THE WORD AS LORD OF ALL
May
4
Written by:
Wednesday, May 04, 2011 7:18 AM
THE WORD AS LORD OF ALL
From book by John Paterson
GOD In Christ Jesus
We have seen that in the Word were centered the offices of the Lamb and of the Priest. But we have not yet dealt with that aspect of Jehovah which was the primary cause and also the ultimate end of all creation, namely, His Lordship. When God made man in His own image and after His likeness (Gen. 1:27), He gave him a form resembling that which He Himself had assumed, and placed him on the earth which had once been governed by Satan before his fall (Ezek. 28: 11-19), with divine authorization to have dominion over it (Gen. 1:28; 2: 19,20).
Satan, jealous because man now held the position he himself once swayed, determined to accomplish his ruin. But God forestalled the Devil's purpose by centering ALL dominion, authority, and power in the "second Man" Who "is the Lord from heaven" (I Cor. 15 :47).
This Lord is none other than Jehovah, the Word, as it is written: "Jehovah shall go forth as a mighty man, He shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: He shall cry, yea, roar; He shall prevail against His enemies" (Isa. 42: 13 ), and again, "Jehovah is a man of war : Jehovah is His name" (Ex. 15: 3 ) .
This office of the Word as Lord - second Man, last Adam - forms the backbone of the entire scriptural structure and is worthy of special study. While it resembles the offices of Priest and Sacrifice in that 'it,' too, is closely connected with' redemption, it differs from those in' this respect: the sacrificial and priestly offices concern only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life from the foundation of the world (Rev. 17: 8); but the office of Lord, or second Man, puts into subjection to it all dominion, rule, and authority, whether it be of principalities and powers in heavenly places or of men upon earth. "For I have sworn by
Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto ME every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear" (Isa. 45: 23 ) . Please compare Philippians
2: 10, 11. You will note from the structure of the latter passage that this act of fealty is not, primarily, a confession that Jehovah is God, but rather that He is LORD. To insist, as some do, that this Scripture is designed to teach the Godhead of Jesus, indicates failure to grasp the real significance of this very vital passage.
The entire gospel plan revolves around Christ's office as LORD, as it is written, "For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be LORD both of the dead and living" (Rom. 14:9). Accordingly, "to us there is but ONE GOD, THE FATHER of Whom are all things, and we in Him; and ONE LORD, Jesus Christ, by Whom are all things, and we by Him" (I Cor. 8: 6). This harmonizes with Ephesians 4 :4-6, where "One Lord" occupies the central position among Seven Unities. Later in this study we intend to show that Jesus indeed IS Jehovah, and Jehovah indeed IS God, but let us not distort individual Scriptures by taking them out of their proper setting; let us rather "rightly divide the word of truth" (II Tim. 2: 15) .
It might be well at this point to notice three main functions of Jehovah which are directly related to His office as "second Man" and Lord of all. These functions are Creator, King, and Judge