- Dec 14, 2009
- 5,136
- 3,561
- 113
- 78
- Faith
- Christian
- Country
- United States
11-7-22
Continued from Part 4
The GOD Family First, we have proven that the Father and Christ are NOT “equal.” The Father SENT Him, told Him what to SPEAK, and is GREATER than Christ. Yet, Christ is also “God.” The disciple Thomas, upon seeing proof of His resurrection, exclaimed to Him, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). 262 Paul gives us the answer! He wrote of Christ, “He is the IMAGE of the invisible GOD, the FIRSTBORN over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible . . . . All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell” (Col.1:15-19). He was the FIRSTBORN – the FIRST of all CREATION – the first being that Almighty God created! As John wrote in the book of Revelation, “These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, THE BEGINNING OF THE CREATION OF GOD” (Rev.3:14).
The One who became Christ HAD A BEGINNING! In the first chapter of John’s gospel we read, “In the beginning was the Word [Greek, Logos], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:1-3). The word Logos means, “something said,” “the divine expression,” “utterance, word, work.” It is from the word lego, meaning “to lay forth.” In other words, to have a “word,” someone must SPEAK the word, formulate the Word in His mind, and utter the Word. Thus Christ, the Word, originally came forth from God the Father, as His Word, Utterance, or Work. Therefore He has primacy in all things, but always under the authority of the Father Himself. At some time, before the Creation of the Universe, then, God the Father brought forth the individual, the Archangel, known as the LOGOS! He is the “Angel of the Lord,” “The Messenger of the Lord,” “the Angel,” “the Commander of the Army of God,” “Prince of Peace,” and has many other names – one of them being “Michael, the Great Prince”! In other words, at some point in time BEFORE time itself was created, God the Father had a FIRSTBORN “SON”! As Paul wrote to the Hebrews, the Logos or One who became Christ “having become so much BETTER than the angels [all the other angelic beings], as He has by INHERITANCE obtained a more excellent NAME than they.
For to which of the angels did He ever say, ‘You are MY SON, Today I have begotten You’? And again, ‘I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son’? But when He again brings the FIRSTBORN into the world, He says: ‘Let all the angels of God WORSHIP Him’ . . . But to the Son He says, ‘Your throne, O GOD, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, YOUR GOD, has ANOINTED YOU with the oil of gladness MORE THAN YOUR COMPANIONS” (Heb.1:4-9, NKJV). 263 The Logos who became Christ, a human being, was first of all a SON OF GOD, before Creation itself! Therefore He participated with the Father in the creation of all things, the entire Universe (John 1:1-3; Col.1:14-18; Heb.1:1-3). Therefore He is also called “God” and all the angels are commanded to worship Him (Heb.1:6). Solomon wrote of this amazing truth. He declared, in Proverbs, “Who has ascended into heaven, or descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His NAME, and what is HIS SON’S NAME, if you know?” (Prov.30:4). God the Father had a SON! Together they created the UNIVERSE! Another name of His Son is “Wisdom.” We read of “Wisdom”:
“The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I have been established from everlasting, FROM THE BEGINNING, before there was ever an earth. When there were no depths, I WAS BROUGHT FORTH, when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was BROUGHT FORTH; while as yet He had not made the earth or the fields, or the primal dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there, when He drew a circle on the face of the deep . . . . When He marked out the foundations of the earth, then I WAS BESIDE HIM AS A MASTER CRAFTSMAN; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in His inhabited world, and my delight was with the sons of men” (Proverbs 8:22-31, NKJV). This Great Being, the Logos, the first born or conceived and created of All God’s Creation, delighted in the Creation of mankind. He participated in all creation, “AS A MASTER CRAFTSMAN” or Master Builder. That is why we read in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God [Hebrew, Elohim, a plural form, meaning “THE MIGHTY ONES”] created the heavens and the earth.” And we later read, in this same chapter, “Then God [Elohim] said, ‘Let US make man in OUR image, according to OUR likeness” (Gen.1:26).
“So God created man in His own image; in the IMAGE OF GOD He created him; male and female He created them” (verse 27). 264 God first expanded His divine Family by having a Son – the Logos. Then they created mankind in THEIR OWN IMAGE – the image of GOD! Why? Because God is in the process of EXPANDING HIS OWN FAMILY! He commanded mankind, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth, and subdue it; have DOMINION over . . . every living thing that moves on the earth” (verse 28). But today, mankind is just in the physical image of God, with body and mind made of DUST. Yet is it God’s plan and desire to bring MORE SONS into the everlasting spiritual GOD FAMILY! It all happens through Christ the Messiah. We read in Philippians: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of GOD, did not consider it robbery to be equal [margin, “something to be held onto to be equal”] with God [in His very own spiritual image and likeness as His first- born Son], but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He HUMBLED HIMSELF and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly EXALTED Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil.2:5-11). Through the death and resurrection of the Messiah, Yeshua the Anointed One of God, we may have our sins forgiven, and receive the Holy Spirit of God, and be begotten of God, and grow in Christ and His spiritual image so that one day we, too, can become members of the very GOD FAMILY!
