The Work of Creation
FOR OUR GOOD & HIS GLORY
Hebrews 11:3 & 2 Peter 3: 1-18
Exposition by Max A Forsythe
Pastor of Christ Covenant Reformed (PCA) Columbus, Ohio
Question 9:
Q: What is the work of creation?
A: The work of creation is, God’s making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good.
Newest gimmick on the Netscape vision of the World Wide Web is something called frames. In this multiplication of capability, one computer screen can have multiple screens in use at the same time. One of the framed windows can serve as a ledge to identify the web site. A second frame will contain the alphabet menu of what is available to be seen in the third frame which serves as a viewer screen.
Now everything that can be seen is pretty much controlled by the Web Master of a particular site. This person is the creator who programs the choices available to any and all visitors. Visitors choose what they wish to see from the alphabetic menu available. Now some visitors may not be able to see everything that is available. If they do not have the right browsing program, they will not be able to view the scene correctly. A couple weeks ago, Bob sent me a message to take a look at our new TRUTH page which is frames compatible. My MacIntosh saw a blue background where there should not have been one. Oh, you should have heard him squawk, his creation was being viewed incorrectly! Because that was not what he intended for me to see. Well, I had better let this illustration go now before I get any comments from another maker’s loyal fans who view the world differently in this regard!
I started with this illustration because I prefer the old translation of Hebrew 11:3, please listen to in in the NKJ setting. “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” Just as there is a certain complexity to the framing of text and pictures on the World Wide Web, so is their a greater and more awesome complexity to the creation of the worlds, stars and galaxies framed by the Word of our great God and Father. After all, human web masters work only with excited electrons and silicon chips to fool the human mind and eye into thinking there is something profound on their platforms!
What if any human web master first had to create an electron, then the silicon and all the atoms and molecules that make the new technology work. Talk about Pharaoh sending the people of Israel to gather their own straw. This is the greatness of our Creator God. Beginning with only His Word and wisdom, all that exists came to be. Williamson outlines the fivefold teachings of our catechism:
1st that the world is not self-existent or eternal,
2nd that it derives existence from the true God,
3rd that he made all things of nothing,
4th that he then formed the universe through process until it was very good,
5th that he did all this for his own glory.
Knowing these things, we really have to pity the secularists with their blind browsers who never see the hand of God in all the glories of divine Creation. Blind they are and a whole generation they would lead astray if it were not for God’s gift of common sense and spiritual election.
Outside of professional “educational & scientific” circles the modernist claims are mostly ignored and tolerated only because those in power insist upon the facts of their imagination! The incredibility of the evolutionary nonsense has sapped the life blood out of the whole educational process, because all of the wrong conclusions are ordained by the establishment even before any questions are raised! No wonder a whole generation of young people are wasting away in ignorance because they have enough common sense to reject the basic myths of our secular age. Every student that I have confronted with a working watch will quickly agree that there has to be a watchmaker. Even the pagan Greek philosophers mostly agreed that behind the cosmosthere had to be an all powerful prime mover or Logos who could have spoken creation into existence! Williamson’s first three assertions say nothing more than this common sense available to us from antiquity.
The fourth assertion that God then formed the universe through process until it was very good we may glean from the first chapter of Genesis. The fact of this ordered creation process is what sometimes confuses the secularists who gather the facts and then stand them on their heads to assert their uncommon disbelief! Time and Space and all the creatures therein were ordered carefully over the course of Creation week. All the details that we would like to know more about are kept by God’s wisdom for His own sake. What we have is the glorious display of the natural order in which every single part from the smallest atom to the largest molecule, from the smallest one celled organism to the largest mushroom in Wisconsin that outweighs the greatest Blue Whale, they all declare the glory of our great Creator God.
Since we are not worried today about convincing any of the worldly crowd, we can turn to the fifth assertion where the whole point and purpose of creation is affirmed: that God did all this for his own glory that the creatures of His creation might stand in awe before Him. Gerstner also points out that “the Confession affirms that the creation was not for the Creator but for the creation itself, since its purpose was to reveal His glory, which He did not need to reveal to Himself.” For whom did God create? Wasn’t it for you and me and all the rest who enjoy every single day the vast array of fruits that come to us from His gracious hand of creation?
But there is more, much more. As one proverbist put it: “all of this and heaven too!” This is the underlying theme of Peter in the chapter we heard a few minutes ago. Just as creation had a start, it will also have an end. Ah, but creation is so wonderfully grand. To see the grand canyon eroded by the sea waters which once created the great plains. To see the vast mountains which God caused to rise from the forces of the great flood. To see the vast galaxies which appear to go on forever to our small minds. Can there really be more in heaven?
If you have ever visited any business, most will have a reception room with impressive decorations where every detail of the room is carefully crafted to impress you with their professionalism? Have you ever been to an older movie theater where the elegance of the lobby is but a hint of what more you can expect in the dream factory just through the theater door? How about the palatial edifices built by architects to celebrate the power and authority of governmental authorities. Senate offices all have sixteen foot ceilings to impress the casual visitor. How much more should we raise our expectations of spending eternity with our God in His heaven? After all, all of this earthly paradise is only the anteroom, the waiting room to prepare us to receive His greater glory.
Peter justly asks what kind of people should we be? And this should be our prayerful focus as we conclude this portion of our study of the goodness and purpose of God’s creation. Look at the first part of verse twelve carefully in this regard: “as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming”. Now we certainly know that God’s providential plan is set for eternity. We know that there is nothing that we can do to hurry Him along. And yet, the mystery there in the phrase to “speed its coming.” While translations may vary, the emphasis of the Greek gives the impression that our activities are important! Have you work, have you a witness then be about it. Are you fearful the way things are going on earth in this bloodiest century in human record? Then get busy. What do you suppose will happen when the last of the elect is saved?
This is why the New Tribes Missionaries are going everywhere possible to reach the unreached pagans. This is why we are using the internet to build up Christ’s Kingdom in places that none of us could ever go! To reach the world for Christ and to reflect the greater glory of our Father is our task.
What kind of people should we be: “You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming”. Once a student asked me in the middle of an English class what I wanted more than anything else? I said that I would like to see the second coming of Christ and the day of judgment come quickly. He trembled and said not to ask for that because he wasn’t near ready!
God is indeed patient and I have often wondered if that young man ever heard the Spirit speak softly to him? Some will wait too long and to their shame will never know the glories of being present with God in heaven. “Grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever!
Amen.
Used with permission of the author.
