This series of meditations continues to reflect on the implications of the early chapters of Genesis upon our lives. Thanks to Bethany Cole for her photography.
Another practical effect Genesis 1 ought to have on us is to cause us to recognize the sufficiency of God for our every need and the whole of our lives.
Since our Creator is unchangeably eternal, gracious, wise, good, and powerful, He is solely sufficient for all of our lives. That is what the saints of God in the Bible learn from this doctrine of creation. In Isaiah 40, the prophet addresses those who are weary, saying: “Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: but they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength” (Isa. 40:28–31a). Isaiah is speaking of the sufficiency of God for all of life.
Similarly, Jeremiah says, “Ah Lord GOD! Behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee” (Jer. 32:17). God’s glory revealed in creation is so perfect that Jeremiah comes to God with the kind of confidence that we greatly require today.
If our faith and confidence are not in God and His sufficiency, we are not truly spiritually alive. Our lives are empty if they do not begin with God. Without Him, we miss the purpose of life, miss our true identity as God’s image-bearers, and miss the only comfort in life and death of belonging to God in Jesus Christ.
The first four words of Genesis, “In the beginning God,” are a stark contrast to the last four: “a coffin in Egypt.” You cannot be prepared for death, dear friend, until in all of life you rely in confidence on the God of beginnings, for Christ’s sake.
