What Motivated God to Create?

Have you thought about what motivated God to take the risk to spin into being such a complex and dependent system as our universe? What compelled him to create, especially one with the capacity to veer so far off course from his original design as ours has proven to do? What hope, what potential did he see that made it worth the risk?

According to the testimony of Scripture and most Classical Christian theologians, God is self-existent. He exists apart from any other cause, independent and complete, lacking nothing within himself. Therefore He didn’t need to create our universe. Rather, it was “for his good pleasure” (Ephesians 1:4-5) that he brought life into being. God created us for himself, for his own glory, as a means of self-expression (Colossians 1:16). 

The universe in all of its beauty, from the smallest imperceptible molecule to the grandest, most elegant galaxy, every strange sea creature beneath the surface of the ocean, every feathered bird combing the wind through its wings, was made to reveal something of himself (Romans 1:19-20). Each facet of the universe’s “infinite diversity of forms” carries its own distinct revelation of what God is like. Each expresses some attribute of his divine nature. 

But self-expression as its own end is incomplete. All art is communicative. It is always unto. No experience of wonder is fully realized until it is shared with another. The heavens may “declare” the glory of God as the Psalmist tells us, but without someone listening, it accomplishes nothing. It remains incomplete and undone, a song sung to an empty theater.

It can be understood then, that God created with relationship in mind. The blind-worm burrows its snakelike paths through the dirt. Clouds drop their rain and fill those channels with water. The roots of the trees, plants and flowers drink in the rain and bring forth their fruit and blossoms for us to eat and enjoy. The way the sun relates to the soil, the way the moon relates to the ocean tide, it all communicates the preeminence of relationship within God’s art. 

This abiding interconnectedness and interdependence within the earth’s ecological system beautifully displays the Creator’s deep value of relationship. Such connections are the thread upon the loom by which he weaves all things together. In fact, relationship exists at the core of his own being and is the prime mover of all he does. Relationships are an essential component of life and give meaning to otherwise isolate and disparate entities. 

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In Genesis 1:26, God speaks, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;”.  Interpreted through the lens of Christian thought, this references the Trinitarian nature of God. This “us” is not spoken to other gods, or heavenly beings. It is directed to the other members of the Trinity. In this light, we can discern the threefold nature of God even from the first verses of Genesis. The Holy Spirit hovers. God the Father speaks. Jesus, the Word proceeds from the mouth of the Father. Creation happens.

Author Timothy Keller, in his book, “Reason for God” informs us that early Greek Church leaders used a term to depict this relationship within the Trinity. The word they used is “perichoresis” which means to “dance or flow around.”  Our English word choreography stems from this root. The picture perichoresis gives is one of three loving, unified individuals each dancing, celebrating and preferring the others. It is a social atmosphere of distinction in harmony. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit each maintain an individual identity while co-existing in a perfect synthesis of being. It is from within this environment of relational perfection, that God choreographs our universe and invites us to join the dance.

This heavenly milieu of perfect love, joy and humility is to expand throughout all he makes, repeating, or rather undulating the very essence of himself. His creative act is an intentional overflow of the fullness of love within the Trinity.

In summary, God’s creative act was birthed out of enjoyment, as a means of self-expression. He created, not out of need or compulsion, but from desire. He wanted to create. It is his nature. He creates because he is a creator. The central motive of his art was not what he would gain from creating, as if He lacked anything within himself, but it was what he could share in creating. Therefore, abiding at the core of God’s creative act is that deep and eternal mystery of love, the very substance of his own being. In this way, our human art shares this characteristic of divine love and becomes a wonderful catalyst for expressing God’s self-giving and sacrificial love.

Hebrews 1:2 reveals that God the Father created all things as a gift to His Son, Jesus, who is the heir of all things. When He stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the world, God’s heart was compelled by the love he held for his son. This verse gives us a key insight into God’s motive in creating as well as it reveals the essential nature of creativity itself. Generosity. God’s creative act is ultimately an act of generous love.

When we complement this scripture with John 17, we get a fully rounded idea of God’s intention in his creative act and find our place within His generous love.

Here, the impetus of God’s motives crescendo, stretching his work even further to include you and I in the lavish expression of love which compelled him to create. Romans 8:17 and Galatians 4:7 consider us “joint heirs with Christ” meaning that we, too have become the beneficiaries of all God the Father bestows upon His son. His intention from the beginning is for all of humanity to be invited into the communion of His love and become joint recipients of his gift to Jesus. The Gospel of John (17:21-24) paints this beautifully when Jesus prays his last recorded prayer before facing the cross.  He prays,

“That they all may be one, as You, Father are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.  “And the glory which You gave me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one.  I in them and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.  Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”

The art of God proceeds from him as a divine communication of his love to the son. Through the incarnation of Jesus, God’s creative love continues forward to include us in the embrace. As we, in turn, offer praise back to the Father, the circle is completed. Worship, as a posture of the heart satisfies the ultimate intention for his divine creativity.   

The whole purpose of God’s creativity culminates in the desire of his heart to have a people who reflect share and embody his nature, from the inside out, highlighting his character, his glory and creative ability.  When he reached down and shaped the first human from the clay, he held the desire that we would respond to his invitation to join the perfect union, the common union of the trinity.