The Beginning of God’s Creation

“These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.” —Revelation 3:14

IN JOHN 3:16, Jesus is referred to as God’s “only begotten Son.” In our text he is described as “the beginning of the creation of God.” Concerning Jesus, the Apostle Paul wrote, “By him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him.” (Col. 1:16) In Ephesians 3:9 we read that God used Jesus Christ to create all things, and John 1:3 reads, “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.”

The united testimony of these texts of Scripture reveal clearly that there was a time in the dim and incomprehensible past when the Jehovah of the Old Testament, the Heavenly Father of the New, was alone, and that his first and only direct creative act was the bringing into existence of the one referred to in the Bible as his beloved Son. After this, as the Scriptures reveal, Jehovah used his Son as his active agent in all the remaining works of creation, and “without him was not anything made that was made.”

The Scriptures reveal that from the very beginning the beloved Son of God was always in very close relationship with his Father and Creator. In Genesis 1:26 this is emphasized. God is speaking, and he says, “Let us make man in our image.” The use of the pronouns “us” and “our” indicates that in making this statement God applied it to himself and his Son, who worked with him in connection with the creation of man.

In John 1:1-3 Jesus is referred to as the Word of God. In the Greek text it is Logos, which literally means spokesman, or mouthpiece. In ancient times kings would speak to their people while concealed behind a lattice, addressing their remarks quietly to a mouthpiece who stood in front of the lattice, and who relayed them to the audience. This spokesman was called a logos. Thus Jesus is the Logos of the Creator, acting as well as speaking for him.

Poor Translation

The meaning of the information set forth in John 1:1-3 is obscured by a faulty translation, particularly in verse one. In our Common Version translation it reads that “the Word (the Logos) was God.” This incorrect translation has helped to support the tradition that the Heavenly Father and his beloved Son are one and the same person. However, a more correct translation of the Greek would read, “The Word was a God; the same was in the beginning with the God.”

In the New. Testament the Greek word translated ‘God’ is theos, but it does riot always apply to the Creator. In II Corinthians 4:4, theos is applied to the Devil, who is described as the “god of this world.” Theos simply means a deity, a mighty one, the identity of the being to whom it is applied having to be determined by the context in which it is used. The Logos was a mighty deity, but not the Deity, not the great and Almighty God over all. He was a god, but not the God, as the Greek in this instance indicates—the definite article ‘the’ being used. In the Greek language there is no definite article such as ‘a’, hence when the definite article is used in the Greek, it means some special or particular person, place, or thing. When it is just a god, theos is not preceded by the definite article, the.

Just as the Logos was with the God in the beginning, and served under him as the creator of all things, so he gladly came to earth on the mission of redeeming and saving the sin-cursed and fallen human race from death. He was “made flesh,” the Scriptures inform us. (John 1:14) John adds, “We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” The use of the word glory in this text does not mean that Jesus was divine while on earth. Paul explains that there is a terrestrial or earthly glory. This was the glory that was given to Adam when he was created perfect, and Jesus was the exact counterpart of Adam.—Ps. 8:4,5; I Cor. 15:40

A Corresponding Price

It was necessary that Jesus be made flesh, else he could not have been the Redeemer of fallen man. It was his “flesh,” his perfect humanity, which he gave for the “life of the world.” (John 6:51) In I Timothy 2:3-6 the Apostle Paul refers to this as a “ransom,” or corresponding price. The only life which could correspond with the perfect life of father Adam, was a perfect human life. It was this perfect human life which Jesus voluntarily laid down in sacrifice—that sacrifice being consummated on Calvary’s cross.

Contrary to human traditions which have come down to us from the Dark Ages, Jesus never claimed that he was the Heavenly Father. Nor did he claim to be equal with the Father. On the contrary he said, “My Father is greater than I” (John 14:28) How could this possibly be true if Jesus and the Father were one and the same person?

A mistranslation of Philippians 2:5-8 has been used to bolster the false tradition that Jesus was equal with the Father. The King James Version states in this passage that Jesus “thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” Nearly every other translation gives the opposite thought. The Emphatic Diaglott says that Jesus “did not meditate a usurpation to be like God.” We will quote the entire passage in order to see how much this corrected translation is in keeping with the spirit of Paul’s admonition:

“Let this disposition be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, though being in God’s form, yet did not meditate a usurpation to be like God, but divested himself, taking a bondman’s form, having been made in the likeness of men; and being in condition as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

Thus Paul admonishes the Christian to follow Jesus’ example of humility who, despite the fact that before he came to earth he had been a mighty god—the Logos—he did not aspire to be equal with Jehovah, the Creator; but, instead, in his desire to do his Father’s will, gladly submitted to the humiliation of becoming a man to suffer and to die for the human race. As a man, Jesus continued to exhibit this same spirit of humility. He said, “I can of mine own self do nothing.” (John 5:30) And again, “I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.”—John 12:49

Oneness of Father and Son

Jesus declared to the Jews, “I and my Father are one.” (John 10:30) This statement has been misused in an attempt to prove that Jesus and the Heavenly Father were one and the same person. But all will concede, we believe, that there are forms of oneness other than that of personality. As a matter of fact, Jesus proved this to be true when later, in praying to his Heavenly Father on behalf of his disciples, he said, “That they all may be one: as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us.”—John 17:21

It is obvious that Jesus did not ask his Heavenly Father to make his disciples one with him in person, yet he did pray for the same kind of oneness as existed between himself and the Heavenly Father. The thought clearly is a oneness of purpose, a oneness in this respect so complete that the Heavenly Father’s will was Jesus’ supreme rule of life. Jesus delighted to do his Father’s will, and he prayed that his followers might likewise be sanctified, or set apart by the Word of truth, likewise to know and do the divine will.

