twenty-nine and a half days. If every month followed that pattern, eventually the calendar would drift out of sync with the seasons. So they occasionally add a leap month. Not every year, but some years. That keeps the festivals tied to the proper seasons.
At one point in history the wider world had to correct its calendar as well. Things had drifted so far that they suddenly skipped a number of days in order to bring everything back into alignment. People who had birthdays during those missing days simply lost them that year.
All of that helps us see what Genesis is saying. God placed the sun, moon, and stars in the heavens not only to give light and regulate the agricultural seasons, but also to mark the appointed times when his people would gather.
When I read that, it tells me something about God’s interests even in the creation week. In the middle of these seven days, God is already providing for the gatherings of his people. Later in the biblical story there would be Israel with its festivals, and eventually the gatherings of believers who worship the true God. The heavens themselves help mark those appointed times.
So when we read the word seasons, it’s helpful not to limit it in our minds to weather patterns. It also includes those special, appointed times for gathering.
The Fifth Day: Life in Water and Sky
That brings us to the fifth day.
Genesis 1:20 says:
“Then God said, ‘Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the expanse of the heavens.’ And God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves with which the waters swarmed after their kind and every winged bird after its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God blessed them saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.’ And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.”
On this day God created the creatures of the sea and the birds of the air.
One phrase that caught my attention in my translation was “great sea monsters.” I hadn’t thought much about that before, so I looked into the Hebrew word used there. It refers to large sea creatures—things we might think of as dragons, crocodiles, whales, and other massive creatures of the deep.
Then you also have the rest of the creatures that swarm in the waters—fish and everything else that lives there.
When you start thinking about the oceans, you realize how much life there is that we have never even seen. There are creatures living at depths we cannot easily reach. My grandson was telling me about organisms that live near volcanic vents on the ocean floor and somehow get their energy from sulfur compounds coming out of those vents. I had never even heard about creatures like that before.
It makes you wonder how many things exist down there that nobody has ever seen. The ocean is deep enough that there may be countless forms of life we still haven’t discovered. God made them all, and I sometimes think he must delight in them.
Someday when human beings discover more of those things, we will probably stand back and say again how remarkable the Creator is. Perhaps when He created them, God thought, “I can’t wait until they first get their eyes on this!”
The Blessing on the Creatures
There is another detail in this passage that is easy to miss.
After creating the creatures of the sea and the birds of the air, verse 22 says, “God blessed them.” He said, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.”
Later we will see God say something very similar to human beings. But humans are rational creatures. We can think about what it means to be fruitful and multiply.
What does it mean when God says that to animals? He is speaking to creatures that don’t reason or reflect the way we do. Yet the text still says he blessed them.
One way to understand that blessing is that God created them with the instinct to reproduce. The blessing guarantees the continuation of their existence. If God had created all these living creatures but withheld that blessing, they would disappear in a single generation.
Instead, the blessing means that one generation follows another. Creatures reproduce after their kind, and life continues.
Some things have gone extinct over time, but in general the pattern remains: life reproduces life after its own kind. The blessing God spoke at creation ensured that the world he made would continue to be filled with living creatures.
And that is exactly what we see.
*Some articles on this publication or website are adapted from my recorded Bible teaching. I use transcription and editing tools (including AI-assisted editing) to convert spoken lectures into readable written form. The ideas, interpretations, and theological conclusions are my own and come directly from my teaching.
It’s good to be back in Genesis. We’ve had a couple interruptions the last few weeks — holidays, a baptism for one grandson, then another baptized on Easter — but now we’re settling back into our study.
My goal as we move through Genesis is to go slowly. Not tediously slow, I hope, but slow enough to see what’s really there. We’ll keep making connections to the New Testament and to truths that help us see the greatness of God more clearly.
Today, I want to begin in the New Testament before returning to Genesis.
“What Is Seen Was Not Made Out of Things Which Are Visible”
Turn to Hebrews 11.
