All things are from God, the Father, but through Jesus Christ (I Cor. 8:6).  God created all things.  But Jesus was not created: He is the “only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18).  Since time itself did not exist prior to “the beginning”, and since “the Word” existed “in the beginning” (John 1:1), there was no time when the Son did not exist.

God created all things.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1).

“Thus says the LORD … ‘I, the LORD, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself And spreading out the earth all alone’” (Isaiah 44:24; cf. 42:5; 45:18).
(As indicated by the capital letters, the word “LORD” is a translation of God’s personal name, which is Yahweh or Jehovah.  Isaiah 42:5 and 45:18 contain similar statements.)

Jesus has always credited Yahweh with creation, for instance, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female” (Matthew 19:4-6).

Jesus created all things.

Psalms 102:25-27 says of God:

“Of old You founded the earth, And the heavens are the work of Your hands. Even they will perish, but You endure; And all of them will wear out like a garment; Like clothing You will change them and they will be changed. But You are the same, And Your years will not come to an end.”

Hebrews 1 applies this nearly word-for-word to Jesus:

“of the Son He says … You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Your hands; they will perish, but You remain; and they all will become old like a garment, and like a mantle You will roll them up; like a garment they will also be changed. but You are the same, and Your years will not come to an end” (Heb. 1:8, 10-12).

God created all things through Jesus.

Jesus did create all things, but if we read carefully, we will find that it is God who created, but God created everything through His Son:

Genesis 1: God spoke to Jesus, in His pre-human existence, concerning the creation of Adam and Eve, saying, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26).

John 1:  The first verse in the Bible reads, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1).  John 1 uses the same phrase, “In the beginning” (John 1:1), saying, “In the beginning was the Word … All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:1-3).  “The Word” is Jesus (see John 1:14).  “The beginning” was when all things were brought into being.  Since Jesus existed “in the beginning”, He is eternal; there was no time when He was not.

Colossians refers to “His beloved Son” (1:13) and states, “by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.  He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together” (1:16-17).

Hebrews 1:2 refers to “His Son … through whom also He made the world”.

The phrases “through Him” and “through whom” in John, Colossians and Hebrews indicates that God is the Source of all creative power and wisdom, but God creates all things through “His Son.”  Creation can therefore be attributed to both the Father and the Son.  The following verse explains the different roles of God and Jesus in creation:

“There is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him” (I Cor. 8:6).

All things

Both John 1:3 and Colossians 1:16 testify that the Son made “all things”.  Hebrews 1:2 says He made “the world”, but then verse 3 continues to say that He upholds “all things.”  This implies that “the world” in verse 1 is a synonym for “all things.”  Colossians 1:16 defines “all things” as “in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities”.  We therefore can conclude that the Son created the universe and everything in it.

There was no time when the Son did not exist.

In the view of some the Son was God’s first creation.  They believe that there was a time when the Son did not exist.  However:

Since God does not exist in time, there is no such things as God’s first creation.

Since His Son created all things, He “is before all things” (Col. 1:17).

Since God created even time “in the beginning”, through the Son, there was no time when the Son did not exist.

He is “from long ago, from the days of eternity” (Micah 5:2).

First-born of all creation

Colossians 1:15-16; (RSV) reads, “He is … the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible …. all things were created through him and for him.”  Revelation 3:14 similarly describes Jesus as “the Beginning of the creation of God.”

These are used by some as evidence that Jesus is the first created being.  For a discussion of the phrase “first-born of all creation”, please see Jesus in Colossians.  In brief:

Some argue that “first-born” means preeminent, because, in the Hebrew mind, this is what the word “first-born” over the centuries came to mean.  However, on the basis of the word “for” in Colossians 1:16, the article Jesus in Colossians proposes that “the first-born of all creation” means that the Son was the first to exist.

On the other hand, the article Only Begotten argues that His Son was not created, but that He is eternally begotten by the Father.  This is reflected by the word “born” in “first-born”.  The concept of “begotten” conveys to finite minds something of infinity; how God’s Son came to be.  See Only Begotten for a further discussion.

Our limited understanding 

We may think that we understand time, space and matter, but Einstein showed that we really do not.  For a long time people thought of the earth as flat because they were only able to see such a small part of it.  In the same way we understand time, space and matter only from our minute context.  The time, space and matter of which we are aware is extremely small, compared to the entire universe; must smaller than a grain of sand on a desolated beach when compared to the entire world.  But even if we understood the universe, God exists beyond time, space and matter.  While the universe had a “beginning”, God has no beginning, for He is eternal (Rom. 16:26).  Since God is not subject to time, the statement that the Son always existed with God, is nonsense.

God sustains all things through His Son. 

“He (the Word) … upholds all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3).

“In Him (Jesus) all things hold together” (Col. 1:17).

The Son is therefore very different from the created sons of God.

NEXT:  We must worship Jesus.

Articles in the series: Is Jesus God?

1.    The three views of the Son
2.    Jesus existed prior to His birth in the form of God.
3.    Jesus in Colossians
4.    Did Jesus empty Himself of equality with God?
5.    Who is the Word?
6.    Jesus is not God.
7.    God is the Head of Christ.
8.    In the Bible Jesus is called God.
9.    Only Begotten Son of God
10.  God created all things through His Son.
11.  We must worship Jesus.
12.  Is Jesus God?