In the Beginning
Notes
Transcript
Genesis 1:1
Genesis 1:1
The NET Bible Chapter 1
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Just as we identify our own stories by space and time so does God place himself in our terms of space and time with the first verse of the Bible.
Genesis 1–11:26 1. Creator and Creation (1:1–2)
God is not merely an idea. He is Eternal Being whom we can know and experience personally. At the commencement of Scripture he invites us to learn of him.
Genesis 1–11:26 1. Creator and Creation (1:1–2)
Yet the full manifestation of the Unknown One awaited the Incarnate Word, who as Son is the “exact representation of his being” (Heb 1:3).
The Son is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, and he sustains all things by his powerful word, and so when he had accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
John's gospel opens with the same three words in Genesis.
The NET Bible Chapter 1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God.
Before Jesus became human or the Holy Spirit dwelt within us, God desired to relate to mankind through Scripture in the First Testament. God being three persons in one means we should know God as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
The creation account highlights God as the Father and Creator, highlighting his sovereignty. We have the benefit of having a personal relationship with God through Jesus, but God also deserves respect as the Creator. It’s a dichotomy that allows us to go to Him for comfort, as well as go to Him for requests in our lives, such as healing and change in our lives.
Another idea that comes across from the words “In the beginning...” is its foreshadowing of an eventual end.
Genesis 1–11:26 (1) In the Beginning (1:1)
At the commencement of the creation story the passage declares that God as Sovereign knows and controls the “end from the beginning” (Isa 46:10).
The Hebrew word for “God” used in this passage is the word “Elohim.”
Lexham Theological Wordbook אֱלֹהִים
אֱלֹהִים
Genesis 1:2
Genesis 1:2
The NET Bible Chapter 1
Now the earth was without shape and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the watery deep, but the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water.