Genesis 1:1 G.O.S.P.E.L (2-G)
The message of the gospel starts with creation. God created all things. He created us to be in relationship and fellowship with Him. Where do the Bible and Science agree and disagree on this?
Let’s read Genesis 1:1 from the ESV- “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Now, I’m sure that you’ve heard this before, and you’re probably thinking, yeah yeah, I know, he made everything, cool, let’s move on. Just slow down and hang with me for a minute. We’re talking about the gospel and the fall of all mankind through sin. But God makes a way for our redemption through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus and because of that, we now have the ability and the opportunity to return to that fellowship through God’s saving grace. The simple fact alone that there exists an eternal and omnipotent God is a crazy thought to some people even though Roman's 1:19-20 tells us everyone knows that God exists because we've seen his invisible qualities, eternal power, and divine nature through everything God made, so they have no excuse for not knowing God. Especially those who put their faith in science. Yes, I said their faith. Everyone has faith and everyone places it in something. We know as Christians that the only faith worth having is faith in Jesus, but for a lot of people their faith lies in science and evolution. But simply knowing God exists isn't the full message. I mean think about it, even Lucifer knows that God exists. It's not the knowing, it's the accepting of Jesus that we have to get to. And to get to that, we start with creation. But have you ever really thought about what it means to have been created? We worship an eternal God who has always existed. Our puny minds are not capable of understanding what eternity looks like. Time before time began. So let’s look at it from a few angles.. The Bible isn’t a science book, but it also doesn’t contradict science. Actually, the more we learn, the more evidence we see of God our creator. Science tells us that the earth and our entire system was created in the “Big Bang” several billion years ago. I’m not going to get into the young earth old earth discussion because it doesn’t benefit or relate to the gospel message, but I will say that you can believe either way and still be a Christian, still believe the bible, and not be wrong either way! If I peaked your curiosity with that I’m just going to tell you to go look up the redshift as it relates to the Genesis Big Bang theory. The Bible tells us that God created the heavens and the earth, then the light and space to separate light from dark, dry land and water, the sun and stars became visible, then the sea creatures, then finally, land animals and man. Science says things happened in the same order. Even when science has been wrong, i.e. the earth was thought to be flat until around 500 years before Christ, the Bible was right. Look at Isaiah 40:22 it was written about 200 years before science realized the earth was round, , it says “He sits enthroned above the CIRCLE of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. It’s a circle because it’s round. You could also look at this passage of scripture and how it relates to Einstein's Theory of general relativity and what was confirmed by science in the 1920’s that space is expanding and galaxies are moving away from each other. Another scripture that supports science is Job 26:7 that says ..”he suspends the earth over nothing.” So what I’m getting at is that the two don’t have to be at odds and the smarter we get as humans, the more evidence points to creation, a creator, and the accuracy of the Bible. Now opposing the theory of the big bang which says a bunch of rocks collided in space and the solar system was born , the bible uses the term “created” which was translated from the Hebrew word bara (baw-raw) which means to make from nothing or to “create” and that word is only used in that way and it always has God as the subject. There are other things that God made such as the trees and the animals and man for that matter where other words are used to describe the making, but in the beginning, God created out of nothing, the heavens and the earth. So when we’re sharing this gospel with someone and we start out by telling them that God created everything, what we’re telling them is that by simply speaking the words, everything that exists was made by God. His words are so powerful that nothing exists without them. And that message carries through the entire Bible all the way to Revelation where a sharp two edged sword came out of the mouth of Jesus. That is referring to his words, and he absolutely annihilates the enemy by simply speaking. So when you’re talking to someone and sharing this gospel message with them, think about that, you’re sharing the word of the living God with them and Hebrews 4:12 tells us that it’s sharper than any two edged sword and it will pierce to the division of soul and of spirit. You just have to talk, the word of the lord and the power of the Holy Spirit will do the rest. Ok, so we’ve established that we believe that God created everything including us as humans. And the reason he created us was to be in fellowship with Him and to care for the earth, actually verse 28 says to subdue the earth from the Hebrew kabas (kaw-vesh), which means to make it subservient, so we were to rule over the earth. When it says that God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, that shows a closeness and an intimacy with each other. God created them and God loved them as he loves us. We were made in the image of our God, not in that we look like him, but that we each have a part of the characteristics of God in us, better stated, we are a reflection of Him. Think about when you meet someone for the first time and you’re going through the who am I part, we usually say something along the lines of our name and our job, we identify ourselves in that way. Instead, think about it like this, your identity is found in God and bringing glory to him as Matthew 5:16 says to let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Each of us can do that in a variety of different ways, but we were ultimately created to live in relationship and bring glory to our God, the creator of all things. So when we’re starting to have a gospel conversation with someone and we begin by talking about how God created us. Think about what that means, and how powerful that statement is. And as we move through the rest of the gospel message from the sin that separates us to the sacrifice of Jesus our redeemer you can’t help but glorify God for all of his goodness and love for us. To continually give us 2nd chances and opportunity after opportunity to come into a relationship with him. Once we finally give up our self reliance and lean on the Father by placing our faith in Jesus. We’re able to take refuge in his promise of salvation and eternal life, no longer being condemned to eternal fire. As the Lord tells us in Isaiah 43, …”Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine...everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” He created you, he loves you, and he wants a personal and meaningful relationship with you. Romans 5:8 says that “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” And he did that so that we can once again be in fellowship with Him and bring Him the glory that we were created for. We get to that part of the message by first explaining how and why God created us all to begin with. So, before we close out, let’s just review that gospel message. God created us to be with him, but our sins separate us from that relationship. Those sins are like a stain that can’t be removed by anything that we can do on our own. So Jesus came and lived the perfect sinless life and payed the price for all of our sins by died and rose again 3 days later. And everyone who trusts in him alone and confesses with their mouth and believes in their heart that this is true and and accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior and the only way to salvation is redeemed and is promised eternal life. And that life starts the moment you accept Jesus alone as your salvation. Today we covered the first part of this amazing message with the creation. In the next episode we’re going to get into our separation from God. Let’s prayClosing Prayer Jesus thank you for laying your life down for me. As your word tells us there is no greater love than to lay down ones life for ones friends. Thank you for calling me a friend. Thank you for this time together in your word. And thank you Father for wanting a relationship with us so badly that you would give yourself to pay the price and take the punishment for each one of us so that we can be redeemed and righteous in your sight by the blood of Jesus. And for blotting out every wrong and never remembering them. Amen.
Scripture Reference
Genesis 1:1https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1%3A1&version=ESV
Romans 1:19-20https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%201%3A19-20&version=ESV
Isaiah 40:22https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+40%3A22&version=ESV
Job 26:7https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+26%3A7&version=ESV
Revelation 1:16https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+1%3A16&version=ESV
Hebrews 4:12https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+4%3A12&version=ESV
Genesis 1:28https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+1%3A28&version=ESV
Matthew 5:16https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+5%3A16&version=ESV
Isaiah 43:1-7https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+43%3A1-7&version=ESV
Romans 5:8https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+5%3A8&version=ESV
