God created the world, as Webster wrote, out of “supreme generosity.” Even though God displays His glory in salvation and condemnation, we should not forget that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17). Though not all human beings reach this goal, it is a divine focal point of creation through the Word and in the Word’s mission in becoming flesh.

Goals matter to us. Whether asking big questions such as “What is the meaning of life?” or little questions such as “What should I do today?,” we always have purpose looming in the back of our minds. Regardless of whether our life goals are good or bad, well thought out or underdeveloped, human beings are teleological creatures—we can’t escape asking, “What is the meaning of everything we do?” As a pagan philosopher, Aristotle insightfully began his book on ethics by arguing that every action needs to have an end or goal to hold any value, and that every end must draw toward a unifying primary end, or the significance of all lesser ends is lost. The reason that people have asked such questions is that we are made in God’s image, and God Himself does what He does on purpose. Our quest for purpose and meaning in life reflects the fact that God created the world and sustains life with a goal in view. As sinners, we often struggle to find our way: “He has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end” (Eccl. 3:11). Yet God knows “the end from the beginning . . . , saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’” (Isa. 46:10).

God creates the why as well as the what of creaturely existence. The puzzling question, however, is, “Why did the eternal, self-sufficient, independent, immutable God choose to create the heavens and the earth?” The tempting, easy-way-out answer is, “Who knows?” It is equally easy to say, “For His own glory.” Though still not answering the question fully, we could say, and the church has often said, “Because God is goodness itself, and He freely chooses to communicate His goodness to others.” So why did God create? Surveying the testimony of Scripture, we can at least say that God created the world freely, to display His triune glory, and to communicate His goodness to creatures. These ideas are important because they establish a trajectory that should govern our chief end in life, funneling all our lesser goals toward God.

God Created the World Freely

Only God is necessary; creation is not. He is distinct from and independent of the world. Creation did not fulfill some kind of eternal neediness in God. He is not like created beings. Rather, He is a transcendent, self-existent, self-sufficient, independently blessed Being. Though God is the “dwelling place” of believers in time (Ps. 90:1), He is eternal, not subject to time. “From everlasting to everlasting you are God” (v. 2). He is not like the gods of myths and novels who happened to be there first or who have more power than other beings. Some creatures are more important and more powerful than others, but God is in a category of His own. If we climbed the ladder of being, from lesser to greater, we would not find God at the top. Even while He fills heaven and earth (Jer. 23:24), “heaven and the highest heaven” cannot contain Him (1 Kings 8:27). God must be God, independently and eternally, or He would not be God at all. He is necessary Being, and nothing else is.

This means that creation is a free act of God. Creation is ex nihilo, from nothing. We must untrain our minds from implicitly conceiving of nothing as something. God created the world by Himself, from Himself, and through Himself. This does not mean that ex nihilo creation somehow makes the world an extension of God, either as part of God or confining God to creation. Scripture opens with the words “In the beginning, God” (Gen. 1:1). He simply is, and all other things come to be. While arguing ultimately for the God-given dignity of creatures, the late theologian John Webster is a bit too hesitant to conclude that creation “humiliates the creature.” We are not humiliated in the sense that we don’t matter (which is his concern), but we are humiliated (i.e., humbled) in that we are dependent rather than independent beings. Creation is first about the God who does not need us or anything else, and we should avoid transforming a theology of creation into anthropology, making creation about us instead of God and His works. Our proper posture as creatures should be “What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Ps. 8:4). Let God’s name and glory be majestic in all the earth, and let us worship Him, humbly delighting by submissive faith in His superlative freedom.

God Created to Display His Triune Glory

God created the world to display His glory as triune. We need to grasp the what and how questions about creation before shifting to exploring the why questions. Webster notes well that “it is unwise to proceed directly to speak of creation as a trinitarian act” without first considering the Trinity Himself. Though we get far into the Bible’s story before God fully reveals Himself as triune in the Father’s sending the Son and the Spirit in Their missions to save His people (e.g., John 14:26; 15:26), Scripture’s divine Author gives us hints of His triunity along the way. Genesis 1:1–2 already introduces God and His Word and Spirit, and Psalm 33:6 says, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath [Spirit] of his mouth all their host.” Space does not permit a full exposition of the Trinity, but we need a summary of who God is as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to understand what He does in creation (and why He does it) from the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit.

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