The Grammar of Reality: The First Day Text: Genesis 1:1-5
Introduction: The War of Worldviews
If you want to understand the world, if you want to understand why things are the way they are, why we have meaning or why we desperately search for it, you must begin where God begins. We live in a generation that believes it can start the story in the middle of the book. Our secular age desires the fruits that only a Christian civilization can produce, objective morality, human dignity, scientific order, and the rule of law, while simultaneously taking a very determined axe to the very root that produced them.
They want a universe that makes sense without a center, a narrative without an author, and a law without a lawgiver. But this is the height of folly. It is intellectual vandalism. If you do not begin where God begins, you cannot end where God ends.
We must understand that Genesis 1 is not a polite, abstract philosophy. It is a declaration of war. It is a polemic, fired like a cannon shot into the ancient, pagan world. The surrounding cultures had their own creation myths, and they were all bloody, chaotic, and monstrous. Their gods were not transcendent; they were part-timers, born from the chaos, who fought, murdered, and sexually assaulted one another. In the Babylonian myth, the god Marduk battles the dragon-goddess of chaos, Tiamat, kills her, and splits her carcass in two to make the heavens and the earth. Their universe was born of violence and eternal conflict.
Into this darkness, Genesis 1 speaks with shattering, sovereign simplicity. God is not in the chaos; He creates it. He doesn't fight the darkness; He commands it. He is one, He is all-powerful, He is transcendent, and He creates by speech alone. Genesis 1 is not merely a scientific textbook, though everything it says is true. It is the foundational presupposition of all reality. It is the grammar of the universe. If we reject this grammar, the world becomes unintelligible noise, a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. If this foundation is treated as quaint mythology or pious allegory, then the entire structure of redemption built upon it necessarily crumbles. You cannot have the second Adam if the first Adam is a metaphor.
In these first five verses, we are given the foundation of the world, the initial state of creation, and the powerful intrusion of the divine Word. This establishes the pattern not only for the first creation but for the new creation in Christ.
The Text
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.
Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light.
And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.
And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.
(Genesis 1:1-5 LSB)
The Absolute Presupposition (v. 1)
We begin with verse 1:
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1)
This first verse is the ultimate act of worldview confrontation. It is the axiom of reality. Notice that the Scriptures do not begin by attempting to prove the existence of God. They assume it. God is the necessary precondition for all thought, all logic, all meaning, and all reality. We do not argue to this verse; we argue from it. You cannot construct an argument against God without first borrowing His logic, sitting in His creation, and breathing His air to do so. To argue against God is to sit on the lap of the one you are slapping.
This single phrase demolishes the foundations of every rival worldview. It demolishes atheism, because there is a God. It demolishes materialism, because God (spirit) existed before matter and is distinct from it. It demolishes pantheism, because God is distinct from what He made. And it demolishes polytheism, because it is one God who creates all.
But look closer. We see the Trinity on the threshold of creation. The word for God here is Elohim. This is a plural noun. Yet the verb "created," bara, is singular. From the very first verse of Scripture, we see the one God existing in a plurality of persons. This is not some grammatical quirk; it is the grammar of God Himself. It solves the ancient philosophical problem of "the One and the Many." Is reality ultimately one (impersonal, static) or many (chaotic, conflicting)? The Bible says yes. God is One in essence, plural in person. He is a living, relational God. This is why love and communication are at the foundation of the universe, because God is love (a relationship) and God is the Word (communication) within Himself, eternally. He didn't need to create us to have someone to talk to or to love. He is eternally self-sufficient in His triune fellowship.
The verb bara points to creation ex nihilo, creation out of nothing. God did not rearrange existing cosmic sludge or eternal matter; He called matter, space, and time into existence by the word of His power. This establishes the most fundamental distinction in the universe: the Creator/creature distinction. There is an infinite gulf between the uncreated, self-existent God and the contingent universe. Everything that is not God used to be nothing. This distinction is the bedrock of sanity. When men forget this, they begin to think they are gods, which is the essence of the fall and the root of all tyranny.
Because God created everything, He owns everything by right of manufacture. Making rights equal naming rights, and naming rights equal governing rights. This is the foundation of all His authority. We are not autonomous; we are owned. And this is a glorious comfort. We do not belong to chaos, or to chance, or to ourselves. We belong to Him.
The Unformed World and the Hovering Spirit (v. 2)
Verse 2 describes the initial state of the created matter before God began the work of shaping and filling it.
"And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters." (Genesis 1:2 LSB)
The phrase "formless and void" is the Hebrew tohu wa-bohu. This does not imply evil or chaos in a moral sense. This is not a Manichaean battle. Rather, it means the creation was unfinished. It was unformed and unfilled. It was the raw material, the canvas waiting for the artist, the construction site before the building begins. This tohu wa-bohu sets the stage for the glorious, orderly pattern of the entire creation week. God will spend the first three days forming the tohu (giving it structure), and the next three days filling the bohu (populating those structures).
- Day 1 (Forming): God separates Light / Darkness.
- Day 2 (Forming): God separates Waters / Sky.
- Day 3 (Forming): God separates Land / Seas.
- Day 4 (Filling): God fills Light / Darkness with Sun / Moon.
- Day 5 (Filling): God fills Waters / Sky with Fish / Birds.
- Day 6 (Filling): God fills Land / Seas with Animals / Man.
This is a God of intricate order, not confusion. But there is a polemic here, too. We are told that "darkness was over the surface of the deep." The "deep" is the Hebrew tehom. This is a direct, mocking jab at Tiamat, the Babylonian dragon-goddess of the chaotic deep. In their myth, she is a terrifying, rival power. In the Bible, the tehom is not a god to be fought; it's a puddle. It is God's inert creation, sitting silently in the dark, awaiting His command. The darkness is not a rival power; it is the canvas upon which God will paint His masterpiece of light.
