January 5, 2023
Who is First?
“All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being.” John 1:3 (NASB)
An old question my former pastor asked was the question, “What came first?” “The Chicken or the Egg?” I remember this question. I was a young Christian and didn’t know the answer at the time. One Sunday evening service our pastor asked everyone to gather in our fellowship hall. He had several round tables set up. He split the congregation into several groups at each table. Each table received a series of Bible knowledge questions to answer within a given time. Each table began feverously to answer as many questions as possible. At the end of the allotted time, the pastor told everyone to stop. He answered each question from the list one at a time. Some didn’t like the pastor’s responses so there was some quiet grumbling in the background. At the end of the time, he declared one table the winner. My table didn’t win.
Over the next several days, I began to think about those questions, “What came First?” “The chicken or the egg?” It might seem easy to answer but it reveals much about your belief system. On one hand in order to get the chicken, you have to get the egg. This is an Evolutionist View. Its view is that all things were created by a system of material processes and through chemical terms, not by a Creator.[1] On the other hand, when the pastor said “The chicken came through God’s Creation, he was referring to the Creationist View. God spoke it and it began.
As I grow in my walk with Christ, I noted something the pastor said. When my pastor asked the question above, I noted that it was two separate sentences. The first question was “What came First?” There is a simple answer now. God came First! God was there from the beginning, then, “…not even on thing came into being that has come into being.” In 1 Corinthians 8:6 the Bible tells us, “yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.”[2]
Just this very evening I was speaking to a young man who asked the simple question, “Who wrote the Bible?” I explained that all things which have come into this world, including the Bible came by God’s hand. Men were inspired to write as God led them. He then replied, “These are the questions I wished I knew more about.” He was just like I was years ago.
Today, there are many people searching for answer about life and how it all started. Maybe you are like I was many years ago, uninformed to God’s Word. I encourage you today that if you don’t know much, ask someone to invest in you and help you. If you do know these answers, be the one who helps that person to become all God desires. Let folks know God is First! The late Howard Hendricks once said, “For every man who asks for help with the Word of God, there are 99 who need it but don’t know how to ask for it.” Be the First in their life!
[1] https://answersingenesis.org/origin-of-life/what-is-life/53-what-is-life-the-evolutionary-view/
[2] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), 1 Co 8:6.