Jesus Christ and Creation
John and others have taught us that God must be
understood through Jesus Christ—if you've seen and known me you see and
know the Father, Jesus taught us (John 14); and if we've come to know
Jesus we've come to know the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of God's Son
as well as the Spirit of God (Galatians 4:6).
When we think of knowing God by looking at Jesus I would suppose that we automatically think of God's character and the kind of heart he has; no bad thing that. But I think we need we should spare a thought for God's purposes.
His purposes reflect his character too, don't you know, but Jesus came
to accomplish things in his Father's name and as his Father's servant
and when we see Jesus we see the one in whom the purposes of God are
focused.
Colossians 1:15-17 makes us think of Genesis 1:26-28.
The echo of the "image of God" and then the notion of dominion and power
in which Jesus is said to be preeminent and the one in whom all things
hold together. Colossians 1 echoes Genesis 1 but it takes us light years
beyond it. Three distinct prepositions tell us how and why the creation
came to be. It came to be "through" him as the agent of creation (1
Corinthians 8:6). As surely as election and redemption is "in" Jesus so
also was the world created "in" him (see Ephesians 1:4). He is the
conceptual sphere within which God worked to create; creation was
created in light of Jesus, with Jesus as its driving thought and
inspiration. And the creation was created for (or "unto") him—he was
creation's goal. In the glorious and immortal Jesus, the Son of God and
the last Adam the creation found its completion. What went before was
real and wonderful but it was all moving toward him. This God purposed
in creation before the human family rebelled and our rebellion did not
change his mind. The redeeming life and person of Jesus Christ completes
the two tasks—he sets the world right in redemption and brings it to
its purposed climax with him as its glorified Lord.
The Incarnation, redeeming life, death, resurrection and
exaltation confirm God's eternal creation purposes by bringing about
redemption and reconciliation. The creation is not destined for
destruction in "the great fire"—it was created for Jesus.
This has ramifications for how we look at, work with and relate to the creation.
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