The word genesis means beginning. That makes Genesis a fitting title for the first book of the Bible, because its pages take us back to the beginning of everything. Here we read of the beginning of creation, man, sin, family, culture, and industry. In one way or another, Genesis opens the door to nearly every major theme that will unfold through the rest of Scripture.

Yet for all that Genesis begins, it does not tell us the beginning of God.

Why?

First, because God has no beginning.

Second, because the Bible is, in a sense, God’s autobiography, and He needs no introduction. Think about it. If you were writing your life story, you would not spend chapter after chapter trying to prove you exist. The very fact that you were writing would be evidence enough. In the same way, the Bible opens with simple majesty: “In the beginning God…”There is no argument offered, no defense made, no explanation given. God simply is.

The more one studies the Bible, the more astonishing its unity becomes. Though made up of sixty six books, written by about forty authors, over roughly sixteen hundred years, in three different languages, it holds together with a remarkable harmony. Rather than contradiction, there is continuity. Rather than confusion, there is one unfolding message.

And that message begins here in Genesis, the Book of Beginning, and stretches all the way to Revelation.

It is the story of God’s gracious and glorious work of redemption.