Anticipating Jesus: Creation and the Promise to Come
Why the story of creation is already the story of Christ
If you’re new here, welcome! I recently began a series on finding Jesus in the Old Testament. You can read the first post here. Fair warning: this series might stretch the usual “Two-Minute Tuesday” format—there’s just too much to rush through, but it’s worth it.
God Spoke—And It Was
Where do we look first? Most of the time the best place to start is at the beginning. If you look at Genesis 1:1-25, how does God create? What does He do? He speaks. God said, and it was. Then He names His creation: day and night. The great expanse is called heaven. Dry land is called earth and water is called seas, and so on.
God’s Word shaped the world of Genesis 1. First God made the world by his Word, which shapes everything about human experience, and then He spoke expectation and promise into the world.
John’s clue: Jesus Was There All Along
You probably know where this is going. The New Testament references the Old Testament. The Apostle John writes in his gospel:
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 came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men… And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-4, 14)
Jesus was there at the very beginning of the Old Testament—present in creation, not just as a symbol or idea, but as the second person of the Trinity. All things came into being through Him. He is deeply involved in creation. He is working.
The Craftsman of Creation
The Apostle Paul clarifies this in Colossians:
For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. (Col 1:16-17)
Jesus created all things. The word we translate as carpenter in the New Testament is “craftsman.” Some have said Jesus was more likely a stonemason, as far more was built with stone in the first century. Either way, he’s a craftsman, a builder, a creator. He has been a craftsman from the beginning.
The First Gospel
Chapters 1 and 2 of Genesis aren’t the only places where we see Jesus at the beginning of the Bible. From the start, humanity is revealed as the pinnacle of creation. Adam and Eve are made in the image of God, set apart with dignity and purpose. Adam was meant to lead as a prophet, priest, and king, but he fails. Both he and Eve commit cosmic treason by choosing sin over obedience, plunging all of creation into brokenness.
As God curses the snake, He gives us the first prophecy about Jesus:
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel. (Gen 3:15)
This is often called the first gospel. God gives Adam and Eve a promise—a Messiah will come. How did they feel about it? We get a hint in Genesis 4:1. Eve gives birth to Cain and she says, “I have gotten a man child with the help of the Lord.” They believed God’s promise. She likely wondered, “Can this be the one? Is this the son God promised?”
Walter Kaiser says “Relief will come from the same God who created all things. But exactly how? And when? Such questions as these went unanswered as the centuries rolled on.” As I mentioned in the previous post, people wondered if it was Moses. Is it Joshua? Is it David? On and on.
The True and Better Adam
He does not arrive until “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Edmund Clowney says:
Christ is more than a substitute for Adam, a stand-in, as it were, to succeed where Adam failed. Christ, who is the Omega, the goal of human history and of Created humanity, is also the Alpha, the true Adam, Head of the new and true humanity.
Where else do we see Jesus in the Old Testament? There’s so much more to uncover. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss next week’s post, where we’ll explore specific examples. In the meantime, if you’re eager to dig deeper, here are some excellent books worth checking out: