The Trinity and the Creation

We know from the Bible that the God described in it is the Trinity. Therefore, it is appropriate for us to assume that whenever the Old Testament refers to God, it is the Trinity that is intended unless the context indicates otherwise. The same is true when we read the New Testament. At times, a verse will say which of the divine persons is intended; in other places, a verse will mention two of the divine persons; and in other places, a verse will mention the three persons. Those ways of describing the persons of the Trinity is found with regard to the creation.

With regard to the creation, it is described in the Bible in three ways. The first way is creation before sin entered into it; the second way is creation after sin affected it; and the third way is how the creation is described after the effects of sin have been removed from it. How can we explore the Bible in order to help us grasp those details? Personally, I would suggest that a helpful way is to look at passages which detail the activities of Jesus and see how those details point also to the activities of the Father and the Spirit.

The Trinity and the original creation

One verse that mentions this divine activity is John 1:1-2: ‘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.’ The Word is one of the titles of Jesus, and here we have a description of his eternal existence with the Father. He is called by this name because he is the One who reveals God to us (similar in a way to how a word from a person reveals something to others). So the first thing we can say about this situation is that creation, because it was an activity of the Word, would reveal God.

More can also be said about the activity of the Word. The verses indicate that he engaged in the work of creation from the presence of God the Father. When John says that the Word was with God, the word ‘with’ has the idea of face-to-face. This gives to us the sense that there was mutual delight and appreciation between the Father and the Son as the Son made the worlds. We should not be surprised, therefore, that in Genesis I we are continually told that God saw and said that the work of creation was good.

At the start of the Book of Hebrews, the author commences with a description of Jesus. Among the several details that are mentioned, one is that the Father created the world through the Son. That statement is similar to what we find in John, except we can see in the verse in Hebrews a pointer to the divine plan of the Father, and included within that plan was that his eternal Son would create the world. Indeed the word translated ‘world’ is plural, so could mean that Jesus created the universe or that Jesus created the various worlds that exist, such as the geographical world (the earth) and the historical world (ages).

So we can see the involvement of the Father and the Son in the work of creation. What about the contribution of the Holy Spirit? Perhaps our minds go to what is said at the start of 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.’ That verse indicates that the initial creating act was incomplete, and that further divine activity was necessary. This further activity required the involvement of the Holy Spirit. 

The idea behind the illustration of him ‘hovering’ seems to be like that of a mother bird who broods over her eggs until life appears. In other words, we can see that the work of the Holy Spirit in the original creation was to form creatures with life. The account in Genesis 1 reveals that there were different levels of life climaxing in the creation of human beings in the divine likeness.

We can ask a couple of questions that can help us appreciate why it all happened. First, for whom did God initially perform the work of creation? We could choose any of the days of Genesis 1 and see that the answer is that God engaged in the work of creation for his own pleasure. This means that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit each did what they did to please the others as well as themselves. Each divine person received pleasure and gave pleasure in the work of creation. 

Second, why did God initially create the world? The answer from Genesis 1 is that God wanted his human creatures to rule the world on his behalf. This is part of what it means for them to have been made in God’s image. Even as the Trinity had worked in harmony to bring the world into existence, so humans were to work in harmony in the world God had created.

The role of Jesus today
Another biblical passage that contains information about Jesus and creation is Colossians 1:15-17. Paul, in those verses, mentions the role of Jesus in creation in the three areas that we outlined earlier. He says that all things at the beginning were made by the Son or through him. Moreover Paul says that the Son holds the creation together in the present. And the apostle further says that all things were made for the Son, which includes the future. Those comments follow Paul’s statement that Jesus is the firstborn over the creation.

The idea of Jesus being the firstborn is not connected to his birth but is an affirmation of his position as ruler. Paul’s description of how Jesus has this place is not because of what he did when he came to earth. Instead, he is supreme because he is before all things, which is another way of stating that he is the eternal God. Yet Paul is also stating that this role belongs to Jesus in a particular way, a role in which he fulfils certain activities.

We have already thought about how the Son brought everything into existence. Now we can think briefly about his involvement in the current creation, which we know is a creation that has been judged by God because of the rebellion of Adam at the beginning. Paul summarises this by saying that Jesus holds it all together. As it has been put, Jesus prevents the cosmos becoming a chaos, or Jesus ensures that the cosmos does not become a chaos, which is what sin would do if left to itself.

What areas within the creation does Jesus hold together? The answer is everything. We can include the uniqueness of each individual, the role of human government, the provision of natural talents, the weather patterns, the annual cycles of sowing and harvests, the overruling of wrong decisions, and restraining of sin. The list could continue almost indefinitely. Perhaps, if you have some time today, you can compile a list of what you can identify as being held together by Jesus. You can include what may be described as mundane as well as what may be called profound.

