I delivered this message at Spring Creek Bible Church on November 26, 2017, as part 11 of the Essentials series.
Introduction
Introductions
Let’s go around the room and introduce ourselves. Tell everyone (1) your name, (2) how old you are, and (3) what your favorite Thanksgiving food was.
I’ll start. I’m Mr. Phil Gons, I’m 39 years old, and my favorite Thanksgiving food was brussels sprouts with sweet potatoes and bacon.
Action: Have the kids introduce themselves one by one.
I’ll be teaching our class this week and next week. Today we’ll talk about what the Bible teaches about the creation of mankind, and next week we’ll talk about who we are and how we’re different from his other creatures.
This material is a summary of some of the topics we cover in a 10-week class I had the privilege of teaching that covers the doctrines of man and sin, what theologians refer to as anthropology and hamartiology.
Q: How many of you have heard of those terms before?
Those are just fancy-sounding words for what the Bible teaches about man and sin.
Sidenote: when we talk about the creation of man or the doctrine of man, we’re not referring to males as distinct to females. We’re referring to mankind, human beings. It’s been common for most of human history to use these kinds of words to refer to men and women. That’s becoming unpopular today and less common for people to understand that man or men often is not limited to males as opposed to females.
Interactive Discussion
I don’t want this to be a one-way lecture. My goal is that you understand what we cover so you can evaluate it, believe it, live in light of it, defend it, and teach it to others.
That usually happens best for most people through conversation and interaction.
I’ll try to ask you some questions throughout the lesson, but I’d like you to ask me questions as well. If anything is unclear or you have a specific question about it, just raise your hand. You can also write your questions down and save them for the end if you’d like, but you’re more than welcome to ask them during the lesson as well.
Before we get started, let’s take a minute or two and write down at least one question you might have about the creation of man.
Q: Does anyone have a question they’d like to share?
I may answer some of those questions as we go. If I don’t, feel free to ask them. I’ll give us some time at the end for any questions you didn’t get a chance to ask. And I’ll have some of my own questions to ask you.
Survey Questions
Before we get into our lesson, I’d like to get to know a little more about you. So I’m going to ask you a series of questions. Raise your hand to answer yes.
- Do you go to school at home?
- Do you go to a Christian school?
- Do you go to another kind of private school?
- Do you go to a public school?
- Have you have been taught evolution in school, either by a teacher or in a book?
- What is evolution? Can someone give me a brief explanation?
- Do you have close friends that believe in evolution?
- Do you have Christian friends that believe something different about the creation than you do?
Foundations: The Role of the Bible in Answering Questions about Origins
So let’s jump into our lesson on the origin of man.
I’d like to start by establishing our foundation, our ultimate source of truth for matters of faith and practice.
Q: Can anyone tell me what I’m referring to?
For most areas of doctrine, it’s goes without saying that we go to the Bible to find out what we should believe. What we believe about God, salvation, heaven, hell, the church, the end times, etc. we learn from what the Bible teaches.
But what about the origin of the human race? Do we go to the Bible for this doctrine as well?
Yes.
It’s especially important for this topic that we begin with the Bible as our authoritative foundation, because the Bible and the opinions of many scientists are often at odds when it comes to these questions of where we came from and when.
Q: What are some of the things we believe about the Bible?
By way of reminder, we affirm that the Bible is
- Inspired / breathed out by God: that’s just another way of saying the Bible is authored by God; it’s his book; it reveals him and his will
- Authoritative: that means that the Bible carries the same authority as if God spoke directly to us
- Infallible and inerrant: that’s just another way of saying that the Bible is true; since God is true and cannot lie, his word is also true and not a lie; we can trust it
- Timeless and relevant: since God is eternal and the God of believers of all time, so is his word; though the Bible was written thousands of years ago, it’s just as much for us today as it was for its original recipients
- Sufficient: God is all we need, and his revelation of himself in his word is also sufficient for everything we need to be saved and please him
Q: Can anyone think of a passage that teaches this?
2 Timothy 3:16–17: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2 Peter 1:19–21: And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, 20 knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Psalm 19:7–11: The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
It is this authoritative book that must be our starting point for all areas of doctrine, and it must get priority any time something outside the Bible seems to contradict it. We should interpret science in the light of the Bible, not the other way around.
1. Where did we come from?
So now let’s turn to the question of where we came from.
We just said we need to start with the Bible, and it makes sense to start at the beginning, in the book of Genesis.
Q: Can someone quote for me from memory Genesis 1:1?
The Bible begins with God and the reality that he exists. That’s probably the most fundamental or central truth about God in the whole Bible: God exists.
Perhaps the second most fundamental truth about God in the Bible is that he created all that is.
We can capture these two truths in this statement: God exists, and everything else exists because of him.
The Bible’s clear answer to where we came from is that God created us. The Bible is full of passages that refer to God as the creator of human beings in particular and of everything in general.
