Chapter 4 — Creation as the Expansion Forward from Christ
If Jesus Christ is the zero-point of reality, then creation is not a random project that God began and then tried to salvage after it went wrong. Creation is the unfolding of a plan that already has Christ at its center. The world is not built around Adam’s failure; it is built around the Son’s Incarnation. Time and space are not meaningless stretches of emptiness; they are the expanding circle around Christ’s mediating presence, in which the universe grows, ripens, and is prepared for union with God.
In this chapter we will see:
Creation is not about Adam’s fall
Creation exists for the Incarnation
Time, space, cosmos, humanity — all built within Christ’s mediating circle
The invisible universe → time → visible universe → humanity
Creation as womb of adoption
1. Creation Is Not About Adam’s Fall
In many inherited narratives, the story of reality looks like this:
God creates the world.
Adam sins.
God is offended.
Everything from that point on is damage control.
In that scheme, creation’s meaning is overshadowed by failure. The starting point becomes human disobedience, and everything—Scripture, theology, and worship—starts revolving around sin management, not around Christ.
1.1. The Problem with a Fall-Centered Creation
A fall-centered view of creation leads to several distortions:
Creation appears fragile and accidental — as if God’s project almost immediately collapsed.
Adam becomes the real center — the whole universe seems to depend on the choice of one man, rather than the eternal purpose of God in Christ.
Christ appears secondary — a repairman, summoned because Adam broke what God had made.
This subtly reverses the true hierarchy:
Instead of Christ being the eternal center,
Adam becomes the practical center,
and Christ becomes a reaction.
The result is a spirituality obsessed with guilt and catastrophe, rather than with divine intention and purpose.
1.2. The Fall as Distortion, Not Foundation
The truth is:
The fall is real.
Human freedom matters.
Sin and death are terrible intrusions into God’s good creation.
But the fall is not the foundation of reality. It is a twist in the story, not the core of the story.
We must distinguish between:
What God intended from the beginning, and
What human and spiritual rebellion introduced into that intention.
Creation was blessed before it was wounded. The divine plan existed before sin. Heaven and earth did not come into being so that Adam could fall and Christ could fix it. Rather:
Creation came into being so that Christ could be revealed
in the flesh,
in time,
in the midst of His creatures.
The fall is something Christ confronts and heals on the way to fulfilling that original purpose—but it is not the reason creation exists.
2. Creation Exists for the Incarnation
If we ask, “Why is there a universe at all?”, the deepest Christian answer is not, “Because God wanted subjects,” but:
Because the Father willed that His eternal Son
should be manifested in created reality
as true Man,
so that creation might share in the life of God.
2.1. The Son as the Blueprint of Creation
Before anything is made, the Son is eternally with the Father. He is:
the Logos through whom all things will be created
the image according to which humanity will be formed
the center in whom all creatures will find their unity and meaning
When Scripture says humanity is created “in the image,” that image is not an abstract pattern. It is the Son Himself, foreknown as the One who will become incarnate.
This means:
Humanity is shaped from the start according to the form of the Incarnate Christ.
Our nature is designed to be capable of bearing God, of being united to Him in a real, personal way.
The Incarnation is not an improvisation; it is the goal written into the very structure of creation.
2.2. Incarnation as the Heart of the Story
Seen this way:
Creation is the stage on which the eternal Son will step forward as a man.
History is the extended preparation for His appearing and His saving work.
The human race is the family from which He takes His human nature.
The Incarnation is the center of the narrative, not the emergency solution:
Even if Adam had not sinned, the Son’s union with humanity was still the intended climax of the story.
Sin changes how Christ comes—through the Cross and death—but not that He comes.
So we can say:
Creation exists for Christ’s coming,
not Christ’s coming because of creation’s failure.
The whole universe is ordered toward that moment when the eternal Word will say, within creation, “This is My Body,” and creation itself will be joined to God.
3. Time, Space, Cosmos, Humanity — All Built Within Christ’s Mediating Circle
In earlier chapters we saw:
The Holy Trinity as the ultimate horizon, the outermost “circle” of all that is.
Jesus Christ as the zero-point, the center where God and creation are united.
Now we focus on creation itself as an expansion inside Christ’s mediating circle.
3.1. Christ’s Mediation as the Structural Center
From the moment anything is created:
It is created through the Son.
It exists in relation to Him.
It is sustained by His will and presence.
So we can picture reality like this:
The Holy Trinity encompasses all.
Within this divine life stands Christ in His unique mediating role as God-man.
Within Christ’s mediating “field” are layered realms of created existence—spiritual, temporal, material, personal.
Time and space are not neutral containers in which Christ later appears. Rather:
Time is shaped so that the Incarnation, Cross, and Resurrection can occur within it.
Space is shaped so that the Word can “pitch His tent” among us and be locally present.
The laws of matter, life, and consciousness are arranged so that a human nature suitable for union with God can emerge.
Everything about the created order is oriented toward allowing the Son to stand at its heart as a true man.
3.2. Humanity as the Personal Frontier Within Christ’s Circle
Within this architected cosmos, humanity holds a unique role:
We are material (of the dust of the earth).
We are relational and conscious (capable of knowing, loving, choosing).
We are oriented toward God (bearing the image of the Son).
Humans become the frontier where:
the material world
spiritual realities
and divine purpose
meet in a single creature.
But this frontier is never autonomous; it is always within Christ’s mediating circle. Even when humans turn away, they cannot step outside the reality in which Christ is the measure and the center. Their rebellion takes place inside the very domain created for communion with Him.
