We Believe In Jesus: The RedeemerSample

Christ’s Role in Creation: Colossians 1:16

When Christians talk about God creating the world, our minds normally go to the person of God the Father. But Scripture teaches that the Son was at the Father’s side during creation, and that the Father created the world by or through him. These facts are taught in places like John 1:1-3 and Hebrews 1:2.

When we think about God the Son being the creator of the universe, the passage that comes to mind is in Colossians 1, which is a rich passage, and it reminds us that all things were made by him, all things were made for him, and in him all things hold together, and it gets to the real practical part. What that means is that we can be confident that the same one who fashioned and shaped this creation and who sustains it through some combination of natural law and his own divine will, that this one here at ground level knows what it is we’re going through as part of that creation and as re-created by his spirit. So there is a blessing of connectedness with God’s original purpose and God’s provision today. – Dr. James D. Smith, III

For instance, consider what Colossians 1:16 has to say about the Son’s involvement in creation:

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible … all things were created by him and for him.

In this passage, Paul explicitly said that creation was accomplished “by” the Son, or as some translations put it, “through” him. 

Interestingly, the Bible’s narrative of creation doesn’t begin with a focus on what happened before the creation of the heavens and the earth. Instead, it spends its time talking about how God ordered and filled the universe in ways that pleased him — in ways that were in keeping with his eternal plans for the universe.