But there is much beyond Christmas! For the Lord Jesus, there was a lifetime of service and sacrifice, consummated by eternal joy. “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you,” He said. For us also, as His servants, there must be service and sacrifice and, then, ultimately thankful satisfaction and joy everlasting.
Before Jesus actually went to the cross, He lived the greatest human life, performed the mightiest works, and left the finest teachings that the world has ever known. God had become man, in Jesus Christ, and He not only revealed God, but He also revealed man as God had intended man to be.
In addition to showing us how to live, He also taught us what to believe. Among many other things, He taught us what we should believe about creation.
Jesus the Creationist
When God became man, He became man as God intended man to be. He lived as God wanted man to live (1 Pet. 2:21), and He thought as God intended man to think (Phil. 2:5). What the Lord Jesus Christ believed, His disciples must believe, if they are truly His disciples. Thus, so-called “Christian evolutionists” in effect are denying His lordship. It may indeed be possible for a Christian to be an evolutionist (either through ignorance or deliberate disobedience), but evolution itself cannot be Christian, for the obvious reason that Christ was not an evolutionist. Consequently, there is no such thing as Christian evolution!
True Christians, of course, accept the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, so they certainly should no longer accept evolution — once they realize that He believed and taught the historicity and accuracy of the literal Genesis record of special creation. The following quotations from His own words indicate how clear and comprehensive was this teaching of Jesus.
1 He accepted the compatibility of the two supposedly contradictory accounts of creation in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2.
Have you not read that he . . . made them male and female [quoting Gen. 1:27], And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and, they twain shall be one flesh? [quoting Gen. 2:24] (Matt. 19:4–5).
1 He accepted the historicity of the creation record, basing His teaching concerning the integrity of the home, the most basic of all human institutions, on its truthfulness.
Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder (Matt. 19:6).
1 He believed that the creation of man and woman was at the beginning of the creation, not four billion years after the earth’s beginning and 15 billion years after the “big bang.”
From the beginning of the creation God made them male and female (Mark 10:6).
1 He believed that the cosmos actually had a beginning, and not that matter was eternal.
Such as was not since the beginning of the world [Greek kosmos] to this time (Matt. 24:21).
1 He believed that it was God who did the creating, not some natural process.
From the beginning of the creation which God created (Mark 13:19).
1 He believed in the fixity of the created kinds.
Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? . . . A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit (Matt. 7:16–18).
1 He believed in the Sabbath as a rest day in commemoration of God’s completed creation.
The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath (Mark 2:27).
1 He believed that the world had been “founded,” not just accidentally condensed from agglomerations of particles.
For thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world (John 17:24).
1 He believed that even the sun belonged to God.
He maketh his sun to rise (Matt. 5:45).
1 He accepted the record that God had made even the fowls of the air and had made provision for their food (as noted in Gen. 1:30).
Behold the fowls of the air . . . your heavenly Father feedeth them (Matt. 6:26).
These and other teachings of Christ, plus the complete absence of any reference by Him either to evolution or long ages (both of which beliefs were universally accepted by the pagan philosophers of His day) make it undeniable that He accepted the account of special creation recorded in Genesis as completely authoritative and accurate in the most literal sense. Therefore, no true believer in His authority and integrity can afford to do less.
A Tale of Two Weeks
The two greatest events in all human history are the creation of the world and the redemption of the world. Each of these events involved a great divine week of work and a day of rest.
Creation week accomplished the work of man’s formation; the week that is called Holy Week or Passion Week (perhaps a better term would be Redemption Week) accomplished the work of man’s salvation.
Creation week, which culminated in a perfect world (Gen. 1:31), was followed by man’s fall and God’s curse on the world (Gen. 3:17). Passion Week, which culminated in the death and burial of the maker of that perfect world, is followed by man’s restoration and the ultimate removal of God’s curse from the world (Rev. 22:3). A tree (Gen. 3:6) was the vehicle of man’s temptation and sin; another tree (1 Pet. 2:24) was the vehicle of man’s forgiveness and deliverance.
It is fascinating to compare the events of the seven days of creation week with those of redemption week. The chronology of the events of redemption week has been the subject of much disagreement among scholars, and it may not be possible to be certain on a number of the details. The discussion below is not meant to be dogmatic, but only to offer a possible additional dimension to their understanding and harmony. The traditional view that Friday was the day of the crucifixion is further strengthened by the correlations suggested in this study.
First Day. The first day of creation involved the very creation of the universe itself (Gen. 1:1). An entire cosmos responded to the creative fiat of the maker of heaven and earth. Initially, this space/mass/time (i.e., heaven, earth, beginning) continuum was created in the form of basic elements only, with no structure and no occupant (Gen. 1:2), a static suspension in a pervasive, watery matrix (2 Pet. 3:5). When God’s Spirit began to move, however, the gravitational and electromagnetic force systems for the cosmos were energized. The waters and their suspensions coalesced into a great spherical planet and, at the center of the electromagnetic spectrum of forces, visible light was generated (Gen. 1:3).
In a beautiful analogy, on the first day of Passion Week, the Creator King of the universe entered His chosen capital city (Zech. 9:9–10; Matt. 21:1–9) to begin His work of redemption, as He had long ago entered His universe to begin His work of creation. Even the very elements that He had created (Luke 19:39–40) would have acknowledged His authority, though the human leaders of His people would not.
Second Day. Having created and activated the earth, God next provided for it a marvelous atmosphere and hydrosphere, in which, later, would live the birds and fishes. No other planet, of course, is supplied with air and water in such abundance, and this is strong evidence that the earth was uniquely planned for human and animal life. The hydrosphere was further divided into waters below and waters above “the firmament.” The waters above the firmament (the Hebrew word for firmament means, literally “stretched-out space”) probably comprised a vast blanket of transparent water vapor, maintaining a perfect climate worldwide, with ideal conditions for plant, animal, and human longevity.