Pronouns and Verbs

October 16

“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth," Genesis 1:26.

Seeds of the fact of the triune nature of our God are scattered throughout the scripture and this one in Genesis 1:26 is subtle, yet profound. God is speaking of Himself but He uses the plural nouns ‘us’ and ‘our’ to do so.

Verse 27 goes on to use the singular in reference to God that He, “…created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them;” so there is a certain amount of confusion regarding the number of His person. We who believe God cannot lie and is not in any way duplicitous are sure there is perfect logic behind His choice of words.

In Genesis 1:2, when the earth is formless and void, God spoke and “the Spirit of God moved over the face of the deep,” causing night and day to exist. On the first day of creation, He transformed absolute darkness into the most basic and observable division of time.

In John 1:1 the beloved Apostle says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

In John’s reference to Jesus, the Living Word of God, the same differentiation between darkness and light are used, suggesting that Jesus’ presence at creation accomplished the entry of light into the blackness of night.

Psalm 119:130 says, “The entrance of Your Word gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” The psalmist is conveying again the reality that apart from Jesus, the Word of God, there is no real source of illumination. Whether the light He brought to the first day of creation or the light He brings to our first moment of recognition of Him as our Savior and Lord, He is the only One who transforms darkness to light.

And the threads of truth that are woven into these and other passages of scripture affirm that God worked in concert with Himself at creation and has worked in concert with Himself throughout human history to bring errant man to a saving knowledge of the “only name given under Heaven whereby men might be saved,” Acts 4:12. This passage makes it quite clear that there is no salvation in any other name.

As we ponder the complexity of the amazing Lord of Life who spoke and the worlds came to be, may we not allow the intricacy of His person-hood blind us to the essence of WHO HE IS FOR US! Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of the salvation that comes to us through Christ at Calvary because His presence at Creation is veiled by the pronouns and verbs of grammar.