Sermon Text: Genesis 1:1-2:3
Date: May 31, 2026
Event: Holy Trinity Sunday, Year A

Genesis 1:1-2:3 (EHV)

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2The earth was undeveloped and empty. Darkness covered the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

3God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4God saw that the light was good. He separated the light from the darkness. 5God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” There was evening and there was morning—the first day.

6God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters, and let it separate the water from the water.” 7God made the expanse, and he separated the water that was below the expanse from the water that was above the expanse, and it was so. 8God called the expanse “sky.” There was evening and there was morning—the second day.

9God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear,” and it was so. ˻The waters under the sky gathered to their own places, and the dry land appeared.˼ 10God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathering places of the waters he called “seas.” God saw that it was good. 11God said, “Let the earth produce plants—vegetation that produces seed, and trees that bear fruit with its seed in it—each according to its own kind on the earth,” and it was so. 12The earth brought forth plants, vegetation that produces seed according to its own kind, and trees that bear fruit with its seed in it, each according to its own kind, and God saw that it was good. 13There was evening and there was morning—the third day.

14God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to divide the day from the night, and let them serve as markers to indicate seasons, days, and years. 15Let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to give light to the earth,” and it was so. 16God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He also made the stars. 17God set these lights in place in the expanse of the sky to provide light for the earth, 18to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. God saw that it was good. 19There was evening and there was morning—the fourth day.

20God said, “Let the waters swarm with living creatures, and let birds and other winged creatures fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.” 21God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their own kind, and every winged bird according to its own kind. God saw that it was good. 22God blessed them when he said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the waters of the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” 23There was evening and there was morning—the fifth day.

24God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to their own kind, livestock, creeping things, and wild animals according to their own kind,” and it was so. 25God made the wild animals according to their own kind, and the livestock according to their own kind, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its own kind. God saw that it was good.

26God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that crawls on the earth.”

27God created the man in his own image.
In the image of God he created him.
Male and female he created them.

28God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29God said, “Look, I have given you every plant that produces seed on the face of the whole earth, and every tree that bears fruit that produces seed. It will be your food. 30To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

31God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning—the sixth day.

2:1The heavens and the earth were finished, along with everything in them. 2On the seventh day God had finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had been doing. 3God blessed the seventh day and set it apart as holy, because on it he rested from all his work of creation that he had done.

Creation Shows the Trinity’s Love

“Do you love me? Do you really love me?” That’s the question of a spouse or significant other who has been hurt by his or her partner. There’s a doubt in those questions. There’s a doubt because the individual’s actions led to a questioning of the love and commitment from the other person. If they wanted to show love, why did he or she do that?

Maybe we sometimes have the same questions for God. “If God loves me, if he really loves me, why does he do this or that to me? Why does he not allow this or that blessing to come into my life? Why does he allow this festering hardship to persist?” And so we ask God the same question, “Do you really love me?” And his answer is for us to open our eyes and look at the evidence.

This morning, we had a chance to review where it all began: creation. Before God created the universe, there was nothing other than God. He’s eternal which means he’s always been and always will be there—the great I am, as he shared with Moses. But our universe, our planet, our lives all had a definite beginning. But it wasn’t a beginning that was accidental; it wasn’t something that just happened randomly. The creation of the world, and especially of mankind, was something that was done purposefully.

The very first words of the Bible make that clear. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. This is work that God did because he wanted to. This was work that God did because he had a plan and was going to follow through on it. What was God doing before he created the world? We can’t say because he hasn’t told us. But out of the universe he formed, he focuses the lion’s share of his attention and nearly all of the words of this account on one specific planet.

We’re told that from the very start of this creative process, the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. The Holy Spirit was there from the very beginning, active in creation. We like to compartmentalize the Trinity at times, ascribing certain work to the Father, certain work to the Son, and certain work to the Holy Spirit. That’s possible in some cases. It was clearly the Son, not the Father nor the Holy Spirit, who died on the cross and rose from the dead. It was also the Holy Spirit, not the Father or the Son, who came as that promised Counselor to the disciples on that first Christian Pentecost day.

While we often ascribe the work of creation to the Father, we see here that the Holy Spirit is active in that work as well. In fact, the apostle John in the prologue to his Gospel rounds out the picture of a true, Trinitarian creation. He says, “Through him [that is, Jesus] everything was made, and without him not one thing was made that has been made” (John 1:3). The Bible names each of the members of the Triune God as directly responsible for the creation of the world; the Godhead was unified in this creative plan.

