Jesus and Genesis 1:1

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1

How does this statement make you feel?

For me, there’s a mix of emotions.

I enjoy the fresh air and lots on earth. I also find serious implications with the word “created”. The term “God” is loaded enough. Also, since our personal beginnings, we all experience some kind of pain associated with these words. Birth has always been painful, and joyful.

But more importantly, what did this statement mean to Jesus? How did He see, understand, and apply this statement of Moses?

As for seeing, according to His own testimony, He saw Himself in it.

What does that mean that He “saw Himself in it”? If you have not yet read “The Universal Link”, I encourage you to check it out for insight into my understanding of how Jesus saw Himself in this Scripture.

A question that has been justly or unjustly asked— is the accusation true? The accusation that Jesus was a deceived liar. Well, that would have made Him a sinner. He was accused of being a deceiver on many occasions by many of His own people, high and low. This is why He was crucified. They considered Him to justly be on the cross. Yet, from the testimony of many others, His life outshines, both within and without, that of anyone else in all of history. Their testimony is that He was good, beautiful, and true, through and through, inside and out. This is why so many martyrs followed Him.

Jesus often describes His Father as Maker. Is this true?

Jesus would say of God, “He makes His sun shine…”,
“He made them male and female…”,
“A certain King made a marriage for His Son…”,
and “The Sabbath was made…”, to reference some.

In all these, Jesus calls His hearers back to Genesis. Was He lying?

Jesus also affirmed the character of His Father as the caretaker of this world. Sparrows and flowers have His beautifying attention. The sun and the rain are under His command to bless everyone. He asks, “If He so clothes the grass, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you?” And “Are you not of more value than many sparrows?”

For Jesus, this first statement of Genesis is indeed Good News. If it is Good News, which is Gospel, then it is Everlasting Truth. If it is such, it can have an everlasting and elevating influence on the life and character. Also, if this statement is indeed Gospel, then the rest of the story is also. For the entire story is embryonically encapsulated in this one verse. If you’ve happened to read “The Everlasting Temple”, this idea is expanded in more detail.

It must have been obvious to the thief on the cross that Jesus, after seeing Him suffering like a lamb, was not evil or a hardened criminal. Therefore, he asked the question to the other thief, “do you not fear God, seeing we are under the same condemnation? But this Man has done nothing wrong.” This was part of his dying testimony. In other words, Jesus was not a sinner to be justly crucified.

Therefore, the sentiment that Genesis 1:1 is not Gospel, as proposed by some, loses its footing.

Jesus demonstrated the creative works of His Father which gave life to the dead, recovery to the sick, hope for the perishing, and every other good work He did.

So what is the present eschatological significance of this first statement that is Genesis 1:1? (Huge question yes)

By present, we mean today.

By eschatological we mean, tomorrow and forever.

By significant, we mean life transforming.

This statement, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”, shone like a new light to the disciples of Jesus when He rose from the dead. God’s promise of creating a new heaven and earth, spoken of first by Isaiah and again by John, was ratified, certain, and as it were, “done.”

“As it were” because,

History reveals to us that, just as Israel longed for a conquering king, so too the Gentile church would attempt to recreate the world by human means. Abraham and Sarah thought they could bring God’s promise to fulfillment by their ingenuity. This idea ultimately came from the same source of all temptation. And, as human nature is the same, this played out with the Christian church during a long period known by some as the Dark Ages.

This attempt to bring peace by force, the myth of redemptive violence, the anti-gospel “gospel”. However one may call it, the effect is the same.

Genesis 1:1 teaches us that God made the world without human help or means, and He will do the same for the New Creation. This is the Good News of Genesis 1:1. We can’t do it. God can!

We cannot raise ourselves from the dead, but God can!
We cannot make promises that will stand on sand, but God can!
We cannot bring light out of darkness, but God can!

All this is implied in Genesis 1:1 because in the beginning, He created the heavens and the earth.

The day and the hour of the Second Advent which will usher in the millennium that is followed by the New Creation, no one knows, not even the Son; but the Father only. This is one eschatological significance of Genesis 1:1. And it is Good News.

Who among us are really ready for the fullness of the New Creation?

So the children of the Creator are waiting for the promised regeneration, the Palingenesis, which only His voice can accomplish, just as in the Beginning.

In the meantime, the children of God can seek to imitate God’s example in smaller spheres of the good works which, by the way, He also “prepared beforehand.”

Jesus and Genesis 1:1 is truly Good News.