WWUTT 778 All Things Were Made Through Him?

The Eternal Word and the Creation of All Things

Only God is uncaused and eternal. Everything else that exists, seen or unseen, was created by God. Very specifically, created by Jesus when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word, that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will. For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you Becky. We continue our study of the Gospel of John. Chapter 1, and as with yesterday, I'll begin by reading verses 1 -5. 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.

The subject that we are talking about here is Jesus Christ, who is Himself God. He is the Word that is identified in verse 1, and the Word was God. Verse 2, He was in the beginning with God, so He has existed eternally with the rest of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Verse 3, all things were made through Him. So when we go back to Genesis 1, and we read, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And in verse 3, God speaks into the void and creates light by a command.

God said, let there be light, and there was so. We know, because of what we read here in John 1, that Jesus Christ is the one specifically who spoke into the void and created the light. Let there be light was spoken by Christ, for all things were made through Him.

He is the Word. So the one speaking from the very beginning of creation is Jesus Christ. He is the one who reveals the Father and gives the Holy Spirit, and all things were made through Him. Without Him was not anything made that was made.

So there is nothing else that exists eternally but God. Everything that exists was made by God. And nothing has existed eternally, only God Himself. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all equally, uncaused, divine, eternal.

And they have existed for all eternity, glorifying in themselves, as we talked about yesterday. But Jesus Christ, as the one who has created all things, cannot Himself be created. So when Jesus Christ came to this earth in the form of a baby, He was God who entered into human flesh.

But He still retained His personhood as God and never at any point ceased to be God. He was, as described in the history of the church, very God and very man. And all things were made through Him. We have very similar language that is used by the Apostle Paul in Colossians 1.

Beginning in verse 15, here is how Paul describes Jesus Christ. He is the image of the invisible God. The firstborn of all creation. So first of all, what does God look like? What is He like? We know through the person of Jesus Christ who reveals to us the Father.

As Paul goes on in verse 15 to describe Jesus as the firstborn of all creation, this cannot possibly mean that Jesus Christ Himself was created. That God was creating all things and Jesus was the first of that creation.

That's not what that means. For Paul even goes on to say in verse 16, for by Him all things were created. And that's exactly what we read here in John 1 .3. All things were made through Him. And without Him was not anything made that was made.

So if Jesus was created, then He couldn't be the creator of all things. Because He Himself had to be created. But He has existed eternally with God. So the firstborn of all creation cannot mean that He was created.

What it means is that God the Father has given Jesus Christ all the rights of the firstborn. This is like language that was used in the Old Testament. As the firstborn was the favored by the Father and He was the one that would receive the most inheritance from the Father.

Here God has given all the rights of the firstborn to Jesus Christ. He gets everything and the Father has given that to His Son. For by Him, verse 16, 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 as we've read in verse 16, also by Him, John 1 .3, all things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. Jesus is the creator of all, Himself not created, otherwise He couldn't be the creator of all.

Verse 17 in Colossians 1, Paul goes on to say He is before all things and in Him all things hold together. What keeps the universe from flying apart? What keeps the world from descending into just absolute madness and chaos and us destroying one another?

It's because Jesus Christ is holding all of these things together. Everything is operating and coming together according to His perfect plan and goodwill. Jesus said that He had come to do the will of His Father, but that doesn't mean that Jesus did not have all authority.

In fact, in the Great Commission in Matthew 28, the way that Jesus begins that with His disciples, verse 18, is by saying, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. And Paul even said this at the Areopagus in Acts chapter 17, when he was preaching to the Greeks at Athens.

He said that all authority had been given to Jesus Christ by God. And God has signified this, has shown that all authority has been given to Him by raising this man from the dead, and He is the one who is going to judge all of mankind.

I had quoted to you from John 21 on Monday when I was talking about who the identity of John is, the John who wrote the Gospel of John. And it was there in chapter 21 when Peter asked Jesus what was going to become of the beloved disciple, of the one who is John.

And Jesus' response to him was this, if it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me. So Jesus is saying, whatever is going to happen with John, whether he's going to be martyred like the rest of the apostles will be, or that he's going to die of old age, that's according to Christ's will.

So even Christ has authority. He's been granted that authority by the Father whose will Jesus came to do. So again, Jesus is before all things. He is more important than anything, and He is the judge of all things.

In Him, all things hold together. Verse 18 of Colossians 1, He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. So He is the first one to rise from the grave with a glorified body and to be described as the firstborn from the dead implies there are others who are going to rise from the grave.

All who believe in Jesus Christ will not perish, but will have everlasting life. And we will be resurrected on the last day. Jesus, before Lazarus' resurrection in John 11, said to Martha that He is the resurrection and the life, and whoever believes in Him, though he die, yet shall he live, and he will be raised on the last day.

That in everything, Paul says in Colossians 1 .18, Christ might be preeminent. So He is top. He is above all things. There is nothing that is greater or more important than Christ. There is nothing that has come into existence except that Christ has willed it to exist.

Jesus is the creator of all, and He is the one whom the Father has elevated as the judge of all things. Verse 19, For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Again, He is the Word of God.

The Word was with God. He was in the beginning with God. He is God Himself, through whom we know God. We see the fullness of God. And through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, this is Colossians 1 .20, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.

