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 10 – God Created All Through Christ
We already knew from the Old Testament that God existed before the week of creation described in Genesis 1. We didn’t have to be told. He wouldn’t have been God if He hadn’t existed before creation.
What we didn’t know until the New Testament told us was that Christ also existed before the events described in Genesis 1. The Father had begotten the Son so that the Son could be the agent through whom God created. That’s why the following New Testament passages all describe creation as directed by the Father and executed by the Son. Creation was the Father’s will…and the Son’s doing.
1 Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.
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.
John 1:3 All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
John 1:10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
Hebrews 1:1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,
Hebrews 1:2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
Hebrews 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power...
Creation was a father-son project, with the father deciding what he wanted and the son making it happen. (Note that “through whom” is the operative phrase in every single bold print phrase above – and “whom” always applies to Christ, not God.) Like Adam, Christ was created fully mature – not having to mature from infancy to childhood to adolescence to adulthood.
This two-being process of creation brings to mind how David provided all the plans and provisions necessary for construction of the temple to his son Solomon. David willed it; Solomon built it. It was the same way in creating the heavens and earth. God made known His will, and the Son did the will of His Father.
How did Christ have the wisdom and power to fully execute the creation of heaven, earth, and all that is in them? He was made in the “image: and “form” of God – equal to Him in all ways.
Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Philippians 2:6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
Christ was not only equal to God in power, but also in virtue:
Hebrews 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature…
So much was Christ like God that He could respond to one of His twelve apostles in the following way:
John 14:8 Philip said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
John 14:9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?”
There was just one difference between God and Christ…and it was a big one. The Father was in charge, and the Son’s only ambition was to please His Father.
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