In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1
The one and only true God is alone capable of creating, for only God can bring something into being that had no prior reality; he is the God who “calls into existence the things that do not exist” (Rom. 4:17). God spoke the “heavens and the earth” into being. We believe this because we believe the inspired written record; it is a matter of faith; it is a matter of taking God at his word: “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible” (Heb. 11:3).
From the New Testament, we learn the second Person of the Triune God was the creative instrument: “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him” (Col. 1:16). The heavens and the earth had a beginning; their beginning originated with our Creator-God.
As Christians, we, likewise, have been brought into existence through God’s Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. This same God, who “created the heavens and the earth,” is the God who established a higher creation: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:10).
As wonderful as God’s entire universe is—from the smallest organism to the largest planet, from the majestic mountains to the prairies, deserts, rivers and oceans, and the creation of mankind—more magnificent still is the person who is enabled by God’s Spirit to look up and call his Creator, “Father” (Gal. 4:6).
All created matter had a beginning; the same is true for spiritual beginnings. The Christian life has a beginning. When was your beginning? When were you born of God?
For me, I’ll never forget the night when I went to a church service physically alive but spiritually dead. I left the church that same night with a new beginning: “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Cor. 517).
Let us ever be thankful for both of God’s creations—the material and the spiritual.
Reprinted from . . .
Renewed by the Spirit: 365 Daily Meditations
by Ralph I. Tilley
copyright © 2016 Ralph I. Tilley
paperback and Kindle editions available at Amazon.com
