Old School - Creation and Fall

Old School

Our Path This Summer

1. Introduce Old Testament Literature
2. Redemptive Unfoldin
3. Seeing Jesus through the Old Testament

He Gave us Stories….

Why Stories?

Two Great Teachings of the Bible – Creation and Fall

Genesis 1 and 2 hold the true accounting of creation and all THAT God did...but really make no effort at all to explain HOW God did all THAT.

It addresses fundamental human issues:

1. Who is God?
2. Who are we?
3. What the world is?
4. What is right with us? What is wrong with us?
5.  What is right with me? What is wrong with me?

Where to Begin? With God

Genesis 1:1 - In the Beginning God created and the heavens and the earth...

Martin Lloyd Jones, a 20^th Century Medical Doctor who became a preacher, had this to say with how the Bible addresses human beings…rather than starting with US, the Bible unashamedly starts with GOD. 

Is everything that exists the result of the activity of God, or is there some blind, impersonal force or energy behind everything? Am I face to face with a Being and a Person? Or am I the victim of blind chance, of some accidental meeting of atoms or powers that are without personality, without mind, without reason, without understanding? Is it all blind, or is it all personal?

You must come to that.  The diagnosis depends essentially upon that.  So the Bible, there at the very beginning, starts with that.  But the modern panaceas never do that, do they? The psychologist starts with you and ends with you, and so do all the others. They suggest to you and do certain things to you. They try to bring forces and factors to play upon you. And it is YOU the whole time. That is why the world is as it is.  But you cannot understand life, says the Bible, unless you realize that there, at the back of everything, before everything, is God.

Martin Lloyd Jones, The Gospel in Genesis, p 13. 

Creation unfolding

• Shows God Creating and Assigning functions to his creation – some things for food, some things for lighting the night and the day
• The Scope of what God Made – God made all things, God created them GOOD, this is repeated in Genesis 1.
• The narrative moves to the creation of humanity

Creation of Humanity 1:26-28

Image of God – we resemble God, to function with responsibility as representative rulers on the earth, in community with God and one another…

Man is a creature, because he is made by God. But he is a unique creature, because he is made like God.

Edmund Clowney, The Unfolding Mystery, p19

Some Implications of Creation

Creation —> God's Ownership

Creation —> Our Responsibility to God as Creatures

• Environment

• Human Rights

• Animal Rights

• Moral Responsibility

Creation —> Creation Serves God's Purposes

Deception and Depravity

Genesis 3

The Fall o f Humanity and the Redemption of God

Community Meditation Questions

• Discuss the three implications of the doctrine of Creation:

• Creation —> God’s Ownership of All Things
• Creation —> Our Responsibility to God
• Creation —> God’s Purposes for Creation and People

• How are things like human rights, environmental stewardship and well treatment of animals more consistent with the idea of creation rather than random, naturalistic evolution?
• When looking at human beings do you tend to focus on their value as made in God’s image or their depravity due to sin?  Why are BOTH essential to understanding who we are?
• Do you see yourself as wicked/treasonous enough for hell? How amazing is God’s forgiveness and grace in light of our rebellion?
• The gospel saves sinners and rebels, to whom are we extending gospel hope to in our lives?