Last week we looked at what it means to profess our faith in God the Father Almighty; this week, we are looking at what it means to profess our faith in God who is the maker of heaven and earth.
And, the idea of God as “Almighty” is somewhat of a bridge which tells us both about what kind of Father God is – and what kind of maker he is.
Because when you read Genesis 1 and compare it to the other creation myths at the time, you see that one of its main burdens is to display God as Almighty – who creates simply by speaking –
he creates with all power: with no struggle or obstacles or restriction;
and he creates with all freedom: with no needs.
Pagan creation myths in that time were different. The gods of those myths did not create with all power – creation was a consequence – sometimes an accidental consequence – of their struggle or fighting with one another;
And they didn’t create with all freedom – they created humanity as food for them or as slaves to provide them with food – they needed something from humanity.
But the God of the bible – Acts 17 – “isn’t served by human hands as if he needed anything.”
He didn’t create out of need but with all freedom; and he didn’t create with obstacles or restrictions or struggle but with all power.
He simply spoke what he wanted (“Let there be”), and what he spoke, happened
This is every little kids dream right? “Let there be toys!”
But it’s God’s reality.
God is the maker of heaven and earth.
- Everything comes from God
- Everything points to God
- Everything belongs to God
- Everything is owed to God
When the creed describes God as the “maker of heaven and earth” – this is a reference to Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
and the phrase “heavens and the earth” simply means “everything”.
In the beginning, God was there. Nothing else.
And it goes on to describe God’s creating of everything, from the stars to the seeds – and each one of us.
Everything that now exists was made by God, has it’s existence through God, and owes it’s existence to God.
The bible never explains God’s origin because God has no origin, he has eternally existed. And it never defends the presence of God at the beginning because we know that we exist.
And if we exist as finite and non-divine non-eternal beings, we know that we had to come from somewhere – that we had to have some origin; because something doesn’t come from nothing.
Which means that we had to come from something. And we had to come from something that is beyond our experience – outside of it and not characterized by the same limitedness and finiteness and dependency as we are –
But from something infinite and absolute and independent which itself has no beginning and so whose existence doesn’t need to be accounted for but simply is.
So, first; if we exist, then our existence must be accounted for by an eternal source.
But, more than that: if we aren’t things, but people; then our existence must be accounted for not merely by an impersonal “thing” or “it” but by a person.
All of us live as though life matters. But if at the source of our lives isn’t a personal & absolute God – then ultimately our lives are no more than accident; no more than molecules; and our lives don’t matter; there is no such thing as love or friendship or beauty or meaning or good or evil;
we have no reason or purpose; no greater end than merely to continue to exist with no reason to exist.
But, if everything comes from God – an absolute personal God, then we do have meaning and purpose; and all the things we value in life – things that only can exist in a personal universe – are real things, not illusions.
and in those moments of doubt that we encounter as believers; I believe that one of the sources of assurance available to us is that we can simply open our eyes; and when we see the visible world which needs its existence accounted for; we can be assured of the existence of the invisible God who is it’s maker.
(everything comes from God)
2. Everything points to God
Psalm 19 which we read earlier tells us that “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”
See what this is saying. The world around us – even though it can’t speak and has no words – shouts God’s glory – it can’t stop talking about God – it can’t stop praising God, it can’t stop honoring God, it can’t stop telling everyone about God.
Everything points to God
Calvin: “God daily discloses himself in the whole workmanship of the universe. As a consequence, men cannot open their eyes without being compelled to see God…Upon his individual works he has engraved unmistakable marks of his glory, so clear and prominent that no one can plead the excuse of ignorance… Wherever you cast your eyes, there is no little spot in the universe wherein you cannot discern at least some sparks of his glory. You cannot give one glance to this most vast and beautiful universe, without being completely overwhelmed by the boundless force of its brightness. The reason why the author of the Hebrews elegantly calls the universe “the appearance of things invisible” is that this skillful ordering of the universe is for us a sort of mirror in which we can contemplate God, who is otherwise invisible. The reason why the psalmist draws attention to the creation to show that in it lies an sign-pointer to divinity so apparent that it ought not to escape the gaze of anyone. There are innumerable evidences both in heaven and on earth that declare his wonderful wisdom.”
Romans 1:20 “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
This tells us that God’s invisible qualities are seen through the visible world – when we look at the world around us, we see something beyond the world around us – something invisible that is made visible by that world.
