Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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Christ Is God
Chapter 9 – God Created Christ Before All
Here’s how the Old Testament begins its account of creation. Notice especially the first three words:
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
It’s not accidental that the first three words of the apostle John’s Gospel are exactly the same. John was making a point.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:2 He was in the beginning with God.
John is confirming here the New Testament revelation that there were two beings that preexisted the creation of the world. These two beings were, of course, God and Christ. They dwelt together in the Pre-Creation period. God was supreme and Christ was at His side. John is calling Christ by one of His many other names: “The Word.”
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Thus did “the Word” become Jesus Christ.
God is, by definition, without beginning or end. How then did Christ come into being? The Father had begotten Him…before “in the beginning” ever took place.
John 1:14 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
A couple of chapters later, in one of the best known verses of the Bible, Jesus describes Himself as God’s “only begotten Son.”
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
Many people rightly understand “only begotten” to literally mean “one-of-a-kind.” (The Greek for “only begotten” is the word “monogenes” – a combination of two Greek words: “mono,” meaning “only, sole, or unique,” and “genes,” meaning “kind, type, offspring, or generated from.”)
Clearly God preceded Christ in being. Doesn’t a father always precede a son? And this Son is clearly one of a kind!
The apostle Paul confirms that God created Christ before anyone or anything else:
Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Colossians 1:16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities–all things have been created through Him and for Him.
Colossians 1:17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
In the book of Revelation, Jesus confirms that He was indeed the beginning of God’s creation.
Revelation 3:14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: The Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God, says this:”
(We will, later on, see that He’s the beginning AND the end!)
The ancients kept order by assigning rank according to the beginning of one’s existence. John the Baptist said this about Jesus, who was his earthly cousin and born six months after John the Baptist.
John 1:15 John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’”
For the ancients, birth order mattered even in the case of twins – as in the case of Jacob and Esau (Genesis 25), and Perez and Zerah (Genesis 38).
This emphasis on order is why God was #1 in all of creation – because He preceded all of it. It’s also why Jesus was ranked #2 in all of creation – because He preceded everyone and everything else.
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