Gen 1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
In the beginning! It is fascinating that the Bible begins the first sentence with “in the beginning.” God is an eternal being. God has an infinite mind. He has an eternal mind. It logically follows that the prepositional phrase “in the beginning” would be a foreign concept to an eternal being because the idea of time is entirely foreign in eternity. Nevertheless, Moses begins his writing with a time reference. The beginning. I believe it reveals God’s love, Grace, mercy, and wisdom to use language that a finite mind can understand. God is an eternal being, and His existence requires no necessity or reference for time since His existence has no beginning or end. His angels are not eternal beings because they were created by God. Angels had a beginning; however, they may not have an end, so they qualify as infinite beings but not eternal. We see throughout scripture from Genesis to Revelation that God uses the structure of language and grammar to communicate effectively with His created beings. God knows there is no time reference in Heaven or His existence; He knows terms such as “time and “beginning” are something his created beings will comprehend since “time” and “beginning directly relate to the human experience. Another example of this language is in
Genesis 6:6-7 (MKJV) And Jehovah repented that He had made man on the earth, and He was angry to His heart. And Jehovah said, I will destroy man whom I have created, from the face of the earth, both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air. For I repent that I have made them.
This is an example of how we see in many scriptures the use of hyperbole, metaphors, personifications, and anthropomorphisms in reference to God’s speech. We also see it in the speech of Christ throughout the synoptic gospels. These instances are essential to understand because they prevent the reader from error, such as thinking God changes His mind arbitrarily based on circumstance, as a human does. God is omniscient and immutable. He knows all things, and He does not change.
Psalms 135:6 Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.
Numbers 23:19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
These passages read that God will do all His pleasure in heaven and earth. And unlike men who cannot keep their word and remain consistent. God keeps His word and nothing can change His mind. So what does it mean that God repented? When we think of the word repented in application to ourselves, we commonly think of regretting an action we’ve performed, feeling sorrow, and changing the course of our action in a way more favorable to God. But how can God repent? He does not. This is an example of hyperbole, an expression of an exaggeration not necessarily meant to be taken literally but used so we can effectively understand the mind and emotions of God.
The Hebrew word used in this verse for repent is Nacham, which carries the meaning of sighing, breathing strongly, and implicating a sense of sorrow, not necessarily a changing of the mind, as if to say that God regrets ever creating us and if He could do it over He would not create us at all. Such an interpretation conveys that God made a mistake, and God making a mistake does not fall in the attributes or qualities of God’s being. The proper way to understand these verses is that the wickedness on earth had become so great that it actually made the LORD feel sorrow. This is why the translators of the English Standard Version changed the wording from the KJV and MKJV of “I repent that I have made them” to “I am sorry that I have made them.” We can learn from these passages that our actions and deeds on earth rouse God’s emotions. Think about that in an individual atmosphere between you and God. God is communicating to us through scripture that our actions and deeds do have an impact on God’s emotions. If we perform evil in His sight, it may rouse Him to anger and sorrow. If we love one another and perform righteous deeds with one another, it may pleasure God to the point of hearing the words of Christ in Matthew 25:23 “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
In verse one, God is the Hebrew word Elohim; it is grammatically plural. Nevertheless, we know that there is only one God. We are a monotheistic religion.
Deuteronomy 6:4 reads, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
There are passages where Elohim is used in context to communicate gods in a plural meaning, such as Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me. The Hebrew word for gods in this verse is also Elohim. The principle here is that you must allow the context to determine how the definition is applied.
Grammatically speaking, Genesis 1:1 does not express multiple gods or that our God, Elohim, exists as numerous people as individual gods. However, some theologians believe Elohim implies the Trinity doctrine in verse one. Perhaps I would not contest vigorously against the idea. At the same time, I would not strongly suggest the trinity concept from verse one as it seems to add too much to the context, which is unclear. There are many scriptures we can follow that imply the Triune doctrine. However, the plurality in verse one of Genesis, both theologians and commentators John Gill and John Calvin agree that the Hebrew word for Elohim is in context with God’s power in creation, which seems to suggest the plurality of God’s supreme power, majesty, and divine attributes.
Let’s revisit the creation. Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God; God, the existence of God is already presupposed. No apologetics is given by Moses to prove the existence of God, and none need be given. In the beginning is the beginning as we know it through our finite minds. Once we understand the existence of consciousness, God, in the beginning, serves as the Christian’s maxim to believe in the existence of God. In the beginning, God is our maxim. For an in-depth understanding of a maxim and its application, read Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative. For now, for simplicity’s sake, a maxim is a fundamental truth, a principle, a rule of conduct as an absolute standard of universal application. In the beginning, God is a universal maxim that all must presuppose the existence of God and all His sovereignty and majesty to the glory of God, amen!
In the beginning, God created. God created everything out of nothing by the power of His word and breath.
