The Lord by wisdom founded the earth;
By understanding He established the heavens.
Prov. 3:19


Part 1 - Creation: The Foundation of the Gospel

Jesus the Creator

Jesus the Creator of the universe

While Genesis 1:1 states, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth," Scripture shows that the second person of the Godhood, Jesus, did the actual work of creation. Colossians 1:15-16 says of Jesus, "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." John the Apostle says of Jesus, "All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made" (John 1:3). The writer to the Hebrews attributes God the Father as saying to His Son, "You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands" (Heb. 1:10). Jesus accomplished the work of creation. He is preeminent in all of creation, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, as the Creator.

Jesus the Creator of Israel

Jesus has a part in another creation, the creation of the nation of Israel. The Bible uses the work of creation, a work that Jesus did, as a model of the work that God did in creating Israel. The writer to the Hebrews states, "For this One (Jesus) has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God" (Heb. 3:3-4). The difference in honor between Jesus and Moses is the difference between the Creator and the creation. He who builds a house, the creator of it, has more honor and glory than the house that is built, the creation. This is the measure in which Jesus is counted to be above Moses. Israel is the "house" that Moses was a part of. Jesus is the builder of that house.

Ancient Israel was created when Moses led the descendants of Jacob out of Egypt into the land of Canaan. They were slaves in Egypt, held in a bondage that became increasingly harder. After the first Passover, Moses led them through the Red Sea, the wilderness, and eventually to the borders of the land that God promised to give them. From there, Joshua led them into the new land where they became a nation. This deliverance is ascribed to the work and power of God. Their origins had been Canaan, where their ancestor Abraham was promised by God to be given the land. Since they were brought back to the land of promise, from a land of slavery, God is called their Redeemer. The creation of Israel is filled with types that point to the work of the Redeemer, Jesus.

Jesus the Creator of the Church

A third creation of Jesus Christ is the church. Paul the Apostle wrote, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:17-19). As the Redeemer, Jesus has created a people for God from those who are of a lost and fallen world.

As the author of this new creation, the church, Jesus said to Peter, "And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). Jesus is the rock, or massive foundation, that He builds the church upon, with Peter and the other apostles considered part of that foundation. Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 3:11, "For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." Again, in the epistle to the Ephesians, Paul writes, "Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone, in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord" (Eph. 2:19-21). Jesus is not only the Creator of the physical world and the Creator and Redeemer of Israel, but also the Creator and Redeemer of a body of people called into a spiritual union with God.