Back to Genesis
March 5, 2026 | by: Dale Thiele | 0 Comments
Posted in: Pastoral Encouragement
This Sunday at Oak Hills we will return to our sermon series on the book of Genesis. I want to take this opportunity to refresh our memory of the value of an in-depth study of the first book of the Bible.
I titled this series “Foundations for Life.” In the book of Genesis, we learn essential truths about God, his covenant, humanity, and the world, upon which we can and should build our lives. Genesis gives us a blueprint for God’s design for work, marriage, sexuality, morality, salvation, and righteous living with a holy God. Since Genesis is all about the beginnings of many of these things, we find God’s original intentions. This is why an in-depth study of Genesis is so valuable. It is not merely a book of interesting stories of bygone people; it provides clear direction for how we should live today.
Let me remind us of some of things we have learned so far from Genesis.
- God is the Creator of All Things. The Apostles’ Creed starts by stating, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth.” Genesis describes this statement of truth. God created all things out of nothing. He spoke the sun and moon and earth and trees and all living creatures into existence. By his actions, he endowed words with creative power that continue in our use of words. As Creator, God is the Sovereign king over all creation. All things exist for his glory.
- God Designed Humanity & Marriage. We learn in Genesis 1:26 that God made man in his image, male and female he created them. Humanity is unique in creation as carrying the image of God. We are like him in righteousness and holiness and dominion. We come to understand our identity as humans only in relation to God as our creator. And he also designed marriage to be a monogamous, complementarian relationship between a man and a woman. When we look away from God for our sense of identity or our understanding of human sexuality and marriage, we do not find the blessing God has for us.
- The Biggest Problem in this World is Sin. The Fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 gives us a clear understanding of what is wrong with this world. Mankind has been corrupted by sin. Sin is the rebellion against God’s will and plunges all people into an estate of death, or estrangement from God. Poverty, hunger, unemployment, global conflicts, poor education, and more are all just symptoms of this deeper problem. We live in a world that has been cursed because of sin. Therefore our greatest need is to be rescued from our sin.
- God’s Promise to Rescue. Right in the middle of God pronouncing the curse due to sin, he provides the first declaration of the gospel. In Genesis 3:15 he promises that the descendent of the woman would crush the head of the serpent and thus rescue us from the tyranny of sin and the curse. Those who have hoped in God have looked for this descendent ever since Adam and Eve. In fact, in several of the stories and families of Genesis, people expressed hope that they had already received this promised descendent. But God was still preparing his people, and the world, for the coming of the promised one.
- God Commits to his People Through Covenant. A covenant is bond between two parties that contains promises for keeping and penalties for breaking the covenant. We see a clear picture of God’s covenant with Abraham and his offspring in Genesis 15. In a ceremony called “cutting the covenant,” God directs Abraham to slaughter animals and arrange them on the ground. Normally both parties would then walk in between the animals while speaking the words of the covenant promises. This walk symbolizes the penalty each party would suffer for breaking the covenant. In Genesis 15, however, only God, symbolically as a smoking pot, walks through the animals. The beauty of this is that only God carries the burden to fulfill the covenant promises. This is the foundation for our salvation and the wonder of the Gospel.
There has been much that we have gleaned from Genesis. I look forward to returning to this rich book with you this weekend as we finish the last leg to finish the study. Let’s continue to build our lives on the solid foundation of God’s word.
