Genesis 1:1-2
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2The earth was without form [tohu] and void [bohu]. and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
We left off with the first of four things Henry observes in this passage which was the effect produced and six things we can observe from that effect. You can read Saturday’s post to see what those things are. Today we will look at observation #2 which is the author and cause of this great work…
Matthew Henry: (2) The author and cause of this great work—GOD. The Hebrew word is Elohim, which bespeaks, [1] the power of God the Creator. El signifies the strong God; and what less than almighty strength could bring all things out of nothing? [2] The plurality of persons in the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This plural name of God in Hebrew which speaks of him as many though He is one, confirming our faith in the doctrine of the Trinity, which, though but darkly intimated in the Old Testament, is clearly revealed in the New. We are often told that the world was made by Him and nothing made without Him.
John 1:3
“All things were made through Him [the Word…Jesus] and without Him nothing was made that was made”
John 1:10
“He [Jesus] was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.”
Ephesians 3:9
“and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;”
Colossians 1:16
“For by Him [Jesus] all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.”
Hebrews 1:2
“has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;”
Clay Miller: I was having a discussion with a Christian friend of mine who was talking to a co-worker about God and the subject of God being angry came up. This man claimed that God has no anger, that anger is a human emotion. From there the conversation went to God’s omnipotence (all-powerful attribute) and he asked the same question many ask because they do not understand what God’s omnipotence means. He asked if God could sin. It is like the conundrum of “Can God make a rock He cannot lift?” The answer to both is “NO”. You see, God has no reason to WANT to do that. When we say God is all-powerful we are saying what Psalm 115:3 says, “Our God is in the heavens, He does as He pleases.” God can do whatever He wants to do. He will only desire good because He is good. He will only do what is right because He is perfectly righteous with no flaw. Sin is weakness. God does not lie because He has no reason to lie to cover Himself or protect Himself. The Bible says God cannot do things. He cannot lie. He cannot disown Himself (which is why He cannot outdo Himself as in the rock conundrum). He can only do good. The foolish thing is those who try to impose their standard on Him… “Well, if God is all-powerful, can he make a rock that He cannot lift? Well then He is not all-powerful!” Or as my friend’s co-worker said, “If God cannot sin, He is not all-powerful”, and lets add that He cannot deny Himself to that too. God is all-powerful within Himself and there is nothing outside Himself that can overthrow that. We are so prone to judge God by standards we make up. For example, the man’s comment that anger is a human emotion. Where does he get that standard? Who is he to say God cannot and does not get angry? Does he get that from God’s word? I can list over a thousand passages to refute him but I will just mention Psalm 85:5 because I happened to read it this morning… “Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? The Psalmist knew God could be and was angry.
There is much to say about the plurality of God, the doctrine of the Trinity. See my January 10th 2010 post for more on that if interested. The passages above remind us that God created all things and yet Christ is credited with Creation as well. There is only one God and He is eternal and yet Christ is attributed with being eternal and creating the world. That is because Jesus is God. He created all things and upholds all things. Interestingly, Henry mentions He created out of nothing. This is know as creation ex nihilo (out of nothing). This is another attribute and ability that defines God as opposed to creatures. We can only create with pre-existing materials. God created out of nothing, by His mere word. More later.
