Genesis 1: Caring for Creation Without Carrying Its Salvation

Introduction

This Sunday marks the end of the Season of Creation, observed in September together with the Catholic Church. The pastor of the Église Réformée Évangélique de Toulouse uses the occasion to tackle a question "you hear about in every media outlet, all day long": ecology. How can we hold a biblical view of it? "What better way than to go back to the basics": Genesis 1.

He sets aside the debates about the Big Bang or the length of the six days, "it would take the morning, the whole day, and maybe even more," and offers a Bible study on that to anyone who wants one. His aim lies elsewhere: how to live in this creation, what our relationship with it is, and where to place our hope.

The message follows a simple thread: creation and our place in it, the fall, the coming of Jesus Christ and the hope he brings, and then a few practical consequences for the disciple.

Message Outline

1. Thinking About Ecology Through the Bible

Ecology, the pastor explains, is the relationship between human activity and the environment in which people live.
On any subject, we need to think biblically: creation, the fall, redemption and the return of Christ. Otherwise we end up accepting "certain assumptions that lie behind it."
Example: "Let's save the planet." The phrase assumes that this is up to us, that it is by our own action that the planet will be saved.
Other questions arise. Is the disciple of Christ concerned only with salvation? Conversely, is the fight against poverty and famine all that matters? Is man a creature like any other? "Is the death of an animal as important as the death of a child?"

2. A Creation That Is Intended and Good

In verses 1 to 18, God creates the heavens, the earth, the sea, the sun, the moon and the stars. The world is not the product of chance, of an implacable fate, or of eternal natural laws. God creates with a will.
"It was good": there is no neutrality in creation. The seasons, the rain that comes at the right time, and plant life show God's goodness.
In verses 20 to 23, the waters teem with living creatures. The pastor says he read that a new species of penguin had just been discovered in the Kerguelen Islands, already close to extinction before it was even known: "we are constantly in awe."
In verse 22, God blesses the animals: "Be fruitful, and multiply." He gives them life and the ability to pass it on.
Creation tells us who God is. The galaxies seen through the Hubble telescope, the complexity of the infinitely small, the atom with its neutrons and protons: we learn something about him there. "The heavens declare the glory of God" (Psalm 19:2).
But we must not worship creation, to the point of believing that what lies before us is the creator, the one who gives life.

3. Man Made in the Image of God

In verse 26, man is, like God, a moral being, responsible for his actions, endowed with thought, will and heart.
God speaks to man and blesses him: he enters into relationship with him. Our place in creation is central.
This relationship makes us responsible, moral and spiritual beings. "Not living what we say is ultimately not resembling God," and it means not being truly human as God intended.

4. Viceroys Serving the Great King

In the ancient Near East, a king represented his god and worked in his name, a bit like Louis XIV, the Sun King, who ruled by divine right. Our mandate is to resemble our God in this world.
"Let's make man in our image, after our likeness... Let them have dominion" (verse 26): we represent God, the king of the world, by managing what he gives us.
This touches every area. Parents reflect to their children God's holiness, justice, love, mercy and patience. Our friendships reflect his love and generosity. The same goes for our time and our life as citizens.
This cultural mandate is not only about salvation. A disciple's life does not stop at "Sunday morning, the border of the church." Worship and culture are linked: what we worship has consequences for the way we live.
Example: French society loves, and perhaps worships, leisure. Hence the place given to weekends, days off in lieu of overtime, vacations and retirement. By contrast, throughout church history, painters and composers have put their gifts at the service of the display of God's glory.
In verse 27, man and woman are created in the image of God: equal before him and complementary. We need one another, in marriage as in the Church.
This is the foundation of caring for creation. It is not first of all the sight of dead seabirds on a beach or animals killed by pollution. "Our one and only foundation is that God has put us in a particular place, that of managing well what God has given us."