Creation is an artists canvas – a potter’s wheel – where God has made a work of art – a masterpiece – and that work of art tells us about the artist.
Belgic Confession: “Nature is before our eyes a most beautiful book in which all created things, whether great or small, are as letters showing the invisible things of God to us.”
The creation doesn’t tell us everything we need to know about God, but it tells us enough to leave us with no excuse for not giving Glory to God.
We already saw that it tells us about his existence.
It tells us about his wisdom:
This world is incredible, unfathomably complex. And it didn’t just piece itself together – certainly not by accident.
An unguided process of natural selection and evolution cannot account for the incredible complexity and evident design of our world.
Randomness and accidents make things worse and less ordered not better and more ordered; design comes from a designer.
And the incredible complexity of the world points to a creator of infinite, unsurpassed incomparable wisdom.
It tells us about his power:
God has created the mountains; he hollowed out the valleys and seas; he expands vast universe – that is bigger than we can comprehend and keeps getting bigger; and he does it all effortlessly – because he is Almighty God.
It tells us about his goodness and love:
the refrain of Genesis chapter 1 – after God makes something, he evaluates it: and the evaluation is: “and it was good”
There’s lots of good things in this world. These good things are gifts – not to be confused with the one who in his love gives us the gifts.
Because gifts aren’t meant to be taken in ignorance of the relational context but are meant to draw our hearts to the giver of those gifts – so that we know that they love us; and so that we love them in response.
God is the giver of the gifts; and the gifts demonstrate his love to us.
And the goodness of those gifts show us about God’s goodness – because, where does their goodness come from?
Well it comes from the one who made them.
The greatest thing in this world; gets all of its’ goodness from God – in fact, the goodness of the greatest thing in this world is only a dim reflection of the goodness of God;
it’s like pouring the ocean into a funnel; and we think that the little bit that trickles out of the bottom is good – and it is; but compared to the ocean pouring into it – it’s nothing; and ought never to be confused or traded.
Every good thing we experience in this world, ought to draw our hearts to God in worship and delight.
Calvin: “All ought, then, to break forth in praise of him, but instead are puffed up and swollen with all the more pride. Nothing is more preposterous than to enjoy the very remarkable gifts that attest to the divine, yet to overlook the Author who gives them to us.”
Even the fallen things of this world point to God.
In the beginning, God’s original creation was declared by him to be “very good”.
Now, it’s a mixture of good and bad – because we now live in a world corrupted by sin and evil and suffering and death.
But, CS Lewis makes the point in his book “Mere Christianity” that I’ll paraphrase: there’s only such a thing as a crooked stick, if there’s a straight stick by which to measure it.
The reason we know that there is bad – that bad and evil and suffering are things – is that we are made in the image of God and and know his goodness and truth and righteousness by which to measure evil against and call it just that.
If the world is molecules; if the world has no maker to answer to or judge to be accountable to; then right and wrong – evil – those aren’t things at all – they are merely preferences which we might hold ourselves to but we have no reason to expect others to be held accountable to them and we have no reason to expect that there’s any justice or redemption in the end.
Everything points to God. The goodness of this world points to him as the maker; the badness of it points to him as the one who is redeeming it – who still loves his world and his sinful creatures and wants to reclaim them and remake those he is the maker of.
(Everything comes from God; Everything points to God;)
3. Everything belongs to God
Psalm 24:1 tells us that “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it”
and it goes on to tell us the reason that everything belongs to God: “for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.”
Everything belongs to God – it is God’s – because God made everything.
And he didn’t just make it and set it loose to be owned and operated independently of him – he didn’t create and then just step out stand back and see what would happen; no, he created, and continues to be present with and sustain every aspect of his creation such that without his sustaining hand all things that he made would cease to exist.
And all of this means, that as creatures, we aren’t owners of anything – not even our selves. The creation doesn’t belong to us and we don’t belong to ourselves; we belong to God.
And so we aren’t owners, but stewards.
And the difference between an owner and a steward is that a steward lives with a conscious awareness that he or she is answerable to someone above his or her pay-grade.
That this world doesn’t belong to us to do what we want with, but it belongs to God.
One application of that is that we are called to take care of – rather than abuse or exploit – the world we live in – out of a solemn understanding that that world doesn’t belong to us, but belongs to God.
(Everything comes from God; Everything points to God; Everything belongs to God)
4. Everything is owed to God
Psalm 150:6 “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.”
If you have breath; even that breath belongs to God; is a gift from God; and is to be returned to God in praise.
