God’s Creative Word (Genesis 1:1-2:4a)

Christians have a unique way of understanding God. Other world religions might believe in many gods, one god, or even that there is no god. Christians, however, believe, teach and confess that there is one God who makes Godself known to us as three distinct persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This understanding of God is founded on the Old Testament confession, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4 NIV), which tells us that there is only one God. It also expands this understanding of God to incorporate New Testament teachings about Jesus being God in human flesh and blood, Jesus referring to God as his Father, and God sending his Holy Spirit to us. These are not three separate gods, but one God who reveals himself to us as three persons.

It took about three hundred years for the early Christians to work out how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit relate to each other as three distinct but not separate persons who share an essential divine unity. It led to the words Trinity or Triune God being used to describe the mystery of the one God in three persons. These words don’t appear in the Bible but were developed to help explain the faith that there is one God who exists as the three persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in perfect unity and relationship within Godself.

Even though the words Trinity and Triune God don’t appear in the Bible, we can still find evidence of the Trinity in Scripture. For example, in this week’s New Testament reading, 2 Corinthians 13:11-14, we hear Paul conclude his letter by writing, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (v14 NIV). If we understand his reference to “God” as meaning “God the Father” we can clearly see that Paul believed in God as Three-in-One. We can also see the Trinity at Jesus’ baptism when the voice from heaven, the Father, speaks over his Son, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit descends on him in the form of a dove (Matthew 3:16,17; Mark 1:10,11; Luke 3:21,22).

We can also see the Trinity in this week’s Old Testament reading, the creation story of Genesis 1:1-2:4a. On each of the six days of the story, God creates light, the sky, dry land, plants, the sun, moon and stars, and every living thing through his Word. God spoke his creative word and what he said came into existence. This tells us that God’s word is powerful and “creates new things out of nothing” (Romans 4:17 NLT).

God our Creator is the speaker of the Word which brings everything into existence and gives life to every living thing. This is the work of God the Father. When John wrote his gospel account of Jesus’ life, he began, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1 NIV). His readers would know straight away that using the words “In the beginning” was a direct reference to the Genesis 1 Creation Story. By saying that “the Word” was in the beginning, John points his readers to the word the Creator spoke to bring everything into existence. This Word through whom everything was created (v3), John continues, “became human and made his home among us” (v14 NLT). John is pointing to Jesus, the Son of God, as the Second Person of the Trinity who was the Word spoken by God the Creator to create the world and give life to everything.

Whenever we speak, our breath carries our words from our mouths. Our natural way of speaking is to exhale while we talk so our breath can carry our words from us to whomever we might be speaking. When God the Creator spoke his creative Word in the beginning, his Breath also carried his Word to achieve what he was saying and bring into being the things he was speaking. In both the Hebrew language of the Old Testament and New Testament Greek, the word for breath is also translated as air, wind and spirit. As God spoke his Word in the beginning, his Breath, or his Spirit, carried his Word to do what he was saying and bring into existence the very things he was speaking.

That’s how we find the Triune God in the Genesis 1 Creation Story – the Father spoke the Word, the Son was the Word that was spoken, and the Holy Spirit carried that Word to bring light and life and beauty to the dark and chaotic world.

God is still speaking his creative Word of light, beauty and life in our time and into our lives. As we read and listen to God’s Word for us in the Bible, he is bringing about the new creation in us and in the world through us. We can all experience the darkness, chaos and brokenness of a world gone wrong in our lives, our relationships, and in our bodies. God speaks his creative word into this chaos, darkness and brokenness just like he did in the beginning. Our Father and Creator speaks words of grace, forgiveness, peace and hope to us through the good news of his Word-made-human Son, Jesus. The Holy Spirit, the breath of God, carries God’s creative and life-giving word into our minds, hearts and souls to bring into existence the very things he says. When God says we are forgiven in Jesus, the Holy Spirit re-creates us as forgiven people. When God says he loves us through Jesus, the Holy Spirit carries that Word to us and re-creates us as loveable people. When God speaks peace to us in Jesus, the Holy Breath of God carries that Word to do what it says and restore our wholeness and peace within us. God’s Word is so much more than a guide for our lives or a set of instructions to follow. It is the creative and life-giving Word that our Father and Creator speaks to us through Jesus which the Holy Spirit carries to us to re-create in us all the good things God promises us in Jesus. As Paul wrote to Timothy, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16 NIV). It doesn’t do this just by telling us what to do, but as the Triune God creates in us all the good God wants to see in us through his creative and life-giving Word.

The Trinity is so much more than a theological doctrine to be debated or argued. The Triune God is firstly and most importantly a relationship that exists within God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit live in perfect unity of existence and purpose. We see this in the Genesis 1 Creation Story as the Father speaks his creative Word and the Word is carried by God’s Holy Breath to do what he says. God our Creator continues to speak his creative Word to us in the promises and good news of Jesus as the Holy Spirit carries God’s Word to us to give us every good thing God promises and to re-create us in the image God always intended for us.

More to think about or discuss:

• People can use different items to illustrate the Trinity such as an apple, an egg, a three-leaf clover or water existing in three states. Which is your favourite? Why do you like it?
• Have you ever seen the Trinity in Genesis 1 as God speaks the Word and the Holy Spirit carries the Word to do what it says? How does that sound to you? What makes sense to you about seeing the Trinity in the story? What might you struggle with about it?
• What do you look for or listen for when you read your Bible? How might we or your faith community help you to encounter Jesus as God’s creative and life-giving Word in the Scriptures?