Three New Testament texts by different authors explicitly claim that Jesus is the creator of the cosmos. For some strange reasons I do not fully understand, many in the church have historically been uncomfortable with the claim and have found ways to blunt the force of the assertion:
John 1:1, 3, 14 ESV
[1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
[3] All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
[14] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Colossians 1:15-17 ESV
[15] He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. [16] For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. [17] And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Hebrews 1:1-3 ESV
[1] Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, [2] but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. [3] He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
The contexts vary slightly, but the authors are quite explicit in their assertion that Jesus is the agent of creation. John says that all things were made through the Logos, and that without him nothing was created. Paul says to the Colossians, who were under external pressure to kowtow to inferior beings, that all things, visible and invisible, were created by Jesus. The Greek text is unambiguous. Paul employs three different prepositions to claim that Jesus is the sphere, agent, and purpose or goal of creation. The scholarly consensus is that Paul did not write Hebrews. If that is correct, we have another early source saying the universe was created through Jesus; more than that, Jesus upholds the universe. I suspect that part of the difficulty might be the through language. Whatever the author of Hebrews meant by this language, when we read his claim in light of the other two sources, it is unlikely he would deny the agency of Jesus as the creator. We shall return to this point. In this entry, I shall argue that the New Testament claim that Jesus is the creator is perfectly in line with the Hebrew Bible and poses no threat to Trinitarian doctrine.
Church practices have reinforced the idea that God the Father is the creator of the universe, but it is important to recall that Genesis itself does not make this claim. Genesis 1 says Elohim created the world, and Genesis 2 says Yahweh Elohim created the world (Genesis 2:4). In Trinitarian terminology, these divine labels do not uniquely refer to the Father. They present a divine agent creating without differentiating persons within the Godhead. So, the claims of John 1, Colossians 1, and Hebrews 1 are not in opposition to what Genesis says.
There is another issue worth addressing. As I have written elsewhere, the divine Father language is a unique New Testament reality that does not apply to the Hebrew Bible. Indeed, the Old Testament occasionally describes God as a father, but these uses do not carry the same sense as those in the New Testament. Consider the following instances:
Deuteronomy 32:6 ESV
Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?
This text applies explicitly to the ancient Israelites. Though we often overlook a detail the Hebrew Bible repeatedly stresses, Yahweh was not the God of the whole world after the calling of Abraham. He was the father of Israel only. Hence, “created” here is not in the same sense as the creation of the cosmos in Genesis but is restricted to the making of a descendant of Abraham. Here is the immediate context of this verse:
Deuteronomy 32:7-9 ESV
[7] Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father, and he will show you, your elders, and they will tell you. [8] When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. [9] But the LORD’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.
God “divided mankind” but chose Jacob (that is, Israel) as “his allotted heritage.” This act of choosing is what verse 6 above references. So, no, we may not extrapolate the use of “father” here to either the creation account in Genesis or the New Testament use of a similar language. The language here is covenantal, not ontological. This same use of the Father language is found in Isaiah:
Isaiah 63:16 ESV
For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.
Isaiah 64:8 ESV
But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
These verses refer to the establishmemt of the ancient Israelites. Here is another occurrence of the Father language:
2 Samuel 7:14-15 ESV
[14] I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, [15] but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you.
This ought to be straightforward. God is here assuring David that He will be kind to David’s son, Solomon. If Solomon were faithful, God would be to him a father. As explained elsewhere, Solomon was not a faithful son later in his years, and God judged him and his offspring for it. The “Father” language here does not map onto the New Testament’s use.
The Father Language in the New Testament
As argued elsewhere, Christians call God Father because of the Incarnation. Unlike the Old Testament’s uses of the Father language, the New Testament consistently emphasizes that God is the Father of Jesus Christ (e.g., Matthew 3:17, 17:5, John 20:17) and, derivatively, the Father of believers in Jesus. Christians refer to God as Father because Jesus introduced God as Father in the Gospels. This fact explains why we call God “Abba, Father” – a phrase that doubly names God as Father. Jesus introduced believers to a God who was his Father, and his followers used that language thereafter to refer to God (1 Corinthians 8:6, Romans 1:3-4, 2 Corinthians 1:3, Hebrews 1:5, 1 John 4:9, Ephesians 1:3). Hence, the New Testament sense of the divine fatherhood language is ontological: God played the role of a father in the conception of Jesus. That is what the incarnation is about. (See our fuller address of this matter here.)
Jesus as Yahweh
We argued in another blog entry that the New Testament portrays Jesus as Yahweh. (The argument is too lengthy to reproduce here. The reader should consult the entry here.) There are different ways the New Testament portrays Jesus as Yahweh. I will briefly share one major way they go about it: applying Old Testament passages about Yahweh to Jesus. For instance, Isaiah prophesied about the coming of Yahweh:
Isaiah 40:3
A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of Yahweh; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
The prophecy offers hope to the people in exile. Isaiah is saying that a clear path should be prepared in the wilderness so that Yahweh may appear and lead the people back to the promised land, just as he did with Joshua’s generation. Interestingly, Mark quotes this passage and applies it to Jesus:
Mark 1:1-3 ESV
[1] The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. [2] As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, [3] the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”
Mark has understood the text as saying Jesus is “the Lord,” Yahweh, whom Isaiah prophesied about. Jesus, of course, was the one John the Baptizer prepared the way for with his ministry. So, in Mark’s use, John is the one who prepared the way, and Jesus is cast in the role of Yahweh coming through.
