This message was adapted from the CPH Lenten Series The Hand of the Lord for delivery to the people of Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Adell, WI.

The Hand of the Lord Who Made Us

Text: Genesis 1:1-2:3

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be

acceptable and pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.

          Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!]

Christ, the one through whom all things were created, has been raised! This is our Creator and Redeemer, at work for us!

Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!]

I find it very satisfying to make things with my hands. From turning a messy space into one that is functional to working on a car, from building a shelf to repairing something that was broken. I’d love to have more time in the shop to craft all the things that I see that I’d love to create with my tools. I imagine many of you are the same way. Because it involves intentionality and purpose to bring something to fruition. It’s very fulfilling to make something of beauty, order, and functionality out of this often-chaotic world in which we live.

From Genesis, we know that our Lord loves to create with order. He created the world in six days and rested on the seventh. But the Lord’s creative work is very different from our “creative” endeavors. Because God created everything out of nothing. There’s a Latin phrase for this that you’ve likely heard: ex nihilo, “out of nothing.” We, on the other hand, need something to work with: the raw materials and so on. But the Lord didn’t need any of that. Simply by speaking, He brought everything into existence. The last of His creatures was man, whom He formed in His own image from the dirt. “Male and female He created them.” to be the stewards of this creation. Humanity has meaning and purpose because God has made us with intention. And God made all of this out of nothing, ex nihilo.

Sadly, many people buy into the lie that this world is just the result of a series of accidents resulting from matter that has always existed. But if you follow that thinking to its logical conclusion, a world that wasn’t created with intention gives no absolute basis for the value of human life, truth, right and wrong, and certainly not beauty. That would be the opposite of our Lord, who created everything out of nothing, ex nihilo. It’s an attempt to uncreate this world, to make everything into nothing. There’s also a name for that. It’s called nihilism, essentially nothingism, and it devastates many in our fallen world.

But you are neither a mistake nor an accident of nature. Each one of you was made by our gracious Creator. Each one of you was made with intention and love. David writes this in Psalm 139, speaking to the Lord: “For You formed my inward parts; You knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works; my soul knows it very well.” The Lord has also formed and shaped you. He gave each of you a DNA set from the moment of conception. A heart that began to beat in the early weeks of life. Even your unique fingerprints started to form in the first trimester. The result of this creative process is right here before us in Antje. So small, and yet having been formed by God and nurtured throughout this last year in a way that only heightens our awareness of what God is capable of. As technology increases its capabilities of observation, the wonder and awe at God’s creation of the human body does not decrease. It increases! Each of you has been “knitted together” in your mother’s womb. You are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” That is God’s hand at work.

And He’s created us with a purpose and made us into stewards of His creation. It’s no wonder that the Lord has gifted us with the desire to make and fashion this world with order, function, and beauty. But even at its best, this desire has been marred by sin in this fallen world. The work of our hands has often become a burden. We can’t farm the land without the sweat of our brow. Our sin twists and distorts the creative endeavors of our hands into the desire to be more than creatures. Adam and Eve desired to be their own gods, and so do we. Our sin leads us to think that we can simply take things into our own hands and fashion ourselves according to our own plans, neglecting God’s created order. There’s a reason why this world is fallen. We’re the cause of it. Sin has been brought into God’s creation because our first parents thought they were better off being their own gods. It didn’t take long before Cain had the blood of his brother Abel on his hands. And today, we see the continued effects of sin as we treat each other without regard for the One who created us all. Lord, have mercy! We have so marred the image of God to make it unrecognizable. The work of sinful human hands, our hands, leads to death. And our hands are unable to fix it. Our attempt at re-creating paradise only leads to greater failure and exhaustion. Sabbath rest is out of our reach. Our only hope is that the hand of the Lord is still at work.

Our only hope is found in the Word of God. The Word made flesh as described in the Gospel of John. That Word is Jesus. Everything has been made through Him. He is the hand of the Lord at work. He took on real flesh-and-blood human hands in the incarnation. He became like one of us in every respect except sin. He is God in the flesh in all His creative power. He is the only One who has the ability to re-create this world that we’ve made into a chaotic mess.

Jesus has come to restore the image of God to us. Colossians 1 says Jesus “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” The image that was lost shortly after creation in the Garden of Eden. He took our humanity into His hands and died for us in order to redeem us. Everything Jesus did testifies to the fact that He is the beginning of a new creation that only God could make happen. He is the only One who can forgive sins. He did all the work that was necessary to atone for our sins on the cross on a Friday, the sixth day of the week. It was the day when He completed all that He had come to do. When He said, “It is finished,” there was nothing left to do. And then on Holy Saturday, the seventh day, the Sabbath, He rested from all His labor in the tomb. And thanks be to God that He did not stay in that tomb, but rose from the dead!

Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!]

He did it on a Sunday, for which we are now celebrating at the setting of the sun. Sunday is the eighth day, the first day of a new week. Sunday is the day of a new creation. For Christ’s resurrection is different from all the other times when people were raised from the dead in Scriptures. All those who were raised died again. But He rose from the dead to never die again. Christ’s resurrection is the beginning. For a day is coming when all of creation will be restored. The whole of creation will be renewed on the day of His return. Those who reject Him will be raised to judgment. But all who believe in Him will be raised to everlasting life!

How is it then that we believe? Until that day, God is still creating out of nothing. By the Word of God, which is outside of us, God speaks into our ears. He creates faith in people who were once far off. But this faith is not our work. It is merely the open hands that receive what He has accomplished. It’s all gift. Just as Paul says in Ephesians 2, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Faith itself is a gift and God’s work. Faith doesn’t look inward but always looks outward to God’s promises: His creating, redeeming, and sanctifying Word; His promises splashed on us in Holy Baptism as they were for Antje tonight. And His promises fed to us in Jesus’ body and blood at the Lord’s Supper, which we’ll receive tomorrow. We can never do enough to accomplish rest. But because of His work, we now live in Christ’s Sabbath rest, accomplished by the cross. Our salvation doesn’t depend on us in any way but solely on the work of Christ, the Word made flesh, God and man, for us!

Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!]

Paul continues in Ephesians 2, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” And now, as people redeemed by the work of His hand, we are His workmanship. Even the good works that we do come from Him. They follow faith. These good works are not a basis for our salvation, nor do they improve our standing before God in any way. For we are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. This changes everything. We have no need to justify ourselves by the work of our hands. Instead, God now uses our hands to do the “good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” He’s given us these good works, and He’s equipped our hands to love and serve our neighbors. And in this, our God, who has created, redeemed, and sanctified us, gets all the glory!

Which He deserves, because He has done all the work. The work of creating and sustaining us. The work of entering into our fallen humanity and showing His power to save. And on the cross, the work of salvation through His sacrificial death. And in the end, on that day when He returns, we will experience the fruits of His work, as we’re welcomed into our eternal rest in the presence of our Savior. This favor is ours because of the forgiveness of sins accomplished by Jesus, whose hands and feet and side were pierced for us. And who rose victorious over death and the grave.

Christ is risen! [He is risen indeed! Alleluia!] Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.