The London Baptist Confession of Faith | Exposition of Chapter 4

Dave Chanski

Chapter 4: The Creator

The confession begins this chapter on the creation by focusing first, not on the creation itself, but on the One who created it. The confession explains that the Creator of all things is God–“God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” Each of the three Persons of the Trinity had a role in creating the universe. Notice that the Scriptures not only teach that God the Father created the world, but that He created the world through His Son: Hebrews 1:2 says that God “has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds.” Similarly, in John 1:2-3 we read of the Son that “He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” The Son of God was the Agent of the Father in the work of creation. He was directly involved, along with the Father, in creating the world.

The same thing may be said of the Holy Spirit. In Genesis 1:1-2, we are told that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” This indicates that the third Person of the Trinity had a role in creation also. Therefore, Job could say, “By His Spirit He adorned the heavens; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent” (Job 26:13). And Elihu could say, “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life” (Job 33:4). The Creator of all things is God–Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

THE PURPOSE OF CREATION

The confession immediately tells us the reason God made all things. He did not make the universe especially for man. He made it “for the manifestation of the glory of his eternal power, wisdom, and goodness.” That is, He made it to bring glory to Himself. When we consider that God called all things into being out of nothing, and when we consider the vast size of the universe and how large the sun and stars are, and when we behold the great power of the winds and the oceans, we realize that the One who made them has exceedingly great power. Paul wrote, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead” (Romans 1:20). Jeremiah wrote, “He has made the earth by His power” (Jeremiah 10:12). We are led to humbly adore and worship such an almighty God.

Further, when we consider how the stars and the planets of our own solar system move in perfect harmony, and when we see how the human body works, or when we behold the intricate design of a bird’s feather, we must marvel at God’s great wisdom. Jeremiah said, “He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens at His discretion” (Jeremiah 10:12). We are led to say what the psalmist said: “O Lord, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions” (Psalm 104:24). God made the world full of glory in order that we would praise Him, the Lord of glory. He did not make the world so that we might bow down and worship the creation itself. To worship the creation, or to worship any mere creature, is an abomination before God (see Romans 1:20-25). But God’s creation does move us to glorify the blessed Creator of all things. “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen” (Romans 11:36).

CREATION

When the confession says that God created or made the world, it is asserting that He made it out of nothing. He did not simply take matter that always existed and form it into the heavens and planets and creatures of the earth in the way that a potter “creates” a bowl or vase out of clay. God even made the “clay,” and He made it out of nothing. Paul referred to God’s creating all things out of nothing in Romans 4:17 when he said that God “gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.” The universe and the matter that compose it did not exist. God spoke, and they came into being. As Scripture says, “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible” (Hebrews 11:3). Or again, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast” (Psalm 33:6, 8, 9). (Of course, the Bible tells us that God made animals and man out of the ground, but it is God who called the earth itself into being.)

The Bible also teaches, in the words of the confession, that God has created everything in the universe. It says He “made the world, and all things therein, whether visible or invisible.” This means that He created all that is in heaven above, all that is on the earth, and all that is in the sea. He has made man’s body and his soul. He has made elephants, and He has made angels. Paul said, while preaching in Athens, that God “made the world and everything in it” (Acts 17:24). God alone has created. There is no other God with whom He shares the work of creation. He does not share the glory for His work of creation with any other. “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16).

THE TIME OF CREATION

The confession says two things about the time of creation. First, it echoes the statement of Scripture that God performed the work of creation “in the beginning” (Genesis 1:1). He created the universe in the beginning of time. Various philosophers and theologians through the centuries have speculated that matter has existed eternally or that God could have created the world from eternity. However, this is contrary to both logic and the Scripture. A creature is by definition a product of the creating power of God. If a creature existed from eternity, it would have to have a being before it was brought into being. The idea is absurd. As the Scripture says, “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands” (Hebrews 1:10).

The second assertion about the time of creation is that God created the world “in the space of six days.” Since the days of Charles Darwin and the adoption by most of the world of the theory of evolution, many scientists and theologians have asserted that the world could not have been created by God in six twenty-four hour days. Some simply dismiss the Bible’s account as myth or legend. Others assert that we ought to understand each of the six “days” to refer to a much longer period of time–an epoch. There have been good Reformed theologians and writers who have held that the days mentioned in Genesis 1 are not literal twenty-four hour days. We need not cave in to the pressure of these arguments to give up the doctrine of six twenty-four hour days of creation, however. We must not allow “science” to cause us to call into question the truthfulness or authority of the words of the Bible. Also, we must never doubt for a moment that God has the ability to create in six days. God has the ability to create the universe in six hours–or six seconds if He pleases.

