From the December, 2005 issue of *Touchstone*

Creation & Christ by Patrick Henry Reardon

Creation & Christ

Among the doctrines of the New Testament most neglected these days, I submit, is that of Christ as Mediator. Well, perhaps “neglected” is too strong. Let’s say “severely reduced.” An indication of this reduction, I believe, is the widespread failure of contemporary Christians to mention or even to think of the mediation of Christ when they speak of Creation, either of its structure or of our understanding of that structure. In other words, I believe that Christians nowadays rarely regard Christ with respect to cosmology and epistemology. Since, however, we are to love God with our “whole mind,” it is surely not legitimate to remove Christ from either concern.

First, let us consider cosmology, which addresses the question, “How are things put together?” Several places in the New Testament provide starting points for a Christocentric cosmology, I suppose, but 2 Corinthians 4:6 will do as well as any: “God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” In this text, we observe that Paul identifies the Creator in Genesis as the same God whose light shines out from the face of Christ.

To enter into the mystery of this text, we may first consider the light of Creation as presented in Genesis. Just what is that light of which God, in his first recorded words, said, “Let there be light”? This biblical verse certainly does not mean the light of the sun, created three days later.

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Patrick Henry Reardon is pastor emeritus of All Saints Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago, Illinois, and the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Out of Step with God: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Numbers (Ancient Faith Publishing, 2019).

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