Westminster Confession of Faith
Questions 9-10: Creation
This is a summary of my notes for a series of Sunday School lessons I prepared and taught during the summer of 2024. I used the following books as resources: The Truths We Confess (RC Sproul) and The Shorter Catechism Explained from Scripture (Thomas Vincent)
Question 9 What is the work of creation?
The work of creation is, God’s making all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good. (Gen. 1, Heb. 11:3)
Read Genesis 1:1-25
Until the time of the Enlightenment, the most firmly established article of Christian faith in the secular world was that of creation. The article goes something like this, “If something exists, it must either have the power of being in itself or it must come from something that has the power of being in itself. Otherwise, nothing at all could exist.” This is an important point for us to consider because the secular world is assaulting the topic of creation in order to undermine its foundation. If you do away with creation, you do away with the Creator.
God’s making all things of nothing… This is the doctrine of creation ex nihilo or “out of nothing.” We must not move too quickly over this phrase because it is important. The mindset of the culture we live in believes as Carl Sagan once taught, “The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be.” This is the most basic battleground for the hearts of men and women. It even infects the church, and I would guess it has probably infected each of us to some degree. No… The created world is not infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. The very existence of each atom and molecule rests in the sustaining power of its Creator. Ex Nihilo means that there was no substantive or physical reality, but there was always God himself and his spiritual reality.
By the word of his power… Augustine called this the divine imperative or fiat. God spoke, “Let there be” meaning “There must be” – and things appeared. It was the power of his Word that created. There are a hundred examples we could pull from in Scripture to see this, but let’s look at two.
First, turn to Mark 4:37–41
And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Next, turn to John 11:38–44
Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” (ESV)
In the space of six days… We obviously do not have time to delve into this topic, so let’s just say that the Reformation hermeneutic is to follow the plain sense of the text. One must do a great deal of hermeneutical gymnastics to escape the plain meaning of Genesis 1-2. The Westminster Confession and Catechism make it a point of faith that God created the world in the space of six days.
And all very good… God pronounces a positive assessment upon his creative work. You can hear the pleasure in God’s voice as he gazes upon his creation and reflects on his work at the end of the week and announces that it is good… very good.
Question 10 How did God create man?
God created man male and female, after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, with dominion over the creatures. (Gen. 1:26–28, Col. 3:10, Eph. 4:24)
Read Genesis 1:26-31
The first point in the answer is that God created us male and female. Each of us is created fully in the image of God and each of us has equal value and dignity. Why is this important? For us to receive and understand God’s Word, we must be like him in some sense. When he communicates with us, he uses our language, not his. He describes himself in human terms yet warns us that he is not a man.
In what ways are we created after his own image?
- God has a mind.
- We too have a mind with the capacity to think rationally in a cognitive, logical manner.
- God is a volitional being.
- We too are volitional beings having a will and making decisions using our minds.
- We humans have been given a unique ability and responsibility to mirror and reflect the character of God. God created Adam and Eve with all the necessary equipment and ability to reflect the righteousness and holiness of God to the rest of creation. Yet, in our fallen state, we fail to faithfully reflect and mirror his character to the world.
Throughout the Bible, we see that what makes humanity so sacred is not the inherent dignity of human creatures but the value and dignity that God assigns to them. All the dignity, love, justice, and righteousness that we are called to give to our neighbor were not done away with after the fall; we are called to love all people because people are, in some sense, still in the image of God. And our Savior modelled this for us while he walked among us. He was among the crowds of who were clamoring for healing. He touched the untouchable. He spoke with those who were ostracized. He had compassion on the hated. Wherever he went he saw the living, breathing work of God in need of mercy and grace.
Ending prayer
Philippians 2:5–11 (ESV) Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.