Let’s read John 1:1-3, “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 were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” Now let’s read verse 14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” If we connect verses 1-2 with verse 14, we see that God’s only begotten Son IS GOD, yet He “became flesh and dwelt among us,” which speaks of the “Incarnation of the Son of God” (where He became a true human being named Jesus…please read Luke 1:26-35). Yet before time began (in ETERNITY), Jesus was called “the Word” who was WITH GOD and WAS GOD. Elsewhere we learn that there is one God yet there are three Persons in the Godhead—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (see Matthew 28:19). The words “in the beginning” in verse 1 takes us back to eternity, where time had not yet begun. This means that God IS ETERNAL; He never had a beginning. Our minds simply can’t grasp this amazing truth, but it is true none-the-less. God is SELF-EXISTENT which means “He has always existed.”

At some point God decided to create the heaven and the earth (Genesis 1:1) and it was then that TIME BEGAN. In John 1:3 we learn that it was the Word (God the Son) who was the Creator. We see this truth also in Colossians 1:15-16 where creation is attributed to God’s Son: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. ALL THINGS WERE CREATED THROUGH HIM and for Him.” So, yes, we can say that “Jesus is the Creator,” though at the time He created all things He had not yet become a Man. I believe one of the reasons He is called THE WORD, is because He was the Person in the Godhead who would REVEAL GOD TO THE WORLD (just as a “word” that we speak reveals who we are to others). First, He reveals God through CREATION (see Romans 1:18-20). And then He became MAN to reveal God the Father to the world through His words and deeds (see John 1:18 & 14:7-11 with 1st John 1:1-2).

In closing I want to add a word about Genesis 1:1 which reads, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” In that verse the word “God” is speaking of all three Persons that make up the Godhead. It is the Hebrew word ELOHIM which implies a “plurality of Persons.” That is why we see later in verse 26, “Then God said, ‘Let US make man in OUR image, according to OUR likeness.” This means that all three Persons had a part in Creation. We saw in John 1:1-3 that Creation is attributed to God the Son, but in Genesis chapter one Creation is attributed to the Triune God.  (DO)  (597.5)