(Note from the Tech Guy – The church has lagged a bit in uploading the newsletters, but we are back on track starting with September -December’s newsletters. Sorry August)
Do you ever find yourselves marveling at the mighty power of God? In Genesis 1:1 we learn
several very important truths about God that cause us to stand in awe.
The first observation about God from the passage is that God is eternal. He has no beginning.
So that at the moment He creates, Moses describes this as the beginning. He does not mean
God’s beginning, rather he means our beginning.
God is infinite and therefore possesses the power of being within himself. This is what Paul
taught us at the Areopagus in a sermon recorded in Acts 17, “The God who made the world and
everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is
he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all
mankind life and breath and everything.”
The second observation to be made about God in Genesis 1:1 is that he created without any
pre-existing materials. The text indicates in its movement from verse 1 to verse 2 that before the
earth was formless and void there was nothing. The Hebrew verb translated by the English
“created” is pronounced “bara”. This word is used in the Old Testament 53 times and in every
case God is its subject. Human beings made in the image of God have the power to create, but
our creations are always done with pre-existing materials. Only God can bara.
In Theology we describe this reality of God’s creative power with the Latin phrase ex nihilo,
which means out of nothing. When we sing of God as our creator, like in the hymn I Sing the
Mighty Power of God, we are celebrating God’s attributes of eternality, the power of self
existence, and the power to bring into existence all things out of no things.
As the work of Christ reverses the effects of the Fall, we gain the power and ability to
understand such wonders. May the truth of God’s grandeur deepen your worship.