GOD VS ANGELS

God had been confronted by rebellion amongst angelic beings—beings of amazing beauty and strength and intelligence.

How did God respond? Did He bring into being still more majestic heavenly hosts—creatures of even greater beauty and strength and intelligence? Certainly He could have done so had He desired. But, in fact, He did the very opposite. He reached down and not up.

He created a new race from the lowliest source available—from the earth. The name of the being He created was “Adam.” This name is derived directly from the Hebrew word adamah, meaning “earth.” The Adamic race is the earthy race. Yet the unfolding revelation of Scripture makes it clear that God had in mind for the Adamic race a destiny higher than that of the angels.

It is important to realize that the creation of Adam and the Adamic race was part of God’s response to Satan’s rebellion. In a certain sense, this new race was designed to fulfill the destiny from which Satan had fallen and even to go beyond that. This is one main reason why Satan opposes our race with such intense hatred. He sees us as those who will supplant him and enter into a destiny that he failed to achieve. What is that destiny?

To understand our destiny, which we will explore in the next chapter, we must first understand our origin—how and why mankind was created. Both our origin and our destiny are revealed in the opening chapters of the book of Genesis.

The opening verse of the book of Genesis states: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Further on in Genesis 1:26-27 it describes the creation of man:

Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness....’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

We need to set the creation of man against a historical background extending over vast periods of time.

At the End of the Ages

God works according to a chronological system that He Himself has devised. It is important to find out where we are at this time in God’s chronology. Concerning the coming of Jesus to earth, we are told in Hebrews 9:26: “... but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (emphasis added). This indicates that the coming of Jesus to earth is the culmination of a program that God has been following over a period described as “the ages.” In 1 Corinthians 10:11 Paul says that all these things “were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (emphasis added). The Church of the New Testament obviously understood that it was destined to be the climax of divine purposes that had been initiated in earlier ages.

These Scriptures indicate that the coming of Jesus and the establishing of the Church are some of the final events that close a period described as “the ages.” How are we to interpret that phrase the ages? In Psalm 90:4 the psalmist is speaking to God and he says: “For a thousand years in Your sight are like yesterday when it is past, and like a watch in the night” (emphasis added). In the culture of the Bible a period of twelve hours was divided into three “watches” of four hours each. In other words, a thousand years correspond to four hours. A 24-hour day would correspond to six thousand years.

We see, then, that the events described in Genesis 1:2 and following are the culmination of divine activity that goes back over a period of time much longer than our limited minds have any capacity to comprehend.

With this in mind, we will now turn to the opening verses of the book of Genesis. As we have seen, the first verse describes the original act of creation, and the first part of the second verse describes a subsequent condition of the earth: “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness

was on the face of the deep.” This “void” was not the condition of the earth as originally created, but rather the result of a tremendous judgment of God that was brought upon the pre-Adamic earth, probably as a result of Satan’s rebellion. This was a judgment on the wickedness of the pre-Adamic race (or races) then upon the earth who had been led by Satan in rebellion and into various forms of wickedness. It would appear that the main instrument of judgment in this instance was water. The earth became a desolate, formless, watery waste, and darkness was upon the face of the waters. Then the second part of verse 2 says: “And the Spirit of God was hovering [brooding, almost like a bird] over

the face of the waters.”

The emphasis is on darkness and water. From Genesis 1:3 (“Let there be light”) onward as far as Genesis 2:7 (“And the Lord God formed man”), the theme is not primarily original creation, but essentially restoration. In most instances, the material was already there. It simply had to be reformed and reshaped. I am not suggesting that no creative acts took place, but original creation was not a main feature.

Aside from the re-creation process that filled the earth with sea creatures and other living things, we must not miss the application of this creative process for us as Christians. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul says: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (emphasis added).

In a certain sense, this new creation in Christ is a work of restoration. When I come to Christ as a sinner, my whole personality is not obliterated. God does not bring something totally new into being, but He sets in operation forces that will restore me, renew me and ultimately bring forth out of me something completely new. Therefore, the work of restoration described in Genesis 1 and 2 is extremely relevant and applicable to the new creation in Christ. That is one reason that Scripture records it in some detail.

Several aspects of the creation in Genesis 1:2 are reproduced in the restoration of a sinner when he comes to Christ. The “world” (or the “earth” as described in Genesis 1:2) was in a mess. Likewise, when you or I come to Jesus Christ as sinners, we may or may not know it, but we too are in a mess. Not only are we in a mess, but like the earth in Genesis 1:2, we are in the dark. While we are in the dark, we cannot see things as they really are. This was the condition of the earth and it is also the condition of the individual sinner.

There are two great agents of restoration in the new creation. In Genesis 1:2, the Spirit of God was “hovering.” In Genesis 1:3, God spoke and His Word, went forth. It is by the union of the Word and the Spirit of God that creation and re-creation take place. What happens when a sinner comes to repentance? The Spirit of God begins to move on that sinner’s heart and he receives the proclaimed Word of God. By the Spirit and the Word the process of re-creation (or restoration) in Christ is set in motion. The first product of the union of the Spirit and the Word working together was light. Thereafter, God worked in the light. The first thing that happens when a sinner comes to Christ is that he begins to see things—and himself—the way they really are. From that point on God continues to work in his life in the light.

There follows a process of separation and refinement, distinction and multiplication. Many different areas are dealt with in a successive order.

Sometimes we reach a stage where we think, Now I’m really finished. God has dealt with everything. It is right at this point that a new area in our lives is exposed and brought to light by the Spirit of God, and then He proceeds graciously to deal with that area.

This is how God worked in the restoration described in Genesis 1. He worked in stages: first the water, then the earth, then the vegetation, the fishes, the birds, then the beasts and so on. Finally, we come to the climax of the creative process: the creation of man.

First, let me say that the creation of man gives us this further astonishing revelation about God: There is plurality in God: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness’” (Genesis 1:26, emphasis added).

I have already pointed out that the word for God [Elohim] is plural in form. This agrees with the language that God uses here about Himself, “Let Us make man in Our image.” Some people say that this is just the regal form where the king speaks of himself in the plural, but this is ruled out by the fact that later on, when speaking about man’s Fall, God says: “Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil’” (Genesis 3:22, emphasis added).

God is plural, but He is also one. The Hebrew word for one used here and applied to God is echad. It denotes a unity with component elements. In Genesis 2:24, the same word, echad, is used again: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they [two] shall become one [echad] flesh.”

The word used here, echad, is not the word for absolute indivisible unity, which is yachid. The Hebrew word used in this verse, echad, is applied to marriage. It describes a oneness that is made up of two distinct persons united. In the biblical revelation of God, however, there are not two, but three Persons united to produce oneness. Not an absolute oneness, but a oneness in which there is also plurality.

Some people object to the concept of a Triune God, but I see it clearly revealed in Scripture. I believe in God the Father, I believe in God the Son and I believe in God the Holy Spirit. What is more important, not merely do I believe in them, but I know each of them through direct, personal experience. I know what it is to have a relationship with the Father, I know what it is to have a relationship with the Son, and I know what it is to have a relationship with the Holy Spirit.