And the stage is not empty. "The Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters." The word "hovering" suggests brooding, like a mother bird over her nest (cf. Deut. 32:11). It is a picture of intimate care, immense power, and imminent, life-giving energy. The Spirit is the agent of life and order, poised to execute the Father's command. Again, the Trinity is actively involved: The Father is the architect, the Spirit is the energizer, and now, the Word will be the builder.
The Divine Fiat: The Invasion of Light (v. 3)
The first act of shaping the creation is the introduction of light by divine command in verse 3.
"Then God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light." (Genesis 1:3 LSB)
God creates by fiat. He creates by speech. His Word is not descriptive; it is performative. When we speak, our words (ideally) conform to reality. When God speaks, reality conforms to His Word. There is no negotiation, no resistance, no gap between the command and the result. Fiat Lux. And there was light.
This tells us something essential about the nature of the universe. The universe is intelligible, it is logical, because it is spoken by the divine Logos. The Apostle John directs our gaze right back here: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made" (John 1:1, 3). Jesus Christ is the Word by which the Father created all things (Colossians 1:16). When God the Father said, "Let there be light," He spoke through the eternal Son.
But notice the timing. This light precedes the creation of the sun and moon, which occurs on Day 4. This is a deliberate theological blow against all idolatry. The surrounding pagans, particularly the Egyptians, worshipped the sun (Ra) as the ultimate source of light and life. God, on Day One, creates light by Himself to demonstrate that He alone is the source of all light. The sun is a mere creature, a lampstand He will hang in the sky later. God is not dependent on the sun; the sun is dependent on Him. "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5).
Evaluation, Separation, and Liturgy (v. 4-5)
In verses 4 and 5, God assesses His work, orders it through distinction, and asserts His authority by naming it.
"And God saw that the light was good... and God separated the light from the darkness." (Genesis 1:4 LSB)
This is the first divine evaluation. It establishes that goodness is objective. Goodness is not a human consensus or a personal preference; it is defined by God’s character and His sovereign approval. This also repudiates all forms of Gnosticism that would later plague the church. The material creation is not inherently evil. Matter is not the problem. The problem is sin, not stuff. God makes stuff, and He calls it good.
Next, we see the essential act of ordering: "God separated." God creates by distinguishing. Order requires separation. This is the foundation of all logic (A is not non-A), all science (this is not that), and all ethics (good is not evil). We must pay close attention to this. The modern rebellion against God is characterized by a determined effort to undo creation by blurring the distinctions God has established. We see it in moral relativism ("your truth"), which blurs the line between good and evil. We see it in the erasure of the created boundaries of male and female. This rebellion is an attack on the created order and thus an attack on the Creator Himself. To blur these lines is to invite chaos, the tohu wa-bohu, back into God's good world.
In verse 5, God asserts His dominion:
"And God called the light day, and the darkness He called night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day." (Genesis 1:5 LSB)
To name something is to assert sovereignty over it. Adam's first task is to name the animals, exercising delegated dominion. God names the fundamental realities of time, asserting His total dominion. We are creatures; we do not get to define reality. We must submit to His definitions. We must use God's dictionary.
Finally, the day concludes: "And there was evening and there was morning, one day." This is not just a time-stamp for a literal, 24-hour day (which it is). It is a profound theological and liturgical statement. Notice the order: evening, and then morning. The Jewish day still begins at sunset. Why? Because this is the pattern of God's work. The Hebrew word for evening, erev, is related to "mixture, obscurity, chaos." The word for morning, boker, is related to "order, clarity, discernment." God's creative rhythm is to take the chaos of the erev and bring His divine order to it by the boker. He moves from formlessness to form, from darkness to light. This establishes the covenantal pattern for our own work and rest. Attempts by embarrassed evangelicals to accommodate the demands of deep time by twisting this word "day" miss the point entirely. They are sacrificing the clear, liturgical, covenantal meaning of the text to bow to a secular, materialist dogma.
The Gospel in the Beginning
This account of the first creation is not merely ancient history. It is the template for the New Creation. The pattern of redemption mirrors the pattern of creation.
Fallen man, in his natural state, is spiritually tohu wa-bohu. We are formless, void, and dark. We are chaotic in our rebellion, empty of righteousness, and blind to the truth (Ephesians 2:1-3). The prophet Jeremiah uses this very language, tohu wa-bohu, to describe the desolation caused by sin and judgment (Jeremiah 4:23). That is us, apart from grace.
But God re-enacts the creation mandate in the work of salvation. The Spirit of God hovers over the tehom, the dark, chaotic deep of the human soul, brooding and preparing it for the new birth. Then, God the Father speaks the Divine Word, the Logos, into that heart.
The Apostle Paul makes this connection explicit and unavoidable. He says, "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).
Regeneration is Day One replicated in the human heart. It is a sovereign, unilateral act of grace. It is ex nihilo. It is not something we cooperate with; it is a divine invasion. The darkness does not help the light. The darkness does not invite the light. The darkness is conquered by the light.
And the pattern continues. The moment God speaks His light into us, He begins the work of separation (sanctification). He separates us from the kingdom of darkness and transfers us into the kingdom of His beloved Son (Colossians 1:13). He begins to separate the good from the evil in our lives. He names us anew: "children," "saints," "righteous," "His." And He establishes a new liturgical rhythm in our lives: the "evening and morning" of repentance and faith. We come to Him each day in the erev of our sin, our failures, and our chaos, and by the boker of His grace and His Word, He restores order, brings clarity, and speaks light. He is still in the business of bringing order from chaos, and He will not stop until that work is complete, when we stand in the New Jerusalem, where there is "no night there" (Rev. 21:25), for the Lord God Himself is its light.