The structure of the book of Genesis teaches very insightful truths about who God is and who we are, and this should not be a surprise since Genesis is inspired by the Holy Spirit but also because the book tells the story of our origins and destiny.
So, for example, chapter 1 of the book of Genesis narrates for us the creation of the cosmos. This creation narrative is so familiar to us that we tend to overlook some of the important revelatory facts about God.
For example, before creation was, God already was. Meaning, God is not just the strongest and mightiest being, but He is actually a being that is wholly other. To put it in a different way, the Bible reveals that God is not like any of us!
God didn’t have to become strong, or mighty, or won a contest to be the best. God was and is and will always be someone who has no origin, He was never born and that puts Him in a different category than the cosmos. God is unique, God does not need creation, but creation needs Him.
As we move through the narrative of Genesis then, we do find that this unique altogether different being called God, is also the One who creates things by His Word, He commands things and they exist! He puts them in order, nothing resists His command.
There you have another fact that Scriptures reveal to us about God: nothing and no one is able to resist His will. The whole cosmos simply falls in place at the command/speech of God.
Now, this action of creation culminates in Genesis 1 and 2 with the creation of man, and this creation is different. God spoke everything into existence but with man God is more intimately involved. He takes His time, so to speak, He Himself forms humanity in a way that He didn’t with the rest of creation.
So Genesis speaks about who God is but also speaks about who we are. We are unique creatures, similar and yet separated from the rest of creation.
Humanity has two feet firmly established on earth reminding us that we are creatures of the dust, but with our gaze and mind we also reach out to heaven and are able to extend our hearts towards that God who created us.
No other being in the whole of creation is like humans. Animals are made of the ground, just like us, but unlike us God’s creation of animals was indirect. And unlike us, animals are not made after God’s image, they are not self aware, nor they extend their thoughts towards God in search for meaning and a relationship with Him.
Angels too, even though spiritual, were not crafted in the same way as man. Angels, as special as they are, were not created after the image of God. Angels too fall under a different category, inferior in many respects to who man was designed to be.
When God finalizes His act of creation we find the following elements: a complete environment or place, creatures and humanity as the crown of this creation. God then gives humanity a specific call, they are to mirror God’s activity in this world.
So humanity, male and female, are reflecting God when they work in this creation to subdue it and care for it just in the same way that God did put everything in order and made everything good.
The final purpose of all of this is, of course, that we humans may foster the flourishing of this cosmos in order to have fellowship with God and may enjoy Him in the cosmos He has created.
Now, later on we all know what happened. The serpent came, Even ate the fruit and gave her husband, Adam, to eat from it and we sinned.
Because of Adam’s disobedience the whole cosmos entered into a process of devolution, destruction, de-creation… But God, of course, would not allow His creation and His creatures to be destroyed.
Just when Adam had made an alliance with the devil, by eating from the fruit, God intersects the promise of salvation, the first announcement of the Gospel: Man sinned, but through another man, the son of a woman, this serpent and the sin it introduced, will be destroyed.
So Genesis already points to God’s involvement in this world. He didn’t abandon His creation, He is actually fighting sin and the devil and will bring to an end the curse that we introduced.
The Kingdom that sin tarnished and contaminated, will eventually be re-created, renewed by this “seed” of man. So if Genesis shows the power of God in creating everything that exists, chapter 3 and the rest of the Bible teaches us about the story of a war.
The Kingdom of God will not be defeated, actually God has invaded the earth and will reclaim what is His. This happened, of course, through the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, His death on the cross, and His resurrection.
The work of Christ, His life, death and resurrection are events that are absolutely devastating to the power of Satan. Those events are, as if were, a nuclear devastation over the kingdom of Satan.
The cross is in fact, the first big step in regaining and reclaiming the whole cosmos for God’s Kingdom once more. This is why the Bible ends with the New Jerusalem. Because the final nuclear act of God in this spiritual war culminates with God Himself establishing His throne here on earth and renewing every aspect of His creation.
But that does not mean that He is not working right now. Jesus clearly said that He will send His Spirit. His Spirit’s work is one of re-creation. Just as the Spirit hovered over the waters at the beginning, now in Christ, that Spirit recreates the first fruits of the new creation, that is a new humanity.
So the work of the Spirit as we are heading towards eternity consists in renewing, transforming, re-creating our humanity after the image of the better Adam, Jesus Christ.
And finally, when Jesus Christ finally comes to this world, it is the power of God Himself who will entirely restore creation, so from our hearts to the cosmos the whole work of re-creation is dependent on God Himself, and this is good for us and good to remember.
The work of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit depends on Him from beginning to end. From our calling to belong to Him, to our salvation and sanctification to our dying in the hands of our Savior, all of it is His work, and that has to be our comfort.
The life of the Christian needs to be seen under the light of our creature-hood. We are creatures, dependent, limited, unable, incapable and sinful, yet we have been redeemed, saved, re-purposed, and will be glorified not because of our efforts but due to God’s work in us, and the comfort in that is found that just as He begun creating and didn’t stop until it was completed, in the same way He will not stop working in you until you are in glory with Him.