Jesus And The New Creation

J. Dan Gill

Jesus never says that he made the world in the beginning. Neither in the Gospel of John, nor in the balance of the New Testament, does he ever take credit for the creation of the cosmos. When Jesus speaks about creation, he indicates that only one created, and he attributes it directly to God:

From the beginning of the creation that God created until now (Mark 13:19).

Have you not read that he who made them at the beginning, “made them male and female” (Matt. 19:4).

For people to attribute the creation in Genesis to Jesus is a significant mistake. It would be like saying that “the Father died on the cross.” To do that would be confusion and would give to the Father the honor that is due to Jesus as the only one who died for us. It is a similar dishonor to God when we say that “Jesus created the world.” And just as it would not please God for us to say “the Father died on the cross,” neither can it please Jesus when we ascribe to him all or part of the Father’s honor for being our Creator.

Jesus was not involved in the creation in Genesis. As we have seen, the Father did that creating “alone” — “by himself. ” YHWH says:

I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who by myself spread out the earth (Isa. 44:24, NRSV).

By one count, the Genesis creation is attributed to God, not Jesus, in at least 50 verses of the Bible.[1]

Rather, it is Jesus “through whom” God is now bringing about a “new creation.” There will be “new” heavens and a “new” earth in which dwells righteousness (2 Pet. 3:13; Isa. 65:17ff.). The new creation will be filled with people who are immortal — they will die no more. It is “in Christ” that this creation takes place.

So, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old things have passed away; look, everything has become new! (2 Cor. 5:17).

Jesus himself is the first of God’s new creation of immortal human beings. He is the “firstborn from the dead” and will “never die again” (Col. 1:18; Rom. 6:10). God created the world in Genesis and then used Adam to bring forth the balance of the human race. Now God is using Jesus to bring forth a people of faith who will live forever in his eternal kingdom. Jesus is, so to speak, the second Adam. He is the firstborn in a great new family of God. The Apostle Paul tells the Christians at Rome that it is the will of God that they be:

Conformed to the image of his son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29).

It is this new life in God’s new creation of which Jesus is the first. In this creation, Jesus is first in terms of both time and priority. He was the first to be raised from the dead never to die again. God has also determined that this man will forever be preeminent in his eternal kingdom. It is the “all things” of the new creation which God creates through Jesus.[2]

Jesus is due great honor. He is due the honor of being God’s only begotten human son (John 1:14). He was born of a virgin (Luke 1:35), and filled with the spirit of God (Luke 4:1). The word of God was embodied in him as in no other before or since. It is Jesus who died for us (1 Cor. 15:3). But God raised him from the dead (Acts 5:30). After his resurrection, he was taken up into heaven and God caused him to sit at his own right hand (Acts 5:31). Jesus deserves all of the honor for being the one through whom God is bringing forth a new creation. All who are in Christ will live forever with him in God’s eternal kingdom. Again, Paul writes to the Christians at Rome:

And if we are children of God, then we are heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings so that we may also share in his glory (Rom. 8:17).

Gill, J. Dan (2016). Jesus and the New Creation. In, The One: In Defense of God (pp. 138-140). Nashville, TN: 21st Century Reformation Publishing.

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[1]  Anthony Buzzard, Jesus was Not a Trinitarian (Morrow, GA: Restoration Fellowship, 2007), 75, n. 27.

[2] Jesus is co-creator — not of the Genesis creation — but of God’s new creation. 1 Corinthians 8:6 is best understood in light of the new creation. Paul is writing there to Christians and his statements in the verse do not refer to their mere mortal existence. Rather, Paul is pointing them to the much superior enterprise of the kingdom of God and eternal life through Jesus. Hence, it is “out of ” (ek) God that all of these things exist and we now live for him (Rom. 6:13). But, it is “through” (dia) Jesus that we have this new existence and we have eternal life “through” (dia) him (hence, “in Christ,” Rom. 6:10–12). Jesus himself says, “Just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the son also to have life in himself ” ( John 5:26). Jesus then is the way, truth and “life” for those who come to the Father through (dia) him (John 14:6).