Jesus as the Creator
Jesus as the Creator
Most people who are familiar with the Bible recognize God as the creator and that is certainly true. But not everyone recognizes that all three persons of the trinity were involved in creation. It wasn’t that God the Father created while God the Son and the Holy Spirit stood by as observers, but all three were active in creation. In fact, some verses indicate that if One were more active than the others, that One would have been the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In Colossians 1 we read: “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Col 1:16-17)
Genesis makes it clear that creation came by the word of God. He spoke the universe into existence, including our solar system, our planet and everything on it. The only thing that God did not specifically speak into existence was humanity. When God made the first human, He formed him out of the dust of the ground and then breathed into him His own Spirit. This makes us living beings, different from all the other living beings which He had spoken into existence. To Adam and Eve, He gave the spark of His own life which separates us from the plant and animal kingdom. So while we share many characteristics at the molecular level with all other life, including plants and a great deal of genetic similarity to animals, in particular the higher primates, people are different because we were created specially by God and formed in a unique way.
Let’s look at a parallel to Genesis, which indicates that is was by the word of God that the universe was formed, John 1:1 tells us: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” The “Word” that is referred to here is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. I don’t pretend to have this all figured out, but I can see a chain of revelation here. I can see that the book of Genesis reveals that God created things by His word. I can see that the Gospel of John reveals that Jesus Christ was the Word. And I can see in Paul’s writings that Jesus was the creator and sustainer of all things.
This is a good example of why it is dangerous to take one passage out of the Bible, isolate it, and declare “This is biblical truth.” In fact, we need the whole Bible in order to understand God’s whole message to us.
You may be asking yourself why it is significant to accept that Jesus was the creator? Perhaps the principle significance in this is that, in doing so, we understand that Jesus is truly God, just as we read in John that the word was God. We understand that creation is a divine act. Only God can create something out of nothing. Only God, an all powerful God, would be able to literally speak things into existence to give them material substance and form. So when we recognize Jesus as the Creator we are declaring that He truly is God.
The power to create is one of the divine attributes which can not be shared with another. Human beings can be creative. We can take materials and use them. We can use them as tools. We can take materials and synthesize new things from them. In this sense we are being creative. But only God is the Creator.
When we recognize that there is a creator, and that creator is God and specifically the Lord Jesus Christ, we realize that this is the one to whom we must give account for our lives. He is the one who made us and it is to Him that we will answer for what we have believed, said and done. That is why God the Father has relinquished to the Son the right to judge. Jesus is the one who created us. Jesus is the one to whom we will answer.
While Jesus is the Judge of all, we need to remember is that Jesus is also the one who can save us from judgement. He saves us by having become a substitute and dying in our place. The amazing thing is that the creator died in the place of the creature so that the creature could have a relationship with Him.
Here’s a good question to ask ourselves: “Do we know Jesus as the creator?” And, then, if we acknowledge Him as Creator, ask this followup question: “Do we know Him as Saviour or will we know Him as judge?”
Ron Hughes
© August 2006
