Christ is the Creator of all things in the universe, and He is also the means and the active instrument through which the whole creation came into being. As Col. 1:16-17 clearly tells us, all were created through Christ, they cohere in Him, and they are unto Him. This means that after He created everything, Christ now upholds all things by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3).
All things subsist in Him – Christ is the center, the hub, holding all things in the universe together. The scientists did not yet discover what is the force that holds the universe together, the thing that makes it all work perfectly together. They may call it “gravitation” on earth, but in 100 years from now they will most likely call it something else.
But we as believers in Christ know from the Bible that the whole universe was created by Christ through Himself as the instrument, and now Christ upholds all things by the word of His power. All things cohere in Him, and He gives being to all things.
Without Christ, nothing has being and nothing can exist. He is intimately related to His creation, both the old creation (created by Him) and the new creation (created in Himself). All creation is for Christ and unto Christ, to glorify Christ! Hallelujah!
Christ Upholds All Things by the Word of His Power
Christ is not only the Creator of all things and the active instrument through which all things were created, but He is also the Upholder of all things by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3). Christ is the initiating and sustaining power of the old and new creation.
He upholds the church in the same way that He upholds the entire universe. Without Christ, everything falls apart.
Sir Isaac Newton (who was a great physicist and a good Christian, who “discovered” the law of gravity among other things) once made a model of the planets and how they orbit and rotate on their track around one another. An atheist friend came to visit him and was amazed at the model. He asked, Wow, who made this? Newton replied: No one; it came into being by itself…. His friend said, Well, that is stupid! Newton: that’s right, it is stupid to believe this model came into being by itself, and it is even more stupid to believe that the universe came into being and is held into being by itself!
This shows us that God shames the science of men today, which is “good” in our eyes right now but in 1 year or so will totally contradict what we today know. Man’s science is a quest to discover what God already has established and even spoken of in the Bible.
The universe holds itself together not because of gravitation or orbits or any other thing, but because of Christ! Christ is the Upholder of all things by the word of His power.
We also exist because of Him, and His word gives us being, life, and life-supply to live the Christian life for God’s expression. To Christ it is simple: He simply speaks the word, and things come into being; He speaks the word, and things are held together.
All Things Subsist in Christ and Cohere in Him
Col. 1:17 says, All things subsist together in Him (see the Darby version). To subsist is different than to exist (to have being) and to consist (to be composed or constituted). To subsist or to cohere means to exist together because of a holding center, just as the spokes of the wheel are held together by the hub at their center.
There’s no human words to describe how this is, but all things subsist together in Christ and He holds all the things in the universe together.
Christ as the Word of God is not like a wizard who uses a magic wand and “creates things”, and then He is apart of away from what He created. Rather, Christ created all things, He is the very instrument and sphere in which all things were created, and then He upholds all things. He is subjectively related to creation.
The creation bears His divine characteristics, and especially man as the highest created life bears His image for His expression. This means that Christ is manifested in all things created by Him. This is not pantheism, in which everything in creation is a god…but it is a subjective relationship that Christ has with His creation.
All Things are Created in Christ, Through Christ, and Unto Christ
All things were created in Christ, through Christ, and unto Christ.
All things were created in Christ means that all things were created in the power of what Christ is, and all creation bears the characteristics of Christ’s intrinsic power.
All things were created through Christ means that Christ is the active instrument through which the creation of all things was accomplished in sequence. The process of creation was through Christ, and all creation bear His characteristics. Christ Himself is the Firstborn of all creation, and through Him all things were created.
All things were created unto Christ means that Christ is the end of all creation, and all things were created unto Christ for His possession! All creation is Christ’s possession, being created by Christ and through Christ, and being upheld by and cohering in Christ.
This is the real meaning of the universe: Christ upholds everything, He is the holding factor, and He is the initiating and sustaining and consummating element to everything in His creation. In all this, Christ is seen, manifested, displayed, and glorified. Hallelujah! Glory be to Christ!
Lord, we praise You for the clear revelation in the Bible concerning the creation of the universe. You are our Creator, and You created all things through Christ as the active instrument. Lord, even right now, You are the One upholding all things and giving them being. We all subsist in You, and You uphold us by the word of Your power. Lord, we love You! We give You all the glory! We humble ourselves before You, we open to You, we accept the light in the Bible shining so clearly on us! Glory be to Christ! Hallelujah!
References and Further Reading
- Inspiration: bro. Andrew Yu’s sharing in the message and portions in, The Conclusion of the New Testament (pp. 278-279), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Crystallization Study of Genesis (1), week / msg 2, Creation in Christ for the Fulfillment of God’s Purpose.
- Further reading: The Mystery of God and the Mystery of Christ, chs. 2-3 (by Witness Lee).
- Hymns on this topic:
# God the Lord has spoken, Christ has been revealed: / He is very God and yet is truly man; / He is all in all, in Him all things subsist, / Center and circumference of th’ eternal plan.
# By Thee was made the universe, / Subsisting by Thy merit; / The heir, God hath appointed Thee, / That all Thou may inherit.
# All creation is for Christ, / Everything was made by Him; / ’Tis by Him all things subsist, / He’s the hub and He’s the rim.
