06.0.4.1. The Work of God

I. -- THE WORK OF GOD

FIRST then there is a creation of God announced -- then a partial ruin -- then a restoration. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). Of these first "heavens" nothing further is here revealed to us; (Note: Aug. de Gen. ad lit. lib. imperf. c. 3, § 9. We find the same interpretation, Conf. l. xii. 13, 17.) but of the "earth" we read that it was "without form and void," language used by the prophets to describe a state of judgment and utter ruin (Jeremiah 4:23). (Note: The same original words occur in Isaiah 34:11, there translated "confusion and emptiness." Cf. Isaiah 45:18.) In some way not revealed God’s work had been destroyed. God then, in the six days, restores that earth, not made dark by Him, yet now in darkness; and on this ruined earth His work proceeds, till His image is seen, and He can rest there. Thus a creation utterly wrecked is the ground for the six days’ work. On this dark and ruined mass appears what God can do. The nature and state of the mass here worked on -- the means of its change -- the steps of the work -- all speak a lesson not to be forgotten. For its nature, it is "earth;" its state, "without form and void," with "darkness on the face of the great deep." Nevertheless, it is not uncared for. God’s Spirit broods over it: -- "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Genesis 1:2). (Note: Hieron. Q. Heb. So too Ambros. Hex. l. i. c. 8, § 29.) This is yet true of the creature before God’s work begins. Why it is what we see it to be, is another deeper question -- one here left unsolved -- but its state remains a fact. Before God’s word is heard, the creature, which is earthy, is void and formless, with an unknown deep within. Upon this deep all is darkness; yet God’s Spirit is brooding there. The creature is helpless, but God is very near. (Note: See Aug. Conf. l. xiii. c. 12.) This creature begins nothing, continues nothing, perfects nothing. Of its change the agent is throughout the Word of God. Life and power is in the Word. "God said:" -- this is the means, as in the first, so in the new, creation. In both the first move is on God’s part. When nothing else moved, "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." In both each new transformation is the work of the Word, and its extent in exact proportion to the measure in which the creature hears it.

All this is the A B C of Christian experience. Those, in whom the work goes on, know that each succeeding step is simply by the Word. From everlasting all the work had been hid in Christ, the Eternal Word. Then, in time, that which was in the wisdom of God is wrought actually in the creature. Whether light, or a heaven, or fruits, or heavenly lights, or the living creatures, or the man in God’s image, -- each form of light and life, once hid in Christ, is reproduced, manifested in the creature to the Creator’s praise. What was in Christ is step by step accomplished in the earth by the transforming power of the same Word of God. (Note: Aug. de Gen. ad lit. l. i. c. 4.) Without this no change is or can be wrought. No saint can grow or live without the Word. What was in the Word from everlasting, by the Word is wrought in us, just in proportion as we are subject to it. Observe two men, both Christians; one neglects the Word, and can pass day after day, buried in earthly things, without God’s Word or meditation. Compare with him the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates therein day and night. The one is barren; there is no aptness to receive, and nothing is received. The other grows like a tree planted by the rivers. As to the steps of the work, its details must be traced, if we would have anything like a just view of the wonderful stages of regeneration. It may be well, however, to premise a few remarks as to the general character of this amazing work.

I observe then first, that the work was progressive. Not at once, but through six successive days, was the creation perfected. In nature we have first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn: the babe, the child, and then the perfect man. So is it in grace. Days of labour, stage on stage, must intervene, after which those in whom God works may surely look for rest. Further, in spirit as in letter, the work proceeds in all its stages from evening to morning, from growing darkness to growing light, with alternations of either, but ever from night to day, and not from day to night. (Note: "The evening and the morning were the first day." Genesis 1:5. And so of the other days.) The evening and the morning make the day. Though the light has come, darkness still at times seems to threaten to resume its ancient reign. The shades of temptation and the light of faith alternate for awhile, till the day of rest comes, without an evening: the one to remind us again and again of what the creature is in itself; the other, what it is in Christ, the Word of God. (Note: Greg. M. Moral. in Job l. viii. c. 10, § 21. Augustine’s mystic explanation here, that the evening describes what the creature is in itself, the morning what it is in the Word of God, is only another view of the same thing; De Gen. ad lit. l. iv. c. 23, § 40.) Thus from all things wrong does the work advance step by step, till all is "very good." Let none forget this; for some there are who seeing God’s end, to shew His glorious image in the creature, forgetting the steps to this end, bitterly judge themselves, because as yet the image of God is not revealed in them. Let such wait in patience. He who hath begun the good work will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.

