Did God Create the World? Firm Foundations – Learning with the 1689 Confession (6)

Confession excerpts and study questions from last Sunday night:

Scripture: Genesis 1

Confession Chapter 4: Creation

1 ¹In the beginning it pleased the Triune God-Father, Son and Holy Spirit-to create the world and all things in it in six days. ²All was very good. ³In this way God glorified His eternal power, wisdom and goodness.

Gen. 1:31; Job 26:13; John 1:2,3; Rom. 1:20; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2

2 ¹All creatures were made by God, the last to be fashioned being man and woman who received dominion over all other creatures on the earth. ²God gave man and woman rational and immortal souls, and in all respects fitted them for a life in harmony with Himself. ³They were created in His image, possessing knowledge, righteousness and true holiness. ⁴The divine law was written in their hearts and they had power to obey it fully. ⁵Yet, being left to the liberty of their own mutable wills, transgression of the law was a possibility.

Gen. 1:26,27; 2:7; 3:6; Eccles. 7:29; Rom. 2:14,15

3 ¹The law of God in general was written in the hearts of the first human pair, but at the same time they were placed under a special prohibition not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. ²Their happiness and fellowship with God depended upon their yielding obedience to His will, as also did the continuance of their dominion over the creatures.

Gen. 1:26,28; Gen. 2:17

1. In 1² the Confession declares that “All was very good.” Using the Scripture references tray to come to a group view of what it meant for creation to be very good. Reading Genesis 1:31 and Hebrews 1: 1 – 3 together may be helpful.

2. How do Colossians 1: 15 and 16 help us to understand Confession 1³?

3. Confession 2² says that Adam and Eve were “in all respects fitted for a life in harmony with God.” What light does Ecclesiastes 7:29 shed on how this was damaged?
4. How has the Lord Jesus Christ fitted us for a life in harmony with God and what does this mean to you?

5. Making use of the Scripture texts as well as Jeremiah 31: 31 -34, discuss what it might mean to have “the divine law written in our hearts” (Confession 2⁴).

6. Confession 3² says that “their happiness and fellowship with God depended on their yielding obedience to His will.” Follow through the consequences of their not doing so using Genesis 3:14 – 19 both for Adam and Eve and for us, their descendants.

7. In light of your discussions and thoughts, go back to Hebrews 1: 1 -3 and use this to praise God for His salvation and to reflect upon His glory, grace and mercy.