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 was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:1–5, ESV
When most Christians want to tell someone else about the glorious Deity of Christ, they usually take them to John 1:1, where it says: “and the Word was God.” It is, without a doubt, a magnificent testimony to his deity, but that is not the only one in the prologue.
No. John the evangelist is by no means done exalting Jesus as God and maker. He is emphatic, continuing to belabor the point that Jesus is God when he writes in verse 3 that “All things were created through him.” This statement is comprehensive: Absolutely everything that has ever been made was made through Jesus Christ. All things that exist owe their existence to Jesus the Word. Without Him, there would be no men on the earth, no fish in the sea or birds in the sky, no world, nothing, not even light. Without the Word, God would be a mute still staring out at the formless void in Genesis 1:2, because nobody can speak without words. If they tried to, they would only utter chaos and destruction, an incomprehensible mess of nothingness. Nobody would want to live in a universe created by that. And thankfully, nobody does. God the Father established this universe together with His Son, who is the Word containing all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3; 1 Corinthians 1:24–30).
And to make sure his readers get the point that Jesus is uncreated, John continues with, “and without him was not anything made that was made.” Think about this. If Jesus is necessary to create anything, then He Himself cannot be created, because He couldn’t have been there to create Himself. You cannot create a tool if you need the same tool to create the tool. Likewise, the Father couldn’t create the Son if the Father needed the Son to create the Son. That is impossible. Nothing would ever have been created without Him. He is the essential instrument in the hand of the Father, the agent of creation by which all things were made, and everything holds together, sustaining our life from moment to moment (Hebrews 1:3).
The Apostle Paul says the same thing to the Colossians when he writes: “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. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:16–17). Paul breaks forth into praise. Simply declaring that Christ is the creator wasn’t enough for him. He had to go through and enunciate the various things in existence that have been made through Christ to highlight His preeminence and remove the slightest chance of confusion. Everything, from the most majestic mountain to the darkest ocean floor, from mightiest seraphim in heaven surrounding the throne of God and singing His praise, to the most wicked sinner languishing in the gutter and blaspheming God’s name, every man from Adam to you, everything and everyone, has been created through him and for him. There could not be an anymore explicit statement that Jesus Christ is uncreated and eternal. If anyone wishes to deny that Jesus Christ is God, they are doing so in direct opposition to the Word of God.
When the Bible speaks of creation, it usually speaks of the Father as the one “from whom” are all things and Jesus as the one “through whom” are all things, like in 1 Corinthians 8:6: “Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” They create together but they take on different roles.
In Genesis 1:26, there is a reference to their collaboration when God declares that “Let us make man in our image.” Creation is a collaboration between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each taking on different roles, everyone depending on each other. Their harmony is perfect (John 5:19). Imagine a painter drawing a painting. The Father is the artist, the Son is the brush, and the Spirit is the paint. Together, they can compose the most beautiful and creative works of art; without either of them, there wouldn’t be a single real painting. They rely on each other and fulfill each other in perfect unity.
Come and behold His masterpiece. In the middle, is the cross.