Psalms 33:6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made and by the breath of His mouth all their host.
God created everything with no help. It was by God alone that everything was created. Likewise,
2 Corinthians 5:17-18 reads, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
You and I and whoever is in Christ are a new creation. Just as the work of creation was accomplished by God alone, so was the work of our new creation in Christ was accomplished by God alone. The regenerating of our Spirit by the Spirit of God is analogous to being born again as a new creation, which had nothing to do with our own work, and God needed no assistance in our salvation. Our new creation and reconciliation to God by the blood of Christ was the work of God alone.
Romans 3: 23-24 All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his Grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2: 7-8 For by Grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
All the old, including our sins, disobedience to God’s law, and falling short of His glory, have passed away. Through faith, God has forgiven those who believe in His son, Jesus Christ. All to the glory of God, who saved us according to His work alone from the beginning. If we are a new creation, it should manifest a new way of life. If all the old things have been put away, then a new creation should result in new beginnings. We should have a new perspective and worldview as our minds are renewed by God’s word and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We are a new creation. Cappadocian Father Gregory of Nyssa, a fourth-century Christian theologian who significantly contributed to the doctrine of the Trinity and the Nicene Creed, wrote, “The new creation is the apostolic rule. And what this is, Paul makes abundantly clear in another section, saying: In order that I might present to myself the church in all her glory, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she might be holy and without blemish. A new creature he called the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in a pure and blameless soul removed from evil and wickedness and shamefulness. For, when the soul hates sin, it closely unites itself with God, as far as it can, in the regimen of virtue; having been transformed in life, it receives the Grace of the Spirit to itself, becomes entirely new again, and is recreated.”
This should drive us to ask ourselves, is this applicable to us today? Is the Holy Spirit indwelling within us? Have we removed ourselves from evil, wickedness, and anything shameful? Do we hate sin? Do we pray for God’s Grace in our lives to overcome sin? Have we repented of our sins? Have we been baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? Have we given our lives to Christ in faith that we may have our sins forgiven and reconciled to the Father?
In the beginning, God. Has your name been written in the Book of Life from the beginning, or will you remain in sin and give yourself to worship the beast as written in Revelation 13:8?
Revelation 13:8 And all who dwell on the earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the Book of Life of the Lamb who was slain.
The Lamb of God was foreknown before the foundations of the world for our redemption. The fall in the Garden did not take God by surprise. God is all-knowing and omniscient, and He had a plan to redeem His creatures by the blood of Christ and your faith in God.
1 Peter 1:19-21 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Listen, In the beginning, God. Has your name been written in the Book of Life from the beginning? I hope you see something very significant in these three verses of 1 Peter 1: 19-21. Not only is there the mention of Jesus Christ being foreknown by God before the foundation of the world, before the beginning, but these three verses also mention, “you who through Him are believers in God . . . so that your faith and hope are in God.” What does that convey to you about your existence in this world? We should understand how special and unique we are as creatures created in the image of God, foreknown by God in His mind before the foundation of the world, before the beginning when our names were written before the foundation of the world in the Book of life of the Lamb who was slain Revelation 13:8. To this effect, eighteenth-century biblical scholar John Gill wrote, “For all God’s decrees and appointments, relating either to Christ, or His people, are eternal; no new thoughts, counsels, and resolutions, are taken up by Him in time. The affair of redemption by Christ is no new thing; the scheme of it was drawn in eternity; the persons to be redeemed were fixed on; the redeemer was appointed in the council and covenant of peace; and even the very Gospel which proclaims it was ordained before the world, for our glory.” Somebody should give God praise. Someone should say amen to this. This is the Gospel of Christ, our Lord and Savior. We should thank God for His eternal work before the beginning because, in the beginning, God.
I’d like to move our attention to Genesis 1:26
Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Earlier, we mentioned the plurality of God in Hebrew form, Elohim, and we see the plurality of language in verse 26 again when it reads, Let us make man in our image and likeness. Any credible and respectable bible scholar would agree that the phrase “let us make” is in reference to God’s own council among Himself or within His triune deity. After all, all three, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, participated in the creation in the beginning.
We see in Genesis 1:2 that the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters.
In John 1:3 it speaks of Jesus as the Word that all things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Psalms 33:6 reads by the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host.
In this verse, we have the Hebrew word for LORD, which is Jehova, and the Hebrew word for breath, which is Rooahk, which indicates wind or spirit.
The Jews believed that the “us” in “Let us make” was God taking counsel with His angels. The problem is that verse 26 says we were made in the image and likeness of God, not the image and likeness of angels. Furthermore, from the Christian perspective, it is easy to see the Bible’s scriptural support to warrant the belief that when God says “us,” He exclaims His own deity and dignifies the uniqueness of man being created in God’s image. Ephrem the Syrian, a prominent Christian theologian and writer of the fourth century, wrote, “And God said let us make man. But to whom was God speaking? Here, as well as in every place where He creates, it is clear that He was speaking to His Son.”