The cross is the pivotal point of all of cosmic and human history. All of creation itself is being reconciled to God because of what Christ did on the cross of Calvary 2 ,000 years ago. All of history, everything that was leading up to the cross, everything that has since come after the cross, all of history is revolving around the cross of Christ because it is by the blood of Jesus that God is reconciling all things to Himself.

It says that not only here in Colossians 1, but also in Ephesians 1. All of creation has been subjected to futility by God who cursed it because of the sin of man. But it is through Christ that He is working to create a new heaven and a new earth.

And whoever believes in Jesus will not perish with the rest of this world that will be judged by fire. But we will enter into an imperishable kingdom that has been set for us to join God in for all eternity.

Amen. What a beauty and a wonder and a glory it is to consider these things and the love and mercy of God that has been shown to us through Jesus Christ. So we go on in John 1 .4 to read the following.

In Him, in Jesus, was life and the life was the light of men. We continue with a Genesis motif here as John is continuing this language contrasting light and darkness and the giver of life himself. So we go back to Genesis 1.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Darkness over the deep.

How is the darkness vanquished? It is with the Word of God. Verse 3. And God said, let there be light and there was light. And God saw that the light was good and God separated the light from the darkness.

God called the light day and the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there was morning the first day. So light and darkness have no fellowship with one another. If there's darkness, there is no light.

Where there is light, there is no darkness. So Jesus Christ is described as the light of men. The one who came to bring us righteousness when we were living in darkness. It is Christ who has granted us that holiness and right standing before God by the gift of his righteousness that he is given.

In him was life. He is the giver of life. He is the creator of life. We see that in Genesis 1. He is also the giver of new life. As we read about in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 6. For God who said, let light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

So the same way that Jesus brought all things into existence by his speaking, by the utterance of a word, by a command. He said it to exist or he said for it to exist and it existed. The same way he brought all things into existence is the very same way he brings us from death to life.

From unbelief to belief. Previously there was darkness in our hearts. When we heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, there became light. Previously we were dead men. We were void. There was nothing. When we heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, when we were commanded to repent and believe, suddenly we did.

We turned from sin and there was life in our hearts where previously there was death. So here we have this contrast of life and death, of light and darkness. And we have light and life through Jesus Christ.

In him there is no darkness at all. He is the life. He is the light of men. We come to the knowledge of God. We come to a knowledge of our sinfulness and a knowledge of who God is and his holiness because the message of Christ was spoken to us.

In John 1 .5, the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. Light is more powerful than darkness. You can't shine darkness. You can't put darkness into light. But you can shine light into darkness and the darkness disappears.

If you've got a box that is closed, completely sealed up, what's inside the box? Nothing but darkness. There's no light in there. You've sealed up every crack and crevice. There's no light source inside.

So therefore there's no light. When you open up that box, does the darkness come out and infect the room? Like the room suddenly gets dimmer because you just opened up this box of darkness and now the darkness has come into the room?

No, of course not. That's not the way light and darkness work. The light has penetrated the darkness and destroyed it and it's gone. There's no more darkness in that box for light has gotten in. So light is always superior to the darkness.

And Jesus Christ being called the light is the one who overcomes and even destroys the darkness. And in him being light, there is no darkness. We have the same contrast of life and death, light and darkness at the start of John's first epistle, 1 John 1 .1, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life.

The life was made manifest and we have seen it and testified to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the father and was made manifest to us. He's describing Christ here, that which we have seen and heard.

We proclaim also to you so that you too may have fellowship with us. Again, John is saying we came to faith because the word of God was proclaimed to us through Jesus Christ. We proclaim that same word to you so that you also might have life and fellowship with we who have been rescued out of darkness and into his light.

And indeed, our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ, 1 John 1 .4. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and we do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

That's all of 1 John 1 that I've read for you there. So if we are in Christ Jesus, we must walk in the light of his word, what he has commanded and what he exemplified by his very life. We will not walk in darkness, in the death and the sin that we were in prior to hearing the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We must walk in the light as he is in the light. We have multiple occasions throughout the Old Testament in which Christ is described as the light there as well. Yes, even in the Old Testament, Jesus is talked about.

In Isaiah chapter 9 is where we have the famous passage about a son being born. It's verse 6, for to us a child is born, to us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

You know that passage, right? You probably hear it every Christmas. Well, it's there that we also have Jesus described as the light. In verse 2, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

Those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shown. And all of this is talking about the coming of Jesus Christ. So we walked in darkness. We have now been given the light of God through Jesus Christ.

Later on in Isaiah chapter 42, we read, Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it.

I am the Lord. I have called you in righteousness. I will take you by the hand and keep you. I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison, those who sit in darkness.

I am the Lord. That is my name. My glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have come to pass and new things I now declare. Before they spring forth, I tell you of them.

We have once again a prophecy concerning the coming of the light, who is Jesus Christ. He shines in the darkness. The darkness will not ever overcome it. That's not just something that describes Jesus Christ.

That is a promise to us. It is an assurance that if we are in Christ Jesus, as he cannot be overcome, so we will never be overcome either. Jesus said in John 1633, I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace.

In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart. I have overcome the world. No one or nothing will overcome Christ or anyone who is in Christ. Amen.

Closing Encouragement and Ministry Sign-Off

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