Doctrine of Creation (Part 3): <em>Creatio ex Nihilo</em> in the New Testament

Creatio ex Nihilo in the New Testament

We’ve been looking at the scriptural data concerning creatio ex nihilo, and we saw that the Old Testament teaches the doctrine that God is the almighty creator of everything that exists other than God. We find this same doctrine repeated in the New Testament.

For example, in Romans 11:36, Paul, after quoting from Isaiah 40:13-14, declares, “for from him and through him and to him are all things.” Here Paul says that all of reality finds its source in God. It is sustained by God and exists for God. God is the source, the sustainer, and the goal of all reality outside himself.

In Romans 4:17, Paul speaks of the God of Abraham as the one, “who gives life to the dead and who calls into existence the things that do not exist.” That second phrase, I think, is so striking – God is the one who calls into existence things that do not exist. That is a statement of creation out of nothing.

Also, we find this doctrine in Hebrews 11:3. The author of this book says, “By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear.” The wording there is very interesting; it’s rather awkward. The writer wants to affirm that God has created everything, and yet there is no stuff out of which God created all things. So, in effect, what he is saying is God has created all things but he did not create things out of things that appear and thus implies creation out of nothing.

In Revelation 4:11 we read that the beatified in heaven are said to sing to God these words: “Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou didst create all things, and by thy will they existed and were created.” So the New Testament, like the Old Testament, thinks of God as the creator of everything that exists apart from himself.

But undoubtedly the most notable contribution of the New Testament to the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo is that it ascribes creation out of nothing to the pre-incarnate person of Jesus Christ. Christ is the Father’s agent in creating the world. This is something genuinely new to the Old Testament doctrine.

For example, in 1 Corinthians 8:6, Paul says, “yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.” Here Paul says that God the Father is the source and the goal of all reality apart from himself, and that Christ is the one through whom all these things exist so he is the Father’s agent in creation. In fact, Christ’s role as the creator of everything other than God implies that he is himself God; that he is God since he is the creator of everything else.

John 1:1-3 says, “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 anything made that was made.” Here John echoes the words of Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning” was now the Word, the Word by which God creates, and he identifies this Word as God himself and then later in the chapter as Jesus Christ as the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us. So the pre-incarnate Christ is with the Father in the beginning and is himself God, the creator of everything that exists other than God.

Also in Colossians 1:16-17, Paul says, “for in him [that is, Christ] all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” So this is again a picture of the cosmic Christ, the creator and the sustainer of all reality apart from God.

Similarly, in the epistle to the Hebrews once again – Hebrews 1:2-3 – we find this same doctrine. The author says, “but in these last days he [God] has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He reflects the glory of God and bears the very stamp of his nature, upholding the universe by his word of power.” So, according to the author to the Hebrews, Christ is God’s agent in creating the world. He reflects the glory and the nature of God and brings the universe into existence and sustains the universe in being.

The similarity of these three chapters (Colossians 1, John 1, and Hebrews 1), all from different authors but teaching the same doctrine, shows that this understanding of the cosmic Christ was prominent in the theology of the primitive Christian church. The New Testament authors not only understood the Old Testament to be teaching creatio ex nihilo but they went further in identifying the pre-incarnate Christ as the principal agent of creation – remarkable!