In another example, the prophet Joel writes:
Joel 2:32
And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom Yahweh calls.
Everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh shall be saved. Yet, the Pharisee and Apostle Paul boldly applied this scripture to Jesus:
Romans 10:9, 13 ESV
[9] because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
[13] For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
The “name of the Lord” here refers to Jesus, as Peter told the highest Jewish legal authority on Scripture:
Acts 4:11-12 ESV
[11] This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone. [12] And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
So, two foremost Apostles of Jesus agree that only Jesus’ name saves. The implication is that Jesus is the Yahweh spoken of by Joel. Indeed, Paul goes a step further in making the connection explicit. When he writes to the Philippians that Jesus was the recipient of the name that is above every name (Philippians 2:9,10), he was fleshing out this link. In a religious Jewish context, “the name that is above every name” is uncontestably Yahweh. That name is now merged with “Jesus,” so that when someone calls “Jesus,” they are calling Yahweh.
There are several other data points one could point to in this regard. New Testament authors use sophisticated Jewish-style hermeneutics to portray Jesus as Yahweh. For my purposes here, the examples above will have to suffice. Here is the point I am driving at: the fact that Genesis says Yahweh is the creator of the universe does not imply that God the Father is the referent, as popularly assumed. For some early Jewish followers of Jesus, the creator described in Genesis is Jesus! These disciples would have been familiar with texts like the following:
Psalm 102:1, 25 ESV
[1] Hear my prayer, O LORD; let my cry come to you!
[25] Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
Yet, they conclude that Jesus is Yahweh, the one who laid the foundation of the earth and created the heavens! Saying that Jesus is the creator does not necessarily mean the Father and the Spirit played no role. Some have suggested that the Father gave the command for creation, and Jesus executed it. The idea here is carving out a space where the Father is the ultimate explanation for creation. This is plausible – very likely, even. John says, “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand” (John 3:35 ESV). Certainly, for John, “all things” include creation itself. Also, the author of Hebrews states that the Father created the world through Jesus (Hebrews 1:1-2). Notice, however, that Jesus would still be the immediate agent of creation and the divine being described in Genesis as the creator. An analogy may help. Suppose I contract the construction of a house to a competent builder, and he delivers it according to my desires. It would not be wrong for me to say in conversations that I built the house the way I wanted. But, of course, the immediate builder is the contractor. I am only mediately the builder in that I provided instructions for the construction.
Creation, Jesus, and the New Creation
It is no accident that Jesus is at the center of the New Creation. He is completing what he started. The whole divine program was leading to the new creation. Hence, Jesus declares, “I am making all things new” (Revelation 1:5). Also, Jesus is the standard of the new humanity. Paul writes:
Romans 8:29 ESV
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
The human Jesus is now the standard that humanity must conform to in the new creation. He is the new reality believers are encouraging, using a clothing metaphor, to put on (Ephesians 4:24, Colossians 3:10, Romans 13:14). Also, since Jesus now has a resurrected body, faithful believers will also get incorruptible bodies (1 Corinthians 15:52, 53). Indeed, Jesus declares that he is the resurrection and life (John 11:25). His resurrection inaugurated the new creation.
There are many other descriptions of Jesus marking him as the center of the new creation. Hence, Jesus is the new, better, second, and last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45), he is the source of the new life (John 3:16-18, 11:25-26), he is the new temple (John 2:19, Ephesians 2:22-22, Revelation 21), he restores creation order (Colossians 1:20, Ephesians 1:10), his throne (and the Father’s) is the center of the renewed order (Revelation 22:3-4). These ideas inform such bold assertions as we have addressed and the following:
Hebrews 1:8 ESV
But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
The “Son” is said to be God with an eternal throne.
Conceivably, someone might argue that the New Testament is wrong in its interpretation of the Hebrew Bible. It is, however, of no use to pretend that the New Testament authors did not assert the claims they so unapologetically make. The authors make it very clear that Jesus is the creator. I repeat: saying that Jesus is the creator should not be understood as implying that the Father and the Spirit were unaware or played no role. There is perfect agreement and alignment in the Godhead. The Revelation text referenced above says:
Revelation 22:3 ESV
No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.
Notice that “throne” is singular. Two persons are sharing one throne, and Revelation 3:21 elucidates the point. Obviously, that only works if they are in full agreement. This is yet another way New Testament authors portray Jesus as Yahweh. Sharing the throne with the Father implies co-reign and co-authority. Here is one more example from Revelation:
Revelation 22:5 ESV
And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.
Revelation 21:23 ESV
And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.
So, who exactly lights the New Creation – Jesus or the Father? As far as John is concerned, it seems like a distinction with no difference. The Father or Jesus, as Maui says to Moana, “same difference.”