Two considerations should help us to resist giving in to unbelieving arguments at this point. First, however “old” scientists may tell us the earth is, we must remember that it is indisputable that God has created things with an “apparent age” that is greater than the actual age of the creatures themselves. This is obviously true of Adam. When he was one day old, he did not have the appearance of a one day old infant, but he appeared to be a fully grown man. Second, scientists’ methods of determining the age of elements in the earth assume that the earth’s process of “aging” has occurred at a uniform rate for centuries and millennia. They are unwilling to take into account the tremendous impact and upheaval of God’s acts of creation itself and of the worldwide flood.

Such willful unbelief is predicted by the apostle Peter in his second epistle:

“Scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.’ For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water.”

THE GOODNESS OF CREATION

When God had created all things, He looked upon them and pronounced them good. We read in Genesis 1:31, “Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” They existed as God created them and as He intended for them to be. Each creature was an excellent model of what its kind of creature should be. Even the man and the woman were morally upright, without any sin.

MAN, THE CROWN OF CREATION

The second paragraph of this chapter of the confession addresses what we may call the crown of God’s creation, man. There are several things about the way in which the Bible reports the creation of man that indicate that man is a unique creature of God and is in fact the highest point of all of His created works.

First of all, man is the last of the creatures God made. He saved the best for last, as we say. The confession reminds us of this when it begins this paragraph with the words, “After God had made all other creatures, He created man.” It was on the sixth day, the last of the days of creation, and it was after God had already created the animals (Genesis 1:24-27). Also, the way in which God created man was very distinct and personal. Moses records for us, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7).

When God breathed into Adam the breath of life, man became a “living being” or a “living soul.” While animals have brains and are therefore capable of thinking at some level, they do not have the reasonable souls that men have. Men alone can understand God and come to know Him and communicate with Him intelligently and carry on fellowship with Him.

Furthermore, men alone have souls that will live forever. Animals die, and they cease to exist. But men continue to exist because God has made their souls, or spirits, to live beyond this life on this earth. The preacher wrote in Ecclesiastes 12:7, that when man dies, “Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.” This is why Jesus could say to the thief on the cross, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). Man has been given a “reasonable and immortal soul,” as the confession says. Thus, he is able to fellowship with God in this life on this earth, and in heaven when he dies, and for all ages in the coming kingdom of God in the new heavens and new earth. As the confession says, the fact that man has this “reasonable and immortal soul” renders him “fit unto that life to God for which [he was] created.”

MALE AND FEMALE

Genesis 1:27 states that God made man male and female. A fuller account of the creation of the first man and the first woman is given in chapter 2 of Genesis. There we see that God created man out of the dust of the ground (verse 7) and woman out of a rib taken from the man’s side (verses 20-23). Both the man and the woman possess the noble nature of the image of God, the crown of creation. Nevertheless, we have the ground laid in the book of Genesis for the Bible’s teaching that the man is the head of the woman. Notice how the apostle Paul points back to the creation of the first man and woman to establish the authority of the man over the woman.

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But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. . . . For man is not from woman, but woman from man. Nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man (1 Corinthians 11:3, 8-9).

Also,

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Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve (1 Timothy 2:11-13).

This does not mean that man is a superior being to the woman. Both are the image of God (Genesis 1:27). However, even in the order and in the manner in which He created them, God has established that the man has authority over the woman in the home and in the church.

BODY AND SOUL

The confession says that God made the man and the woman “with reasonable and immortal souls.” Man’s soul is immortal because God has determined that every man will exist forever in either the state of glory or the state of condemnation and punishment (see chapters 31 and 32). As the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Man is not simply a body. But neither is man simply a soul, who happens to have a body. Man is a body and soul being. As the account of the creation of the man shows, the man did not begin to exist as a man, a living being, until the body and soul were joined by the direct act of God (Genesis 2:7). Though we may say that man’s soul is his more “noble” part, which indeed sets him apart from the animals, yet we cannot depreciate the body. 1) The Scripture tells us that our bodies, along with our souls, are the objects of God’s salvation (Romans 8:23). 2) Scripture also tells us that our bodies, as well as our souls, enjoy communion with Christ (1 Corinthians 6:13, 15). 3) Furthermore, the Bible also calls our bodies the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19). God shows us that He thinks very highly of man’s body; we ought to do the same.

