Faith #2 (Creation)

August 19, 2022 (Friday)

 

It is important for us to understand saving faith. It completely rests on Jesus. I believe it is significant that the very next verse explaining faith in Hebrews 11, states, “By faith we understand that the universe has been created by a word from God so that the visible came into existence from the invisible.” [Hebrews 11:3 CEB] I do not think it is a stretch to declare with certainty that having saving faith means the belief in a Creator.

 

In theological terms, there are four theological positions. The first is "creation ex nihilo," meaning "creation out of nothing." It is the belief that matter is not eternal and was created by God. The contrasting view is "creation ex materia" or "ex nihilo nihil fit" ("nothing comes from nothing"), meaning that what we see came from preexisting things. One of the theological questions comes out of Genesis 1:2: "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." Some people believe in a pre-existing earth that was destroyed. This is called the "gap theory" and has led to all sorts of erroneous and egregious teaching.

 

The third idea is “creation ex deo” meaning “creation out of the being of God.” This position understands that the universe we see somehow originates from God in the sense that the physical universe is part of God. The last position is “creation continua” meaning the process of creation is ongoing. The church’s (and Jewish) historic understanding of creation has always been “ex nihilo” in contrast to Greek metaphysical and philosophical models.

 

The creation formula we read in Genesis 1 is, "God said, "Let there be light." And so light appeared. God saw how good the light was. God separated the light from the darkness. God named the light Day and the darkness Night." [Genesis 1:3 – 5 CEB] In this formula we have, God spoke and it was. Verse 4 adds that God saw what was created was good and that God did the creation. Verse 5 adds that God named what was just created.

 

So there are five elements to the Creation formula: God spoke, what was spoken happened, God recognized it as good, God is credited for the event, and God named what He created. In God’s spoken word, there is power to create (and presumably power to uncreate). So we have this formula in John 1. Notably, it begins in parallel to Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." [John 1:1 CEB] Later, John reveals that Jesus is "the Word."

 

Paul picks up on this theme when he states, "Because all things were created by him: both in the heavens and on the earth, the things that are visible and the things that are invisible." [Colossians 1:16a CEB] Simply put, Jesus is the Word through which God the Father created the world. A worldview without a Creator is a worldview where it is not possible for Jesus to be the redeemer. Without Jesus, there is no saving faith.