All of our lives belong to him, and so all of our lives are owed to him.
And we find most freedom, and joy, and satisfaction when we live our lives as though they belong to God – when we give our lives in worship, obedience, service, and love, to God.
That’s why Psalm 19 which we read, goes on to talk about God’s law: and that law isn’t misguided; it isn’t oppressive; it isn’t depriving of the good; but it’s trustworthy (v7 – never misguided); it’s life-giving – v7 – it refreshes the soul (not oppressive or life-taking); and it’s good and always leads to the good – v10-11
God’s law always leads us to what is good – because it always leads us to him – to find our joy and satisfaction in him;
And when we veer off from God’s path; when we are believing 1 of 3 things:
1) either that God doesn’t know what is best – as though this world isn’t his – as though he isn’t our maker who knows what is for our good – as though we know better than God – as though we are our own makers. But God’s not mistaken.
2) Or we are believing that even though he knows what’s best for us he doesn’t want that – that he’s trying to deceive us and lead us into misery – as though we want our good more than he does. But all through scripture we see this isn’t true; that we work for our own destruction, but he constantly calls his people back to himself to lead them to something better than they could ever get for themselves;
3) Or we are believing that there is some good out there better than God; But if everything comes from God – then we know that he is the source of all and so we know that the best that this world has to offer is only derivative – it’s only a small glimpse of the goodness of God – and God’s law wants to enable us to enjoy the good gifts of creation while never replacing him with those things; while never treating those things as absolute; while never giving our lives to those things or basing our happiness on them; because they will crumble under the weight of that – because they are meant to draw us to Him who is the source of that goodness – the infinite source of all goodness.
We find our greatest freedom, fulfillment, satisfaction, joy, peace; not when we take our lives for ourselves; but when we give them to him. Because he is our maker and we belong to him.
In the gospel accounts, Jesus is asked a question about taxes. I guess it’s appropriate to reflect on this since tomorrow is tax day.
And he is asked whether they ought to pay taxes – and this isn’t a lesson on taxes or government – but Jesus knows they’re trying to trap him and so he responds to them by not really answering their question but by asking for a coin – and he asks them, “whose image & inscription is on it?” And they answer “Caesar’s” – and he says, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
And that statement ought to get us to ask, then: ok well if the coin is Caesar’s, then what is God’s?
If the coin is Caesar’s because it has his image, then, what has God’s image on it?
We do. We are created in God’s image. We are God’s; and so we owe our entire existence to God.
Every part of our lives – our time; our gifts; our talents; all that we have isn’t ours but God’s to be laid down at his feet in service of him; our very lives to be laid down as living sacrifices to him; every breath.
Pascal: “There is a God-shaped gap within us.”
And try as we might – we can’t fill that Gap with anything else; that gap is only filled by the one we were made for – the one whose image we were made in.
“You made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.”
The reason we have restless hearts that just won’t find peace anywhere; the reason we carry this God-shaped hole of emptiness around in our lives that just won’t be filled by anything- is that we don’t live as though we belong to God. We live as though we and this world belongs to us – as though we willed ourselves into existence; as though we sustain our beings by our own strength; as though our wisdom and power gave us all the good gifts that we enjoy in this creation – ridiculous.
But thankfully in scripture there’s another beginning.
John 1 beings with “In the beginning” – the same way that Genesis 1 began.
Genesis 1 talks about creation; John 1 makes the link from Creation to re-creation – by introducing us to the Word, who became flesh and made his dwelling among us, in order to bring us back to God our creator, God our Redeemer.
See, Creation isn’t the end of the story; it’s just the beginning.
And likewise the creed starts with God as creator, but then it goes on to talk about God as re-creator – redeemer; savior.
Now, we belong to God – not just because he is our maker; but because he is our savior; if it was even possible to belong more fully to God; we do; it was even possible to owe more to God; we do – because he not only made us but purchased us by his blood.
And in the NT God talks about our redemption in creation terms – to show us that the same power that spoke the universe into existence is at work in us to renew and transform our lives into what they were meant to be – and to give us the supernatural strength that we need to lay down our lives and give them to God – and to find the joy and freedom and peace and satisfaction and fulfillment.
2 Cor 4:6 – “For God – the same 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 God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.” 2 Cor 5:17 “therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, then new is here.”
Just as surely as God’s power could bring light into this world; he can bring light into your darkness.
Just as surely as God’s power could create; God’s power can remake you into something new.
Do you believe that?