The creator, as the willing fountain of all things, who formed all things for his own name’s sake in order that they should serve him in the realization of his eternal covenant, is God and is one. Yet also as the creator he is the triune God, and in the one creative work of God we can distinguish between the work of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. We must not present this as if there were three divine factors next to one another in the one work of creation; nor may we ever separate the three persons of the Trinity from one another, but we must always maintain that the three persons,
even by their personal distinction, are nevertheless one in being. Nor may we so separate the works of God outside of himself (ad extra), as if one part were to be attributed to the Father, another part to the Son, and the third part to the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, even as the one triune God exists in himself in the threefold relation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, so he also reveals himself in his works outside of himself.
It is better, therefore, to present the work of creation as being out of the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit. Just as in the Trinity the Son returns to the Father in the Spirit and in the Spirit faces the Father from eternity to eternity, so also the Word of God in creation, the revelation of the eternal thoughts of God, returns in the Spirit to God himself.
The relation of the Son, or the eternal Word, to creation is very clearly revealed in Holy Writ.
Already in Genesis 1 the speech of God denotes the creation of all things through the Word, as the apostle John in the prologue of his gospel narrative writes: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:1–3). The Son is the Word, the brightness of God’s glory, and the express image of his person (Heb. 1:3). He whom God hath appointed heir of all things is the same by whom he made the worlds (vv. 1–2). “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him”
(Col. 1:16). The same thought is expressed in the well-known eighth chapter of Proverbs, which speaks of the eternal wisdom that was with God before the world was and that was present when he created the world (vv. 23–31).
The relation of the Son to creation is, first, that the Son is the eternal, infinite, and divinely perfect expression of the adorable image of God. The Son is in God himself the express image of his substance (Heb. 1:3), the perfect image of the invisible God. Second, all the thoughts of God in relation to all things are taken through and out of the Son so that also the works of God outside of himself (ad extra), as he conceived of them in his counsel, are a reflection of that adorable image of the Most High. Third, when God through that same Word creates all things, this denotes nothing less than that by his powerful, creative word he gives existence outside of himself to all creation, which is the revelation of his eternal thoughts which through the Son he conceived in himself from eternity to eternity.
Creation, then, is a thought of God, a creative word of God, and all creatures are individual thoughts or words of God, which together reveal the perfect and infinite wisdom of the Most High.
We must remember that creation is not only given existence through the Word of God, but also through the same Word the world is sustained, for God bears all things by the Word of his power. For the same reason that Word is also the light of men, although the darkness did not comprehend that light (John 1:4–5).
Even as the light and the thought of God in creation is through the Son, so also the scintillation of life, the harmony and the communion, and the bond of life which unites the whole creation in fellowship with God, are through the Holy Spirit. In the beginning the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters (Gen. 1:2). “By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens” (Job 26:13), and he created all the host of the heavens by the breath (literally, the Spirit) of his mouth (Ps. 33:6). By breathing the Spirit into man, God made him a living soul, who in his entire life is adapted to God himself. Although through sin our hearts turn away from God with all things, yet through the Spirit of God, now as the Spirit of Christ, our hearts return again in love unto the living God. Of the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit are all things created.
The finished creation was a rich revelation of the wisdom of God, scintillating with life in all its parts and in all its creatures, striving on high and turning itself with its face to the God of the covenant to glorify him and to rejoice in his everlasting favor. Therefore, it is always true that “of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36).