Lesson 1: The Creation:
In the Beginning God
Read Genesis 1:1-2:3 - www.bible.com/bible/59/gen.1.esv

Many people today tell us Genesis is nothing but a book of myths and legends. But Jesus is recorded as quoting from this book several times, saying this was God’s word.

The words of this first chapter are God’s own description of how He created all that is, making it something that was good and beautiful. He created it in order, and that order is also an important thing for us to understand. For example, we can believe what the Bible says about the time for each step of creation being a single day because plants were created the day before the sun was made – even though plants need the sun to live.

Perhaps an important question to answer here is, why did God want to create a world where people might sin and mess up everything He had made? God made all of creation so He could show all His creation who He was; He wanted to spend eternity with those who could choose to love Him. However, there were two things about God that could not be shown to others in a perfect world – His mercy and His grace. So He created beings who had the freedom to choose Him or themselves. The first such beings were angels. With the angels, when they chose themselves, God displayed His perfect righteousness and justice – those who chose themselves received exactly what they chose, an eternity without God with no opportunity to ever choose again.

However, when He created mankind and gave us the same choice – God or ourselves – God did something He had not done for the angels. He put His mercy and grace on display through us as He also provided a way for us to forsake our first choice of just following our own way (which deserved an eternity without Him), and provide a way to come back to Him.


God created human beings as male and female so they would be able to have children. He created them innocent, but with the ability to choose if they wanted to follow Him, or follow their own desires. When He made Adam and Eve, they had the ability to see God – we cannot see God today, and we’ll see why later.

In Genesis 1:26 we read that God made the man and the woman in His image. This means He made us to be like Him in certain things – we have the ability to make choices, we can reason and think, and we have in us the knowledge of and desire for eternity. But being created in His image also means that we were made to be God’s representatives, His ambassadors, here on this earth – we were created to represent His interests here.

*As you read this lesson’s passage, what words and phrases do you find repeated?
*The creation account shows that God brings order, beauty and harmony out of a chaotic situation. In what ways do you need to trust God to produce these things in your life?
*What special commands and provisions does God give to the man and woman in His creation (Genesis 1:28-31)?
*From what you have learned about God in this study, how can you reflect His image?