Hebrews 11 is the faith chapter. Let me read the opening verses:
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.” (Hebrews 11:1–3)
That last line is what we’re focusing on: “what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”
As someone who taught chemistry and physics for 25 years, that verse always meant a lot to me. The more you dig into almost any subject, the more it ends up glorifying God. If you grow flowers, you plant a seed in the same dirt as everything else — potatoes, corn, tomatoes — and yet each plant comes up tasting like what it’s supposed to taste like. That alone is amazing.
But let’s talk about something even smaller.
A Little Science — and a Big God
Everything in the material world is made of atoms. Atoms are too small to see. There are over a hundred elements — iron, copper, zinc, oxygen, hydrogen — but most of what we deal with every day is made from maybe ten or twelve of them.
Every atom has three parts: protons, neutrons, and electrons. The sacks in the picture represent the idea that God made everything from those three components. (In actuality, it’s a lot more complicated than that, but I think it gives you a mental picture.)
Protons carry a positive charge.
Neutrons have no charge.
Electrons carry a negative charge and move around the outside of the atom.
Protons and neutrons are packed tightly together in the nucleus. Electrons move around that nucleus. Opposites attract — positive and negative — so the electrons are attracted to the nucleus.
Now here’s where it gets interesting.
Take carbon. Carbon has six protons and six neutrons in its nucleus, and six electrons outside. That’s what carbon is. Graphite in your pencil is carbon. A diamond is carbon.
Add one proton, one neutron, and one electron, and now you have nitrogen — an odorless gas that makes up a large part of our air. And if you were to add three hydrogen atoms, also an orderless gas, to one nitrogen, you have ammonia, which is anything but odorless.
Add another proton, neutron, and electron to nitrogen, you have oxygen — the air we breathe.
It’s the number of protons that makes an element what it is. God, in creating, used these basic building blocks — protons, neutrons, electrons — and from them came everything.
Let’s talk about iron.
Iron has 26 protons and 30 neutrons in its nucleus, with 26 electrons outside. That’s iron.
If you hold a common nail in your hand — mostly iron — that nail contains 26 billion billion atoms.
Now stretch your mind a little.
If we could expand one iron atom so that its nucleus was the size of a ping pong ball, the nearest electrons would be about 26 feet away. The outermost electrons would be about a third of a mile away.
And between the nucleus and those electrons?
Nothing.
Empty space. Not air, because air is made of atoms and there are no atoms within other atoms.
That means an atom of iron — something that seems solid and hard — is mostly nothing. The next atom would be another third of a mile beyond that.
So this nail, which holds buildings together and will hurt if you drive it into your finger, is mostly empty space. It’s made of things you cannot see — and most of it is nothing.
When you hit a nail with a hammer, the atoms of the hammer never actually touch the atoms of the nail. The electrons around each atom repel one another. It’s like magnets pushing away from each other. Forces are involved, but nothing truly “touches.”
And God did that.
The God you worship designed matter that way. The God who made you made a world where solid iron is mostly empty space held together by forces we cannot see.
That’s what Hebrews 11:3 means in part: “what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.”
Now go back to Genesis 1.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” “The earth was without form and void… and darkness was over the surface of the deep… and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.” “Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.”
Before God spoke, there was no light.
He commanded something that did not exist to exist.
That’s not magic. That’s authority. He spoke to what did not exist and said, “Light, exist.” And light obeyed.
Paul picks this up in 2 Corinthians 4:6:
“For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
The saving work of Christ is like creation. God says, “Let there be light,” and light shines in a dark heart. He creates spiritual life just as He created physical light.
Romans 4:17 says He is the One who “calls into being that which does not exist.”
That’s what God does.
Separations, Naming, and Order
As we move through Genesis 1, notice what God does.
After creating the heavens and the earth and bringing light into existence, much of what follows is separation and ordering.
He separates light from darkness.
He names the light “day” and the darkness “night.”
There was evening and there was morning, day one.
On the second day, He creates the expanse — the firmament — to separate waters from waters. He calls the expanse “heaven.”