Creation of Man
In several places we’re told very clearly that God created man:
Q: What is the most detailed passage about our creation?
In Genesis 1 and 2
Genesis 1 and 2 are the best known and most detailed passages on God’s creation of man:
Q: Can I get a volunteer to read Genesis 1:26–27:
Genesis 1:26–27: 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.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Q: Can I get another volunteer to read Genesis 2:7:
Genesis 2:7: then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
Q: Can I get another volunteer to read Genesis 2:18–23:
Genesis 2:18–23: Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”
In the Rest of the Bible
This is reaffirmed all throughout Scripture in dozens of places. I’ll mention just a few.
Q: Can I get someone to read Genesis 5:1–2?
Genesis 5:1–2: This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created.
Psalm 95:6: Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker!
Psalm 100:3: Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Isaiah 45:12: I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.
If you work through all the passages in the Bible that talk about God as the creator of man, two things stand out:
- The fundamental relationship between God and man is that of creator and creature. (We’ll come back to this later.)
- Many of these passages point back to Genesis 1 and 2 and treat them as literal and historical accounts. (This will be important for our next point.)
Creation of All Things, Including Man
The Bible is also full of passages that say that God created everything. They don’t directly mention man, but they include man.
Q: Can anyone think of a verse that says God created everything?
Q: Can I have volunteers to read a few verses?
John 1:3: All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Acts 17:24: The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,
Colossians 1:16–17: For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Hebrews 11:3: By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.
The Bible is unambiguously clear that God is the creator of all things and that we are the result of his creative work.
Creation as an Act of the Trinity
Q: when we say God created everything, who do we have in mind? The Father? The Soon? The Holy Spirit? All three?
It’s worth clarifying what we mean when we say that God created us. The Bible attributes creation to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but in slightly different ways.
Father
Q: Can anyone think of a verse that connects creation to the Father?
- Genesis 1:1: In the beginning God [the Father] created the heavens and the earth.
- Ephesians 3:9: God [the Father], who created all things
- Hebrews 1:2: “through whom [Jesus] also he [the Father] created the world”
Son
Can anyone think of a verse that connects creation to the Son?
- John 1:3: “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
- Colossians 1:16: “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.”
Can anyone think of a verse that connects creation to the Spirit?
Spirit
- Genesis 1:2: “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
- Job 33:4: “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”
The Father created us through the Son by the Spirit. All three persons acted together in the work of creation.
2. How did God create us?
If we are going to accept the Bible, we must believe that God created us. There’s no room for debate on that issue. But some Christians disagree about precisely how he created us.
Q: Can anyone summarize what our church believes?
About 6,000 years ago, God created the physical universe in six 24-hour days. On the sixth day he created Adam and Eve, the first man and woman and the parents of the entire human race.
God created the universe quickly and out of nothing, directly by the word of his mouth. Some things he created Adam from material he’d already created:
Q: Can anyone think of something God created from something else he’d already made?
- He created mammals and birds from the ground (Gen 2:19).
- He created Adam from the dust of the ground (Gen 2:7).
- He created Eve from Adam’s rib (Gen. 2:21–22).
Q: Does anyone know of a different view held by some Christians?
Christians agree that God created everything, but they differ on some key points:
- How did God create us? Through a direct act, or through some process?
- How long did it take for God to create us? Did it happen in a short amount of time, or did it happen over a long time?
- When did God create us? 6,000 years ago, or millions of years ago.
- Were Adam and Eve real people, or representative?
All of these differences have one thing in common, the same underlying motivation.
Q: Does anyone know what the fundamental issue is behind these differences of opinion is?
Answer: what most scientists say about how old the earth is.
All of these alternate views flow from an attempt to harmonize what the Bible teaches with what many scientists today teach about how old the earth is. And they all start with the opinions of man rather than starting with the Bible. They give “science” priority and try to make the Bible fit with it.
At SCBC we believe in a young earth; most scientists today say we have an old earth. Many Christians give priority to the Bible and say that science must be wrong. Some say that the worldwide flood accounts for the apparent age of the earth. Other point out that God made a mature earth that already had the appearance of age.
On the other side you have those who start with the assumption that the earth is much older than the Bible seems to suggest. As a result, they come up with ways to interpret the Bible that fit the age of the earth.
Maybe God created and used the process of evolution. Maybe there was a large gap between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. Maybe each day of creation was a really long time, since with God a day is as a thousand years.
But all of these attempts don’t fit with a natural reading of the Bible, that is, taking the Bible at face value and letting it stand.
It’s essential that we give the Bible priority and interpret everything else in light of it.
3. Who did God create? Was Adam really a historical figure, the first human being, and the father of all living?
God created everyone, but not everyone in the same way. He formed Adam from dust, Eve from Adam, and the rest of us have come through procreation.
