This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Genesis 1-6” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 4, 1977.

I would like simply to reiterate a bit of what he said last week and expand on it a little bit, in order that we might maintain perspective on Genesis 1, especially in our days. What is this anyway, this story that we have here at the opening of our Bible?

I think it’s important for us as Bible-believing Christians, and taking our stand on passages such as 2 Timothy 3.16, the verse I believe known by most of you, But even Paul said, all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God, or all Scripture is God-given. And discerning that and taking our stand apart, we resist every effort today to recap the story in Genesis 1 in terms of myth. What we have here is not myth.

Now, I know that it has become the habit of many to become very sophisticated in their definition of myth, not in the old-fashioned sense of something that is essentially fabricated and invented, and therefore untrue, but in the sophisticated modern sense of that word. which teaches and preaches that there is something truly beneficial in this, in that a community is giving expression of its identity at its deepest level.

Genesis chapter one, we have there, according to some, The testimony of Israel, the beginning of that testimony, with regard to its identity at its deepest level. And, of course, last week we went on to the New Testament to suggest that not only do we have the Old Testament community in the Scriptures, but we also have the New Testament But we also have a New Testament community in the Scriptures, and if myth characterizes the Old Testament community, why should we forbid the New Testament community from doing the same thing? And that’s precisely the direction you see that modernism has gone. The mist from the Old Testament has flowed into the New Testament, so that now there are those who are saying that what we have in the New Testament is the confession of the New Testament community concerning its identity at its deepest level.

And we are not to understand the New Testament historically. We are not to understand the Virgin’s birth literally, nor are we to understand the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day from the dead in a literal fashion. The major task of the modern Church, according to some then, is the course outlined in a process called demythologizing, in order that we might glean something significant from all of these fantastic stories that are recorded in our Bible.

Genesis 1 is not myth, but we need to say more, especially for the philosophy majors in our midst this morning. Genesis 1 is not philosophy. It is not speculation. And in this account, you do not have a consideration of God in a personal and detached manner. Philosophy majors, it seems, in trying to analyze whatever there might be of the divine. and turns the divine into something that is generally impersonal. In philosophy, we have become accustomed to speaking of the prime mover, the first, the prime mover, or even more than that, I suppose, the first cause. one who is responsible for every effect.

But Genesis 1 is not philosophic. Now, I have something more to say at this point. For all the theologians in our midst, well, this might sound shocking to you. first light that holds on to be willed. Genesis 1 is not theology. Genesis 1 is not theology at least in the traditional sense of theology.

Now, this might cause some real alarm, but some of you are familiar with theology, and some of you have read things like Westminster Dispatch and Faith, and you know that they’re themes that run through the Bible. are talked about in a comprehensive fashion, sort of picking out from the scriptures all of the important data with regard to a particular topic. And the organization, theologically at least, as we have come to understand theology, is something that is considered essentially to be logical. Now, this raises the question, is traditional theology proper? Is it proper for us to write a confession of faith, for instance? Is it proper for us to organize the materials of I and I under certain heads? Is that legitimate? Is that a legitimate fact?

And the answer, of course, for those of us who are confessional Christians is, yes, certainly it is, but we must understand the place of that traditional theology in our lives in the Church. We can no longer consider things to mean that kind of theology as a logical mastery of God and His relationship to the world. If we allow theology to proceed on that basis, theology itself in the Church and in its life becomes arrogant and a loveless anaphora in which we are out to prove that we are right, and to demonstrate that we have an ironclad case for our own position. But I believe that there is a way in which we can do this kind of theology if we recognize the basis for it. Theology is ministry both to the Church and to those who are outside the Church, and it is a legitimate act, and it is only carried out properly if it is done with love. The only motivation of theology is love, love for the Church, that the believer might be able soon to grasp a hold of the salient points and things of the Scripture, and he might feast on them.

And by reflection upon them, we might ask, what does the Bible tell us about God? What does the Bible tell us about the doctrine of election? What does the Bible tell us about the covenant? What does the Bible tell us about matters that are very important to us? Marriage. Divorce. Our relationship to the Savior. What does the Bible say about these very, very important subjects?

The reason we engage in what seems to some a ridiculous activity must be our love. Why do I pour over a volume of Lewis Birkhoff’s systematic theology? Because I love you. It’s not because while I’m reading good old Lewis that he turns me on, because he doesn’t. Why does a theological student painstakingly go through Charles Bodge’s systematic theology? Because it’s so exciting? No! The only thing that will motivate him in going through all that material is his love for the Church and his love for the unbelievers, so that in the day when he is called to account for his faith before the world, he can give an answer.

Why do these women, Thursday after Thursday, get together and go through the shorter catechism? It’s not easy. It’s not always exciting. Sometimes it’s very difficult, and sometimes, yes, it’s true, my wife, she’s not here at this point, I can say this, comes home and says, it was very boring.

We went about talking of the concession of faith. No, see, we said, now I’m going to be really religious this year. Now I’m going to go through what I committed to. I’m going to read through the entire concession of faith. We get to the middle of the second chapter and we say, oh my.

Theology, it must be admitted in the traditional sense, is a scientific activity. Many of us have little patience for science. But the proper motivation for theology as science, and I might say to all of you who are engaged in other pursuits other than theology, the basis of any science, in God’s creation is love.

That is what constrains you to organize and work. That’s what constrains you to apply yourself to it. So that in an orderly fashion you might have something to give to people who need bread and not stones. Now, each of you have a theological path to one degree or another. That helps you to bring it to work. But realize that beneath it, there’s a mystery of what? I acquaint myself with so that I have something to give to those who are needy, whether they are in the church or outside.