The question might be raised, Why does the confession only mention two elements that make up man (body and soul) rather than three (body, soul and spirit)? The answer is that the Bible teaches that man is made up of only two parts or elements. Careful study of the Bible will reveal that the words “soul” and “spirit” are used to refer to the same immaterial part of man’s being. Many passages besides Genesis 2:7 indicate that man is a “two-part” being and not a “three-part” being. (For example, Ecclesiastes 12:7; Daniel 7:15; Matthew 10:28; Acts 2:31; 1 Corinthians 7:34; James 2:26).

THE IMAGE OF GOD

If we could sum up all the things that make man different from the rest of created beings-even including the angels-and explain just who and what man really is, we would use the term “image of God.” The confession echoes the Bible when it says that man is “made after the image of God.” We read in Genesis 1:26-27, “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” The best way to understand this is to say that man himself is the image of God. Just as a photograph of a person is an image or likeness of that person, so man is an image or likeness of God. He is a visible representation of God; a living, visible representation. Only man is not an image in the sense that we should bow down to him the way that the idolatrous Israelites bowed down to images of false gods. Man is an image which God has made to reveal something about Himself to us. Therefore, just as all creation was made to bring glory to God, so was man made to bring glory to God. But as God’s image, man brings glory to God in a special way. We learn things about God by looking at man that we do not learn by looking at the rest of creation.

One of the ways that man is the image of God is that he is a moral being. Animals are not moral creatures, but man is. Animals cannot do right and wrong. Man, however, can. He is capable of being righteous and holy and good. Since the fall (see chapter 6 of the confession), man is unable to be holy, righteous or good unless God gives him a new heart. But at the beginning, God made man upright and holy. As the confession says, man was “made after the image of God, in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness.” Man was created without sin. “God made man upright,” says Ecclesiastes 7:29. As a holy creature and the image of God, man bore witness to the fact that God is holy. Notice Ephesians 4:24: “Put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

However, now that man has fallen into sin, the question arises whether he is still the image of God. Some Christians answer, “No.” But the Bible answers, “Yes.” Even sinful fallen man is still the image of God. How can this be? First of all, notice that the Bible does refer to fallen man as God’s image. James wrote in James 3:9 regarding the tongue, “With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.” The Greek word for “similitude” is the same word used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament for “likeness” in Genesis 1:26. James is saying that when we use our tongues to curse men, we are cursing those who are the image of God. That is one of the reasons why it is such a sinful thing to do. So even sinful men, who are not “righteous and holy,” are the image of God. How do we explain this? When God made man, it was as if He made a road sign. That sign gave an accurate explanation of who God is. But when man fell into sin, it was as though the sign was run over by a truck. Now the sign is bent and broken. The paint has worn off, and dirt covers much of it. The sign no longer helps travelers to find their way as it once did. Yet it is still a sign-even though it is now damaged and defective! In the same way, man is still the image of God, even though he no longer gives an accurate picture of what God is like. Thanks be to God that in Jesus Christ He restores man so that he once again can give out accurate information about God. As Paul says in Colossians 3:10, Christians “have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.”

One great application of the fact that God has made man to be His very image is that man is a most noble creature indeed. Nothing greater could be said of a creature than that he is the image and likeness of God. Therefore, we ought to remember 1) that we exist first and foremost to bring glory to God, and 2) that there is meaning and purpose to our lives.

MAN’S MORAL CHARACTER

Man’s moral character is one of the things that makes him like God. He would not be the “image of God” if he were not a moral being. The confession mentions a number of characteristics about man’s moral character in the last half of the second paragraph. First, man was created as morally good. He was created “in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness.” As mentioned already, “God made man upright” (Ecclesiastes 7:29). However, we must not think that man was equal to God. While man truly possessed knowledge and righteousness and holiness, his knowledge and righteousness and holiness were limited. Only God has perfect knowledge and righteousness and holiness. For example, the Scripture makes clear that man’s knowledge was limited, even before the fall, when God said in Genesis 3:22, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil.” Man did not “know good and evil” before he sinned. God did know “good and evil”, even though God had that knowledge without ever having sinned. Similarly, though Adam was perfect in righteousness in the sense that he had no sin, yet his righteousness and holiness were not perfect in the sense that God’s are. For God’s righteousness and holiness are without limit. However, man, as a mere creature, is limited, or finite. Consider that even the angels in heaven are limited in their holiness, even though they have no sin. We are told in Isaiah 6:2-3 of the seraphim who were in God’s presence that “each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” Notice that even these sinless creatures are, in a sense, “blinded” and “humbled” before the blazing holiness of God.

