Skip to main content

Meditations on the Glory of Christ: He is the Agent of Creation by Pastor Charlie Handren

In Hebrews 1:2-4, the author makes seven claims about Jesus that when taken together greatly exalt his glory. The second claim the author makes is that the Father created the world through Jesus. The simple word “through” implies that the Father is ultimately responsible for creation but that he created all things by means of the Son. As the Apostle John said in John 1:3, “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

So we see that the Father is the visionary, the architect, the provider, the supervisor, and the one who is ultimately responsible for the finished product of creation, while the Son is the implementer, the builder, the one through whom all things actually come into being. For example, the Father envisioned a galaxy and laid out its seemingly endless specifications, and the Son actually formed the galaxy. The Father pictured so many varieties of trees, and the Son actually fashioned each tree. This means that when we behold creation we are literally beholding the vision of the Father and the handiwork of the Son. The designs of the Father and the fingerprints of the Son are in some profound sense upon everything.

For those of you who love to work in your yards and gardens, as you feel the grass beneath your feet and the dirt slip between your fingers, as you observe seeds or shoots turn into plants and trees, as you observe those plants and trees produce food that nourishes your bodies, learn to say to yourselves, “I am literally beholding the designs of the Father and the fingerprints of the Son in all these things.”

O Beloved, the relationship between the author’s first two claims about Jesus, when seen in relation to one another, highlight a great and worship-evoking mystery to which the writer of Hebrews returns again. Namely, the Father has given as an inheritance to the Son all that he created through the Son. Jesus has acquired that which he himself created!

As Paul writes in Colossians 1:16, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him [he is the Creator] and for him [ he is the heir].” Or as Jesus himself declared in Revelation 22:13, “I am the Alpha [the Creator] and the Omega [the heir], the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” This is why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:20 that all God’s promises are “yes” and “amen” in Christ: he is both the source and the rightful heir of those promises and thus they find their fulfillment in him.

Beloved, this is no theoretical claim: all things were created through Jesus! Think about how great he must be in light of this truth. Indeed, Jesus is highly exalted and he alone is worthy of our praise, our allegiance, our souls, our lives, our all!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord, by George Muller

To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord By George Muller “It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost for more than fourteen years. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord, but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. “I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God—not prayer, but the Word of God. And here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God so that it only passes through my mind just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what I read, pondering over it, and applying it to my heart. To meditate on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed. And that thus,...

Worship Songs, October 15, 2017

We post these worship songs leading up to the worship service so that parents may listen to them in the house or in the car within the days leading up to the worship service. Our hope is that children will hear the songs prior to and it will prepare them to participate in worship on Sunday mornings. My Redeemers Love Hope Has Come I Will Glory In My Redeemer Blessed Be Your Name Here In Your Presence Your Glory Be Still My Soul (In You I Rest) -- Sermon Text: John 11:1-16 That the next generation will set their hope in God and not forget the works of God (Psalm 78:7).

Meditations on the Glory of Christ: He Sits at the Right Hand of God

In Hebrews 1:2-4, the author makes seven claims about Jesus that when taken together greatly exalt his glory. The seventh claim the author makes about the Son is that, having made purification for sins, he now sits at the right hand of the Majesty on high. The words “he sat down” set the stage for chapter 7 where we’re taught that Jesus is both Priest and King. Prior to Jesus, no king offered his own sacrifices and no priest sat on the throne of David, for that wouldn’t be right. God had decreed that there should be a separation of powers between the priest and the king, but Jesus, unlike all before him, is worthy and able to fulfill both roles. So, on the one hand, Jesus sat down at the right hand of God after making purification for sins because the sacrifice he offered, namely himself, is sufficient. Other priests were always standing, as we see in chapter 10:11-14, because their work was never done. The blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins, so the priests could...