Did God create the world alone, or through Christ?

The passages

Genesis 1:1

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Isaiah 44:24

“I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself”.

Thus saith the Lord, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;

John 1:1–3

The Word was with God and was God; “All things were made by him”.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Colossians 1:16

“By him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible”.

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

1 Corinthians 8:6

One God, the Father, “of whom are all things”, and one Lord Jesus Christ, “by whom are all things”.

But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

Hebrews 1:2

God has spoken by his Son, “by whom also he made the worlds”.

Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

Hebrews 1:10

To the Son: “Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth”.

And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:

The objection

Genesis says that God created the heavens and the earth, and in Isaiah God says that he stretched out the heavens “alone” and spread out the earth “by myself”. Yet John says that all things were made by the Word, Paul that “by him were all things created”, and Hebrews that God made the worlds through his Son. If God acted alone, Christ was not the creator; if Christ created, God did not act alone.

The answer

The New Testament does not add a second creator beside God. It says that the one God created through his Son. Isaiah 44:24 is aimed at idols: the chapter has just described the craftsman who cuts down a tree, warms himself with half of it and bows down to the rest (44:9–20). Against that, the Lord says he made all things with no one beside him: no other god, no helper, no created assistant. Gill notes that ‘alone’ shuts out every creature, not the Son or the Spirit.

The New Testament writers, Jews who held to Isaiah’s words, place Christ on the Creator’s side of that line. John says that the Word “was God”, and “without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1–3). Paul says that all things, “visible and invisible”, were created by him and for him (Colossians 1:16). If the Son were a creature, he would be one of the ‘all things’ that were made; John and Paul count him instead as their maker. Hebrews 1:10 goes further and applies to the Son a psalm spoken to the Lord: “Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth” (from Psalm 102:25).

The little words show how the Father and the Son are related in the work. 1 Corinthians 8:6 says that all things are ‘of’ the Father (Greek ek, ‘from’) and ‘by’ the Lord Jesus Christ (dia, ‘through’). John 1:3, Colossians 1:16 and Hebrews 1:2 also use dia. The Father is the source, the Son is the one through whom the work was done, and in Genesis 1:2 “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” Genesis 1 even hints at the Son, for God creates by speaking (“And God said”), and John calls the Son the Word. So Christians read the passages together: one God made all things, the Father through the Son and by the Spirit, with no one else beside him.

Wisdom at creation

Many Christians also see the Son foreshadowed in Proverbs 8, where Wisdom says of God’s work of creation, “When he prepared the heavens, I was there” (8:27), and “I was by him, as one brought up with him” (8:30). Others read the chapter as poetry about God’s wisdom, which the New Testament sees fulfilled in Christ, “the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24).

From the classic commentators

not to the exclusion of the Father and the Holy Spirit, but of all creatures, angels and men; of himself, and by his own strength and power, and, without the help of these, he stretched out the vast space of the heavens as a curtainJohn Gill, Exposition of the Bible: Isaiah 44:24 (1746–63), at Bible Hub

Did God create the world alone, or through Christ?

The passages

The objection

The answer

Other answers Christians give

Wisdom at creation

From the classic commentators

Sources

Further reading