Through the Law, God will reveal our sin. Through obedience to the Law, God will fulfill all righteousness on our behalf. And by His grace, God will not only save us, but He will give us totally new hearts that love Him and, in a surprising twist, are finally able to obey Him in a way we never could have dreamed of before.

Douglas Adams opened his second book in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, Restaurant at the End of the Universe, with that famous line, “”In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.” Indeed, many people seem quite angry over their very existence and filled with rage towards their Creator. They see sin, death, pain, suffering, and hardship, and ask the question, “Is it really supposed to be this way?”

Some, of course, will suggest that this is just the way things have always been, and things always will be this way. But this is what we call the “Is-Ought Fallacy,” which suggests that just because something is a particular way currently, it ought to be that way forever. Scripture, however, paints a remarkably different picture within the Pentateuch, and especially within the opening chapters of Genesis.

The Law and Grace Motif of Creation

The very act of God creating the cosmos was itself an act of divine love and grace. He did not need to create anything. He was sufficiently satisfied within Himself as the Triune God. The Father, Son, and Spirit needed nothing and no one else. Yet, as church fathers like Augustine pointed out, the love of the Triune God overflowed in such a way that, in order to glorify Himself and permit others to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps. 34:8), God graciously created humanity. Yet, He does not merely create mankind and say, “Best of luck. Figure it out.” No, we instead see that God carefully constructs a world for mankind to inhabit, brimming with light, life, and beauty. The first five days of Creation prepare the earth to receive the man who will rule over her.

While we see indelible marks of God’s grace in the Creation account, we also see Law. When God creates Adam, He gives the first man a list of commandments to carry out. 1. Work (take dominion of) the earth; 2. Keep (defend and protect) it; 3. Do not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (Gen. 2:15-17). If the man would fail to do this, the Lord promised he would surely die.

Thus, God’s Law was solidified, even as His grace was made known. So, after Adam and Eve sinned, God did not abandon mankind to a hopeless death. Rather, God extended grace once more and promised, in Genesis 3:15, that a seed would come who would crush the devil beneath His feet and put an end to the curse of sin and death. While mankind would now experience hardship, suffering, and death because Adam as our representative and federal head before God had sinned and brought condemnation upon us all, God would graciously provide a way of salvation. A Savior would come.

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