What was the raw material or the states of things when God began to create the original creation? The incomplete planet is described in Genesis 1:2 as useless or “without form” as a desert in Dt. 32:10 which is uninhabited. The earth was also lifeless. The planet at this stage was covered with darkness and water. So the planet in verse two was useless, lifeless, and covered in darkness. “Darkness” in Scripture does not always mean evil as here and in Psalm 104:19-24 where the darkness of night is seen as a blessing from God for which he is to be praised.
The planet at this stage is full of potential. How did God bring this raw material to its full potential? With this raw material, the great Potter formed the earth and then man out of the dust of the earth. First, the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and then God spoke his first creative words in Gen. 1:3 and day by day for six days God removed the incompleteness and deficiencies of earth.
Paul draws an analogy between the incomplete earth and the sinner before salvation in 2 Cor.4:3-6. The sinner before salvation was also useless, lifeless (Eph. 2:1), and in darkness (Eph. 4:18). But then “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). How did God do this work in the sinner’s life? The same as He did with the useless, lifeless, and in darkness planet. The Spirit of God moved on the sinner’s life (John 16:8) when God’s Word was spoken or preached (Rom. 10:17).
Paul himself, as Saul of Tarsus in Acts 9, is an illustration. Saul, on the road to Damascus, in his spiritual uselessness, lifelessness, and darkness, was struck to the ground by a light that was brighter than the noon day sun. That light was Jesus Christ the Son of God who was and is the Light of the world. As you and I witness the Word of God to unregenerate sinners, God’s Spirit will work at opening satanically blinded eyes so the Creator of the universe can once again create a new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).
Helen Keller was both blind and deaf. Her world was only darkness and touch. Anne Sullivan, who was partially blind most of her life, began to tutor Helen Keller when she was seven years old. Anne would spell words in the palm of Helen’s hand and let her touch that object. For example, Anne spelled d-o-l-l in Helen’s palm while Helen felt the doll Anne had given her. Anne spelled w-a-t-e-r in Helen’s palm while her other hand was under a water spicket. At that moment as Kevin J. Vanhoozer noted, “the mystery of language was revealed.” Helen Keller wrote in her autobiography: “I knew then that ‘w-a-t-e-r’ meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. The living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free’” (The Story of My Life. New York, 1988, 18). Vanhoozer observed, “Helen’s teacher, a miracle worker like the Holy Spirit, ministered the word and brought understanding” (First Theology: God, Scripture, and Hermeneutics. Downers Grove: IVP, 123).