All things received being through him, and without him not one [thing] received being which has received being.
John's Gospel opens by placing the Word at the origin of everything that exists. Verse 3 draws the line: the Word is the Maker, and everything else is made.
"Was" and "Came Into Being"
The verse turns on a change of verb. Up to this point John has said the Word was; now he speaks of things that began. One writer sets the two Greek words side by side, and follows the contrast through to the incarnation:
The language is exact. He was in the beginning with God. John does not use egeneto ("became"), which would mean coming into being or being caused to be. He uses ēn: He "was", in His own absolute being. All things egeneto, "came into being" through Him. He was the Creator so completely that John adds, "and without Him not one thing came into being which has come into being." By contrast, verse 14 states the incarnation like this: the Word was made flesh — not ēn but egeneto.
No Exception Left
The second half of the verse says the first half again, in reverse. It shuts the door on any search for something that slipped into existence on its own.
Nothing can go wider than the words "All things." In Colossians 1, creation is credited to the Son of the Father's love: it first says that all things were created by Him, then it names particular things, the things in heaven and the things on earth (verse 16). But in John nothing is left out. The eternal Word made all things that have been made. And as if to close the door on the heartless quibbling of human reason, the Spirit of God adds, "and without Him was not any thing made that was made."
One writer applies this to the claim that Christ Himself was created:
This shows that there was absolutely no exception as to creation. If Christ had been created, He would have been a notable exception. Surely the One who creates is the Creator, and the Creator is God.
Creating Is Speaking
Why does the title "the Word" stand right before a statement about creation? Because what a person makes expresses his mind, just as his words do.
The title "the Word" means that He — and He is a Person — expresses the Divine Being, just as our words or acts express our minds. For He is not only "the Word" because of what He has said, He is also "the Word" because of what He has done. By His acts in creating He expressed the power and mind of the invisible God. The Divine Being willed how created things should be — their form, their arrangement, their number, and their growth too, where there is life, whether animal or plant. All of it came from Him who is "the Word."
Yet created things only tell us so much:
The things that are made can show His eternal power and divine nature. But other unseen things about Him — His counsels and grace, and glory in the Son — nothing that was made can teach us. They come by revelation.
Father, Son and Spirit
Creation is not the work of one Person acting alone:
Everything that was made came about according to the Father's sovereign will. But the Son, the Word of God, was the person who put forth the power. And never without the energy of the Holy Spirit, I may add, as the Bible teaches us. This matters greatly for what the Holy Spirit has in view in the Gospel of John. His object is to bear witness to the nature and light of God in the person of Christ.
Where This Leaves Us
This verse gives us a starting point, not a puzzle:
He was the originator, the designer and the maker of the vast universe and every creature within it… How wonderfully these simple yet great statements clear the air for us. We need not waste our time and weary our brains hunting in vain for some missing link. That search only props up a groundless theory, put forward by people who want to banish the Creator from His creation. We begin with the truth that the Word has made all things, that He upholds all things, and will one day make all things serve His glory.
Summary
- He was. Verse 1 uses a verb of pure existence; verse 3 uses a verb of beginning. The Word never began.
- All came. Everything that ever came into being came through Him. No words go wider than "All things."
- None excepted. The second clause closes every loophole. Christ is no exception, and the One who creates is the Creator.
- God expressed. In creating, He expressed God. His power and mind show in what He made. Grace and counsels come only by revelation.
- So begin here. Start with the Maker. Then the universe is not a riddle to solve but His glory to trace.