Further, each stage, though imperfect, was "good" in God’s eyes. At each step it is repeated, "And God saw that it was good." (Note: In our version, and in the Hebrew, this is omitted in the work of the second day; but it is to be found here in the LXX. There may, however, be a reason for this omission on the second day.) To the awakened soul, feeling its imperfections, this is blessed, that from the first God can find something which He pronounces "good." Not till the sixth day is God’s image seen. Then "behold, it is very good" (Genesis 1:31). But from the first, at every step, "God saw that it was good." At first nothing was changed: waters still reigned everywhere: but the light had broken in. Darkness at least now had a name: its character was perceived; and God saw this, that "it was good."

It is thus with God. When He looks upon us, He ever sees what is of Christ, while a carnal brother perhaps is only seeing the sin and failure in us. It is God-like to see Christ in each other in the first stage of His work. One can scarce fail to see Him when the image of God is come. The thing is to see Him, as God sees Him, in the creature’s change from the first. St. Paul in his Epistles always does this. If he reproves the darkness and calls it by its name, he sees the light also. Every Epistle begins with a recognition of what was good in each Church. The same may be seen in the Epistles to the Apocalyptic Churches. So Barnabas, who "was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost," when he went to Antioch, "saw the grace of God" in the disciples (Acts 11:23-24). Pilate would have seen only their weakness. For a devil can mark our faults, but it needs the grace of God to mark the dawn of grace. And even if the fruit is not mature, if the juice be sour, grace yet will say, "The vine with the tender grape gives a good smell" (Song of Solomon 2:13). (Note: Ambros. Hex. l. ii. c. 5.)

One thing more I notice here. The work of creation has two great parts; the work of the first three days answering to, and yet remarkably differing from, the work of the last three. In each half the order is alike, and the part of creation touched is the same. The difference is, that in the first three days the work is bounding and dividing; in the last three, furnishing and adorning. (Note: Lira, Postill. in loco.) In the first three days a separation takes place between, or is caused by, that which is created of the Lord, and that which is proper to the creature; by which what is natural to the creature is restrained and bound: then the character of each is marked by a name bestowed on each, the creature being thus made to know the thoughts of God. On the first day light shines out, and is divided from the darkness. Thus darkness at once receives a bound. Then the light and darkness have each a name bestowed: -- "God called the light, Day, and the darkness, Night" (Genesis 1:5). On the second, the expanse comes in to bound and divide the waters: then comes its name: -- "God called it, Heaven" (Genesis 1:8). On the third, the earth appears, and is divided from the seas, both at once receiving a name from God in like manner (Genesis 1:10). Thus far the work is dividing and bounding. In the next three days the order is the same, but the work is furnishing. In these days we do not find "God called," but "God made" (Genesis 1:16; Genesis 1:21; Genesis 1:25); this latter half being throughout perfecting.

All this is yet fulfilled in regeneration, and will be apprehended by those who press on to "the perfect man" (Ephesians 4:13). Half the process is bounding; a dividing in the creature between that which is of self and that which is of God. At this stage we are submitting to have what is natural to us restrained, and thus learning to distinguish His work from what is ours in us. At the same time we are taught to call things as God calls them. After this, after the third day, when resurrection power is known, (for on the "third day" here as elsewhere resurrection comes out clearly,) the work is to adorn or perfect rather than to divide and bound. Light, and heaven, and earth now are not only distinguished from their opposites; but each gets furnished with the life or light suited to it. At this stage we perceive "God made," for, as the work proceeds, it is more and more seen that all is done by God. (Note: Ambros. Hexaem. l. i. c. 7.) From the first God had said, "Let there be," and "It was so:" but now it is seen, not only that "He spake and it was done," but further that "He did it." So true is it that advance in grace shews that all things are of God, and that only of His own do we give Him. We shall see this better as we come to each successive step; best of all, if we experimentally know the work within.

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I now turn to the special work of each of the days in order, to trace the progressive steps of the new creation; for though the work has two great parts, first bounding, then adorning, yet each of these has steps, answering to the successive days. In these steps we shall be shewn how all the mind of God, that which was in the Son from everlasting, -- whether light, or a heaven, or fruits, or heavenly lights, or the living creatures, or the man in God’s image, -- each form of light and life, once hid in Christ, is by the Word reproduced and manifested in the creature. The depths here are unfathomed; what is upon the surface will suffice to shew lengths and breadths more than enough for us.