Making Sense of Creation and Fall focuses on biblical-theological themes in Genesis 1–3 in order to enhance our understanding of God’s entire plan for us. This focus on themes complements other works that focus on the reality of the events in Genesis 1–3 (Genesis 1–3 is nonfiction) and on the use of literary artistry in the first chapters of Genesis. This article provides an overview of some of the themes in the book.
Genesis 1–3 supplies history and theology and a created order with thematic depth of meaning. It is a challenge to do justice to all three together.
History in Genesis 1–3
Genesis 1–3 is history, because the events described in Genesis 1–3 actually happened in space and time. Genesis 1–3 is nonfiction, not fiction, as its narrative and literary connection with the rest of Genesis show. The nonfictional character of the descriptions is further confirmed in the rest of the Bible, including Jesus and the whole New Testament. The New Testament consistently treats Genesis as a whole and Genesis 1–3 in particular as having to do with real people (Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac) and real events.
Theology in Genesis 1–3
Genesis 1–3 is theology, because the events described have theological import. God is the creator and sustainer of everything that exists—the whole world. He is the sovereign Lord. He speaks, and it happens.
Attacks
The two sides, the history and the theology, continue to be under attack, partly because people disagree with the Bible’s distinctive Christian worldview, and wish to promote some substitute views of their own. Evangelicals, accordingly, have found themselves having to defend both sides.
Mainstream scientific accounts of the origin of the world, the origin of living things, and the origin of humanity usual carry with them as a starting assumption a naturalistic view of the world. According to this assumption, God, if he exists, is irrelevant to a scientific account. Allegedly, the world just develops on its own, and impersonal, mechanistic laws together with chance are the operative powers in the origin of things. Accordingly, evangelicals find themselves having to respond also to specific mainstream scientific claims about origins.
Theological Meanings in the Created Order
In the course of defending the message of Genesis 1–3, much time has to be devoted to external attacks. The danger is that one then neglects to devote much attention to biblical-theological themes that link Genesis 1–3 forward to the rest of Scripture. The thematic connections show that God has made a created order with depth of meaning.
Consider an example. God created plants on the third day:
And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. (1:11)
God did create the variety of plants. He did it, in contrast to the claim that the plants came from a mindless combination of impersonal law and chance. And that he did it shows us theology: God has his boundless power as creator; God still displays his power in governing the plants today.
Setting aside disputes over creation, Vern Poythress unpacks the theological meaning of God’s acts of creation and his existing creation order. Learn to see the transcendent meaning in the material world.
Gratitude
But is there more? There is. For one thing, the fact of God’s work should stimulate thanksgiving today. All the plant products that we enjoy are gifts of his bounty. The temptation may be to underplay this truth, because it can be distorted by critics of Genesis. They may say that the purpose of Genesis 1:11 is to create a general mood of gratitude towards God, and so, they say falsely, it does not matter whether the events actually happened way back then. The purpose is “theological” and not historical, they say.
As a part of gratitude, it is worthwhile celebrating the abundance of God’s gifts in the created order. God did not merely create a minimum level of plants, for a minimal sustenance of human beings. We do not have to feed day after day on a tasteless gruel of barley. Genesis 2:9 elaborates:
And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.
Wisdom
The Genesis 1–2 as a whole show us the wisdom of God in creating a coherent order that in its total effect provides a wonderful home for humanity. Wisdom belongs to God. And that is a theme taken up later in the Bible. Like the theme of the creation of plants, it can be distorted. Critics may claim that the point of Genesis 1–2 is to display the wisdom of God and to encourage human beings to seek wisdom; and therefore, allegedly, it does not matter whether the events happened. Theology is made to compete with history, rather than the two working together, each to illustrate the other.
Fruitfulness
Genesis 1:11 concerning the plants also introduces the theme of reproduction and the theme of fruitfulness. The plants reproduce “according to their kinds,” as Genesis 1 says repeatedly concerning both plants and animals. This reproduction is a kind of fruitfulness. The plants and the animals multiply, as Genesis 1:22 says concerning the sea creatures and the flying creatures: “And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” God is not only bountiful in creating an initial multitude of kinds of plants animals. He is exceedingly bountiful in the on-going bounty of reproduction and multiplication. The multiplication in the plant and the animal world is then taken up in the human world: “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, …” (1:28).
Origin of Fruitfulness in God
Further reflection on the theological theme of multiplication shows that it has an origin in God himself. How? God made man in his image (1:26–27). Adam imitates God in Genesis 5:3 when he has a son Seth in his image: “When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. In Colossians 1:15 we learn of a deeper ground for the creation of Adam. God has his Son, who is eternally “the image of the invisible God.” This truth is asserted in the context of creation (1:15–17), not only the context of redemption (1:18–20). So it does not apply only to the incarnate Son, who indeed displays the image of God (2 Cor. 4:4). The archetype, the original, is God. God has as archetypal image, namely the second person of the Trinity, who is forever the divine image of the divine. The creation of man imitates this pattern. It is an ectype, a derivative or reflection from the archetype. The archetype is the relation of the Original to its Image within the Trinity.
The fruitfulness in reproduction among plants and animals is in turn a kind of reflection or imitation of the fruitfulness that belongs to humanity, as humanity is to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28). God reflects his own divine characteristics at the level of the creature, in humanity and then also in plants and animals. This reflection and display confirms the general principle of Romans 1:20–21:
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him.
Meaning is built into plants and animals. They show the glory of God. They display, on a creaturely level, a reflection of “his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature” (1:20).
It is not surprising, then, that Jesus can use illustrations from the plant kingdom to illustrate by analogy truths about the kingdom of God. Parables about growth of plants illustrate the growth of the kingdom of God. (Matt. 13:1–33) A comparison with a vine illustrates the vitality of union with Christ (John 15:1–8).
Extending to Genesis 1–3
In like manner, Genesis 1–3, in verse after verse, introduce themes about God and his ways. Reading Genesis 1–3 with understanding includes not only appreciating that the events are real (history), not only appreciating that God is sovereign (theology), but appreciating how God has built the world to display reflections of who he is.