Grace in Creation: Seeing Grace in Genesis 1–3
Christian theology has traditionally defined grace as being the unearned and undeserved love of God, freely given by God to humankind and received by humankind based not on any work it has done. That grace can be found in the New Testament is an issue of no debate, for the fourth Gospel declares, “The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (Jn. 1:17). But the assertion that there is grace throughout the Old Testament is one that still generates considerable debate within certain Christian communities and theological circles. There still remains, among some, a Marconian-like view of Sacred Scripture, whereby it is believed that the God of the Old Testament is harsh and judgmental, but that the God of the New Testament—represented in the Person of Jesus Christ—is loving, compassionate, and forgiving. This view contributes to the belief that the Old Testament is all law and the New Testament is all grace, there being no presence of the other within the other. But if Christianity asserts that Jesus is truly God, with the New Testament proclaiming grace as having come through Him, then that must mean that not only was Jesus present at the world’s very beginning, but that grace, in addition to the law, through the presence of God, can be seen not only throughout the New Testament, but throughout the Old Testament, as well. And where in the Old Testament do we first see God’s manifestation of grace? From the very beginning in Genesis!
In the creation accounts of Genesis 1 and 2—the very beginning of all that is—we see the first glimpse of God’s grace. The light; the sky; all the dry land, vegetation, and water; the galaxies; all living creatures, both within the water and above the ground; and humankind—God made them all simply out of the fact that God wanted to. Without these things, God could have done just as well. With or without them, God is still God in God’s entire splendor. But in these two chapters is introduced a God that has created the world, not out of necessity, but of God’s own gracious will, unearned and undeserved. In this first meeting of God in Sacred Scripture, we learn a very important fact—God is relational. Through creation, God proclaims God’s gracious nature and shows that although God could be alone, God chooses and desires not to be.
Why did God create the world? So that God could share God’s goodness with all things and all people. “God saw everything that He had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31a). Every living thing and living person exists out of God’s initiative: “And God said…and it was so.” Towards the end of Genesis 1, specifically to humankind, God gave oversight over the created earth: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth” (Gen. 1:28). Through God’s graceful nature, God invited humankind to take an active role with God in the world’s continual creation. It was an action meant to draw us closer into relationship with God. By taking an active part in preserving the created order, we are given an allowance to join with God in the propagation of God’s goodness. God’s command to humankind in Genesis 1 represents a grace-filled relationship, whereby God and humankind—male and female, created in God’s image—are joined together in divine harmony.
When God first created humankind, there was only one law in place: “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Gen. 2:16–17). The most important distinction to note is that when humanity rebelled against God and betrayed God’s trust in Genesis 3, although God pronounced judgment, God also bestowed mercy. By bestowing mercy, God did not withhold God’s grace from God’s creation. “Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken” (Gen. 3:23). The provision for humanity’s existence after its expulsion from the garden was the unearned and undeserved gift that God gave of God’s own accord. God made this choice out of God’s great love for us.
God’s choice of grace and redemption was also made evident through God’s judgment upon the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel” (Gen. 3:15). Through humankind’s deceit by the serpent, sin entered into God’s creation. What was ordered became disordered, what was connected became separated, but God declared that it would not remain so forever. This was the protoevangelium—the first Gospel—God’s declaration of humankind’s future reconciliation through One who would take upon Himself the punishment that it so rightfully deserved. This Savior to come—Jesus Christ—would be sent “so that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death…the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death” (Heb. 2:14–15). In choosing to send God’s Son to Earth to be the full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice for the atonement of the entire human race, God already bestowed God’s grace upon humanity before its conscious realization of the fact. Through the precious death and mighty Resurrection of Jesus Christ, all of Satan’s powers and principalities and his dominion over humankind will come to an end. Through Jesus Christ, all that God has created will be made new.
It must, therefore, be a reasonable conclusion to state that in addition to law, God does manifest God’s grace in the Old Testament. Genesis 1–3 is the crucial beginning to the biblical assertion that through God’s presence, God loves all that God has created and constantly seeks to be in relationship with it. God, through God’s creation, conveys God’s grace. All that we are, all that we have, all that there is, and all that God has declared us to be in God’s Son Jesus testify, at all times, to God’s love and mercy for us. Thanks be to God for God’s grace given to us through God’s creation.
