7/1991 - The Eternal Christ

"Who [Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the first emerging of all creation, because in Him were all things created, in heaven and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or lordships or rulerships or authorities—all things were created through Him and for His sake. And He Himself is before all things and in Him all things stand together. And He Himself is the head of the body—the Church" (Colossians 1:15-18).

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life and the life was the light of men" (John 1:1-4).

Christ is the essence of the universe. He is the source of its energy—of its substance and its life and its light. Jesus was the projection of Christ to the world in bodily form. He thus participated in its human process, and then returned to His original position with the Deity. His human body—now glorified—is a permanent part of His being. According to Paul in Colossians 2, all the fullness of the Godhead is embodied in Him. The Logos of John 1 is part of the Elohim of Genesis 1. The Elohim of Genesis 1 was a multiplex Deity, as suggested by the plural form for God with a singular verb for "create." Thus there is a multiplex Being in the one true God. The idea of a complex being with different personalities is not uncommon in the human person. But God was not merely a Being with different personalities—there were several different extensions of His Being, with separate identities.

However, God as The Eternal Spirit Being was not at that point identified with a material process. Thus, He projected Himself in the person of Christ to bring into existence a material realm called the "universe." The word "universe" means "the one within the many." What is the one within the many? What ties the atomic structure of a star, for instance, with the atomic structure of an Aardvark in Africa? According to John and Paul both, the "one within the many" is Christ. John calls Him the Logos. Logos is a Greek word which means "an expression." An expression of what? In Greek usage it meant an outward or tangible expression of something intangible—such as ideas. The common Greek usage was more pragmatic than that, however. Thus, the basic meaning of logos was "word" as the verbalization of reality. In later usage it came to be applied to many things that were outward expressions, such as business deals and accounts as well as the expression of fine art, such as poetry and writing. To Plato, one of the early Greek Philosophers, the Logos was the ultimate reality of the universe—a realm of ideas.

John takes the word to a very high level when he applies it to Christ and is, in effect, using the word to mean the appearance of Christ as a projection of the Godhead to enter into the creation of a material universe and of creatures in that universe. In other words, the Logos was God expressing Himself in creation and then revealing Himself to that creation in the person of Jesus.

And so Christ is the outward, visible expression of an otherwise invisible realm of Spirit and energy. He was, according to the Scripture, part of the Godhead or Deity of eternity past. And thus Jesus could say, "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58). In a certain limited analogy we might consider the motion picture projection. The light behind the film projects the image on the screen, which is, in a certain sense the real person, and yet a light energy projection of that person. Of course all such analogies break down, ultimately.

The first emerging of every creature . . . The translation—"firstborn"—is unnecessary and gives rise to the assumption in some quarters that Jesus Christ was a created being. The text in Hebrews stating that He has been the same forever, militates against this idea. Nor is the translation "firstborn" accurate here. The better translation and quite legitimate, is "first emerging." The word does not require a physical birth process. Christ was certainly the first Entity that emerged from the Godhead to bring about the establishing of the universe.

When Christ became incarnate in Jesus, His Seed—the Seed of the Spirit—was implanted in Mary. It was not a human conception—the seed was "conceived by the Holy Spirit." Thus, from the moment of conception, the Spirit of God was always with Jesus. He possessed the Spirit "without measure." And thus it was that Jesus could say to the Pharisees—"Before Abraham was, I am." So Christ, the projection of the Spirit of God, became incarnate in Jesus [took on human nature]. And thus it could be said that Jesus was also eternal. The Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of God are forever embodied in Jesus as a glorified body. In heaven, our contact with the Deity will be through Jesus Christ who embodies the entire Godhead, according to Paul. There will not be three Gods on three thrones. There is of course, more to the Godhead than Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ is the embodiment of all the nature of the Godhead.

Furthermore, according to Colossians 2:9, we are fulfilled in Christ. That is the same energy which empowered Christ, empowers us. It is not that we are equal to Christ, but we do possess the same energy within. We are channels of the flow of God’s Spirit. According to Peter, (II 1:4) "We are partakers of the Divine nature." In this respect, we too are extensions of the energy of God. Our bodies, which are temporary capsules and limited by time and space, are yet free in the spirit to interact with God in the realms of His Spirit energy.

And so as Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever, we too, possessing His energy are a part of His eternal existence, and are constantly empowered by His energy within. As Paul said, "Though our outward man perish, yet is our inward man renewed day by day."