Word of Salvation – February 2025

A personal, plentiful, purposeful God

By Rev John Zuidema

Scripture Readings; Gen 1:1-2, 26-2:3

Congregation, I wish to preface my comments this morning by saying that I have some lovely Christian brothers and sisters, much more learned than I am in the area of geo-science and geology than I could ever hope to be.  Some of them have studied the age of various soil and rock formations have concluded that the earth is much older than just 6000 years.

Yet, I still regard them as my dear brothers and sisters in Christ.  As Christians we need to leave room for fair minded Christians to think differently.  And at the end of the day, it is not a salvation issue perse.   The salvation issue has always been, do you believe that God the Father sent his Son as the saviour of sinners?  That is the test.  Do you believe in the One he has sent?

Now with those opening comments, I don’t want you to go through life like thinking there is no Creator God.  The thought that we exist in an impersonal, barren and dead universe without purpose is horrendous!  Where is the hope and joy in living seventy or eighty years if that is all there is!

Now to believe that God created all as recorded in Scripture is an important Christian doctrine and gives us great comfort.  Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican priest, back in the 13th century said that if we didn’t get the doctrine of creation right, the rest of our theology would be wrong.

Indeed, many unbelievers think that the doctrine of creation is the achilles’ heel of Christianity.  They think it is the point at which Christianity can be attacked and criticised and, in their minds, demonstrated to be wrong.   And when people attack the doctrine of creation, they are also attacking our faith and trust in God, the truth reliability of holy Scripture.

In response some Christians and Christian organisations spend all their time trying to prove the reliability of Scripture and the Creation accounts.    Now that isn’t necessarily bad, but if we spend all our time dowsing fires about creation and our origin, we miss out on the blessing God meant for us to have in his revelation about creation and our origin.

I put it to you that the more we focus on the blessedness of creation they more it will encourage us and help us to speak a word about God and the Christian faith that will be attractive to people who are not yet Christians.

The doctrine of creation should never be an embarrassment or controversy for us. There is something tragic about people who find themselves trapped in a world they don’t understand because they don’t have a grasp on the doctrine of creation.  Gen 1 tells us that God created the heavens and the earth in six days and as the Nicene creed puts it, “and all things visible and invisible.” Exo 20:11 says the same thing.

So, no matter how far out we go in light years, God created all of it.  No matter how deep we go, even into subatomic particles, all those things God created.  No matter how far back we can go in history, God set that all into being.

Thankfully, creation as recorded in Genesis 1-2 is a wonderful account for it teaches us about our personal, plentiful, purposeful God from which we derive great comfort.   So, three P’s. – personal, plentiful and purposeful.

So first, creation teaches us that God is a personal God.    One of the most neglected verses in Scripture is Gen 1:2, which is critical.   “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

Verse two highlights the fact that God paid particular attention to the earth.   Now that is very important because the earth being empty and dark and watery is no problem for God.   God doesn’t need light to see.  God doesn’t need land to stand on.  God doesn’t need stuff around him to maintain interest.

You see, right at the beginning when God was thinking about the earth, he was thinking about how he would prepare it for mankind.    It’s mankind who needs light.  It’s mankind who needs land and its man who needs stuff around him to be interested in.  And what the days of creation tell us is how God deals with these problems.

It tells us how he deals with darkness; “Let there be light!” And instantly, all those distant lights we see from the billions of stars can be seen.  He deals with the problem of wateriness, “Let there be dry land!” And he deals with the problem of emptiness by creating millions of living creatures that swim in the oceans and rivers, crawl and run along the land and fly in the skies above.

And when God is doing all of those things, he is creating as a personal God and we stand in awe!   When Moses wrote Genesis, he didn’t have to explain who God was, they already knew him.   He was known as the creator and covenant God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, indicating he is a personal God.

Indeed, the God of the Bible is not like the gods of the nations with limited tribal power.  The God revealed in the Bible is the personal God who has entered into covenant with us and created everything for his glory and our eternal benefit.

It is hard to overstate the importance of having a personal God for our world.   Those who reject Christianity and seemingly embrace the big bang theory, believe they live in an impersonal universe.

That is perhaps the main reason why billions are spent on space exploration because people don’t like being alone!   Evolutionists and others hate the notion that we are unique!   It can be lonely living in an ever-expanding universe where there is no other person.

And what they are suggesting is that we live in a universe that is not only impersonal but is dead!    And that is rather scary when you pause and think about it.   And the great Christian doctrine of creation says, “No, we’re not lonely in the universe for we’re not alone in the universe.

We don’t exist in a dead universe where we are all heading speedily towards death, but we live in a universe of life that has been brought into life by a personal living God who desires to live in relationship with mankind.  What a blessedness that is!   What a joy and reason for rejoicing that is!  We, male and female who bear his image are the pinnacle of his creation.   So, God is a personal God.

And that brings us to our second point.  God has created a plenitude we can see on every hand.   Again, take time to think about it.   We don’t perhaps rejoice enough in the diverse inhabitants that he has made.  The starry hosts above. Scientists are discovering new things all the time.  The birds in the air, the fish in the sea, the animals on land, such diversity.