4. The Invisible Universe → Time → Visible Universe → Humanity
To understand how creation expands forward from Christ, we can trace the nested structure of created reality:
The invisible universe
The creation of time
The visible universe
Humanity
These are not four separate projects, but four interwoven levels, each ordered toward Christ.
4.1. The Invisible Universe
First, there is the invisible universe:
spiritual beings
angelic ranks
unseen energies and logoi
realities that are not material in the ordinary sense, yet truly created
These beings and structures:
are created through the Logos
exist for the glorification of God
form the heavenly dimension of creation’s life
They are not rivals to Christ but servants within His mediating domain. Their knowledge, power, and beauty are immense by our standards, yet they are still finite and dependent.
The invisible universe is like the inner architecture of creation—an unseen framework of praise, order, and spiritual relationship that will interact with the visible world and with humanity.
4.2. Time as the Fabric of Becoming
Into this layered reality, God brings forth time—the dimension of sequence, change, and becoming. Time allows:
growth
story
the unfolding of relationships
the movement from potentiality to fulfillment
Time is not an enemy; it is the arena in which creatures can move toward their intended destiny in Christ.
Without time:
there is no history of salvation
no narrative in which Christ can be promised, awaited, revealed, and proclaimed
no process in which creatures can freely respond to God
Time is woven so that there will be a “fullness of time” in which the Son becomes flesh.
4.3. The Visible Universe
Within time, God calls forth the visible universe:
galaxies, stars, planets
fields, oceans, forests
animals, ecosystems, material processes
This visible cosmos is not a meaningless backdrop; it is the material dimension of the stage on which the Incarnate Logos will live, die, and rise.
The elements that will become:
the wood of the Cross
the water of Baptism
the bread and wine of the Eucharist
the dust from which human nature is formed
are all present within this visible universe.
Thus, the visible universe is already secretly sacramental—prepared to become the outward, tangible means by which Christ will unite creation to God.
4.4. Humanity as the Synthesis
Finally, within this invisible + temporal + visible structure, humanity is formed:
a creature with a body from the visible world
a mind that can think beyond immediate survival
a heart capable of love, worship, and self-gift
a spirit that can turn toward or away from God
Humanity is:
the bridge between visible and invisible creation
the recipient of God’s self-revelation in Christ
the family into which the Son is born as a man
When the Logos becomes flesh, He does not become an angel, a star, or a concept. He becomes human precisely because humanity is the created point where the whole cosmos can be gathered and offered back to God.
So the sequence is not random:
The invisible universe → time → visible universe → humanity
all arranged so that Christ can stand in the middle as God-man,
and through Him, creation can be completed.
5. Creation as Womb of Adoption
If creation is structured around the Incarnation, what is its purpose for us? The answer is profound:
Creation is the womb in which sons and daughters of God are being formed,
through Christ, by the Spirit, for the Father.
5.1. Adoption, Not Mere Survival
Humans are not placed in the world merely to:
survive
reproduce
build civilizations
manage resources
All these things matter, but they are means, not the final end.
The deepest purpose is adoption:
To be brought into a relationship with God that mirrors, in a creaturely way, the relationship of the Son to the Father.
To share, by grace, in what the Son is by nature: beloved, accepted, and glorified in the Father’s presence.
Creation provides:
the conditions under which this adoption can unfold—embodied life, relationships, choices, growth.
the stories in which we are confronted with love, truth, and the call to conversion.
the material signs (water, oil, bread, wine, touch, words) through which divine grace reaches us.
5.2. History as Gestation
From this perspective, history is not just a record of wars, empires, and progress. It is the long gestation of a family:
Before Christ, humanity is like a child in early formation—struggling, learning, often wandering, yet carried along by promises and hints.
With Christ’s coming, the decisive moment of this gestation arrives—the “birth” of a new humanity in Him.
After Christ, history is the ongoing formation and gathering of His brothers and sisters into one body.
The Church, in this vision, is:
not simply an organization,
but the community of those being born into adoption through union with Christ.
Sacraments, prayer, ascetic struggle, and works of love are part of the labor pains of this new birth.
5.3. Creation’s Groaning and Future Fulfillment
Scripture speaks of creation “groaning,” as in childbirth. From our framework, this means:
The visible and invisible worlds are involved in the drama of adoption.
Creation is not indifferent; it is waiting for humans to reach their maturity as children of God.
Environmental decay, violence, and injustice are not just human crises; they are signs that the womb is under strain.
Yet the promise remains:
This womb is not a tomb.
The end of the story is not annihilation but transformation.
Through Christ, the children of God will be manifested, and creation itself will be renewed—no longer as a place of gestation, but as the home of a mature family, fully alive in God.
5.4. Living as Children in the Womb
To see creation as the womb of adoption changes how we live:
We treat the world not as disposable machinery, but as the environment in which our adoption is being shaped.
We see our struggles not as meaningless suffering, but as pains through which a deeper life is coming to birth.
We understand the Church not as a club for the pure, but as the hospital and household in which God is raising His children.
In all this, Christ remains the center:
He is the Firstborn of the new family.
He is the pattern into which we are being formed.
He is the midpoint through whom the womb of creation opens into the glory of the age to come.
Conclusion: From Christ, Through Christ, Toward Christ
Creation is not a failed attempt that Christ rescues at the last minute. It is:
From the eternal will of the Father,
Through the Son as center and mediator,
In the Spirit who gives life,
all aimed at:
the Incarnation as its heart, and
our adoption as its purpose.
It is an expansion forward from Christ, not a detour to be fixed by Him.
It is not ultimately about Adam’s fall.
It exists for the Incarnate Son.
Its entire structure is built within His mediating circle.
Its layered architecture—from invisible realms through time and matter to humanity—serves His coming.
It functions as a womb in which children of God are formed.