What Does God’s Creation Encompass?
In the previous post I used the word ‘creation’ at lot, as in God is perfect and holy and His creation, as He originally intended it, reflects His perfection and holiness. At this point in my ‘narrative’, I need to understand what is meant by creation to get a fuller picture of how God’s wrath is tied to His holiness. What exactly did God create? Because to better understand the wrath of God we have to look at the ‘elephant in the room’: Did God create Satan, evil, and rebellious spirits? Is God in some way the author of sin? Do you even care? You should because many of us have an incorrect view of God when it comes to evil, which can affect every aspect of our walk with Him. But before we get to the ‘elephant in the room’ (in the next post) lets look at what Paul says about Jesus and creation.
In a beautiful and powerful passage Paul, referring to Jesus, writes to the Colossians:
“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. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1: 15 – 17 NKJV).
I also like the Message translation of this passage. Here it is:
“We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank of angels – everything got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment” (MSG).
To dive deep into this passage is beyond what I can accomplish in this post (or perhaps in any post). But here are some of the highlights of what I think Paul is saying:
When we see Jesus, listen to His teaching, watch Him work in Scripture, and in our lives, we are seeing and hearing God Himself, who is invisible.
Jesus is the firstborn. This does not refer to birth order. It is an acknowledgement that Jesus is first in power, authority, and inheritance.
All things were created by Jesus and for Him. Therefore, Jesus was outside of His creation in the sense that a painter is ‘outside’ of her painting. Of course, the painting reflects the painter’s perspective, attitude, and style. A tree, for example, reflects the nature and character of the designer but Jesus is not ‘in a tree’, so we don’t worship trees or any part of nature for that matter. But Jesus is very much ‘in His creation’ in the sense that He is ‘here’, with us and in us. He is a part of our life as a power, a presence, a friend, and Lord constantly interacting with us. He is alive. He has not created, and then left creation on its own. He is ‘Christ with us’. He is personal, present, and powerful ‘in’ His creation.
All things were created ‘by’ Jesus. Later in the passage Paul writes “and ‘in’ Him all things consist . . .”. The same Greek word is used in this passage for both the words ‘by’ and ‘in’. That Greek word is ‘en’ and is most commonly used in the New Testament in the phrase ‘in Christ’. The definition of ‘en’ from Strong’s is “inside, within, in the realm or sphere of, as in the condition or state in which something operates from inside or within. In general, the phrase ‘in Christ’ means to be acting or living within the sphere of His activity or power – in other words, living in the Kingdom of God. So, in the Colossians’ passage ‘in Him’, meaning ‘in Christ’, can mean that all creation flowed out of Christ, which is another way of saying all creation flowed out of His Kingdom in heaven, which would soon be a reality on earth, although not in its fullness. And because we are living with Him in His Kingdom when we are ‘in Christ’, we have a role in releasing His Kingdom.
The Greek word for ‘things’ is pampolus, meaning “everyone, everything, the whole”. It also means “continually” so has a time connotation meaning “all the time”, even up till today.
Creation includes heaven and earth. For us the visible creation includes every aspect of the universe perceived by our senses in our time/space dimension: human and subhuman life and the natural world including valleys, mountains, rivers, the sea etc as well as what we see in the universe beyond earth. The invisible creation includes heaven, the physical realm in another time/space dimension; angels, and all supernatural powers and principalities in heaven and on earth. All of this, visible and invisible, was created by Jesus and is still being created today. The invisible is therefore just as real as the visible; only, well, not visible, but still detectable. There is a continuum between heaven and earth – often heaven interpenetrates our time/space dimension, for example, in signs and wonders; and of course, in the Kingdom of God.
In another post I’ll write about heaven. At this point, based on Scripture, it is enough to say that heaven is a physically real place. It is not a place in the sky where disembodied spirits float around on clouds. My guess is that heaven is in a time/space dimension parallel to ours. But, Jesus calls the Kingdom of God on earth the Kingdom of Heaven. When we join Jesus in the Kingdom of God on earth now, we have entered into heaven with Him. The Kingdom of God is also synonymous with the Garden of Eden. To be ‘restored’ means, in part, choosing and entering into the Kingdom of God now where we live with Christ in every part of our existence, which is possible only because of the cross. It is not here in perfection, that’s for sure; but it is here. Heaven has broken into this world; it has interpenetrated earth. Earth is being remade – restored – into a new creation as the Kingdom of God is continually released into the kingdom of the world. The other time/space dimension that we call heaven is supernaturally connected to our world in other ways as well, allowing things of heaven to influence things on earth. This is why we pray “thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.
A lot to take in, but the message of Scripture is clear: Jesus created everything on earth and in heaven – visible and invisible. So, there is a pretty important invisible realm out there, or in here (my heart). Back to the really big question, at least for me – what about evil, demons, darkness, and the rebellion and pride in the human heart? Did Jesus create these things? We can ask this question another way – do rebellion, darkness, and evil flow out of the heart of Jesus and the Kingdom of God? Or, if you don’t like that question, try this one. If Jesus created everything, did Jesus create satan?
I believe many people look at the evil in the world today, and because God is sovereign, ascribe that evil to Him. They see a contradiction between a good, sovereign God and a world full of evil, and so, they defame God or at least, don’t trust Him. When the wrath of God is mentioned, this type of evil is how some understand the outpouring of His wrath. They say, for example, “The result of this terrible accident I had is my cross to bear”, implying that they are being punished by God for their sins, which is often not the case – and forgetting that a cross is a place of death (to self) and not a burden.
The next post is my attempt to answer the question “Did the God who created everything create evil” or ‘where did evil come from”.
Grace and peace,
John