But that’s not what I want to focus on.
I’d like to look at one of these issues: were Adam and Eve real people, the parents of all other people?
It’s becoming increasingly popular for Christians to question or deny that Adam and Eve where the father and mother of humankind.
But the Bible doesn’t leave room for understanding Adam and Eve as anything less than real people.
Q: Can anyone think of any arguments against this view?
Adam and Other Historical Persons
Adam and Eve are listed right along with other historical persons, particularly in genealogies, with no hint that they are anything other than real people.
Genesis 4:1–2: Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” 2 And again, she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground.
Genesis 4:25: And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”
Genesis 5:1–5: This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. 3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. 4 The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. 5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.
1 Chronicles 1:1–4: Adam, Seth, Enosh; 2 Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared; 3 Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech; 4 Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Luke 3:23, 38: Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years of age, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli, . . . 38 the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
Jude 14: It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones,
Adam and Christ
Paul connects Adam and Christ in a very important theological argument about sin and salvation.
Romans 5:12–21: Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— 13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. 15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. 16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. 17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. 18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. 19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:21–22: For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:45–47: Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.
Other Verses
Hosea 6:7: But like Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.
Acts 17:26: And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, . . .
1 Timothy 2:13–14: For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.
This may not seem like a debatable issue, but a surprising number of Christians today hold to this view. It’s driven by a commitment to the ideas on the age of the earth and isn’t the result of a careful reading of the Bible.
4. When did God create us and the world?
The Bible doesn’t explicitly tell us the date he created man. I think this is instructive for us. God in his infinite wisdom made sure we have everything we need in Scripture. The things he left out or didn’t make as clear are indications that they aren’t as important for us to know in order to obey and please him. Sometimes we find ourselves wishing that God had given us more than he did in the Bible or been clearer on particular issues, but I’d suggest that that kind of thinking dishonors God. It doesn’t affirm his infinite wisdom in revealing for us exactly what he wanted us to know and exactly what we need.
Here’s what we do know:
- He created man at the beginning (Gen 1:1; Mk 10:6).
- He created mankind on the sixth day of creation (Gen 1:26–31).
- The rest of Scripture presents a chronology that doesn’t seem to fit with millions of years or even hundreds of thousands of years of human history.
If we embrace a literal six-day creation with no gap, we have to be left with a relatively young earth. How young, we do not know. Nor is it essential that we figure it out.
I appreciate Charles Hodge’s discussion on this subject. Hodge was a contemporary of Darwin and wrote at the dawn of the scientific challenges to the historic view of a relatively young earth and a six-day literal creation.
“The extreme uncertainty attending all attempts to determine the chronology of the Bible is sufficiently evinced by the fact that one hundred and eighty different calculations have been made by Jewish and Christian authors, of the length of the period between Adam and Christ. The longest of these make it six thousand nine hundred and eighty-four, and the shortest three thousand four hundred and eighty-three years.” (2:41)
Elsewhere he discusses that the method many use to come to an age of the human race—adding up genealogies and assuming an average length of a generation—is suspect:
“The design of those [genealogical] tables is not to give the regular succession of births in a given line, but simply to mark the descent.” (2:40)
He references Genesis 10:15–18; 46:18 (cf. 15, 22); Matthew 1:11, where generations are skipped. If we know they were skipped there, they could have been skipped in other places we don’t know about. As a result, we can’t merely add up the generations and arrive at the age of the human race.
He concludes:
“If the facts of science or of history should ultimately make it necessary to admit that eight or ten thousand years have elapsed since the creation of man, there is nothing in the Bible in the way of such concession.” (41)
The Bible seems to teach a younger earth. How young, we don’t know for sure. It’s not essential to our faith that we know. And we should be open enough to reevaluating it against evidence to the contrary.
5. Why did God create us?
A why question like this can refer to the goal or purpose, but it can also refer to the cause or the reason. Let’s look at both.
The Purpose of Creation
The purpose God created us was the same purpose for everything he does.
Q: Does anyone know what that purpose was?
His own glory.
God’s purpose was so that we would glorify him.
Q: Can anyone think of a verse that connections creation with glorifying God?
Psalm 19:1: The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Isaiah 43:7: everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”
Most catechisms capture this. The New City Catechism’s fourth question is,
How and why did God create us?
God created us male and female in his own image to know him, love him, live with him, and glorify him. And it is right that we who were created by God should live to his glory.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism captures it this way:
What is the chief end of man?
Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
We know this even from the fact that he created us in his own image. He made us as little likenesses of himself. We’ll talk about this more in our discussion of the image of God, but think about it for a moment. God created billions of little reflections of himself all to display how glorious he is. We’ll cover this in more detail next week.
We see this as well in God’s purposes of election.
Ephesians 1:4–6: even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
We can’t separate God’s purposes in creation from his purposes in election and salvation. They’re both for his glory.