Go to any garden and be amazed at the variety of bushes and trees and flowers and grasses.  And we are intrigued as human beings.   It’s one of the motives for travel. We want to see what God has made, everywhere!   We travel to see interesting places.  We go on safaris to see the great variety of animals and birds and fish.  What an amazing world God has made.

Did you know that there are some 228,000-known species in our oceans and listen to this, another two million that remain a total mystery!   There are an estimated 6.5 million different species on land.  18,000 bird species, estimates range from between 50 to 450 billion birds in total!

And this plenitude that God has made is for our enjoyment, so that we might be able to flourish and be fulfilled.  That we are able to enjoy what God has made and delight in Him. In Psalm 104:15 the Psalmist in celebrating creation says that one of the things God has given us is wine to gladden the heart.   You can call it grape juice, the result is the same.

Psalm 104:26, the Psalmist mentions the leviathan frolicking (probably whales) in the sea and man in their ships can see them play in the sea.  God means for this world to fascinate us.   We are students of creation, and it always amazes me that people have so many different interests in what God has made.   Some love studying animals, birds, little crawling creatures.

Some love exploring oceans, or the deep jungles, or the snow topped mountains.  I even have friends who are interested in mathematics.  Well, that is a mystery to me.  On the other hand, iPhones and iMacs and apple watches is a subject that everyone loves, well may be not!

So, God has shown us the personal side of his character and the plentiful character of his creation.   The third thing I would like to mention is that God’s creation is purposeful.

God created us as his image bearers!  And our purpose as his image bearers is that we along with all creation glorify him!   And what a great thing that is.  We’re not just a marginal animal in a world that has no personal purpose.  We reflect God’s purpose in him giving us a purpose.

And that means we are to work as he worked and enjoy it.  God worked to rule over the darkness and we as his image bearers, have been dominion, stewardship to rule this creation to carry out his mandate.  God worked to subdue the water to create dry land and we are given the task as his image bearers to subdue the world that surrounds us.  God worked to fill the world that was empty and we as his image bearers are called to fill the world.

It’s particular at this point that we as male and female are called upon to fill the world with other image bearers.  This is part of our purpose.   What a privilege.  We have a divine purpose to reflect our divine Maker.   We have not been left purposeless to try and invent meaning for ourselves. That’s what the modern world is all about and that is why there is so much trouble in the modern world.

We have people on substance abuse and crime figures are continually increasing and those in the know suggest that it is because people have no purpose.    The Euthanasia debate, the abortion debate, the gender debate gain ground in our society for so many people see no meaning to their animal lives because they reject the very God who has given them life and in whom they live and move and have their being!

The Christian doctrine of Creation says to the world, “We have a purpose, a divine purpose, a glorious purpose as God’s image bearers and that is to work and glorify our Creator God in our work.”    But we’re not only called to work, but also to rest.  The early verses of Genesis not only show us that we are workers with a purpose, but Gen 2:1-3; also show that we are “resters” with a purpose.

Far too much attention is giving to the first six days of creation and not nearly enough to the seventh day of creation when God rested.  Why did God rest? If you say he was tired, then you need to go back theology class 101.   God rested on the seventh day to provide a model for us, namely that we are six-day workers and one day resters.  And that one day of rest is not just because we are physically prone to be tired but that one day of rest is so that we can have time for God and time with God.

It is sad that in many ways Christians are following the pattern of this world.   The evil one doesn’t often rape us but seduces us bit by bit.  Beware!   In Victoria, pre-1990, the then Victorian Football league introduced Sunday Football.

Christians and various others protested strongly.  And so the Government said they would only allow two games out of the whole season to be played on a Sunday.  Well, we know who won that battle.  Shopping centres are now open 24/7 and many don’t think anything of it to skip worship and do something more ‘exciting’.

And sadly, some Christians have lost the doctrine of the Christian day of rest.    They have time for football, tramping, going to the zoo or the cinema and a hundred other things but time for and with their personal loving God is slowly being squeezed out.

Some Christian denominations have even changed their Church Order to now say that it’s OK to just worship once on a Sunday.    Instead of the gospel driving the culture, we have allowed the culture to drive the gospel.

One of the early messages in Genesis is that the personal God who gave us plentiful and who gave purpose in our work also set aside a day we can spend with him!  Let’s not neglect it.   We are called to glorify God and to be his image bearers in working and in resting.

Sadly, many people have no purpose because they have no work.  And many people have rest but no purpose in their rest.   We have a personal God who has given us plentiful and purpose to live and rest for him.

Let’s share that good news.  It’s not the good news but is some good news that the doctrine of creation brings into our lives.     And if this wasn’t enough, this personal God who created it all, came to us in the person of His Son.  It doesn’t get any more personal than that!  And by coming he revealed the Father’s character and love to us perfectly.

This personal, God, in the person of his Son, gave his life for us on the cross to pay the debt for our sin, not just one sin, but all our sins are so that all who believe may be forgiven.    And it didn’t end there.  He rose victoriously from the dead, so that we don’t have to live in our dead-end world and dead-end streets anymore.

And now, we who are being filled by his Spirit can work for him and rest in him all our days, knowing that eternal life awaits us where we can enjoy our personal, plentiful and purposeful God forever!   Amen.