I want to highlight three critical propositions from Ephrem the Syrian. One, is that the belief that God was speaking to the Son or at least that the “Us” in Genesis 1:26 is a trinity reference going back to the early church fathers is evident. Second, the fact that the Father was speaking to the Son during creation corresponds with the scriptures, that all three persons of the Trinity were involved in creation, and that the belief goes back to early church history. Third, and perhaps to me, the most essential fact we attribute not just from Ephrem the Syrian, but of course from scripture, is the eternal pre-existence of the Son of God. Why is that third proposition so important? Because, there is a group of modern Christians, and whether they can be called Christians is debatable. The group I am referring to is the Oness Pentecostals. They adhere to Oness theology, a modern version of early church heresies called Sabelianism and Modalism. Generally, they believe that the Godhead does not exist as three coeternal persons. That means they believe the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not three different persons, but merely three different modes of expression of one God. In their view, the Holy Spirit does not have a coeternal existence apart from God. The Son did not exist with God the Father and the Holy Spirit in eternity past. The Oness theology teaches there has always only been one God that does not exist as three coeternal persons. Therefore, the incarnation of Christ is not the Son of God who existed in eternity “pre-incarnate.” I know this may sound complex and probably does not seem to make much of a difference to you right now. Let me, at least for now, solidify how we believe in the Trinity. I want to make sure you leave today with a concrete scriptural belief in the doctrine of the Trinity. I am going to drill you with scripture now. You may want to take notes. If not, just pay attention and listen to this message again through your multimedia department.
The three persons are called God. The Father and the Son of God are called God in
Philippians 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Colossians 2:9 For in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.
It is evident that Jesus Christ had a human body. In that human body existed the full deity of the essential existence of God as an eternal being. All the attributes and qualities of God were in the human reality of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ had His human nature that was susceptible to the same vulnerabilities we are subject to, such as emotions, temptation, suffering, and death. Jesus Christ, in His human nature, possessed all the attributes of God. The eighteenth century Baptist Bible Scholar Dr. John Gill wrote that in Jesus Christ dwelled the fullness of “divine nature, of all the perfections of deity, such as eternity, immensity, omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience, immutability, necessary and self-existence.” So when Jesus performed miracles, cast out demons, and resurrected people from the dead, it was evidence of His divine nature because the fullness of Godhead deity dwelled in our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not God who died; it is the human nature of the Son of God who died and resurrected for your salvation and resurrection.
Colossians 2:10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.
If you believe in Jesus Christ, you are filled in Him, or as other translators would put it, full of Him. That does not mean that you have a divine nature, but that as Jesus Christ was perfect in His righteousness, so you who are in Him, “filled in Him,” as the scripture reads, you are according to God perfect in righteousness. Not because we have any righteousness of our own, but because of the perfect obedience of Jesus Christ and by His sacrifice and your belief in Christ. Through your faith in Christ, God declares us righteous and justifies us to enter the Kingdom in heaven by our faith in Jesus Christ!
The Holy Spirit is called God in
Acts 5: 3-4 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.”
Listen, we do not lie to a thing. We do not lie to an abstract idea or concept. When we lie, we lie to a personal being or person. In these verses, the Apostle Peter attributes personhood to the Holy Spirit. Peter reinforces personhood by stating that he did not lie to a man, which is a person, but that Ananias lied to the person of God Himself, and Peter acknowledges the person of the Holy Spirit as God.
If the triune existence of God’s being is distorted, then so is the understanding of the Gospel and deity of Jesus Christ. Each of the persons are not three existing Gods, but they are all three persons co-eternally existing with the same essential nature. And just as all three had a part in the creation of the world, so all three had a part in the new creation of your spiritual nature. If you believe the Gospel of Christ and have come to love and believe in Jesus Christ as God and savior, then all three persons in the Godhead have performed a work of salvation in your life. If your name has been written in the book of life then your name has been known to God the Father before the foundation of the world. And God the Father promises to keep you. That the work He began in you from the beginning, He will complete it all to the end. It was God the Father who chose you in Jesus Christ to be blameless before Him in love. The Son of God is the mediator between God and man. Everything the Father wills for our salvation is accomplished through Jesus Christ; from redemption, to adoption, reconciliation, sanctification, and glorification. The love of the Father for His people are manifested by the example of Jesus Christ as the Son fulfilled the law of God and gave Himself as a sacrifice for the redemption of God’s people all over the world. And it is the Holy Spirit, whose role is to convict us of our sin, lead us to Christ, regenerate our spirit, through the real work of the Holy Spirit in our lives we gain understanding of the Word of God which renews our mind and readies us for eternity and resurrection. As written in
Ephesians 1:13-14 In Him you also when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.
Descendants of Grace Monergistic Agora 