THROUGH THE BIBLE: Genesis 1..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Genesis chapter 1, the beginning of the Bible, the beginning of the Old Testament, the beginning of the book of Genesis. But what I want us to do today is just to have a look at this first chapter of the book of Genesis, but not only from the perspective that is the beginning of the Bible or the beginning of the book of Genesis, but rather the beginning of the story of redemption.

This is a story of redemption that the triune God from eternity past, the triune God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit predetermined that He was going to set apart a people, a church for Himself. This is the beginning of that story of redemption. St. Augustine said that the Old Testament, that the New Testament is concealed in the Old Testament, that the New Testament reveals that which is contained in the Old Testament. And this is the approach of how we should approach the Old Testament.

So as we come to Genesis 1, this is what I want us to have in our mind, and not only from Genesis 1, but every single chapter, that we are reading the development of the story of redemption. So when we read the story of creation, we're not only reading the beginning of the story of humankind, of the history of humankind, or the history of Israel, but rather that story of the church of Jesus Christ. Three things, therefore, that I want you to have in your mind in light of this beginning of this story of redemption. Three things that are derived that we can observe in chapter one of the book of Genesis. The first one is that I want you to notice that there are only two types of characters that are involved in this history or this story.

It says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. We have the Creator who created everything, and then that everything, that it is the creatures. The Bible starts telling us there are only two types of beings in this which we call existence, the Creator and the creature. And this is very important because creature cannot be the Creator, and the Creator cannot be a creature entirely and substantially. So this is very important for us to have in mind.

But now, this Creator that Genesis 1 is speaking about is not only a God, or it is not only a mighty power that put everything in place and created everything. This is the Triune God of Heaven, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And this is what the New Testament speaks about of Genesis 1. The book of Hebrews says that, in the old times, God spoke to the fathers through the prophets. And in this last day, he has spoken to us through the Son, Jesus Christ.

God the Father has spoken to us through the Son. And this Son he has appointed as the heir of all things, and through whom, through he, he has made the world. God the Father created everything through the person of Jesus Christ. So this Creator who created everything, creatures, it is not only a mighty power, it is not only a God, but it is a trying God. God the Father created everything through Jesus Christ.

This is also what we read in Colossians 1. In Colossians 1 it says that everything was created by Him, visible, invisible, that which is in the heaven and which is in the earth, dominion and rulers and powers. Everything was created by Jesus Christ and through Jesus Christ. And the Apostle Paul in Romans says that everything is from him, through him, and to him, to Jesus Christ. The Creator has created everything that we see, even ourselves, for the person of Jesus Christ.

The first thing that we see in Genesis 1 here, we see the work of creation of the trying God, putting everything, everything that is being created in order. And that's the second point, that it is not only God creating everything, but it is creating everything in order and with a purpose. Then we see the Lord creating in evening and morning, first day, evening and morning, second day, evening and morning, third day, fourth day, fifth day, sixth day. Everything was created in order in six days. heavens and the earth and everything that is in them.

Everything was created with a purpose and with an order. Living creatures in the sea, living creatures in the expanse or in the heavens, the light or the greater light and the lesser light, everything had a purpose. The sun and the moon, just as a science for years and for days and for seasons, everything was created in order and with a purpose. But not only that, everything was created complete. Six times he says that it was good in day one.

In day two, he says that it was good. In day three, he says that it was good. Four and five, he says that it was good. And in day six, he says that it was very good. So it is not only that we have this creator of everything who is the triune God, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The same Job says that he was made by the Holy Spirit. It is not only this triune God, but created everything in order, in six days, and with a purpose. Everything was very good. Third point, and very important point, which is the pinnacle of creation, or the climax of creation, that which happens in day six. God created man in his own image, after his likeness.

This trying God decided on the sixth day of creation to create a special creature that was gonna have dominion over everything that he had created on the previous days, and this is man. male and female, he created them in his own image and likeness. Now, there are many things that can be said about that, but the apostle Paul in Ephesians and Colossians said that at least three elements of that image of God is that man was created holy, righteous, and with true knowledge. Holy in the sense that he was fully devoted to God, set apart for the purpose of creation, and because of that, he had this righteous standard given to him by which he could live, because he had a true knowledge of who the creator was. But then we know, then we know that because of the presence of sin, that sin entered the world and death is spread to all people, that this image of God, then it is lost, that is corrupted, that we are not holy anymore, that we are not righteous anymore, that actually we are unrighteous, and that we do not have true knowledge of the Creator.

Actually, we have a knowledge that is suppressed in unrighteousness, Romans 1. But the glorious thing about this is the Apostle Paul says that blessed is the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because in Christ we have the life that we did not have in Adam. You see, after this story of creation, the Bible says that the sons of Adam were created, were made after the image of Adam. But then the Apostle Paul says to us that by being in Jesus Christ, we are recipients of the life that is in Christ himself. Christ, it is the one that gives us back the image that we had, and actually a better image.

This is what Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians, and for me, we're just going to finish just by reading this. If you have your Bible, then go to 1 Corinthians 15, because here we can see then the comparison of this Adam that was created as the pinnacle of creation on day six, and then Jesus Christ as the life-giving spirit for those who are in Christ Jesus. 1 Corinthians chapter 15 in verse 45. Have all of that in mind because, as I said in the beginning, the purpose of the history of the story of redemption is to point everything to the person of Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 45 says, Thus it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being.

God breathed on Adam, and he became a living soul, or a living being. The last Adam, or the second Adam, Jesus Christ, became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven, as was the man of dust.

So also are those who are of the dust. and as is the men of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Now pay attention to what it says here. Just as we have borne the image of the men of dust, just as we have borne the image of Adam, not holy and righteous and not with true knowledge, we shall also bear the image of the men of heaven, Jesus Christ. For those whom he loved, he predestined to be conformed to the image of the Son, Jesus Christ, the firstborn among many brothers.

And those whom he loved, he also predestined, he called, he justified, and he glorified. The purpose of all of these things that we are reading, it is to point to Jesus Christ as the person in whom we have the life that we could not have apart from Him. So we have the beginning in Genesis 1 of this Creator created everything in order and complete and created man as the pinnacle of creation with its image. In Jesus Christ, this creator and the creature will have a type of union and a type of relationship that not even the angels have. In Christ Jesus, because we are recipients of his life, we have a type of relationship with that creator that even the angels would desire to have.

And we're gonna spend in eternity beholding the greatness of our God and not only that, communing with him through the person of Jesus Christ. Amen?