After dinner, one of the refugee family said something about her design skills and since none of the guests had seen the evidence, out they came. She is a remarkable artist. We were all open-mouthed at her drawings and watercolors.
This morning’s devotions are about the creativity of Jesus Christ. The key verse follows the one that tells how God revealed Himself. It says:
But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. (Hebrews 1:2)
Think this way: Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, that same Word that God spoke brought the universe into existence. This means that Jesus Christ is also is the agent through whom God created the world and all things. It sounds a bit like science fiction, but it is not at all an invented thing like AI or human technology. The Bible is clear that Jesus did it and that He has the power to do it. While humans are creative, we are nothing in artistic skill compared to Him:
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:3)
As it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. (Romans 4:17)
I try to imagine life with His creative ability. As MacArthur suggests, I’d enlarge my house, have an acreage with a horse, and a perfect occupation, or I could sit on my patio and make money! Fortunately, God did not give us sinners the power to create something out of nothing. Our creative abilities do not go that far.
The ability to create ex nihilo (out of nothing) belongs only to God. Since Jesus creates that way, His divine nature is declared. Remembering the words in Genesis, His creation was “good” until humanity sinned and changed it. This required that God intervened with great mercy, grace and love to restore what He had made. This is our desire and our hope:
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:19–21)
The word used in Hebrews 1:2 for world is not the usual “kosmos” but “aionas” which appears in only one other verse: “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” (Hebrews 11:3) It can mean far more than the visible world and certainly includes space, time, energy and other less visible entities than rocks, trees, and people. The power of Christ to create is far beyond cloth sewn together or lines and shapes on canvas or paper! He used no hands in the process; He just spoke it and all things appeared.
While most of the world accepts some sort of spontaneous ‘big bang’ theory, the idea of God speaking as the source of creation has been ridiculed. Is it harder to believe that creation has a design and an Author than it is to believe it just happened?
PRAY: Jesus, I know that You are God in human flesh, but also that You are the Word of God who created all things. You have given me a love for words, for precise communication. These thoughts remind me of that amazing book, “The Humiliation of the Word” by Jacques Ellul. Everyone should read it and see the parallels between images replacing language and how the world views You. While the wonder of creation awes me, Your ability to open human hearts to eternal truth is staggering!
PONDER: Think today about the ability of Jesus to use all things to transform His people into His image — not fully for we cannot speak worlds into existence, but we can use our words far more effectively than we do when it comes to bringing glory to His name.
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