Love, Walter and Debbie
Continued from Part 4
The GOD Family First, we have proven that the Father and Christ are NOT “equal.” The Father SENT Him, told Him what to SPEAK, and is GREATER than Christ. Yet, Christ is also “God.” The disciple Thomas, upon seeing proof of His resurrection, exclaimed to Him, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). 262 Paul gives us the answer! He wrote of Christ, “He is the IMAGE of the invisible GOD, the FIRSTBORN over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible . . . . All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell” (Col.1:15-19). He was the FIRSTBORN – the FIRST of all CREATION – the first being that Almighty God created! As John wrote in the book of Revelation, “These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, THE BEGINNING OF THE CREATION OF GOD” (Rev.3:14).
The One who became Christ HAD A BEGINNING! In the first chapter of John’s gospel we read, “In the beginning was the Word [Greek, Logos], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:1-3). The word Logos means, “something said,” “the divine expression,” “utterance, word, work.” It is from the word lego, meaning “to lay forth.” In other words, to have a “word,” someone must SPEAK the word, formulate the Word in His mind, and utter the Word. Thus Christ, the Word, originally came forth from God the Father, as His Word, Utterance, or Work. Therefore He has primacy in all things, but always under the authority of the Father Himself. At some time, before the Creation of the Universe, then, God the Father brought forth the individual, the Archangel, known as the LOGOS! He is the “Angel of the Lord,” “The Messenger of the Lord,” “the Angel,” “the Commander of the Army of God,” “Prince of Peace,” and has many other names – one of them being “Michael, the Great Prince”! In other words, at some point in time BEFORE time itself was created, God the Father had a FIRSTBORN “SON”! As Paul wrote to the Hebrews, the Logos or One who became Christ “having become so much BETTER than the angels [all the other angelic beings], as He has by INHERITANCE obtained a more excellent NAME than they.
For to which of the angels did He ever say, ‘You are MY SON, Today I have begotten You’? And again, ‘I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son’? But when He again brings the FIRSTBORN into the world, He says: ‘Let all the angels of God WORSHIP Him’ . . . But to the Son He says, ‘Your throne, O GOD, is forever and ever; A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, YOUR GOD, has ANOINTED YOU with the oil of gladness MORE THAN YOUR COMPANIONS” (Heb.1:4-9, NKJV). 263 The Logos who became Christ, a human being, was first of all a SON OF GOD, before Creation itself! Therefore He participated with the Father in the creation of all things, the entire Universe (John 1:1-3; Col.1:14-18; Heb.1:1-3). Therefore He is also called “God” and all the angels are commanded to worship Him (Heb.1:6). Solomon wrote of this amazing truth. He declared, in Proverbs, “Who has ascended into heaven, or descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His NAME, and what is HIS SON’S NAME, if you know?” (Prov.30:4). God the Father had a SON! Together they created the UNIVERSE! Another name of His Son is “Wisdom.” We read of “Wisdom”:
“The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I have been established from everlasting, FROM THE BEGINNING, before there was ever an earth. When there were no depths, I WAS BROUGHT FORTH, when there were no fountains abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills, I was BROUGHT FORTH; while as yet He had not made the earth or the fields, or the primal dust of the world. When he prepared the heavens, I was there, when He drew a circle on the face of the deep . . . . When He marked out the foundations of the earth, then I WAS BESIDE HIM AS A MASTER CRAFTSMAN; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in His inhabited world, and my delight was with the sons of men” (Proverbs 8:22-31, NKJV). This Great Being, the Logos, the first born or conceived and created of All God’s Creation, delighted in the Creation of mankind. He participated in all creation, “AS A MASTER CRAFTSMAN” or Master Builder. That is why we read in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God [Hebrew, Elohim, a plural form, meaning “THE MIGHTY ONES”] created the heavens and the earth.” And we later read, in this same chapter, “Then God [Elohim] said, ‘Let US make man in OUR image, according to OUR likeness” (Gen.1:26).
“So God created man in His own image; in the IMAGE OF GOD He created him; male and female He created them” (verse 27). 264 God first expanded His divine Family by having a Son – the Logos. Then they created mankind in THEIR OWN IMAGE – the image of GOD! Why? Because God is in the process of EXPANDING HIS OWN FAMILY! He commanded mankind, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth, and subdue it; have DOMINION over . . . every living thing that moves on the earth” (verse 28). But today, mankind is just in the physical image of God, with body and mind made of DUST. Yet is it God’s plan and desire to bring MORE SONS into the everlasting spiritual GOD FAMILY! It all happens through Christ the Messiah. We read in Philippians: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of GOD, did not consider it robbery to be equal [margin, “something to be held onto to be equal”] with God [in His very own spiritual image and likeness as His first- born Son], but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He HUMBLED HIMSELF and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly EXALTED Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil.2:5-11). Through the death and resurrection of the Messiah, Yeshua the Anointed One of God, we may have our sins forgiven, and receive the Holy Spirit of God, and be begotten of God, and grow in Christ and His spiritual image so that one day we, too, can become members of the very GOD FAMILY!
Love, Walter and Debbie
