Genesis 1:2 - Homiletics

Chaos an emblem of the unrenewed soul.

I. WITHOUT ORDER : existing in a state of spiritual ruin, and requiting a special process of rearrangement to evolve symmetry and beauty from its confusion ( 2 Corinthians 5:16 ).

II. WITHOUT LIFE : being dead in trespasses and sins ( Ephesians 2:1 ); absolutely "void" in the sense of being untenanted by lofty thoughts, pure emotions, holy volitions, spiritual imaginations, such as are the inmates of sinless and, in great part also, of renewed souls.

III. WITHOUT LIGHT : shrouded in darkness ( Ephesians 4:18 ); walking, perhaps, in the sparks that its own fire has kindled ( Isaiah 1:11 ), but devoid of that true light which is from heaven ( John 1:9 ).

IV. Yet NOT WITHOUT GOD . As the Spirit brooded over chaos, so does God's Holy Spirit hover over fallen souls, waiting, as it were, for the forthcoming and insounding of the commanding word to introduce light, order, life.