One of the reasons that man is a moral character is the moral “compass” that God has placed within him. The confession says that Adam and Eve had “the law of God written in their hearts.” This statement is based on Romans 2:14-15, in which Paul says, “for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things of the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them).” This was true of Adam. It is true of everyone born into the world. Even men who are never exposed to the Bible and the Ten Commandments have an indelible impression of what is right and wrong stamped on their very being, because God has stamped it upon him. Therefore, even when wicked men who have never heard the gospel do what is wrong, they have a sense within them that they have sinned. The “law within them” tells them so, and their conscience says “Amen!” to it.

Another thing regarding man’s moral character is that God created him with the ability to keep His law. When Adam was created, he had the “power to fulfil” God’s law. He had never sinned, and he was able to not sin. He did not have a corrupt nature which would have led him to sin in thought and deed and word. (In this way, he had an advantage which even Christians do not have in this life. For Christians still have sin remaining in them, which results in our sinning in thought and deed and word [see chapter 6, paragraph 5].)

Although it was a great blessing that Adam and Eve had the ability not to sin, yet it was not impossible for them to fall into sin. There was no guarantee that he would remain in his sinless state. The confession explains it in these words, “and [they were] yet under a possibility of transgressing, being left to the liberty of their own will, which was subject to change.” The proof of this is the fact that they did eventually sin. Scripture records that “when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate” (Genesis 3:6). As the preacher reflected in Ecclesiastes 7:29, “Truly, this only I have found: That God made man upright, But they have sought out many schemes.” Although we cannot explain how a sinless being could fall into sin, or even be tempted to sin, the sad fact is that Adam did fall into sin and lost his innocence when he ate the forbidden fruit.

GOD’S SPECIAL COMMAND

The topic of the final paragraph of this chapter of the confession is the special command which God gave to Adam and Eve in the garden. The confession reads, “Besides the law written in their hearts, they received a command not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” This statement recognizes that Adam and Eve were required by God to keep all His holy will. As we saw already, they had His law “written in their hearts.” But here was an additional command, which God gave only to our first parents. The Bible records God’s giving of this command to Adam in Genesis 2:16-17: “And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 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 surely die.” No other people have ever been required to keep this command. It was also a unique command, because God made it a “test” for Adam. Obedience to this command constituted a test of Adam’s love and obedience to God. Adam owed complete obedience to God, that is obedience to all of His commandments. Yet God was pleased to make the crucial test of his love and obedience whether he would eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is not an unusual way for God to deal with His servants. He gave Abraham a special test in Genesis 22 when He required him to offer up his son Isaac. Although God could have weighed the entirety of Abraham’s life and the attitude of his heart, he was pleased to test him by his obedience to this one command. In a similar way, God tested Jesus Christ. God required obedience of Christ at every point in His life, but it was the “cup” which He drank when He went to the cross that God made a concentrated and intensified trial for our Lord.

The confession explains that while our first parents kept this special command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “they were happy in their communion with God, and had dominion over the creatures.” The Scripture records in Genesis 1:26-28 that God created man with dominion over the creatures:

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Here is another way in which man’s superiority over the rest of the creatures is seen-he was given authority over them. This is also another way in which we see that man is the image of God. God is King and Ruler over all things; man is made ruler over all the other creatures on earth.

He is God’s “vice-regent” and “representative” to the creatures. Man’s relationship to the creatures is another example of how man remained God’s image even after the fall. Before the fall, there was no hostility or fear in the relationship between man and the animals. After man fell into sin, there was a change. We read in Genesis 9:1-3,

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So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs.”

After the fall, the relationship between man and the animals changed. Noah was told that, after the flood, men were welcome to eat the flesh of animals. Also, God implanted a fear of man in the animals, likely as a means of self-preservation for them (Genesis 9:2). So, man is still to exercise dominion over the creatures, even though man’s sin has brought about a change in his relationship to the animals.

Notice two applications of the Bible’s teaching that man has dominion over the creatures. First, the animals are the “servants” of man. God provides them for us as food. They help us in work (Proverbs 14:4).

They provide useful products, such as clothing (Genesis 3:21). Nevertheless, this does not give us a right to abuse or misuse the animals, for as Proverbs 12:10 says, “A righteous man regards the life of his animal.” Secondly, if we understand that man has dominion over the animals, it will help to show the foolishness of any kind of worship of the animals. It is not only foolish to worship animals because they are they are mere creatures, but also because they are creatures which God has told us to govern. We are not to be governed by them. Those who worship animals demonstrate the truth of the word of God, which says,

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Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man-and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever (Romans 1:22-25).

Finally, note that the confession says that while Adam and Eve kept this special command, “they were happy in their communion with God.” They had a very blessed relationship of love and communion with God. It was a very open, honest relationship. This blessed relationship continued as long as they remained obedient to God. Their sin, however, changed everything (see chapter 6).

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