- Genesis 1:1-3, John 1:1-5, Colossians 1:15-17
We often associate Jesus with the Gospels, but what if I told you He was present long before Bethlehem? In fact, He was there from the very first moment of creation.
Genesis is the book of beginnings, providing the foundation on which the Bible is built. Written by Moses around 1300 B.C., it is quoted or referred to more than 165 times in the New Testament. We often don’t associate Jesus in Genesis because Jesus was born 2,000 years after the events described there. But Jesus permeates its pages; He was there at creation–hidden in the very words, themes, and prophecies that unfold throughout Genesis.
Jesus In Genesis: The Creator at the Beginning
The New Testament illuminates the Old Testament by offering additional details that were made known to us only after Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection. We cannot fully understand Genesis without the New Testament, which is undoubtedly the case with the creation story.
Genesis opens with these words: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). In Hebrew, the original language of the Old Testament, “God” is translated as “Elohim.” Elohim is the plural of the Hebrew word El and is used throughout the Old Testament with a singular verb; yes, this is a grammatical oddity and the first suggestion of the Trinity: God, three in one.
What was hinted at in Genesis becomes clear in the Old Testament. John opens his Gospel with these words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” We know that this “Word” John is describing is Jesus because, in verse 14, he says:
“So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son” (John 1:14).
While Genesis 1:1 tells us WHAT happened in the beginning, John 1:1 tells us WHO existed in the beginning. The Old and the New Testaments show us that Jesus was there from the start.
Jesus is God’s Creative Power
Jesus wasn’t just present at creation—He was the very power through which it happened. God spoke the world into existence through His WORD (Genesis 1:3), and His Word is Jesus (John 1:14). Genesis 1:26 further demonstrates this when God said, “Let us make mankind” (Genesis 1:26). Us is more than one. “Us” is the Trinity: “Us” includes Jesus.
In the New Testament, the Apostle John further explains Jesus’ role in creation when he says:
“God created everything through him [Jesus], and nothing was created except through him [Jesus] (John 1:3).”
Paul also says in Colossians 1:15-17:
“Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, for through him, God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see—such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through Him and for Him. He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.”
Because of God’s complete revelation from the Old Testament to the New Testament, we can comprehend Jesus’s role in the creation story. From the very first page of Genesis, we find Jesus hidden in creation itself. But that’s not where the story ends. In the next post, “Finding Jesus In Genesis: The Last Adam,” we’ll see how Adam and Jesus are deeply connected—one bringing death, the other bringing life.
Genesis 1 Mystery: What Was the Light Before the Sun? #Genesis #shorts #biblestudy
Making Him Known February 28, 2025 9:13 am