The Hebrew word for that expanse, raqia, comes from a word meaning to beat out metal into a thin sheet. Ancient people looked up and saw what appeared to be a solid dome. That’s the language being used.
God separates waters above from waters below. Then He gathers the waters below so dry land appears.
Up to this point, after the initial creation and the creation of light, He hasn’t created new materials. He has been separating and ordering what He already brought into existence.
Light and darkness. Waters above and below. Sea and dry land.
He is dividing, naming, structuring.
The Sovereign God Who Does It All
Let me close with Isaiah 45.
God speaks to Cyrus, a pagan king. Cyrus did not know Him. Yet God says:
“I am the one who forms light and creates darkness, producing peace and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these things.” (Isaiah 45:7)
There is no other.
He forms light. He creates darkness. He produces peace. He creates calamity. He raises up kings. He brings down kings.
This is the God who created iron atoms that are mostly empty space. This is the God who spoke light into existence. This is the God who shines light into human hearts.
And this same God gave us a Savior.
He could have judged us all. We have all rebelled against Him. But He desired to save. He desired to glorify Himself in mercy. So He sent Christ. The God who calls things into existence that do not exist called us into spiritual life.
That’s the God we’re studying in Genesis. And that’s the God we worship.
Several months ago in our adult Bible class, We began a series called “Back to the Beginning.” I chose that name because I think we need to return to the opening pages of the Bible. Genesis gives us the foundation of our Christian faith and a great deal of the thinking that shaped Western culture. We’re going to look at the text more carefully than most people do when they remember the stories from childhood.
Let’s start actually before the beginning.
Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” My immediate question is: the beginning of what? The creation of the earth. Creation itself. Time. The beginning of everything.
Before we walk into verse 1, I want us to consider what Scripture says about what was happening before time began. The Bible does speak about a “before time began,” and it’s worth asking: what was God doing before He started creation?
Fellowship in the Trinity Before Anything Existed
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit existed in perfect fellowship before time began. There was communication and love among the three Persons of the Godhead long before any creature was made.
Look with me at a few passages.
2 Timothy 1:8–9 “…according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.”
Before time began, God already had a purpose and grace in place for us in Christ Jesus. The plan of salvation wasn’t an emergency response; it was already settled.
Titus 1:2 “…in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began.”
God promised eternal life before the world existed. There was no one yet to receive the promise, but He made it anyway.
Ephesians 1:4 “…he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.”
Something concerning us and Christ’s saving work was already determined before the world was founded.
John 17:24 (Jesus’ high priestly prayer) “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory that you have given me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”
The Father loved the Son before anything was created. There was love, glory, and relationship within the Trinity.
1 Peter 1:20 “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you…”
Christ was foreordained before the foundation of the world.
From these passages we see that before time began, God had a structured plan. Some call it a covenant between the Father and the Son (with the Spirit’s involvement) to accomplish our salvation. Jesus speaks of doing only what pleases the Father and of not losing any whom the Father has given Him. That plan was agreed upon before time started.
God Did Not Need to Create
This matters when we think about why God created at all.
Unlike what some teachings say about Allah—that he created because he was alone and needed fellowship—the true God is Triune. There was already perfect fellowship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God had no need, no lack, no missing piece. He doesn’t need anything.
So why create? He wanted to. He desired to display His glory, to receive praise from creatures—angels and people. He wanted to show mercy and grace, which are part of His character. But even that wasn’t a need; it was something He freely chose to do.
He didn’t need glory—He already had it in the Trinity. He didn’t need needy people to be merciful toward—He simply wanted to demonstrate who He is.
Time Itself Had a Beginning
Time started when God created the heavens and the earth. Before that, there was no time.
Even people who hold to the Big Bang (and who don’t believe in God) say there was no time before that event. On this point, they agree with the Bible: time had a beginning.
That means there was no “Thursday” on which God suddenly decided, “Today I’ll create the universe.” There were no days, no sun, no moon to mark time. Asking why God “suddenly” created at a particular moment is a question that doesn’t make sense in eternity.