5. A Grain of Sand in the Machinery

Instead of serving the great King and showing who he is, man uses everything he has received for his own interest. Because of his rebellion, he "just does as he pleases."
He is then separated from God, separated from creation and separated from himself.
Sin does not mean that we are no longer the image of God. Long after the fall, Genesis 9:6 still says: "Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in God’s image God made man." Man keeps all his dignity.
This is another foundation for social action: not only because people suffer and that makes us sad, but because they are made in the image of God. This "uproots" our negligence, our laziness and our indifference.

6. Jesus, the True King and Our Hope

"The solution to all this is not the death of people or animals. The solution is Jesus Christ." He is the perfect king who did not seek his own glory, but died on the cross to take upon himself the price of our sin.
He is "the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation" (Colossians 1:15): the true human, the one who really shows who God is.
Facing climate disruption and pollution, we get the impression of a growing chaos. But "there is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9), and it is Jesus who transforms his people so that they reveal more and more who God is.
Turning a business owner who thinks only about his money into a generous person is "not done with rules." Only Jesus can reach into the heart and transform it. We can only act from the outside.
This transformation is not just for today. Romans 8 announces that creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God and will be set free from its bondage to decay. One day, all suffering and all sickness will be gone.
The pastor warns against what he calls "the false gospel of ecology": believing that the only problem is a lack of information, means or laws. "We must do these things," but what changes hearts is not the law, it is Jesus. Our hope is not that the world will unite to save the planet: that will only happen in the kingdom of Christ.
This applies to every subject, including education: "In the end, it is not I who will change their hearts, it is the Lord." Otherwise, we fall into a kind of omnipotence complex.

7. A Few Practical Consequences

Act with wisdom. The world is complex because of sin and there is no perfect solution. Replace all gasoline cars with electric ones? Cobalt has to be mined in Africa, where living conditions are terrible.
Do not carry the weight of the earth's salvation on our shoulders. Some people feel "so guilty" about not putting the right trash in the right bin. The pastor distinguishes between what I have to do as an individual and general guilt.
Know God. Acting and showing the Lord's work is important, but the most important thing is to know the Lord.
Learn contentment. In a very materialistic society, where even churches have fallen into this trap, we need to return to this biblical value: "being content with what God gives me." Paul learned to be content in whatever state he was in (Philippians 4:11-13). If what satisfies my heart is Jesus Christ, I can be content in poverty as in wealth. "It is a journey for a whole lifetime," the pastor admits.

Key Takeaways

Creation is neither an accident nor a neutral reality: God intended it, declared it good, and it tells of his glory. That does not make it something to worship.
Made in the image of God, man and woman are called to manage what he entrusts to them as viceroys who reflect the great King, in every area of life.
Sin separates man from God, from creation and from himself, without erasing his dignity as an image of God.
Neither laws nor means transform the heart: Jesus alone does, and creation awaits its full liberation.
Act with wisdom, without carrying the salvation of the earth on our shoulders, seeking first to know God and to be content with what he gives.

Personal Reflection

When you hear "let's save the planet," what assumptions are you absorbing without having run them through the filter of the Word?
In which area of your life (your family, your friendships, your time, your work) do you struggle to reflect who God is as a good steward?
Does your faith stop at the church door on Sunday, or does your worship shape the way you live during the week?
Are you carrying guilt that is not yours, forgetting that the salvation of the earth is in the Lord's hands?
What satisfies your heart today: what you own and see in others, or Jesus Christ?

Verses Cited

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should a Christian care for creation?

For the pastor, the foundation is not first of all sadness over animals dead from pollution. Our one and only foundation is that God has given us a particular place: as viceroys serving the great King, we are called to manage well what he has given us and to reflect who he is.

What is the "false gospel of ecology"?

It is the temptation to think that the only problem is a lack of information, means or laws. But neither laws nor means change the heart: only Jesus does. Our hope is not that the world will unite to save the planet, but the coming of the kingdom of Christ, when creation will be set free.

Is man still the image of God after the fall?

Yes. Sin does not erase it. Long after the fall, Genesis 9:6 says that God made man in his image, so man keeps all his dignity. This is another foundation for social action: when a person made in the image of God suffers, it touches God, and we should be touched.