Where does all this happen? It happens throughout the universe, including everywhere on earth and not only in places where the gospel is accepted. Jesus holds together life in locations where he is not acknowledged as divine. That was the case in Paul’s day when there was both official and religious opposition to the gospel and its message of the reign of Jesus. It happened in the first century and is happening in the twenty-first century.

How does all this happen? Many answers can be given to this question. To begin with there are the biblical passages that say that the Holy Spirit is at work. There are references throughout the Bible to his activities. Early in Genesis, God stated that his Spirit would not always contend with man (Gen. 6:3), which is a reminder that he was restraining sin. We can accept that even as the Spirit made the earth capable of production (Gen. 1:2), so he continues to enable it to do so. Elihu tells Job and his friends that he was made by the Spirit, and this must include Elihu’s unique abilities (Job 33:4). The Spirit gifted men in the areas of metalwork and agriculture and in the production of music (he also enabled men to design and produce the tabernacle). He guided Cyrus in his decisions even although the Persian emperor was unaware of who the only God is. Those kind of activities by the Spirit still occur in numerous places.

In connection to verses that point to the activity of the Spirit, there are verses that highlight what the Son was doing throughout his creation. The Son was active before he was born as a man, as we can see from the description of him in John 1: ‘In him was life, and the life was the light of men’ (John 1:4); ‘The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world’ (John 1:9). There are differences of opinion as to what is meant by ‘light’ in those verses, but the common understanding is that John is stressing that the Son was and is the source of the intellectual understanding and awareness of everyone, including everyone alive today.

The New Testament also mentions that Jesus is head over all things for the benefit of the church. One of the verses that is used to explain his position is Psalm 110 in which the Father invites the Son to sit at his right hand, the place of total authority over the creation. The consequence of the enthronement is that the Son sends out his power and those who were his enemies volunteer to serve him. We know how he does this – he does it by the power of the Spirit working in their lives.

While this is connected to his current exaltation, it does involve his supreme authority over the creation. The sovereign Son over creation in the past became the suffering Son who would yet rule over and rescue his creation. Yet we cannot deny that before and after his coming his providential divine activity formed the ideal sets of circumstances for when he would come and how he would oversee the spread of his kingdom.

We must also bear in mind that that the Son and the Spirit work according to the plan of the Father. This is not an indication of inferiority, but it is a recognition of a divine order. Paul reminds us that the Father has purposed all things according to the counsel of his own will. This is beyond our ability to grasp, and indeed it is the only the Son and the Spirit who can understand fully and apply continually the contents of the Father’s purpose. The fact is that we live in a world that is dominated and permeated by the Trinity.

This is the case even although we are living in a cursed creation. Paul refers to this in Romans 8 where he describes the creation as groaning in anticipation of its future release and points out that God’s people groan in symphony and sympathy with the creation. Unexpectantly, he also says that the Holy Spirit groans along with believers and the creation, anticipating the day when the sons of God will be revealed transformed into the likeness of Jesus.

Yet although the creation is cursed and contains opponents to the kingdom of God, believers have the assurance that his purpose will be fulfilled, and that ‘neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom. 8:38-39). The blessed Trinity will ensure that this will be the case, and one day there will be a groaning-less creation.

Creation in the future
The author of Hebrews mentions in his first chapter that Jesus will fold up the universe like a garment and change it. Another name for the new creation will be the new heavens and the new earth and we get a description of it in Revelation 22:1-5. In that description, we see mention made of the Father and the Son on the divine throne. We may want to ask, ‘Where is the Spirit in this description?’ We find him described as the water of life who flows from the throne throughout the city and its garden.

No doubt, there are parallels between this garden and the original garden in Eden. There are differences in that the only tree mentioned is the tree of life. In fact, the main feature of the new creation will be the presence of life. But where will this life in the new creation come from? It will come direct from the throne of God, from the Trinity.

Of course, all this is a picture of what eternal life will be like. There are other descriptions of the eternal experience elsewhere in the Bible. But this passage reminds us of and holds out to us the incredible destiny of the people of God in the new creation, which is that they will be saturated with life from the triune God.

Another passage that highlights this future experience is Ephesians 1:3-14, a passage that stresses the involvement of the Trinity. The Father adopts his sons, the Son redeems them and arranges for them their inheritance, and the Spirit now in their hearts is said to the guarantee of the future experience in that amazing inheritance. Whatever else we deduce from that profound passage, it does make very clear what the desire of the Trinity is. They will be with their people in the world to come.