Nearly fifty years ago, Henry M. Morris, founder of the Institute for Creation Research, wrote an article detailing the parallels between the creation week in Genesis 1 and Holy Week in the Gospels.
In one week, the world was made; in the other, remade. One week begins with light breaking into darkness at the voice of the Lord; the other with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem of that same Lord, accompanied by many voices of praise. The creation week ends with the Lord's Sabbath rest and an invitation to enter into it with him; Holy Week ends with Jesus resting in the grave for our sake, in anticipation of Easter Sunday.
Suspended Between Heaven and Earth: A Good Friday Reflection on the Cross of Christ
by J. V. FeskoJ. V. Fesko examines Jesus being “lifted up” in crucifixion as fulfilling his role as the perfect Temple, cursed to reconcile heaven and earth, thus tearing the veil of separation and ushering us into restored access to God’s presence.
You don’t have to hold any particular position on the chronology of Genesis to agree with Morris that the similarities (and contrasts) are striking. These two weeks really are, as Morris said, “the two greatest events in all history.” In this little devotional essay, I want to reflect together during Holy Week on a few of the rich resonances between two of these world making and remaking days in particular: the sixth day of creation—humanity's making—and the sixth day of Holy Week—Good Friday, humanity's unmaking.
The sixth day (Gen. 1:24–31) represents the final activity of God’s creating work. He begins the day by forming all land-dwelling creatures, before ending with human beings last of all, the only creatures made in God’s “image and likeness” (vss.26 and 27). After creating us, God rested—not from exhaustion but satisfaction, delighting in the “very good” results of his handiwork.
As God’s images, he made us to be like him both in our character and in our works. He called us to be fruitful and to be active, glorifying him as we blessed one another and the wider world. What a privilege! What an honor! However, instead of leading all creation with us into praise and blessing—and ultimately into God’s own Sabbath rest, as the author of Hebrews makes clear (3:7–4:16), Adam led humanity headlong into rebellion by listening to the Serpent’s lies disparaging God’s character and motives. Eve took the bait, Adam swallowed it, and we’ve been on the hook ever since. Yet God’s word proved true: “in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). In his doubt and pride, Adam plunged himself, the rest of us, and the world under his care into ruin.
A Savior in the Hands of Angry Sinners
by Stephen RobertsStephen Roberts reflects on the substitutionary nature of Christ’s death, drawing comparisons between us and Barabbas. Roberts celebrates the great exchange in which Jesus takes upon himself the sin that rightly belongs to us and bestows on us in return the righteousness that rightly belongs to him.
Honor, responsibility, the promise of glory—each of these were given to humanity and each of them, one by one, we renounced in the fall. In the person of Adam, we chose to turn away from the face of God in whose image we’re made. We abdicated our responsibility for our neighbor and our world. Not just we, sinful humanity, but me, a sinner. I chose dishonor, betrayal, death. In my sinful nature, I still do. And so do you.
On the sixth day of the creation week, God made us and bestowed on us the dignity of bearing his image. On the sixth day of Holy Week, Jesus the uncreated Son and original Image of the Father (Heb. 1:3) was stripped of his dignity “as one from whom men hide their faces” (Isa. 53:3). In our pride, we attempted to attain equality in wisdom with God through eating the forbidden fruit and became fools. In his humility, Jesus “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped” (Phil. 2:6), becoming a servant to those who pretended to be masters so that we would turn from foolish pride to see in his self-sacrificing humility the foolishness of God that is wiser than men (1 Cor. 1:25). In him, we are being renewed after the image of our Creator, beholding the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (Col. 3:10; 2 Cor. 4:6).
Wrath against rebellion, John Piper reminds us, belongs also to the Lamb. We are saved from God’s wrath by God’s wrath. And more: we’re given a new commission, not just a renewal of our mandate to fill the earth and subdue it (as with Noah, Gen. 9:1), but a new calling—a Great Commission—to carry the good news of Jesus to the ends of the earth as willing servants of God’s plan to fill the earth “with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Hab. 2:14).
And on the sixth day of the creation week, God promised us glory upon condition of perfect personal obedience to his holy command not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil upon threat of death. If Adam passed the test, he would attain the reward: unending life with God for him and all his posterity forever. Creaturely participation in the ceaseless delight of the uncreated Trinity. God didn’t retract this promise. Adam willingly refused it.
Christ’s Impossible Prayer in Gethsemane
by Brent McGuireBrent McGuire explores the depths of Christ’s anguish and the significance of his submission to the Father’s will, going to the cross not merely as our example or inspiration but as our vicarious substitute bearing God’s wrath in our place.
Considering how the creation week turned out, it’s astonishing—downright scandalous—that any other week should have ever existed at all! But instead of immediately issuing the condemnation Adam and Eve (and you and I) deserved, God announced a new promise: he himself would intervene, sending a Seed of the woman to crush the Serpent’s head and lift the curse. Such a twist in the story is almost beyond belief, and certainly beyond reason. We had no reason or right to expect the mockery we made of the sixth day of creation to be answered by God’s plan to make a mockery of himself on the sixth day of Holy Week.
The most astonishing thing about all this to me—what leads me most to worship and gratitude—is that the unmaking of humanity in Jesus on Good Friday didn’t lead to the restoration of humanity as we were made on the sixth day. We weren’t saved by Jesus to return to probation in Adam. God isn’t good enough to restore to us what we gave up in Adam. He’s so good that he gives us more in Jesus than we could have ever gained in Adam. “Our nature,” wrote Johann Gerhard, “has been made more glorious through Christ than it was stained by the sin of Adam.”
It is a great thing that God created humans who did not deserve anything because they did not yet exist. Still, for God to redeem humans who deserved punishment and to take upon himself the satisfaction of the debt seems to me to be even greater. It is amazing that God formed our flesh and our bones were formed for us. It is still more amazing that God himself willed to become flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones.
In Jesus, we who turned away from God’s face will behold him with our very own eyes. We who squandered our calling and inheritance are now heirs of all things. We who refused to give God glory or to join him in it have received grace from him who joined us in disgrace to bring us to glory.
Theology of the Cross
by Cameron ColeCameron Cole shares how his experience of personal tragedy taught him that the Reformation’s theology of the cross is both biblically and theologically true but also pastorally beautiful for believers needing comfort and hope in the face of suffering.
By God’s amazing grace, we who were made on the sixth day of the creation week have been remade by the One who, “made like his brothers in every way” (Heb. 2:17), was unmade on the sixth day of Holy Week for our sake. Let us then continue to take up our crosses and follow him, knowing that suffering leads to glory as surely as Good Friday leads to the dawning of a new week (and a new world) on the first Lord's Day.
Footnotes
Seventeenth-century Lutheran Meditations and Hymns, ed. Eric Lund (Paulist Press, 2011), 79.
Back
