James Hakim

(WCF 4) Creation: “Man”-ifesting God’s Glory

Man’s dominion over the creatures proceeded from his relationship with the Lord Who gave him that dominion. It is not enough to say that man’s relationship to God was primary and his relationship to the other creatures secondary. Rather, how man conducts himself in the creation is to display him as being made in God’s image. And this is a duty that man fulfills in knowledge and love to the Creator Who charged him with it. 

As I sit down to write this article, I’m in the midst of preparing to preach Romans 8:19–22 in our congregation’s midweek prayer meeting. It’s an amazing passage that reminds us of what creation was originally supposed to display about God, and about His image-bearers. But it also reminds us that the fallen creation is subjected not to death-pangs but birth-pangs, as it labors and groans forward to the resurrection of God’s children for a new heavens and new earth.
The fourth chapter of our Confession is just two little paragraphs that capture this reality about the creation: it manifests God’s glory (4.1) with His image-bearers as the special manifestation of that glory (4.2).
Manifesting God’s Glory
“It pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost”
Just as God decreed because it pleased Him, and elected because it pleased Him, so also now He created because it pleased Him. He is God. He is under obligation to none but Himself. And this, too—the adoration, fellowship, and pleasure within the Godhead—is captured in this phrase. For this was a triune pleasure to engage in a triune work.
“for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness,”
The previous clause implies what this clause plainly states: God is ultimate. Creation is not about the creature; it is about the Creator. His power, wisdom, and goodness are essential to Him—necessary characteristics of His essence. Creating does not add these to Him; it is a display that He is like this in Himself. Creating is about displaying His glory.
“in the beginning, to create, or make of nothing, the world, and all things therein whether visible or invisible,”
God being eternal, the beginning comes when He creates. There is nothing, not even time. Then He creates; He makes of nothing. He alone is uncreated, and nothing else at all is Creator. When man treats matter as if it is so ancient that being or existence are of its essence, sinners are attributing Creator-glory to the creature. But when the Scriptures repeatedly emphasize that at this beginning Jesus was there, creating, they are declaring that He Himself is the Creator, the living God (cf. Jn 1:1–3; Col 1:15–17; Heb 1:1–2).
“in the space of six days; and all very good.”
Here is an important connection between God and man. God is outside of time and infinite in power. He can create in an instant. Yet, He chooses to do so in the space of six days. Why?
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Remembering God’s Word Unto Ourselves and Our Children

Hoping in Christ and clinging to His Word, and walking with Him by grace, believers don’t forget Him but remember Him—and this not only unto themselves; they remember Him to their children. This is the great purpose behind the use of confession and catechisms: that we ourselves would remember Him, and that we would teach the next generation, so that they would both remember Him for themselves and teach the generation yet to come.

Associate Reformed Presbyterians adhere to the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms—a wonderfully biblical thing to do, as we hope to see from Paul’s letters to Timothy next month. In this series of articles, I hope to convince you from Scripture of the necessity and wisdom of mastering and using our doctrinal standards, and then proceed to highlight from Scripture the riches in Christ that can be gained by way of some of our theological distinctives.
But, as a way of setting up for that, I’d like for us to consider from Psalm 78 Israel’s forgetfulness of the Lord and His Word—both in their own hearts (failing Deut 6:6) and to their children (failing Deut 6:7). This article will be best-read with your Bible open, taking the time to see each of the statements from the verses referenced.
Psalm 78:1–4 teaches us that telling to the next generation the praises of the good, great, saving God is an obligation not an option. v4 refers to failure to do so as “hiding” the “praises of the LORD and His strength and His wonderful works that He has done.”
vv5–7 tell us that God Himself established this “right” that covenant children possess, that they would receive instruction in the Word of God from one generation to the next. It is His appointed means by which successive generations would be brought to “hope in God and not forget the works of God but keep His commandments” (v7).
But the people of Israel up to the point of the Psalm’s writing had not been faithful to their purpose (v8). Not only did they forget to tell their children the wonderful works of God, they forgot those works for themselves—and so drifted from Him and rebelled against Him (vv10–11). Even those who saw the miraculous plagues and power by which He delivered them from Egypt, and by which He led them through the wilderness, forgot these works during their own lifetimes (vv12–20). And if they forgot Him for themselves, how can they have remembered Him to their children?
Although God was full of wrath against this (vv21–22), yet He responded with even more mercy and more miracles (vv23–30)—accompanied byreminders of His wrath against sin as in v31. Against such a backdrop, how marvelous is His grace that even their superficial and temporary repentings (vv32–37) were met with great compassion and forgiveness and restoration (vv38–39)!
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