The Role of the Son Within Redemptive History: The Work of Creation

How does the Son fulfill his role along side the Father and Holy Spirit in the stage of creation?  First of all, we understand that the Father is the primary member of the Trinity who creates and speaks the world into existence (Genesis 1:1, Hebrews 11:3, Hebrews 1:2).  Genesis 1:1 says, “God created the Heavens and the Earth.”  Although, beginning in Genesis 1:2, we find our first reference to a Trinitarian Creator-God with a reference to the Holy Spirit; we find our second reference to a Trinitarian God in Genesis 1:26 stating, “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness (emphasis added)’”.  With the unfolding of Scripture through a progression of redemptive history we come to note three things about the role of the Son within the stage of creation:

1) The Father created the cosmos through Jesus, the Son.  First of all, John says in John 1:1-3 about the deity of Jesus, “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 came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”  There is specific comparison to the wording John uses here that is also used in Genesis 1:1 concerning the creation of the world.  Instead of “In the beginning God created,” John has “In the beginning was the Word.”  This locates Jesus’ existence in eternity past with God and sets the stage for John’s lofty Christology.[1]  Other passages that speak of the Father creating the world through the Son are Colossians 1:16 and Hebrews 1:2.

2) Jesus, the Son, is the sustainer and upholder of the entire cosmos.  Not only is Jesus the instrument that the entire cosmos was created by, but he is the same instrument that sustains the cosmos as well.  The author of the epistle to the Hebrews says in Hebrews 1:3 that Jesus ‘upholds the universe by the word of his power.’  The author of Hebrews also says concerning the Son that he is the ‘heir of all things; the instrument the Father used when he created the world; the radiance of the Father’s glory; and the exact representation of the Father’s nature.’  This glorious and powerful description of the Son’s preeminence is central to a proper understanding of redemptive history.  He is the heir; he is the one the world was created through, he is radiance of Father’s glory; and he is the exact representation of the Father’s nature.  This poetic imagery of Christ upholding the vastness of the universe is also mentioned in Colossians 1:15-20,

He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation.  For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created through Him and for Him.  He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.  He is also head of the body, the church and He is the beginning, the first born from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.  For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. 

Paul’s famous theological treaty of the preeminence of Christ is very rich with creation language.  First of all, Paul references that Christ is the ‘image of the invisible God,’ alluding back to Genesis 1:27 where man was created in the image and likeness of God.  Paul’s language here is virtually identical to the “sonship” language used elsewhere in Genesis 5:1-4 as Adam’s ‘image-bearing’ likeness to God the Father implies that Adam was God’s son.[2]  When Adam’s son was born, Adam was said to be the “father of (a son) in his own likeness and according to his own image.”[3]  The ‘image’ language Paul uses here implies that Jesus is God’s son, as Adam was God’s son, but Paul goes further in saying that this ‘son’ is the “firstborn of all creation.”  This reference in the second line of 1:15 as the “firstborn of all creation” highlights further the idea that he was an Adamic figure and “son” of God.[4]  G.K. Beale says this concerning this Adamic comparison, “By a similar application, Christ is the last Adam, who is the “firstborn,” not only of all humanity in the new creation (see discussion of Colossians 1:18 below), but also of  ‘all [things in the old] creation.’”[5]  In verse 16-17, Paul gives another reference to Christ being the instrument the world was created through, but Paul goes further in stating that not only were all things created through him but also all things were created for him and in Him all things hold together. 

3) Jesus, the Son, is the Creator of the entire cosmos.  Paul acknowledges here that Christ is the sovereign creator of the entire world, giving uniqueness to his ‘oneness’ with the Father.  Paul seems to be stating two things here that are of equal importance: 1) Jesus, the son, is the perfect and divine Creator of all things, who is separate of and sovereign over all which he has created, and 2) Christ perfectly embodies the ruling position that Adam and his flawed human successors should have held.[6]

 

---

[1]Beale, G.K., and D.A. Carson Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing, 2007), 421.

[2]Ibid., 851.

[3]Ibid.

[4]Ibid., 853.

[5]Ibid.

[6]Ibid., 854.