Creator/Creature Distinction

I love the intros to movies. It sets the mood for the entire movie, it gets you excited for what is to come the rest of the way. Even if the rest of the movie isn’t very good, the introduction can make you feel like “this is it! We are here”.

-Especially for Marvel movies. How do Marvel movies begin? It starts with a theme song and with pictures of all the other movies that are intertwined with the story we are about to enjoy.

-Now what we are looking at is the Big Picture, and it will set the stage for everything that will come after it. These words are packed with loads of information that is important to how we read the rest of Scripture. If you think of that Marvel title scene, but now think of every story in the Bible being played in the title scene of Genesis 1.

This first verse will tell us about God. It starts with God because the entire Bible is about God.

In the beginning

This tells us that God exists outside of time and space. That God created the beginning, that there was a point when everything began.

This means that God has no origin, He existed before the origin. He has always existed, but at the same time He can’t be defined by a time of existence.

Both, Father, Son, and Spirit have existed before the beginning.

Isaiah 48:12 ““Listen to me, Jacob, and Israel, the one called by me: I am he; I am the first, I am also the last.”

God created the heavens and the earth

The word for create is to make or form. This word, “created” is only used in the Bible to express God’s activity of making things, a special activity that only God can do. It is used in this 1st chapter 6 times. We will see “and God said” 10 different times. All God had to do to create everything was speak. This statement is also one of space and matter. God created all matter out of nothing, ex nihilo. And from His act of creating all of history beings.1

-He also makes the world with complexities far beyond the ability for people to do by their own hands.

Have you ever played a game where it is a big world you can roam around in? Now, is there an end to where you can travel? Are there things that you can’t interact with? Are there people you can’t talk to? Are there details that the closer you get the more blurry they become?

-With God’s world we have found the more we look into its details, the more amazing they become. The farther you search into the details, the more we learn we don’t understand.

Therefore, we see that God is at the center of this story. There is God, then there is the rest of His creation. There is a distinction between Him and everything else we see.

-Everything else came into existence within time and did not have a hand in their own existence. They were created by another. God was not created by any other.

-This is even distinct from other religions during this time. Other gods are created out of the original material of the universe, they aren’t the creators themselves. In fact, their existence COMES OUT of the creation of the universe. The sun, moon, plants, etc. are the parts of creation that their existence came out of and that they are lord over. Other gods exist within the same reality of the creation, God exists outside of it.

-God is Lord over all creation. That is why the statement God will give Moses, “I am who I am” is so significant. He isn’t just stating He is A god, He is stating that He is THE God.

-Nor does the creation know what the next day brings. But God is not surprised by anything else that happens.

We must also say this…God is a GOOD creator. From His goodness He made everything in creation good as well. We don’t have an evil creator, a creator that seeks chaos or to destroy. He is just, right, and beautiful.

What it teaches us about God

God is self-sustaining and self-sufficient

-It means that God is self-sustaining, He isn’t in need of any other in creation in order for Him to exist.

-Creation, then is a product of His personal will, not a reflection of His divine nature as is the other God’s. It reflects God’s character insofar is He created it out of the overflowing of His grace, but it is not essential to His being. He isn’t part of nature, He created it.

Did God create everything because He was lonely?

-God was in eternal community within the Trinity.

-God doesn't need His creation, He isn't in need of anything. "God is self-sufficient, self-existent, and self-satisfied."

-We can adopt the view of "relational theism". That God exists to be in relationship with us in order to be satisfied. We read stories that show a relational God that loves His people. God had boundless time and He was satisfied within Himself.

-God doesn't need our worship. The Father has eternally worshiped the Son and Spirit, the Son has eternally worshipped the Father and Spirit, the Spirit has eternally worshipped the Father and Son.

God is not-rivaled

No god and no person that rivals Him in any way. This doesn’t seem that significant but this has been one of the main places of difficulty for non-believers. When Christians refuse to worship a leader or state that all other gods are false gods to God the creator, this because an issue of serious significance.

-God isn’t just a bigger version of humanity, He isn’t like us in that He has emotions, weaknesses, that He “grows” or “changes”. In many myth stories you see gods make mistakes, they fight with one another, they change in character through time. They are just like us. But God is not this way.

-It is hard for us to conceive of a God completely different then us.

He is both above His creation and different from it, while also being knowable because He makes Himself known.

-If God is only transcendent, we can’t approach and know Him.

-If God is only immanent, than He is no different then the creation and His love isn’t separated from us because of our sin.

Why does it matter?

It means God’s love for us isn’t based on need of something from us.

-"The Triune God created the world by His will and for His good pleasure" (Keathley). God created out of nothing. We sometimes forget that God had the freedom to create, He could have not created and still be perfect. He created out of pure grace. If He was compelled to do it, He would do it out of necessity and puts a constraint on Him.

-The best news is that God doesn't' need us, and if He needs us then He will let us down. It means that He can’t support our needs.

-God isn't a desperate lover. All human love is based on need, God's love isn't based on need. We are created that way because we were created to need Him.

Our relationship to God isn’t transactional

-Many other religions, their gods are in “need” of a creation. This means that we trade with the gods, we give so that we can get, it is a back and forth. This is how markets and consumerism works. We buy and trade, this is how many even see relationships. Relationships become like business deals, if you aren’t valuable to me then our relationship is no worthy my time or energy. Marriages are about what you give me, and if you have nothing to give me, then why stay married?

-We don’t believe we have gods like this, but that is how we treat companies, actors, athletes. If we enjoy their work then we buy their products to support them, to in someway connect ourselves to their success.

-This is why our culture doesn’t value art as was done in the past, it isn’t “practical”, but for God everything isn’t about practicality.

-Acts 17:24–25 “The God who made the world and everything in it—he is Lord of heaven and earth—does not live in shrines made by hands. Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things.”

-We are dependent on Him, He is not dependent on us.

-”God gives freely to those who cannot stand on their own two feet, those who can’t cut a deal with Him…this is foundation of a society of compassion rather than a society of transaction and consumption.”

-This leads us to the wonder of God, His incalculable grace towards us. Rather than worried we haven’t done enough to satisfy God.

Isn’t this difficult to believe? We have to believe by faith.

Hebrews 11:3 “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible.”

-The proper response then it to worship the God who created all things.

Questions

Why is it important for the universe to have a beginning?

What part of God being the Creator of everything is the most challenging for you to understand?

What ways did we say God is different then us in His being? In what ways is He different than other gods?

Why is this reality important for us to understand?