The Apostles’ Creed: God The FatherSample

The Goodness of Creation: Genesis 1:31

Many religions and philosophies teach that the material universe is amoral, that is, neither good nor evil. Others actually say that the world is evil. For example, many of the pagan philosophies the early church encountered taught that the material universe was corrupt, and that to be truly saved human beings had to escape the bondage of their bodies. This negative view of the world was one reason the Apostles’ Creed emphasized that God made the heavens and the earth. In the Bible, the universe is God’s good creation that reflects his good character.

In Genesis 1, we are reminded of the goodness of creation in verses 4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25 and 31 — seven times in all. And in the last of these, Scripture records that the entire creation is not just “good” but “very good.” As Moses wrote in Genesis 1:31:

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good (Genesis 1:31).

Sadly, soon after God created the world, Adam and Eve sinned against God by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And as a result of humanity’s sin, God placed the entire creation under a curse. One text that speaks of this is Genesis 3:17-19, where God spoke this curse to Adam:

Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food (Genesis 3:17-19).

Because of Adam’s sin, God cursed the ground so that gardening became difficult, forcing Adam and the rest of humanity to work hard for their food. And this curse on the ground was not limited to farming. It affected the whole world in all of its aspects. Paul wrote about this problem in Romans 8 when he argued that the redemption of believers through Jesus Christ would eventually lead to a restoration of the creation itself. Consider what Paul wrote in Romans 8:20-22:

For the creation was subjected to frustration ... in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay ... [T]he whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time (Romans 8:20-22).

Paul taught that the curse on the ground affected every element of creation.

But despite God’s curse, we should not make the mistake of thinking that the creation is no longer good. Yes, humanity’s fall into sin damaged the creation. But it is still God’s world, and it is still fundamentally good. Paul made this point when he was writing about the abiding validity of marriage, and the freedom Christians have to eat all sorts of food. Consider his words in 1 Timothy 4:4:

Everything God created is good (1 Timothy 4:4).

Notice what Paul said here. He did not say that everything created “was” good, but that everything God created “is” good.