And God saw that it was all good.....from James Boice

An important note in our creation account in Genesis is: And God saw that it was good (Genesis 1:25).

This was God's moral evaluation, His pronouncement over what He had made.

He considered it good.



From James Boice's Foundation of the Christian Faith...

This pronouncement is not made in reference to some object because we in a pragmatic way can point to it and say, "This thing is useful to me."

God's pronouncement upon the goodness of the rest of creation came before we were even made.

And that means that a tree, to give an example, is not good only because we can cut it down and make a house out of it or because we can burn it in order to get heat.

It is good because God made it and pronounced it good.

It is good, because like everything else in creation, it conforms to God's nature.

Francis Schaeffer calls these words -- and God saw that it was good -- the divine benediction.


"This is not a relative judgment, but a judgment of the holy God who has a character and whose character is the law of the universe.

"His conclusion: every step and every sphere of creation, and the whole thing put together--man himself and his total environment, the heavens and the earth--conforms to Myself."


God's evaluation in Genesis 1 is confirmed by God's covenant with the human race and the earth given at the time of Noah--after the fall.


Then God says, "Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as come out of the ark...I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth" (Genesis 9:9-10, 13).


God's covenant: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth. (Genesis 9:11)



Here God's concern is expressed, not just for Noah and those human beings who were with him in the ark, but for the birds and cattle and even the earth itself. His whole creation is "good."

And so in Romans 8 we again see the value of all God has made.

He intends to redeem the whole earth afflicted by the Fall.

"The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies"
(Romans 8:21-23).

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!