Practicing Christian Doctrine: An Introduction to Thinking and Living Theologically

by Beth Felker Jones

Creation is good because it is the good work of the triune God. It is not nature’s beauty—dappled sunlight falling through leaves, rolling ocean waves, the intricacies of genes—that comprises the reality of created goodness. If that were the case, creation’s goodness would be undone by the ugliness of a hurricane, a predatory creature, or a damaging mutation. Nor is it the good things that human beings do—designing buildings, baking confections, or loving children—that secures the goodness of creation. If that were the case, creation’s goodness would be undone by the building of bombs, the misuse of resources, or the terrible abuses we human beings inflict on one another. In the Christian life, the goodness of creation is a present, living, and unshakable reality because God is the author and goal of it. Because, in Julian’s words, “God loves it,” we too must recognize and love the good of all God has made. We confess creation’s goodness because it is the work of a good God who called it good and reveals that goodness to us. We see that goodness in the sevenfold “good” of the first chapter of Genesis, and we see it throughout Scripture. Even as the sinful nations rebelled, God never “left himself without a witness in doing good—giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filling you with food and your hearts with joy” (Acts 14:17). In Christ, we are to receive creation with thanksgiving.