In this chapter and the next we will cover two topics concerning Christ—the person of Christ and the precious blood of Christ. The person of Christ relates to who Christ is, and the precious blood relates to what He has done. If we want to know Christ, we must know His person and the preciousness of His blood.
Christ is our glorious Savior. No believer should be ignorant in regard to His person. Many believers have some knowledge of what He accomplished in His work, but they do not have a clear understanding of His person. When we ask about the person of our glorious, precious, and lovely Lord, many are not able to give a clear answer. In the Lord’s table meeting, as we remember the Lord, we often thank Him for His work of grace, but we have little praise for His glorious person. We are short of praises related to the Lord’s glorious person in our table meeting because we have a lack of knowledge concerning the Lord’s person. In the table meeting, most of our thanks and praise to the Lord are based on the grace that we have received from the Lord; they are rarely based on our knowledge of the Lord. Our thanks rarely originate from our appreciation of who the Lord is. Our knowledge of the Lord is lacking because we do not know the person of the Lord. Therefore, we should spend some time to know the person of the Lord from the Word.
Various aspects of the person of the Lord can be seen quite clearly in relation to time. Since there is a progression in time, we will look at His person in progressive periods of time.
1. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2).
Christ is the Word who was in the beginning. He is the Word who was with God in the beginning, and as the Word He is God. In the beginning refers to eternity past before the beginning of time. This is different from the beginning of time spoken of in Genesis 1:1. Our Lord Jesus was God in eternity past. Before the beginning of time, before anything was created, He was God in eternity. He is the eternal God.
What is the meaning of His designation as the Word? A word is an expression of the speaker. If I stood before you, but did not speak, you would not understand anything about me. I must speak in order to express myself. The Lord Jesus is the Word of God, which means that He is the expression of God. He expresses God (John 1:18). Everything about Him is an expression of God. If He were not the expression of God, there would be no God. Apart from Him, we cannot know God. Since He is the expression of God, He is God. We see God in Him and find God in Him. His expression of God, however, is unrelated to time. Eternally, He is the Word of God, the expression of God, even God Himself.
2. “His goings forth are from ancient times, / From the days of eternity” (Micah 5:2).
The goings forth of the Lord Jesus are from ancient times, from the days of eternity. He is the eternal God, the God from eternity. He did not become God at some point in time, and His status as God is not dependent upon His being our Savior. He did not become God because He is our Savior. He is God coming to be our Savior. He is God from ancient times, from the days of eternity.
3. “Mighty God, / Eternal Father” (Isa. 9:6).
The Lord Jesus is the Mighty God and the Eternal Father. Although He became a man in the flesh in time, He was God in eternity past. Although He was manifested as the Son in time, He was the Father in eternity.
4. “Being equal with God” (Phil. 2:6).
In eternity the Lord Jesus was equal with God because He is God.
1. “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not one thing came into being which has come into being” (John 1:3).
In eternity the Lord Jesus was the eternal God. At the time of creation He was the Creator. All things came into being through Him. Apart from Him not one thing has come into being.
2. “In Him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or lordships or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and unto Him” (Col. 1:16).
Everything in the universe has been created by and through the Lord Jesus. He is the Creator of everything in the universe and the Lord of all in the universe.