GPS – Created Parenting, Created Order

by Rick Shrader

Note: This series will consist of five phases: Created-parenting, Pre-parenting, Parenting, Post-parenting, and Grand-parenting. Each of these phases will have four sections.

First Phase: Created Parenting

Section 1. Created Order – Perfection

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). “Then God saw everything that He had made and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day” (Gen. 1:31).

The Universe

God is three persons in one essence. We are told that He made the world by the Second Person of the God-head, Jesus Christ (Jn. 1:1-3; Col. 1:16-17). Everything that is observable or invisible was made in six days as described in Genesis chapter one. Isaiah asked, “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, measured heaven with a span and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure?” His answer, of course, is God.

Six days. The Bible says plainly that the earth was created in six 24-hour days. The inclusion of “evening and morning” are always used in reference to a single day. Henry Morris writes of the word “day.”

“It may occasionally be used in the sense of indefinite time (e.g., ‘in the time of the judges’), but never as a definite period of time with a specific beginning and ending. Furthermore, it is not used even in this indefinite sense except when the context clearly indicates that the literal meaning is not intended” (The Genesis Record, p. 56).

Today, with the great work of creation research societies of qualified scientists, the early age of the heavens and earth need not be questioned.

Created with order. The most amazing proof of a creator is the order in which everything is made. Whether we look through a microscope or a telescope, we see amazing and intricate order. Job said, “Your hands have made me and fashioned me, an intricate unity” (Job 10:8). This order also reflects God’s attributes, “He who planted the ear, shall He not hear? He who formed the eye, shall He not see?” (Psa. 94:9). God is an immanent Creator.

Created for God. God also created angels in the heavenlies, and the living creatures on the earth. Then He created mankind alone in His own image. “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” God enjoys His creation. In the 102nd Psalm, containing 35 verses about creation, the psalmist writes, “O LORD, how manifold are Your works! In wisdom You have made them all. The earth is full of Your possessions.” “Let them praise the name of the LORD, for He commanded and they were created” (Psa. 48:5).

The perfect order of the universe speaks of God’s perfection and His divine attributes. Human beings were created as the crowning achievement on the earth. His revealed will for us ought to be our highest desire.

The Garden

The garden of Eden was the showcase of God’s earth. “And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden” (Gen. 2:8). No doubt the whole earth was similar to Eden because there was no sin to corrupt any of the earth. Yet this garden would become the center of God’s activity with the man whom He created and the helper whom He would make. It would also be the place of Satan’s temptation and introduction of sin into the perfect creation.

The purpose of the garden. Adam was formed by God in His image and given an eternal soul. The garden was the test of man’s obedience and faithfulness to his Creator. “And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 2:9).  Adam and Eve eventually failed the test during this probationary time. Stuart Briscoe wrote,

 “The universal lesson in this is that God alone determines what is right and wrong, and that the essence of doing right is doing His will and the nature of wrongdoing is contravening His requirements and ignoring His precepts. Man’s moral sensibilities are God-given and his moral standards are God-ordained. This much is clear from the creation account” (Genesis, 50).

The trees of the garden. Every tree in the garden was for Adam’s benefit. “And God said, ‘See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food” (Gen. 1:29). The tree of life is mentioned in Genesis and Revelation. In the garden of Eden it represented eternal life as long as man obeyed God. In the new heaven and earth it will again represent eternal life to those who will be living there. Sin caused Adam to be barred from the tree of life (Gen. 3:22-24). The tree of the knowledge of good and evil only served the purpose of testing Adam’s free choice.

The gardener of the garden. Adam was the king of the earth and the master of the garden. “The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.” “Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it” (Gen. 2:8, 15). We should also understand how man was different from the angels or the animals. Primarily, man was made in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26-27). This image gave man a dignity of life itself and of fellowship with God. Man’s obedience to God’s will and its eternal consequences are unique to mankind alone. Rolland McCune states,

           “The image of God in man is man’s personal, spiritual and moral resemblance to God, including, but not limited to, God’s communicable attributes (i.e., those perfections of the infinite God that can be possessed in a finite way by human beings). In other words, man replicates the infinite God on a finite level in these areas” (Systematic Theology, vol 2, 25).

There will never again be a garden of Eden, the place of man’s testing and fall into sin. Now there is the cross which is the place of man’s redemption. But there will be a new heaven and earth where redeemed man will again be in complete fellowship with his Creator.

Mankind

Man was the crowning achievement of God’s creation. He is the only part of creation made in God’s image with a unique responsibility for obedience to the Creator. Angels had a responsibility but neither they nor the animals were fit to have dominion on the earth.

Created for fellowship. Though God exists in and beyond His creation (Solomon said, “Behold, heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple which I have built” (2 Kg 8:27), He created man for fellowship with Himself. Evidently, God and Adam had daily times of fellowship. When Adam and Eve had sinned, they were hiding themselves from God because their conscience informed them that the fellowship had been broken by sin. “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden” (Gen. 3:8). From Adam’s sin until now, man’s fellowship with God has been broken (Rom. 5:12). Yet in this life we can be restored to fellowship with God through Jesus Christ and live a life of obedience and productivity in His will.

Created for work. Adam was created uniquely and immediately for work. None of the animals, as wonderful as they were, could till the ground and keep the garden. Only the man had the physical tools to do so. Nor could any animal name the rest of the animals all in one day. Adam did all of this on the day he was created. To show man’s leadership in the family, Adam named Eve when God created her from the man and called her “woman” because she was taken out of the man (Gen. 2:22). After the fall Adam called the woman “Eve” because she would be the mother of all living (Gen. 3:20).

The “dominion mandate” given in Genesis 1:26-28 is for mankind to rule over God’s creation, including making the earth a virtual garden and having rule over all the other creatures. God knew Adam would need a helper to do this. Kevin DeYoung has written,

          “Another man could have helped Adam till the soil. Another man could have provided relational respite and energy for Adam. God could have gifted Adam a plow or a team of oxen or a fraternity of manly friends, all of which would have been useful, even delightful. But none would have been a helper fit for the crucial task of producing and rearing children. If mankind is to have dominion on the earth, there must be a man to work the garden and a woman to be his helpmate” (Men and Women in the Church, 28).

Created for companionship. Adam was made to have fellowship with God but also to be a relational human being. Eve was made, first of all, to be his helper. “And the LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make a helper comparable to him’” (Gen. 2:18). Secondly, simply being alone is not good. When none of the animals was suitable for Adam, God made Eve from Adam’s rib. Then Adam said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall be one flesh” (Gen. 2:23-24). This first marriage, witnessed and made covenantal by God, focused the family on dominion work and loving companionship.