Why do we recite our faith that He is the one “by whom all things were made” (i.e., He is the Creator)?

God the Father created all things by His Son, who is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24), His eternal Word (John 1:1–3). Above, we spoke of the Father as the Creator, and here we speak of the Son “by whom all things were made.” John the evangelist says, “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:3).

The phrase, “by whom” means “ by His agency,” “through Him,” and “in Him.” He created and continually administers His creation, cares for it, and preserves it. The apostle Paul puts it this way: “For by Him all things were created … all things were created through Him and for Him … and in Him all things consist” (Col. 1:16–17). And “upholding all things

314 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Letter 55:14–16 (FOTC 77:20–21).

by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3), “for in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). St. John Chrysostom points out that the evangelist focuses on the unity of the Word and the Father in the act of creation between, revealing the divinity of the Word and His equality with the Father. He says, “ without Him nothing was made that was made ” (John 1:3), affirming the fundamental role of the Word in creation. Without Him neither the act of creation nor its continual existence are possible.

St. Cyril the Great says, “‘All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.’ We believe that all things were created through the Son. We cannot count Him as one among the rest of the creation. He is utterly different; for He is not part of created nature, rather, we confess that He alone is by nature the true God.” He also says, “He did not receive power from another in order to create, for He is the power of God the Father, the only Son, who works all things with the Father and the Holy Spirit. For all things are from the Father by the Son; for if the Son created apart from the Father, the Son could not have said, “I am in the Father and the Father in Me” (John 14:10).”

The Fourth Article: “Who for us men and our salvation, came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary.”