Let There Be . . .

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

In the beginning, God created the world with words. “Let there be . . .” unleashed unbounded potential as God painted the canvas of creation. Everything around us is a result of God’s creativity—worms burrowing in the soil, lavender skies blanketing a sunrise, kaleidoscope colors tinting leaves. Genesis 1 tells us that God said, God saw, God called, God made, and God blessed—all with his life-giving words.

But God didn’t end his masterpiece with the massive elephant weighing up to 15,000 pounds. He didn’t stop after designing the ladybug, whose spots protect it from predators. He didn’t finish after forming the garden snail, whose mouth contains more than 10,000 microscopic teeth.

The crowning glory of creation was the formation of man and woman in his own image (see Genesis 1:26). Taking dust from the ground, God formed the first man, Adam. He breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, filling Adam’s lungs with oxygen. Later, he took a rib from Adam’s side and fashioned a wife for him. The pair delighted in each other, enjoying perfect unity with God in the Garden: “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).

I often find myself wishing the story stopped there, with Adam and Eve enjoying a life free from entanglement to shame, walking with their Maker in the cool of the day in an untarnished home. But the serpent showed up like a thief, with cunning words of deception. Adam and Eve believed the serpent and ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Their disobedience robbed God’s first Garden of innocence. Where God declared, “Let there be” light and life, Satan brought death with his question “Did God really say?” (Genesis 3:1, NIV).

Did God’s Word lose its power when Satan sowed seeds of doubt in the hearts of Adam and Eve? Did God’s Word change after their eyes were opened to their nakedness and they wrapped themselves in fig leaves? No. The same God who created with words is the same God who called Adam and Eve out of hiding and then spoke the first gospel promise: a Savior would come through the offspring of a woman, and he would crush the serpent, Satan, finally and forever (see Genesis 3:15).

The Word of God did not lose its power when sin darkened the hearts of Adam and Eve. Hebrews 4:12 describes the Word of God as living and active—pulsing with abundant life, breathing eternal hope into our souls, cutting to the core of our inmost being. The words of Satan seek to destroy; the Words of God always bring life (see John 10:10).

Every verse of Scripture still speaks “let there be” through Christ, the Word (see John 1:1) who made everything.

Word before World God’s Word cuts to the core of our souls, creates life within us, and crushes the schemes of Satan.

Grow in Grace How has Satan tempted you to believe God’s Word has lost its power? Preach this truth to your heart: the Savior has come, proving that God’s Word is fully true.