Christ is all-inclusive; He includes both God and man. Since He includes God, in the Divine Trinity He is not only the Son, but He is also called the Father, and He is also the Spirit. Since He includes man, He became flesh as a man, taking the form of a slave, having the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man. Furthermore, He includes all creation and is the Firstborn of all creation. For this reason, the inclusiveness of Christ is complete.
Angels are part of the creation; hence, the Lord Jesus also includes the angels. He is the Angel of Jehovah (Exo. 3:2-15; 14:19; 23:20-21; Judg. 13:15-21). In Revelation, He is the “another Angel” who takes care of God’s people on earth (7:2-3), adds His fragrance to the prayers of the saints and offers them before God (8:3), treads on the sea and on the land to take possession of the whole earth (10:1-2), and destroys Babylon the Great (18:1-2). The Lord Jesus even includes fallen men because He Himself became flesh. Romans and Galatians reveal clearly that the flesh denotes fallen man (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:16). Therefore, He is all-inclusive; He is not only the Creator but also a creature.
Christ includes man. Furthermore, He became a man with flesh, having human blood, flesh, and bones. At His crucifixion, not one of His bones was broken (John 19:33-36). Blood, flesh, and bones evidently belong to a created being; therefore, it is illogical to say that the Lord Jesus is not a creature. Since Christ partook of blood and flesh (Heb. 2:14), having a body with human blood, flesh, and bones, how could He not be a created One? As God, Christ is the Creator; as a man, Christ is a creature. In His divinity, He is the Creator; in His humanity, since He became flesh, His flesh was something created. Hence, we must confess that He is the Creator and also a creature. To say that the Lord Jesus is not a creature is equivalent to denying that He has come in the flesh; such denial was a heresy strongly condemned by the apostle John (1 John 4:2-3).
Since Christ is a creature in His humanity, when was He created? Arius asserted that since Christ is a creature, He is not the eternal God, but He was created by God at a certain period in eternity as the first created One. Hence, in this thought, there was a time when Christ did not exist. This is a great heresy. Colossians 1:15b says that Christ is “the Firstborn of all creation.” This means that, in God’s eternal plan, in God’s eternal economy, the Triune God agreed that the Son would become a man, would become flesh. From that time on, in the eyes of God, the Son has been a creature. Then, in time, He actually came to be a man.
Some may ask, “It was two thousand years ago when the Lord Jesus became a man in time, and before that time there were already millions and millions of people; how can we say that He is the Firstborn of all creation?” We have already said that God’s calculation is different from man’s calculation. For example, Adam is the first man created by God, so the second man should be Cain. Yet the Bible says that the second man is Christ (1 Cor. 15:47). Furthermore, since the first Adam is the beginning of mankind, all human beings are descendants of Adam and all of them are “Adams.” Thus, there are Adams being born every day; so the last Adam should have not come yet. However, the Bible says that Christ is not only the second man but also the last Adam (v. 45). This is God’s calculation.
Furthermore, according to history the Lord Jesus was crucified two thousand years ago. According to Scripture, however, He is the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8). Long before Christ was born, He was slain from the foundation of the world; this is God’s estimation. Hence, we cannot consider the all-inclusiveness of Christ according to our view. In Genesis 18, as early as the time of Abraham, Christ appeared to Abraham in the form of a man with a real body, and His feet were washed and He ate the meal that Abraham prepared. According to man’s view, how could Christ appear as a man before His incarnation? In Judges 13, as the Angel of Jehovah, Christ appeared as a man to Manoah and his wife (vv. 10-11). Manoah asked the Angel of Jehovah for His name, and He said, “Why do you ask about My name, since it is wonderful?” (vv. 17-18). His name is wonderful because He is the Angel of Jehovah and He is also Jehovah, yet He appeared as a man. This is truly beyond human understanding. Therefore, instead of trying to comprehend these truths with our minds, we should simply receive them by faith according to God’s revelation.
Home | First | Prev | Next