Knowing and doing the divine will is basic to being a Christian acceptable to God. No one will ever gain everlasting life, either in heaven or on earth, who even in the slightest degree is in opposition to the Heavenly Father’s will. It is in keeping with this that Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”—Matt. 6:10

The true disciples of Christ, even now, and despite the imperfections of their flesh, seek to have the will of God done in their hearts and lives. It will require the thousand years of Christ’s mediatorial reign on earth to establish the will of God in the hearts of all mankind. However, when that gigantic task is accomplished, the Son himself will continue to be subject to the Father. Paul explains it in this way: “He [Christ] must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he [Jehovah] hath put all things under his [Jesus’] feet. But when he saith all things are put under him [Jesus], it is manifest that he [Jehovah] is excepted, which did put all things under him [Jesus]. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him [Jehovah] that put all things under him, that God [Jehovah] may be all in all.”—I Cor. 15:25-28

In the face of a plain statement of Scripture like this, who can justifiably argue that the Creator and his beloved Son are one and the same person? How could a person be subject to himself? On the other hand, this clear-cut statement by the Apostle Paul reveals further the perfect oneness of purpose which exists between the Father and the Son—a oneness which will extend even beyond Christ’s thousand-year reign, beyond which, and for all eternity, he will continue to be subject to the Father.

In God’s Image

Jesus said to Philip, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” (John 14:9) This is another text which is used by the supporters of tradition, in an effort to prove that Jesus and the Father were one in person. However, we know that this is not what Jesus meant, for Jehovah said to Moses, “There shall no man see me, and live.” (Exod. 33:20) Besides, the Apostle John wrote, “The Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.”—John 1:17,18

Thus John explains what Jesus meant when he said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” Jesus, like the perfect Adam, was in the image of God, and his perfect and glorious personality reflected the characteristics of God. Besides, in a very special sense, he represented God in the earth. He spoke the words God gave him to speak. His miracles were performed by the power of God, and as a manifestation of the love of God. He taught his disciples the will of God.

So completely were these things true of Jesus that had the Heavenly Father been personally present with the disciples, they would have heard nothing different, seen no greater miracles, and witnessed no greater manifestation of patience, kindness, and mercy than that which was displayed by Jesus, the beloved Son of God. Thus it was true that those who saw Jesus in the sense of knowing the virtues of his perfect character, and of being influenced by his teachings, had been brought into contact with the Father in as full a sense as it will ever be possible for, any member of the fallen human race.

When we accept the clear teachings of the Bible that Jesus is the beloved Son of God, and not God himself, we are no longer faced with ‘mysteries’. For example, Jesus frequently prayed to his Heavenly Father. If he and the Father were one in person, this would mean that he prayed to himself. While hanging on the cross, Jesus said to his Father, “Into thy hands I commend my spirit [my life.]” (Luke 23:46) He believed that his Heavenly Father would raise him from the dead. On the Day of Pentecost Peter testified that God did raise Jesus from the dead. (Acts 2:31,32) But how untrue and bewildering all this would be if Jesus and the Father were one and the same person! It would mean that Jesus did not actually die at all. Nor did God raise his Son from the dead, if the Father and the Son were the same person.

How thankful we should be that there is no necessity for trying to understand such ‘mysteries’ as these, knowing that Jesus was the beloved Son of God who humbled himself, and became obedient unto death. He was actually made flesh. He did not assume a human form. He gave his humanity in death to redeem the world of mankind from death. He did not feign death. Everything about Jesus was genuine and sincere.

Jesus Exalted

On the night before he was crucified, Jesus prayed to his Father, saying, “Glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” (John 17:5) It was an irreplaceable and marvelous relationship that Jesus had with his Father as the Logos in his prehuman existence, and he asked the Father to restore this close association to him when he had finished his mission on earth as the world’s Redeemer.

However, when Jesus was raised from the dead he was exalted, just as he had been promised by his Father, far above the glory of nature and office which he enjoyed before humbling himself to become a man. The Apostle Paul wrote, “God … hath highly exalted him [Jesus], and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, … and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”—Phil. 2:9-11

The Apostle Paul speaks of the resurrected Jesus as the “last Adam,” explaining that he was “made a quickening” or life-giving spirit, or spirit being. (I Cor. 15:45) Actually, Jesus was exalted to the divine nature, and made “the express image” of the Father.—Heb. 1:3

It is because of this highly exalted position of office and nature that he gives life to those for whom he gave his human life. He will give everlasting life to all the willing and obedient. It is for this reason that he is referred to by the Prophet Isaiah as the “everlasting Father.”—Isa. 9:6

It is in keeping with this that Jesus said, “As the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him.”—John 5:21-23

Not only does the Heavenly Father want us to honor his beloved Son, but, as the Apostle Paul wrote, he has commanded the angels to worship him. (Heb. 1:6,7) Just as the Prophet Isaiah wrote, Jesus, in his highly exalted position is now “the mighty God,” to be worshiped by angels and men. But he is not the Almighty Jehovah; and, as we have seen, at the close of his thousand-year reign on the earth, he will himself continue to be subject to the Father.

Isaiah further prophesied concerning Jesus that he would be a Wonderful Counselor, and the Prince of Peace. (Isa. 9:6) These titles relate to aspects of the work to be accomplished during the thousand years of Christ’s reign on the earth. As Counselor, and through the various agencies of the kingdom, the people will be instructed in the ways of truth and righteousness. As the Prince of Peace he will establish peace between God and men, the outgrowth of which will be peace in all human relationships.

It was because God so loved the world that he sent his Son to be the Redeemer and Restorer of the people. Jesus was motivated by the same love and was willing to suffer and die that the people might live. Shall we not continue to give glory to God and to Jesus, and rejoice that they have revealed themselves to us through his Word?

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