THE LORD AS CREATOR
May
11
Written by:
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 1:34 PM
THE LORD AS CREATOR
From book by John Paterson
GOD In Christ Jesus
"Thou, even Thou, art Jehovah alone; Thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and Thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth Thee" (Neh. 9: 6).
"Thus saith Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: ... I have made the earth and created man upon it; I, even My hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded" (Isa. 45:11,12). "All things were made by Him (the Word); and without Him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:3).
There is abundant testimony throughout the Old Testament that Jehovah, the Word, created the universe by His own power. While the relationship of this to His future appearing as man (I Cor.
15:47) is not as clearly shown there as in the New Testament, the Old Testament does intimate in several Messianic prophecies' that the Christ would be none other than Jehovah Himself. For example, this was plainly Mother Eve's understanding of the prophecy of Genesis 3: 15 regarding the Redeemer, "the seed of the woman", when, at the birth of Cain, she said, "I have gotten a man, EVEN JEHOVAH" (Gen. 4:1-Professor Lewis in Lange's Genesis).
From Isaiah 53 and Daniel 9 the scribes knew that "the ARM of Jehovah", meaning "the Creator", should be revealed as man, and though "cut off out of the land of the living" after three and one-half years of ministry (that is, "in the midst of tbe week") should nevertheless "prolong His days"; from Micah 5:2 they knew that "He Whose goings forth have been from everlasting" should be born in Bethlehem' from Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 they knew that David's Son was also his Lord! There is reason to believe that the Logos-conception, including the doctrine that the Word or Memra would come to earth as the Messiah, was held by devout Jews long before the Christian era - yet this in no way conflicted with their belief in One God, absolute and solitary.
Turning to the New Testament we find more clearly the reason why "all things were made by the Word" (John 1: 3 ), and here it is: "For it pleased the Father that IN HIM should ALL FULNESS dwell" (Col. 1: 19); wherefore "by HIM were all things created, that are in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, ... thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were' created by Him and FOR Him: and He is BEFORE all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the Head of the body, ... the BEGINNING, the firstborn from the dead; that in ALL THINGS He might have the PRE-EMINENCE" (Col. 1 : 16-18). Here we see the Word in His office as Lord, not only of the Church, but of the whole creation in heaven and earth.
We now begin to realize why "every knee shall bow" to Jehovah. Imagine the scene on that great day when the hosts of creation are marshalled before Him, and all the power and might of the Eternal Spirit streams in terrible majesty through those eyes that are “as a flame of fire" (Rev. 1: 14). Are there thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers? Are there legions of angels? "They were created by Him and for Him." Is there a body of the elect? "He is the Head of the body." Are there resurrected ones? "He is the first-fruits of them that slept" (I Cor. 15: 20), and "the firstborn from the dead". Is there anything in which He does not have the pre-eminence? No, indeed; for "He is before all things", and is "the first and the last" (Isa. 48:12,13), "the beginning of the creation of God" (Rev. 3: 14), and "the firstborn of every creature" (Col. 1: 15). Thus we see that His creative acts had to do with His office as LORD.
In passing, we might notice the expressions, "the beginning of the creation of God" and "the firstborn of every creature". Russellites and others who preach the Arian heresy say this means that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, in His original state and in His essential Being, was merely a creature - they deny that He was, or is, God in any real or supreme sense. But, in the light of the plain and oft-reiterated teaching of Scripture that "the Word was GOD", no honest student of the Bible can ever accept this denial of Christ's Deity.