Genesis 1 teaches us several major truths about God. First, it teaches God’s priority over creation and His independence of it. “In the beginning God” tells us that God existed before the cosmos existed. Jesus confirmed this by speaking of the glory He had with the Father before the world began (John 17:5).
God did not create the world because He needed man or the world. He is completely self-sufficient; He has need of nothing outside of Himself.
Has the Holy Spirit taught you that God does not need you? God doesn’t need helpers or defenders. He doesn’t even need worshipers. He doesn’t need you and me at all.
Second, God is eternal. The Psalmist says, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God” (Ps. 90:2) and “The heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure” (Ps. 102:25b–26a).
Third, God is infinitely gracious. He created the universe in all its glory, and man as the crown of it, because He was pleased in His compassionate grace in Christ to share His joy with people like us. Creation is therefore an expression of the grace of God. It is a work of grace just as redemption is. We are introduced to God’s graciousness here because this is what God is like all the way through Scripture.
Similarly, in the new creation in Christ, God persists in loving His rebel creatures, not because He has any need of us, but because He longs to share His joy, holiness, righteousness, and beauty with us. He is truly a God of grace.
Finally, God is beautiful and orderly. Study the beautiful parallels between the first and fourth days of creation, the second and fifth, and the third and sixth. How much more beautiful God’s method of creation is than man’s evolutionary theory!