That means God was unified not only in doing the work but also in the reason he did it. We get an indication as to why all of this is going on by looking at how God worked. Notice that the vast majority of creation is done by God simply speaking and commanding, and things come to be. “Let there be light!” “Let the earth produce plants!” “Let the waters swarm with living creatures!”

But what happens when God gets to mankind? In Genesis 2, God gives us a little bit more detail about the creation of Adam and Eve. There he tells us, “The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). And after Adam was shown that he really needed a helper, a partner, in life, “the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. As the man slept, the Lord God took a rib and closed up the flesh where it had been. The Lord God built a woman from the rib that he had taken from the man and brought her to the man” (Genesis 2:21-22). God could’ve easily just said, “Let there be man! Let there be woman!” But he didn’t. He slowed down. He took his time. He made it very clear through his deliberate creating work that human beings were different, special, the crown of this creation, and the whole reason for its existence. God made it all for Adam and Eve—for you and me.

You might expect that God is pretty good at what he does. In fact, he repeatedly observes that what he created was good. God isn’t being patronizing here, nor is this describing the mediocre quality that we might give when using the term “good” as in “good, not great.” No, for anything to be “good” to the holy God, it has to be perfect. And that’s exactly what his creating power made: a perfect universe, flawless and complete.

Does God love you? Look at the world he made for you. Look at the people he’s surrounded you with! Look at the life he’s given you. He created this world perfectly for you.

Of course, if you look at the world around you, you see a mess. If you look at the people you’re surrounded by, you’re probably looking at people who have hurt you or don’t even know you. And certainly, if you look at the life you’ve been given, there are flaws all over the place. So what happened? If God made this world perfectly, why is everything so messed up?

We are let in on an inner monologue within the Triune Godhead in our reading“Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness.” And that’s what he did. And that doesn’t mean we looked like him; after all, how can a flesh-and-bones human being look like God, who is spirit? No, it meant that we were united with him in will. What God wanted, Adam and Eve wanted; what God didn’t want, they didn’t want. In the perfection of creation, as human beings held onto the image of God, everything between them and God was in perfect harmony.

You don’t have to keep reading far beyond our First Reading this morning to find that harmony disappearing. Once Adam and Eve thought they knew better than God, or were convinced that there was something better than what God had provided, they rebelled. In their rebellion, they brought sin, death, and decay to God’s perfect universe. What was designed to last forever now had an endpoint. The people God had specially made to be the crown of his creation and live in perfect harmony with him forever were now in a hostile relationship with him. Instead of caring for the world as the good stewards God intended, mankind would now abuse creation and show little respect for the Creator. Nothing was “very good” anymore. Everything was very, very bad.

But God had done something interesting on the seventh day of creation week. He rested and enjoyed the still-perfect creation. He blessed that seventh day and set it apart as special. We’re hundreds, even thousands of years away from God giving Moses his law at Mount Sinai. The Sabbath Day was not a rule carved in stone at creation. But that day of ordered rest would go back to that first seventh day of rest. God would say in the Ten Commandments, “Six days you are to serve and do all your regular work, but the seventh day shall be a sabbath rest to the LORD your God. Do not do any regular work … for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day” (Exodus 20:9-11).

That later sabbath rest had a purpose beyond giving weary bones some time to recover and a day to focus on their God and Savior. That Sabbath day of rest, that one day of rest out of the week, was a picture of the true rest that was to come. Jesus would come and bring rest. Jesus would come and make things right. Jesus would fix that sin by paying for it. Jesus would set our hostile relationship with God at peace. Jesus would restore the image of God that we lost in our sin, and put us back the way he had originally made us. The faith that the Holy Spirit gives to trust in the work the Son did to accomplish his Father’s will, that is the beginning of the restoration of the image of God inside us all. This, more than anything, is the clearest evidence of the Triune God’s love for us.

The rest that Jesus brought isn’t a temporary day of the week; Jesus’ rest is eternal. That’s the blessing that God has provided, even beyond the beauties and wonders of this world. Does God love you? Look at the world around you, masterfully designed by the all-powerful God. Does God love you? Look at the people he’s surrounded you with; flawed, yes, but all forgiven in Jesus’ blood. Does God love you? Look at the life he’s given you, and look at the life he gave up for you, to remove that scourge of sin.

God’s love means he gave us everything. God’s love means he gives it all back when we threw it away. God’s love means that we will be with him, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, forever in eternal life. While we’re here, enjoy the world God has made for you, but always keep your eyes eagerly awaiting the fulfillment of all the blessings he’s promised and given: eternal rest at peace away from sin; eternal rest in the prefect creation of God’s heavenly home; eternal rest, where we will lovingly have the Triune God’s image restored to us completely.

Come quickly, Lord, and save us! Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria