And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. Genesis 1:24

In this scripture we see God once again talking about making new creations. Previously God had commanded that the waters be filled with creatures, and he commanded that the air be filled with birds, but here he commands that ‘the land’ create the living creatures. The land played a very different role; it was actually responsible for creating God’s new creations that would live within the land.

As we know, ‘land’ was always God’s picture of promise. He spoke to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob about it, and he redeemed Israel from Egypt so that they might inherit it. It was in the promised ‘land’ that everything was already prepared for them.

When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build,  houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied,  be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Deuteronomy 6:10-12

The ‘promised land’ was a place where everything was already prepared. A place where the foundations were already established; a place filled with all kinds of good things! The ‘promise land’ was one of the ways God led not only Israel, but now also the whole world into the far greater reality of ‘the land of promise’. As we know, the things found in the Old Covenant were all shadows, but the reality of all things is found in Christ. This is so true when we seek to understand the ‘Christ reality’ in context to God’s ‘promised land’.

Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Colossians 2:16-17

The reality is that we have now entered into the heavenly land of promise; the land where everything has already been prepared for us; a place where the foundations have already been laid on our behalf; a place filled with Good things! That land it Christ Jesus Himself! Living in Christ is the reality of God’s ‘promise land’, and it is for this reason that Jesus, who is ‘the land’, was giving the responsibility from God to create us NEW in Him, so that we could inherit all that is His!

Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Romans 8:17

How glorious that we were made in Christ and we now live freely in him, where we receive all the blessings that come from being created in the land of promise!

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Ephesians 1:3

And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day. Genesis 1:23

In my previous Genesis post I discussed how in the fifth day God encouraged his creation to be fruitful and increase. It was in the fifth day that God introduces the idea that His creation could actually ‘be fruitful’.

Considering that the number five is the biblical number for grace, I think it is significant that God first talked about ‘being fruitful’ in the fifth day. Understanding the symbolic meaning of the number five, we could say that God first talked about ‘being fruitful’ in His grace!

The reality, that we greatly rejoice in, is that we don’t bear fruit simply because God has commanded us to do so; rather we bear fruit because we are planted in His grace. Just as Jesus Himself told us;  the sole reason we will bear much fruit is because we are in Him! It is a complete work of grace.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. John 15:5

God was preaching the good news to us in advance throughout the entire first chapter of Genesis, and we can see Him doing it again here. It was ‘in the fifth day’ that God encouraged his creation to be fruitful and grow, just as it is ‘in His grace’ that He encourages His children today.

We don’t need to ever fear we are failing God, or not being fruitful enough for him, because we understand that being fruitful is not dependant on our own will power and determination, but rather dependant on His grace. Praise God that we are now living in His grace, we stand in His grace and we will also bear much fruit by His grace, all to the glory of God!

Through Jesus we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:2

God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” ²³ And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day. Genesis 1:22-23

In the Genesis account, we see that God was not only interested in creating, but He was also interested in allowing His creation to participate in the divine outworking of His plans. God allowed all his creations the blessedness of being fruitful and increasing. He first created everything according to its own kind, and then, once that divine work was completed, He graciously offered his creation the gift of being an active part of His continual work.

So what about us? We too have been made a new creation by God, so how does God allow us to participate in the outworking of His divine plan? Genesis reveals to us that it’s all interconnected with what ‘kind’ each particular creation was made according to.

The fish were made according to their kind, so they increased in their kind. Likewise the birds were made according to their kind, so they increased in their kind. So before we think about how God wants us to be fruitful and increase, we need to remember what ‘kind’ we have been made in accordance with, and praise God that we have been made not according to the fish, or the birds, or Adam, but according to Jesus! By the grace of God, Jesus is our kind!

So if we have been made in accordance with Jesus, then it is Jesus that God desires us to increase it and be fruitful in. We have entered into Christ, and we are all now new creations with an eternal and glorious inheritance, but God has also given us a wonderful gift to participate in his continual work here on earth.

We can participate in God’s continual work by being fruitful and growing, but how does that actually happen? The Apostle Paul testifies to us that it is not through trying to bear fruit, or trying with all your willpower to be better; rather it is something so much more wonderful and Christ glorifying: it is by understanding God’s grace in all its truth!

All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth. Colossians 1:6

When we take the time to rest with God and allow the Holy Spirit to share more of the wonderful good news of God’s grace, we truly begin to experience the Christ life bearing fruit in us! Remember, the fruit of the Spirit is exactly that; it is the fruit of the Spirit; it is not the fruit of our willpower! We can be confident that the Spirit will produce the fruit that is in accordance with the person of Jesus, when we rest in Christ and allow ourselves to grow in our understanding of God’s grace in all its wonderful truth.

As Christians, it’s important to remember that ‘increasing’ is not about increasing your abilities, or your spiritual disciplines; it is about increasing in your understanding of God’s grace and growing in the knowledge of who Jesus truly is. Just as the Apostle Peter testifies to us as his final words to the church, God desires that we increase in the knowledge of Jesus, and the grace of God that has been given to us through Him.

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen. 2 Peter 3:18

So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Genesis 1:21

It is clear from the account of Genesis that when God creates something, he creates it according to its kind. In the scripture above God is talking about every living and moving thing in the water, all of whom were created by God according to their kind. Likewise, every winged bird was created according to its kind.

It’s amazing that everything in creation has a pattern that it was made in accordance to. It seems God wanted to make it blatantly clear that everything that lives and moves has a source by which it was created. God Himself testifies that He finds this to be a good thing.

It’s no coincidence that we have been made like Jesus, not just made in His likeness, actually made in Him, we were made a new creation by His very own blood and through His very own body!

God has always known that the only way for mankind to truly live in freedom with God, and experience the life of God within them, was for them actually be made according to the life of God Himself, who is Jesus.

Through Jesus all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. John 1:3

Even when God originally made man in His image, as he did with Adam, it was not enough for man to truly be free and live in perfect union with God. Adam was made in the image of God, but he was still made from the dust of the earth; this is why God said about Adam:

By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” Genesis 3:9

Adam was made from the dust, and so according to his kind, to the dust he was to return. We however, as the Church, have not been made by the dust, but by the very person of Jesus Himself, and that is why we will return to Him and live with Him forever!

We were like Adam, but praise God that we are no longer like him; we can rejoice that we were not made a new creation with dust, but rather with the precious blood of Jesus!

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Corinthians 5:17

We have been made according to Jesus, and that is why we partake in His life and can live in accordance with who He is! God has created everything with a pattern that would ultimately reveal this wonderful gospel truth to His church even in the opening chapter of Genesis. He did this so that we may take confidence that we were made according to the person of Jesus, and so we are pleasing to our Father and can live in perfect union with Him.

We can now live without fear and walk confidently, knowing that any good work good has prepared for us to do will be done in accordance with the grace of God he has placed in us.  Praise God that we were created in Christ!

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.