God never changes His mind. He never learns anything new. Nothing ever surprises Him. Adam and Eve’s sin was not a derailment that forced a backup plan. Christ was foreordained as Savior before the foundation of the world—before Adam and Eve were ever made.
When the Bible speaks of “before” or “after” or “the fullness of time” (Galatians 4:4) or “when the day of Pentecost had fully come” (Acts 2:1), it uses language we can understand. God accommodates our experience of time. But with Him there is no before or after. He simply is. He exists outside of time.
I sometimes picture it like a parade. If you’re standing on the sidewalk, you experience one float at a time. The beginning passes you, then the middle, then Santa at the end. But if you’re high above, you can see the whole parade at once—the start, the middle, the finish—all in view together. God is like that, only perfectly so. He sees every moment of history simultaneously. When He promises to be with you tomorrow, He is already there. You just haven’t arrived yet.
Scripture keeps saying the same thing:
James 1:17 — no variation or shadow due to change
Colossians 1:17 — Christ is before all things, and in Him all things hold together
Exodus 3:14 & John 8:58 — “I AM”
Psalm 90:4 — a thousand years are like yesterday
Hebrews 13:8 — Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever
Malachi 3:6 — “I the LORD do not change”
Revelation 4:8 — “who was and is and is to come”
Isaiah 57:15 — “I inhabit eternity”
He fills eternity the way He fills the earth.
Eternity in Our Hearts—and the Sin Problem
Ecclesiastes 3:11 says God has put eternity in our hearts, yet no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end. We sense there is something bigger than ourselves. We make plans, we have aspirations, we think in terms of lifetimes. Romans 1 tells us everyone knows there is a God and understands something of His eternal power and divine nature. But we don’t want to bow to Him. That’s the root sin: we suppress the truth and worship the creature rather than the Creator.
That suppression leads to a downward spiral. You see it in culture, in history, in current events—wars, injustice, rebellion. It all flows from refusing to acknowledge who God is and what we owe Him.
Not Religion—Reality
A lot of religion is about jumping through hoops: read your Bible—check; pray—check; go to church—check. That’s how people often treat pagan gods: do the right things, appease the deity, and maybe he’ll leave you alone.
That’s not Christianity.
Christianity is about the real God who exists, who is exactly as we’ve been describing. He doesn’t need to be appeased by our performance. He has already provided propitiation—appeasement—through Jesus Christ. God Himself came as a man, died on the cross, and paid the actual penalty for our sins. Not symbolically. Not religiously. Actually. The debt is paid. There is nothing left to do to make God accept us.
Because of that, we’re free. And in that freedom we bow, we worship, we give thanks. It’s not obligation anymore; it’s opportunity. We get to serve Him because of His grace and kindness toward us.
A Quick Look at Genesis 1
Next time we’ll pick up right here: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
For now, listen to the opening verses and notice a few things.
The earth was without form and void, darkness over the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Picture that.
Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. In Hebrew it’s more like a command: “Light—be.” He spoke to something that didn’t exist, and it obeyed instantly.
God saw the light, and it was good. He divided light from darkness, called light “day” and darkness “night.” Evening and morning—the first day.
He made a firmament to separate waters above from waters below, called it heaven. And it was so.
Notice how much God does in this chapter. I’ve asked people to list every action: God said, God saw, God made, God called, God separated. It’s striking.
Also notice: God created light on day one, but the sun, moon, and stars don’t appear until day four. Light existed before anything to hold or emit it.
There’s a lot of separating—light from darkness, waters above from waters below, sea from land. Much of the work is division rather than making something out of nothing.
Read Genesis 1 yourself this week. Jot down everything God does: “God created;” “God saw;” “God made;” etc. It will give you a different perspective of God’s creative work.
* Some articles on this publication or website are adapted from my recorded Bible teaching. I use transcription and editing tools (including AI-assisted editing) to convert spoken lectures into readable written form. The ideas, interpretations, and theological conclusions are my own and come directly from my teaching.
