Q. What is the work of creation?
A. The work of creation is God’s making all things out of nothing, by the Word of His power, in the space of six days, and all very good.
Commentary
The catechism now expounds the first of God’s great works. The work of creation is God’s making all things out of nothing. This is the doctrine of creation ex nihilo. God did not fashion the world from pre-existing material, as a craftsman shapes wood or stone, for before creation nothing existed but God Himself. He made all things by the Word of His power, simply speaking the universe into being. As the writer to the Hebrews testifies, “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible” (Hebrews 11:3). This sets the Creator infinitely apart from the creature and overthrows every notion that matter is eternal or that the world arose by chance.
Scripture further tells us that God accomplished this work in the space of six days, and all very good. He who could have created everything in a single instant chose instead to work in an orderly succession of days, establishing a pattern of labor and rest woven into the very fabric of the world (Exodus 20:11). And at each stage He pronounced His work good, until, surveying the whole, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Genesis 1:31). The creation, as it came from the hand of God, was free from every flaw, perfectly suited to display His wisdom, power, and goodness, and wholly fit for the purposes for which He made it.
Because God made all things, the entire creation belongs to Him and bears witness to His glory; there is no neutral ground and no rival creator. Because He made all things good, the material world is not evil, as various ancient and modern errors have supposed, but a good gift to be received with thanksgiving and stewarded for His honor. And because He made all things by the Word of His power, the Christian need never fear that the world is governed by blind forces or hostile fate. The God who spoke the universe into being holds it still, and the same Word that created will, in Christ, make all things new.
Scripture Proofs
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day” (Genesis 1:31).
“For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy” (Exodus 20:11).
“By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible” (Hebrews 11:3).
2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689
4.1: In the beginning it pleased God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for the manifestation of the glory of His eternal power, wisdom, and goodness, to create or make the world, and all things therein, whether visible or invisible, in the space of six days, and all very good.