The Nicene Creed
The Son as Creator
By whom all things were made
We’ve seen this many times—in John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; and Hebrews 1:2—passages in the New Testament which advance our understanding of Old Testament passages such as Genesis 1:2, 26; and Proverbs 8:22-31. In these verses we plainly see the divinity of the Son (and Spirit) shining through as he is God’s Son, not by adoption, but by generation—begotten of his Father, not made.
But these passages also naturally assume one of the greatest doctrines of the New Testament, at least as doctrine relates to the teaching of who God is. And this doctrine is the Trinity—that God is three in one and one in three—“three persons in one substance” as the ancient teachers of the Church finally worded the doctrine. This is the great advance of the New Testament upon the Old as to the nature of our God, and such cannot be a small matter for us to examine. In short, the doctrine of the Trinity is no esoteric matter for theologians to explore but a practical doctrine for the faithful to understand and thereby worship God in all His Triune glory.
We have already spoken of the Son’s being begotten by His Father. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father as well. The Father is thus the “Fount” of the others before time, which is to say, from all eternity. This is all that Scripture has told us of their “inward” relations besides the obvious fact that they each love one another to an eternal depth that shall ever be beyond our comprehension and ability. As to their “outward” relations towards the world, the three always work in concert as they must since the three constitute the One eternal, Almighty God.
But let us concern ourselves with the work of the Son. The Son is that person whose primary role is Mediator. He is that member of the Triune God whom we might call the “through whom” person. In this role, he was the one who was incarnated (made man) for our redemption by his life, substitutionary death and resurrection. He is now our High Priest at the Right Hand of Power interceding on our behalf, which is the subject of the whole of the Book of Hebrews. But that mediating role also involved him in the creation of the world as the “master workman” (Proverbs 8:30), the “word” (John 1:3), the one “by whom all things were created” (Colossians 1:16). Our God is so marvelous in his work!
