Lest We Forget - Lesson 2, From the Very Beginning…Jesus
his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world - Hebrews 1:2b
If you ever want to have a ‘mind blown’ experience, take a moment and look up at the sky and ask yourself, where does space end. Scientists claim the observable universe, the portion of space we can see through telescopes, extends about 13.2 Billion light-years. A light-year is the distance that light travels in one Earth year, approximately 6 Trillion miles. Do the math, 13.2 Billion light-years times 6 Trillion miles per light-year equals 77.6 (followed by 20 zeros) miles. Keep in mind that's in just one direction, so you really have to double that number to get the diameter of the universe that we can see. And that is not where it ends, it’s just what scientists say they can see. Is your mind blown yet? If that didn't work, try to wrap your mind around understanding where something goes which doesn't actually end.
God said he made the earth. Given the ‘where does space end’ exercise we just went though, let’s just go with what God said. Now join me as we go way back in time to the actual beginning of this world as recorded in the Bible in the book of Genesis. Before we go there let me note that this study also challenges the Big Bang theory and evolution. If you’re wondering if evolution is a real thing check out the bonus section of my Study Notes titled, They Marveled (and a Woodpecker).
Genesis records the creation of the earth and humans. Very fascinating, but that’s not the focus of our study. We are looking for evidence that Jesus created the earth as stated in our verse for today, ‘through whom also he created the world.’ Another way to phrase that is to ask, is there evidence that Jesus existed before he took a human form? Fortunately, the Bible provides a lot of evidence of Jesus’ pre-existence. Of course, that makes the assumption that you believe the Bible is God’s Holy Word and Jesus was God (trinity). I’ve written on that many times so I wont rehash those lessons.
The Best way to address the topic of Jesus’ pre-existence is to just list the references in the Bible in addition to today’s verse. I’ll follow that with a couple of correlating thoughts that support the same.
Jesus States He Existed Before His Physical Birth
For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. John 3:38
Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? - John 3:62
I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” - John 16:28
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh - Romans 8:3
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law - Galatians 4:4
God Created the Earth Through Jesus
John speaking of Jesus as the Word: 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. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. - John 1:1-4
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. - Colossians 1:16-17
Let Us Make
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” - Genesis 1:26
‘Let us make’ is mostly used to express doing something, which is what you would expect. However, to capture the true essence of how it is used in this verse you need to look at the parsing meaning the mood, tense, etc., that the writer emphasized on those words.
The parsing is V-Qal-Imperfect.h-1cp
V = Verb, an action
Qal = Expresses a direct action of the verb, God himself will perform the action
Imperfect.h = Means a future action. My understanding is the .h refers to ‘he’ meaning the subject of the verb will perform the action. God is going to make man
1cp. This is a critical designation. 1cp refers to the first person plural. It’s where the ‘Us’ comes from. God -> Plural -> Us -> Trinity.
There are other references we can look at but I think you get the point. If you believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God then you also believe every word is true. You also must then believe Christ Jesus when he said he existed before he was physically born. And when God said he made everything through Jesus, that must be true too. I’m not sure why people try to make it more complicated than that. Jesus has always existed, just as God has always existed, which is another mind blowing exercise.
The Big Bang is a physical theory that hypothesizes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models based on the Big Bang concept theorizes a broad range of phenomena, including the abundance of light elements, the cosmic microwave background radiation, and large-scale structure (source: Wikipedia which references several other sources).
If you still want to believe in the Big Bang theory, ask yourself, where did the light, radiation, and large structure come from, and what caused them to slam together. Big Bang is a very complex phenomena that frankly takes a lot more faith than just believing there is a God who created everything though Jesus Christ.
To that extent, Christianity was never meant to be complicated that’s why to become a Christian is as simple as…
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. - Romans 10:8-10
