Thoughts on the
Second London Baptist Confession
Chapter 4: Of Creation
By Brian Pendleton
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” - Genesis 1:1 (LSB)
When did creation take place? When did the world come into existence? In words echoing Genesis 1:1 the confession tells us “In the beginning”. Matter is not eternal, it was created. Who created ‘the world, and all things therein’? God ‘created the heavens and the earth.’ All three persons of the Trinity took part in creation: God the Father, "yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him" (1 Corinthians 8:6a), God the Son, “. . .in these last days spoke to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds. . .” (Hebrews 1:2), and God the Holy Spirit, “ The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” (Job 33:4). Notice how the confession says that, ‘it pleased God’ to make the world. It wasn’t a drudgery for Him to bring the world into existence.
God alone is the Creator of all things, “Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, 'I, Yahweh, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself And spreading out the earth all alone. . .'" (Isaiah 44:24 see also Isaiah 45:12). He didn’t have any help and He didn’t need any help. Why then did He make all things? For what end did God make creation? “for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness” as the Psalmist says, “The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And the expanse is declaring the work of His hands.” (Psalm 19:1) and as Paul writes, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, both His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”(Romans 1:20). The primarily purpose then is to manifest His Own Glory. There was a secondary end as well and that was for the good of mankind (see Genesis 1:14-18; 28-30). How long did creation take? “in the space of six days”. The confession teaches what the Bible teaches on the length of creation (Genesis 1:31-2:2; Exodus 20:11; 31:15-17). And the writers and signers of the confession would have understood a day to be a literal 24 hour period.
God created mankind. Humanity was not the result of a myriad mutations over millions of year, but the created act of the living God. God made mankind in His own image and gave them souls. Knowledge (Col 3:10), Righteousness & Holiness (Eph 4:24) belong to the essence of what is means to be made in His image. Both male and female are made in God’s image, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”(Genesis 1:27). One of the implications of being made in God’s image is that our fist parents had God’s moral law written upon their hearts. They would have know it was wrong to murder, lie, steal, give worship to another, make idols etc. Man was made from the dust of the ground and woman was made from the rib of man. The first woman was made out of more noble material than the first man. I love what John Gill says about the significance of women being made from the rib of man, “...to signify that she should be by his side, a companion of him, and from a part near his heart, and under his arm, to show that she should be the object of his love and affection, and be always under his care and protection: and thus being “flesh of his flesh”, as he himself owned, it became him to nourish and cherish her as his own flesh.”
God made a covenant with our first parents. In Genesis 2:4 Moses goes from using God (Elohim) and uses a compound name LORD God (YHWH-Elohim). This name is used some 20x through to the end of Genesis chapter 3. LORD (YHWH) is the covenant name of God. As Elohim speaks to God’s relationships with His creation at large, YHWH represents God in “His special relationship to the chosen people, as revealing Himself to them, their guardian and object of their worship.” (p. 360 The New Unger’s Bible Dictionary). Throughout Genesis 2 we see other elements of covenant language as well. We see Divine imposition (2:8, 15), a conditional element ( 2:16-17), penalty for disobedience (2:17) and promise of reward (2:9). Later revelation confirms his covenant when in Hosea 6:7 we read, “But like Adam they have transgressed the covenant; There they have dealt treacherously against Me.”