Both 1 Thessalonians 1:1 and 2 Thessalonians 1:1 tell us that the church is in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I would ask you to carefully consider the expression “the church in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Suppose Paul had written in a brief way and had simply said “the church in God and Christ.” It may seem to us that it is adequate to speak of the church in God and Christ instead of the church in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The longer description of the church contains three names not found in the shorter: the Father, the Lord, and Jesus.
By reading the New Testament we realize that the first basic matter concerning the divine titles is the revelation of the name of the Father. When the Lord Jesus came and lived on earth in the flesh, what He mainly did was reveal the name of the Father to His disciples. For example, in His prayer to the Father recorded in John 17, the Lord Jesus said, “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world” (v. 6). The Lord also said to the Father, “And I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known” (John 17:26). It is a matter of great significance to know the Father. It is a great thing to know God, but it is an even greater thing to know the Father.
It is also important that we pay adequate attention to the title Lord. In the Old Testament this was used as a divine title. It was not a simple matter for the man Jesus to become the Lord. According to Acts 2, after His resurrection and ascension, Christ was made Lord of all. This means that a man, even a Nazarene, has become Lord of all. As applied to the Lord Jesus, the title Lord implies incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. It was through such a process that the man Jesus was made Lord of all.
Before the incarnation, Christ as God was already the Lord. However, He was the Lord, the Creator. But today, after a process going from incarnation to ascension, the man Jesus has been made Lord. As applied to Christ in the New Testament, this title is rich in meaning. Christ is not only the Creator, but the One who was incarnate, who lived on earth for thirty-three and a half years, who was crucified, who was resurrected, and who has ascended to the heavens. By His crucifixion Christ accomplished redemption, terminated the old creation, destroyed Satan and death, and abolished every separation between God and man and also all the separations between men. Hallelujah for what the crucifixion of Christ has accomplished! Like the crucifixion, Christ’s resurrection is profound. In the words of the song entitled, “God Is Processed,” crucifixion terminates, and resurrection germinates. After His crucifixion terminated the old creation, Christ’s resurrection germinated the new creation. Now, as the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended One, Jesus Christ has been made the Lord of all. All this process and everything related to it is implied in the title Lord.
The name Jesus also is significant and meaningful. Jesus means Jehovah the Savior, or Jehovah our salvation. In order for Jehovah to become our Savior and our salvation, it was necessary for Him to pass through a long process.
Christ means the anointed One. As the Christ, the anointed One, the Lord Jesus is the One appointed by God to accomplish His eternal purpose. Christ has been anointed, commissioned, and appointed to fulfill God’s purpose. Through the steps of His process, He, as the Christ, has fulfilled this commission and has accomplished God’s purpose. Now in resurrection and ascension He is our Lord Jesus Christ.
God is not only our Creator; He is also our Father. For God to be our Father involves much more than His merely being our Creator. How was it possible for God the Creator to become our Father? In other words, how could we, creatures of God, become children of God the Father? God has no intention to become our Father by adoption, our stepfather, or our father-in-law. On the contrary, He is our Father-in-life. This means that we have received God’s life. This took place when we were born of God.
It should be more than mere doctrine for us to declare that we have been born of God. Hallelujah, we are sons of God in life! Having been born of God, we are now God’s sons in life, and He is truly our Father. What a great matter this is!
We need to be very careful in reading the Bible. If we read carefully, we shall realize that 1 Thessalonians 1:1 and 2 Thessalonians 1:1 are very similar, but are not exactly the same. First Thessalonians 1:1 says, “Paul and Silvanus and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.” Second Thessalonians 1:1 says, “Paul and Silvanus and Timothy to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” The former speaks of “the Father”; the latter, of “our Father.” Furthermore, in 2 Thessalonians the blessing, “Grace to you and peace,” is found in verse 2 instead of verse 1. This indicates that Paul’s opening word in 2 Thessalonians is a little stronger than the one in 1 Thessalonians. Certainly Paul was not careless in writing his Epistles. Everything he wrote was with a definite purpose.
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