Creator-Creature Distinction

These are notes for an incomplete "Concept" page.

Information is being added as the Bible Pages are added. In the end, everything will be compiled, further information added (as necessary), broken links connected, etc.

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Cross-references Parent Topic a Related Topics b Links to Additional Materials c

This is the most fundamental distinction found in Scripture. God is uncreated, and is not an aspect of creation. Creation is not an aspect of God. God can cross the "gap" and interact with creation (in a finite - limited - manner), but creation cannot cross the "gap" to the realm of the uncreated.

• Note that "creation" includes the place where angelic beings live - the place we call "Heaven."

Some of the contrasts between the two... [to be added later]

The "Creator - Creature" Distinction

At the end of Genesis 1:2, there is only one significant "distinction": the distinction between God and everything that is "not God" (all of creation). However, this is the most significant distinction in all the Bible, for it defines the relationship between creation and God.

What is the significance of this? Here are just a few things:

• God is not a "super creature," like other creatures, except more powerful. On the other hand, the devil is not an eternally existing "competitor" to God, but is a created being (initially good, according to Genesis 1:31).

• God is not like us. We don't make (or define) him based on our "image" (what we are). Rather, we were made in his "image" (a reflection of what he is - Genesis 1:27).

• The contrast between God and creation is so great, that we can comprehend God only to the extent that he reveals himself in terms we can understand. This is possible only because God designed creation to reflect his character. Even then, our understanding is limited, because finite creation can never fully reflect the character of the infinite God.

• The difference between the Creator and creation is so great, that there are ways God will interact with creation that we cannot fully understand or respond to. (To help us comprehend this difference, God has compared it to a human interacting with an inanimate piece of clay - Jeremiah 18:3-6; Romans 9:21.) On the other hand, he has also chosen to interact with us on our level - and on this level, we are accountable for the way we respond.

Scripture passages referenced in the above section Genesis 1:1-2 - In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was on the surface of the deep. God's Spirit was hovering over the surface of the waters. Genesis 1:27 - God created man in his own image. In God's image he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:31 - God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. There was evening and there was morning, a sixth day. Jeremiah 18:3-6 - Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he was making a work on the wheels. When the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, House of Israel, can't I do with you as this potter? says Yahweh. Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel. Romans 9:21 - Or hasn't the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor?

Scripture Passages that Link to Here

Genesis 1:1 - 2:3

Genesis 1:1 contrasts the uncreated God with created "heavens and earth."

Job 36:26 - 38:1

(a comment) - Job 37:19 - "Teach us what we shall tell him, for we can't make our case by reason of darkness." Darkness - not only because of sin (and its influences), but because we are finite creatures (and God is the infinite Creator).

Ecclesiastes 3:1-22

God's sovereignty vs. our limitations - Ecc 3:11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts, yet so that man can't find out the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end.

God is in control, and there is "beauty" or design to what he is doing. His sovereignty is purposeful, not random; and guarantees that everything will fit together as it ought, "in its time" (though at the present, we are not always able to recognize it, because of the effects of sin in the world).

We desire to make sense of it all; but this desire that won't be fully realized until eternity arrives. We simply can't see the "full picture" of how it all fits together! (We are going to have to trust God and wait until the end, when God brings everything to account - Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.)

Unless otherwise noted, all notes and comments are © by Dennis Hinks.