Preparing to Read Mark · Unit 01 of 16
The starting point: the world, humanity, and God
Bible reading: Genesis 1–2
The Christian faith begins with some very basic questions: Where did this world come from? Why do human beings exist? The Bible gives its answer right at the beginning.
“At the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
— Genesis 1:1
According to the Bible, the world did not arise by chance, nor has it always existed. Everything in heaven and on earth has a Creator: God.
1. God Is the Creator
Genesis 1 describes God creating light, the sky, land, seas, plants, the sun, moon, and stars, animals, and finally human beings. As God completes the different parts of creation, the Bible repeatedly says, “God saw that it was good.”
“God looked at everything he had made, and it was all very good. Evening came, and morning came: the sixth day.”
— Genesis 1:31
So, from the Bible’s perspective, this world was not originally evil. The land, plants, animals, human bodies, food, work, and relationships were all part of God’s good creation.
Christianity is not saying, “The material world is bad, and we should escape it.” Instead, it says, “The world was originally good, but something later went wrong.” We will consider what went wrong in the next stage.
2. What Makes Human Beings Different from Other Creatures?
“God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, according to our likeness, and let them govern the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God created human beings in his own image; in his image he created them, male and female.”
— Genesis 1:26–27
Human beings are also created by God, but they have a special identity: they are made in God’s image.
This does not mean that people physically look like God. It means that human beings have a distinctive place and responsibility within creation. They are entrusted with caring for the world as God’s representatives.
From the Christian perspective, then, a person’s worth is not determined by wealth, ability, education, health, or social standing. Human dignity begins with this truth: we are all people whom God has made.
3. Human Beings Are Stewards, Not Owners of the World
“God blessed them and said to them, ‘Have children and increase in number. Fill the earth and govern it; rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and every living creature that moves on the earth.’”
— Genesis 1:28
“Governing” the earth here does not mean that people may destroy it as they please.
“The LORD God placed the man in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and watch over it.”
— Genesis 2:15
The human role is more like this: God entrusts the world he has created to people to care for and manage. People may use natural resources, but God remains their true owner.
4. Work Was Not Originally a Punishment
Many people think of work as something they have no choice but to do. Yet the Bible makes an interesting point: human beings already had work before they sinned.
“The LORD God placed the man in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and watch over it.”
— Genesis 2:15
According to Genesis, work itself is not a punishment. It was originally part of humanity’s participation in caring for the world. Only after sin entered the world did work become exhausting and full of frustration.
5. Human Beings Also Need Rest
“By the seventh day, God had completed his work of making everything, and on that day he rested from all his work. God blessed the seventh day and set it apart as holy, because on that day he rested from all his work of creation.”
— Genesis 2:2–3
This does not mean that God needed to rest because he was tired. It expresses that creation was complete. It also establishes an important idea: people do not exist merely to work without stopping. Both work and rest are normal parts of human life.
The later biblical understanding of the Sabbath is closely connected with this passage.
6. Human Beings Need Relationships with Other People
“The LORD God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion who is a fitting helper for him.’”
— Genesis 2:18
This is the first appearance of “not good” in the first two chapters of Genesis. It does not mean that being single is necessarily bad. Rather, the creation story is pointing out that people were not made to live in complete isolation.
People need relationships, companionship, family, and community. God then creates the woman so that man and woman can be companions to one another.
7. The Original World Was a World of Harmony
The world portrayed in Genesis 1–2 has several important features:
- Humanity’s relationship with God is good.
- People’s relationships with one another are good.
- Humanity’s relationship with the natural world is also good.
People can live and work in the world God has made, enjoy food, build relationships, and be with God. This is how the biblical story begins.
8. The Basic Direction of the Biblical Story
As a simple starting point, we can understand the whole Bible in four stages:
Creation → Fall → Redemption → Restoration
For now, we have reached only the first step: creation. God creates a good world. Human beings are made in God’s image and given responsibility for caring for it.
But the world we see today is clearly not entirely good. We see war, violence, selfishness, disease, death, people hurting one another, and humanity damaging the natural world.
If the world God created was originally “very good,” what happened to it?