8、创造 神是造物主CREATION GODIS THE CREATOR
《简明神学》Concise Theology: A Guide to
Historic Christian Beliefs，巴刻（J. I. Packer）著/張麟至译，更新传道会，2007年。
8、创造
神是造物主
耶和华啊，你所造的何其多；都是你智慧造成的；遍地满了你的丰富。（诗104:24）
神是造物主
耶和华啊，你所造的何其多；都是你智慧造成的；遍地满了你的丰富。（诗104:24）
「起初神创造天地。」（创1:1）他以命令创造天地，并没有使用任何先存的材料。他决定要万有存在（「要有…….」），万有就存在了，并且按着次序形成它们。万有的存在是倚靠神的旨意而有的，且有别于神的存在。父、子、灵都一同在创造里有份（创1:2；诗33:6,9；148:5；约1:1-3；西1:15-16；来1:2；11:3）。当注意的要点如下：
(1)创造之工于我们乃是奥秘，远超过我们所能明瞭的。我们不能以命令创造，我们不能明白神如何能。
当我们说神「由无生有」时，就是认信这项奥秘，而不解释它了。说得清楚一点，我们也想不透：凭藉神而有的存在又如何成为与神有所区分的存在；我们也不明白：天使与人类都是凭藉神而有的存在，又如何不是机器人，而是能作自由抉择的受造物，使他们可在道德上向他们的造物主负责。圣经处处教导我们，事情就是这样。
(2)时、空是受造状态的维度，神却不「在」其中，神也不像我们要受时空的束缚。
(3)正如这世界的状态不是自我创造的，它也不像神一样是自我维持的。
这宇宙的稳定度乃是倚靠神恒常地托住它；这尤其是神子特定的职事（西1:17；来1:3）；否则各种受造之物，包括我们自己，就早已不存在了。正如保罗告诉雅典人说：“「神」……自己倒将生命、气息、万物，赐给万人……我们生活、动作、存留，都在乎他。”（徒17:25,28）
(4)创造性的介入是可能的（例如：有创造能力的神迹；藉着人的生殖活动而生下人；重生时重新定位人心以及重新导引人的欲求与精力），这和宇宙本身一样的古老。
就神过去施行造物之工的角度来看，在神托住万有的活动中，究竟他还有没有继续创造新的事物，这不是我们所能知晓的；但是我们可以确定，这世界对神仍是敞开的，容许他在任何时刻以创造的大能来介入。
认识神创造了环绕我们的世界，而我们自己也是其中的一部分，这乃是真宗教的基本。因为神造物工作奇妙的秩序、变化和美丽，人当赞美神为造物主。诗篇，如第一百零四篇，是这种赞美的楷模。人当信靠他为至高无上的耶和华，他有统管一切时间与其命运的永恒计划，无物例外；他有能力救赎、新造与更新。当我们纪念我
们所信靠的乃是那位全能的造物主时，这样的信靠就显得十分合理了。明白我们是时时刻刻倚靠创造主神，才得以存在，将帮助我们过一个敬拜神、委身于他、感谢他、对他忠诚而不羞辱他的生活。敬虔由此开始：至高无上的创造主神是我们心思的第一焦点。
CREATION
GOD IS THE CREATOR
How many are
your works, O LORD! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your
creatures. PSALM 104:24
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth” (Gen. 1:1). He did it by fiat, without any preexisting material; his resolve that
things should exist (“Let there be...”) called them into being and formed them in order
with an existence that depended on his will yet was distinct from his own. Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit were involved together (Gen. 1:2; Pss. 33:6, 9; 148:5; John 1:1-3; Col.
1:15-16; Heb. 1:2; 11:3). Points to note are as follows:
1. The act of creation is mystery to us; there is
more in it than we can understand. We
cannot create by fiat, and we do not know how God
could. To say that he created “out of
nothing” is to confess the mystery, not explain it.
In particular, we cannot conceive how
dependent existence can be distinct existence, nor
how angels and human beings in their
dependent existence can be not robots but creatures
capable of free decisions for which
they are morally accountable to their Maker. Yet
Scripture everywhere teaches us that
this is the way it is.
2. Space and time are dimensions of the created
order; God is not “in” either; nor is he bound by either as we are.
3. As the world order is not self-created, so it is
not self-sustaining, as God is. The stability
of the universe depends on constant divine
upholding; this is a specific ministry of the divine Son (Col. 1:17; Heb. 1:3), and without it
every creature of every kind, ourselves included, would cease to be. As Paul told the
Athenians, “he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.... In him we live and
move and have our being” (Acts 17:25, 28).
4. The possibility of creative intrusions (e.g., miracles
of creative power; creating new persons through human procreative activity;
reorienting human hearts and redirecting human desires and energies in regeneration) is as
old as the cosmos itself. How far God in his upholding activity actually continues to create
new things that cannot be explained in terms of anything that went before, it is beyond
our power to know; but certainly his world remains open to his creative power at every
point.
Knowing that God created the world around us, and
ourselves as part of it, is basic to true religion. God is to be praised as Creator, by
reason of the marvelous order, variety, and beauty of his works. Psalms such as Psalm 104 model
this praise. God is to be trusted as the sovereign LORD, with an eternal plan covering
all events and destinies without exception, and with power to redeem, re-create and
renew; such trust becomes rational when we remember that it is the almighty Creator
that we are trusting. Realizing our moment-by-moment dependence on God the Creator for
our very existence makes it appropriate to live lives of devotion, commitment,
gratitude, and loyalty toward him, and
scandalous not to. Godliness starts here, with God
the sovereign Creator as the first focus of our thoughts.
