Day 3: Jesus Is the Creator

Day 3: Jesus is the Creator

Prayer:

Our Father in heaven, it was through Jesus, the Word made flesh, that You created all that is. As we look at all the wonders of the created universe and the beauties and marvels of the world in which we live, open our eyes to see the imprint of His fingers.  Amen.

Primary Scripture:

John 1:1-3: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

In Genesis 1 the Bible gives us a glimpse into the creation of the world and the universe: “And God said . . . And God said . . . And God said . . ." All that God made was made through the spoken Word. That spoken Word was Christ, the creative power of God. Through Christ, God not only created all that is, but both Colossians 1 and Hebrews 1 tells us that Christ holds everything together, sustaining all that is. That mysterious power holding atoms together still baffles scientists today, but the Bible gives the answer: it is Christ. In Christ all things consist, or hold together. The topical lexicon on biblehub.com calls it “Christ’s cosmic cohesion.” It goes on to say that this word “supports a robust doctrine of providence: creation is neither autonomous nor random; it coheres because Christ actively ‘holds’ it.” The tense of the verb in Colossians 1:17 denotes a past action that has ongoing, continuous results. In Hebrews 1:3, Christ is the one sustaining, upholding, bearing up all things by the word of His power.

 The more we study science and any aspect of the created universe, the more we see the unmistakable imprint of Christ and of God; for Christ was and is God. God embedded spiritual truth and spiritual metaphors into all of nature in the universe and in our world. The whole Bible constantly uses illustrations from creation to help us grasp who God is (wind, water, snow and rain, rock, etc.); and Jesus uses all parts of creation as metaphors of Himself and our spiritual lives (a grapevine, a seed of wheat, a lamb, etc.) When we study the natural world, we are not just studying physical things; we are also studying the character and workings of God. To create this multi-level, multi-dimensional world that interfaces the natural/physical with the spiritual is sheer genius!

Through scientific discovery and exploration, we uncover God's infinite wisdom and knowledge and power. I Corinthians 1:24 says that Christ is both the wisdom of God and the power of God. Proverbs 8:12-36 personifies wisdom in the creation process, using phrases that are true of Christ: “I have been established from everlasting, from the beginning, before there was ever an earth . . . When He prepared the heaven, I was there . . . I was beside Him as a master craftsman; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in His inhabited world, and my delight was with the sons of men.” Jesus is that Wisdom. He was the Master Craftsman. He is the One who delights in the wonder and beauty of the created world, especially delighting in us, people created in His own image. Proverbs 8 concludes with truths that find their echo in the words of Jesus in the Gospel of John: “Whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord, but he who sins against me wrongs his own soul; all those who hate me love death” (Proverbs 8:35-36; compare with John 3:16-21.)

Jesus Christ is the creative Genius behind both the physical world and the spiritual world. In the beginning He created the heavens and the earth and all things in them; in the new creation the Word of God creates a spiritual world within our hearts. Although the creation story in Genesis 1 is literal and physical, it is also metaphoric; and this is the genius of God: “For the God who called light to shine out of darkness has caused His light to shine in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Corinthians 4:6). When a person receives Christ as Savior and Lord, it is God speaking His creative Word, Jesus Christ, into the heart, creating light where once there was only darkness. He then begins to fill that person’s heart with the beauties of the heavenly realm. For Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21). He is in the process of creating a whole new world within us, one that reflects His glory and grace.

One day the Word of God will again create a literal, physical new heaven and new earth, a whole new tangible reality (II Peter 3:13, Revelation 21:1).  In this new reality, all that God desired for creation will be fully realized: no more death, no more sorrow, no more crying, no more pain, no more curse, no more darkness. All those former things will have passed away (Revelation 21:4; 22:3, 5). All things will be made new, a new genesis, a new beginning (Revelation 21:5).

But Hebrews 1 tells us that Jesus is not just the Creator of the physical and spiritual realms, He is also the Creator of history. The word translated worlds in Hebrews 1:2 is the Greek word aeons from which we get our word eons, or ages. The unfolding of historical ages is also His creative genius. Just as the physical creation is embedded with the imprint of Christ and speaks of spiritual truths; so also the historical creation is embedded with the imprint of Christ and speaks of spiritual truths.

When God spoke the first words, “Let there be light,” He was pointing to what Christ would do in our hearts. When God shut the door of the ark, He was revealing the safety we would have in Christ from the wrath of holy judgment against sin. When Abraham was told to sacrifice Isaac, it was more than a literal event testing Abraham’s faith; God was seeing down the long line of history to the sacrifice of Christ, His one and only beloved Son. When Joseph was rejected by his brothers and later exalted to the highest rank as ruler over Egypt, his life story was foretelling what would happen to Jesus (Philippians 2:5-11). When God told the people of Israel to kill the Passover Lamb and put the blood on the doorposts of their houses, He saw another Lamb who would be slain on a cross. On and on the scroll of time unrolls, revealing the mysteries of Christ.

This is why Luke could write, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He explained to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). Jesus told the religious leaders who refused to believe in Him, “You search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life, but these are they which testify of Me” (John 5:39).  And after His resurrection He said to His disciples, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets, and the Psalms concerning Me.”

The Bible, the created universe and world, and the entire history of the world—it’s all about HIM! Jesus is the Creator of the physical, spiritual, and historical realms. Those baby fingers

of the little One swaddled in the manger, are the same fingers that flung such incomprehensible vastness into existence and hand-fashioned the first man, molding him out of clay. Those hands that were nailed to a cross, are the same as those that orchestrate all of history. As you learn about and study science and history, constantly ask this question: What does it tell me of Christ?

Family Worship: Reflect on the mysteries of Christ revealed in history, which include past creation, present spiritual growth, and future promises as well as the unfolding of history. In what ways do you see the truths and beauty of Christ is the world around us? What do the things in creation tell you about God? In what specific events do you see His hand in history? What spiritual truths has Christ taught you? And in what ways do you see Christ building His Kingdom in your own life?

Spend a few minutes as a family in prayer worshiping God for His creative Word: the past creation and beauty of His original design (Genesis 1), the present wonder of the Kingdom of God being created within us, and the future Blessed Hope we look forward to of a new heaven and new earth. Praise the Creator for all that is, for it all reveals Christ to us.

Jesus Christ: the Creator and Sustainer and Cohesion of the universe; the Wisdom, Knowledge, and Power of God; the Word through whom all things were spoken into existence, the One reflected in all created things, the sovereign Creator and Designer of history, and the One to whom all history points.

Other Related Scriptures:John 1:10-11: He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

Colossians 1:15-17: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist [or: in Him all things hold together].

Hebrews 1:1-3: God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds (aeons = ages/eons); who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding [sustaining] all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat dow

n at the right hand of the Majesty on high.