All Creation Shares a Common Root
I recently watched a documentary about linguistic archeology. This is the study of discovering the branches of a language and finding the root language from which our modern languages developed. Here’s an interesting quote from Dr. Paul Geggarty1, an expert in archaeology and Language:
Human societies don’t just come from nowhere, and nor do the languages we speak. And unlike the archaeological record, our languages are still living lineages, inherited directly from how our ancestors spoke. Romanian is a direct linguistic legacy of Rome, for instance — and so too are Italian, Spanish, French, and various others. Whereas English is most definitely not.
This characteristic found in languages is a good example for us. It reminds us that Jesus created everything, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. (Colossians 1:15-18); everything has its root in Jesus, and all things are held together by Him.
This isn’t a stretch for God’s Word. John wrote concerning Jesus that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) and in the Creation account in Genesis, we find: And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3) Notice the words, “And God said.” These words testify to Christ’s work of creation.
Now consider something C.S. Lewis said, “Birds, flowers, trees, and mankind have all sprung from the same root, which is the word coming forth from the Father.” So, we can say with great confidence that humanity (something visible) and the laws of physics (something invisible) share a common root, Jesus Christ, the Word of God.
When anyone creates something, an artist creates a painting, or a welder welds a joint on an oil pipeline; the creator leaves an invisible part of themselves in everything they create. This is true with Jesus, also.
So, we can say with confidence that birds, flowers, trees, and mankind are not that different since we all share the same root. Does this mean that Jesus created evil? Did he devise lying, cheating, and stealing? Of course not, although many people have difficulty with why evil exists in the world.
Allow me to prove that Jesus did not create evil. Jesus is the root of things both visible and invisible but consider this. Can a lie exist without truth? No, a lie is a perversion of truth, but if the truth doesn’t exist then the lie is irrational. Let’s consider cheating. Can cheating someone exist without objective morality? Of course not. If there are no moral laws to follow then it would be completely impossible to cheat. This same argument is true with stealing. Without an objective moral law, instead of subjective morality, stealing cannot exist. Only when there is a moral law against theft can stealing exist.
Now consider evil. Can evil exist without objective morality? The answer is “no.” Something cannot be evil unless something holy exists. Holiness can exist without evil, but not the other way around. All things that the Bible calls out as wrong are declared wrong because they did not grow from the root.
Evil, lying, cheating, stealing, coveting, and so forth are not from the root. They have not grown from the root; they are not derived from Christ Jesus. Evil and its many devices come from a created being that is “hell bent” on perverting the holy things of God.
So why do bad things happen to good people? Why is there evil in the world? How can a good God allow ethnic genocide? None of these evils are part of creation, their lineage cannot be traced back to Jesus the root. God has revealed His will and what is holy in His Scriptures. We know the fruit of the root. But we are all born sons and daughters of Adam. Our flesh is as hungry for sin as we get when we see Reese’s® Pieces commercial.
In this life, God has called us to be reunited with His creation, to once again be a branch from His root. Through Christ’s sacrifice, we can be free of this world. This world is an artificial, ungodly system; it has nothing to do with planet earth. To serve Jesus, He has given us promises and armor to do His will in this world, a world which we are in but not of. (John 15:19)
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1: Archaeology and Language | FifteenEightyFour | Cambridge University Press. 17 Mar. 2014, accessed on July 6, 2022