The Cause of Creation
But the question many ask is more of a question of cause: why did God create at all? Did God need us? Was God lonely?
Q: What do you think?
Another way to frame this question is this: God was infinitely and eternally happy in himself without any of his creatures. He lived in perfect fellowship and love and joy in his triune being: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He lacked nothing. He didn’t need his creation or his creatures to fulfill any need he had or make up for any lack.
Acts 17:24–27: 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. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,
We ultimately have to say that we don’t know why God created. We must affirm, though, that he didn’t need to create.
Others have attempted an explanation, or at least a defense, that creation isn’t a sign of weakness or need or lack. The best answer I’ve seen to this question is that it’s of God’s nature to overflow.
“Tis no argument of the emptiness or deficiency of a fountain that it is inclined to overflow” (Yale: Works, Vol. 8, 448)
I highly recommend John Piper’s sermon entitled “Why Did God Create the World?”
Conclusion
If I were to summarize this doctrine in a concise and practical way, I’d say something like this: God created us freely and for his glory, and as his creatures we owe him our love, worship, and obedience.
One of the most basic things about us is that we were created. There’s a fundamental difference between God and us. We’re creature; he’s creator. Next week we’ll talk about how we’re like God as we explore what it means to be made in God’s image, but we mustn’t overlook this fundamental creator–creature distinction.
It’s important that we take a few minutes to think about how this doctrine applies to our lives. We don’t study theology just to fill our heads with truth. We study it to help us live out who God created us to be.
So let’s think about the ways the doctrine of creation can shape the way we live.
Q: Who can think of something practical we can learn and apply to our lives?
- God is the owner of us and all that we have; we are owned by him and stewards of all he’s entrusted to us
- God is the giver; we are the receiver
- God has authority over us; we owe him full obedience
- God is in charge of his universe; we must submit to his will and control
- God is the designer; we exist for his purposes, not ours
- God is infinite; we are finite
- God is eternal; we are temporal
God owns us.
Psalm 100:3: Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Isaiah 43:1: But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
We belong to him, and everything we have belongs to him. We are stewards of what belongs to him. Our spouse is not ours. Our children are not ours. Our possessions are not ours. Our time is not ours. It all belongs to him.
God is the source, the giver.
Everything we have is from God. All of life is a gift we do not deserve. Everything we have has been received. Our lives should reflect this with humble gratitude and generosity.
1 Corinthians 4:7: For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
John 3:27: John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.
1 Chronicles 29:14: “But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you.
James 1:17: Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
1 Peter 4:10–11: As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11 whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
God has authority over us.
As a natural corollary to God’s ownership comes his authority. He has the right to dictate and control our lives, to set the standards and require of us obedience. We owe to him perfect and complete obedience by virtue of the fact that we’re his creation.
Romans 9:20–21: But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?
Jeremiah 18:6: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
God possesses all authority and right, and we exist to submit to his authority and do his bidding.
God is infinite.
God is the only limitless being or thing in the universe. Everything else has boundaries. It’s finite. It has a beginning, and most of it has an end. God is the only thing with no beginning and no end. We run out of time, energy, patience, strength, knowledge, etc. Only God cannot be exhausted.
Embracing our finiteness is God’s design for us. It keeps us dependent and humble and resting in him and his sufficiency. When we try to push beyond our limits, we’re dangerously close to desiring God’s infiniteness and wanting to be creator instead of joyfully rejoicing in being the creature.
We must embrace God’s gift of sleep. We need to stop and rest, eat, relax, sleep—leaving many things on our to-do lists undone. These are all God’s ways of reminding us we are his. We’re his creatures. We’re dependent on him. We’re insufficient; he’s sufficient. He’s God. We’re not.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
At the core, we are God’s creatures, owned by him, owing him obedience and allegiance, entrusted by him with everything we have, and living in constant dependence on him and his inexhaustible provision. We mustn’t ever go far from this fundamental truth that God created us.
General Questions
- What questions do you have?
- Was there anything you heard for the first time?
- Is there anything you’re unsure about?
- Do you disagree with anything I said?
Specific Questions
- What does anthropology mean?
- Why did God create us? (Circle the right answer.)
- He was lonely.
- For his glory.
- He needed us.
- He didn’t have a choice.
- Which author in the Bible makes a connection between Adam and Christ, the second Adam?
- Paul
- Peter
- Luke
- John
- In which two books does that author make that connection?
- Ephesians and Philippians
- 2 Timothy and Hebrews
- 2 Corinthians and Galatians
- Romans and 1 Corinthians
- About how old is the earth according to the Bible?
- 10,000 years
- 1.2 million years
- 6,000 years
- 4.5 billion years
- Which book of the Bible doesn’t include a statement about God’s creating us?
- Genesis
- Job
- Psalms
- Obadiah