Genesis 1 is Theology, but not in the traditional sense, because Genesis 1 is, first of all, history. And theology in the biblical sense is always historically traditional. Notice the evidences throughout Genesis 1 that this is indeed history, not myth, not philosophy. Thus, theology in the traditional sense, it is history, and we have a progression of six days, December 45th, 6 and 1. We have the announcement at the very beginning, the first one, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

But even more than this, so that you might realize that this isn’t laying the foundations for more philosophical speculations about God in abstraction from His creation, far away from us, detached from His world, something that you contemplate in and of Himself.

No, the God who is spoken of here is one who is placing Himself right within the conditions of His creation. It is only after He is declared to walk in His Word that history has begun that He mentions His own name, in the beginning, God. So that the God that you are contemplating here is a God close at hand, who is at work in His world. And who in the midst of that creative act is forming the things about him.

And it is that principle, you see, that is ultimately going to triumph in the person of Jesus Christ. For once more it will be evident to us that God indeed loves his creation so much that even sin will not keep him from redeeming himself. How beautiful this comes out in a number of passages.

I think that we make a great mistake when we read the book of Revelation, for oftentimes we forget that the book of Revelation has the entire counterpart in the Old Testament. As the Revelation is the end, Genesis was the beginning. The wonderer of wonders, the God who describes himself in that book of Revelation, describes himself in terms of the creation process.

He describes himself in terms of history. He says that He is the beginning and the end. He says that He is the Alpha and the Omega. He is the One who was and is and is to come. His very name is bound up in the created process so that you might know That is as impossible as it is for God to deny His own name. So impossible is it for Him to forsake what He’s made. It’s impossible for God to deny His own name. If you are trusting in Jesus Christ this morning, will you forsake me? Looking at the structure of Genesis 1, I’ll just call your attention to a few things.

Genesis 1.1 is a summary statement. God makes everything. Things which are visible, things which are invisible.

Beginning at Genesis 1.2, we have a delineation of God’s creation. And the theme struck in the phrase that the earth was formless and void, and now in answer to that formlessness and that void, God forms and fills.

And that’s the structure of the six days. In the first three days you have God forming. Creation’s kingdoms, spheres, domain. Day one, you have in creating day and night. Day two, the heavens and the seas. Day three, the earth. Creation’s kingdoms, but then you see, entering those first three days, you have the second three days in which now God fills those kingdoms.

With creation’s change, the lights of the heavens govern the day and the night. And those that fill the sea govern those domains. But then on the sixth day, in filling the earth, God creates man, and man is given a special task to have dominion over all the works of God’s hand. That which fills rules. filled when God, as it were, rules the earth as God himself.

This is at the heart of what the image of God is. The theme of the image is sovereignty. The theme of the image is fortune. In the New Testament, where it talks about our being renewed in the image, it speaks about how we have been renewed in knowledge and righteousness and holiness. And that’s the equipment, you see, we need for proper rule, for proper lordship, for proper sovereignty.

But the image of God, you see, is something that has become perverted and corrupted by sin, so that it is now necessary for God, in His great love for His creation, to work afresh anew. And He set in the midst of a new world a new man who perfectly displayed His image. fulfilled the original mandate that was laid upon man.

It’s as if, before the coming of Christ, there is, because of sin and the ravages of sin, a new formlessness, a new void, a new emptiness. Possibly, the writer of the book is speaking about that, reflecting upon the emptiness of life because of the condition of creation now. but is a wonderful work of Jesus Christ. Humanity can die again, but the kingdom of God, the domain of God is being filled by Him, and He rules over it. We need to reflect upon that for a minute. We need to think of how it is not merely true that God is establishing his kingdom in Christ, but how through Christ he is filling his people with his very fullness. What is the fullness of God in you? The fullness of God in you is God’s Lordship, His Son, His Master.

It’s not ecstasy. It’s not being out of control. It is a demonstration of God’s control and His mastery, which is evident in you by your mastery and control. You, through Christ, become abhorrent in the creation, becoming a man as you were meant to be, or a woman as you were created. And fulfilling your task in creation by filling it full of the mastery that comes only through the proper use of knowledge, righteousness and holiness. It’s men and women standing on their feet, and with the wisdom of God, able to discern the times and act properly.

It’s not Christian people sitting beneath a cross as if they were continually oppressed all the time. It’s people active for the king and standing up with steel in their backbone and resisting, standing up, speaking out against the tyranny and oppression that characterizes them. It’s not a mindless flight to another world that exists somewhere in your head. How we meet here is men and women becoming responsible, and they are filled with holy spirit. And no one can push the bounds of life, but rather those who are in control, to avoid God. You are out of control. They pushed it out.

Are you getting a little talent? Stand up in the renewed image of Christ. and be filled with the fullness of God, and begin now to take on the characteristics of what will do in that age, in which the dominion of God becomes apparent in you for His glory. Our Father in Heaven, we ask you now, your praise might be exalted in our lives, which Before I even see him, it would be four minutes before he comes. Again, I need to talk to him. I don’t know what he’s doing.

Father, give us then strength to stir up the most fierce of tribes. Help us to stand on our feet, not pushed about by sin, not pushed about by our fear of death, not pushed about by the various forces of evil in this world. Rather, our Father, as those who reflect the glorious image of our God in Christ, may we with wisdom discern the times and understand what it means to act righteously amidst the misdiverse generation. And that, Father, may you receive glory for yourself. And may the mastery and the Lordship of Jesus Christ wonderfully demonstrate itself in us.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.