We’re in the middle of a series on christology, and the economy of Jesus, the Son of God.  I think next week we’ll look at the prophecies about the Messiah, and how the only one who meets the qualifications to be the Messiah is God Himself.  

We left off last week talking about the crucified God, and how only the blood of the Godman; only the blood of a man who is by nature immortal, can suffice for the sanctifying of our flesh unto deification.  God in his own humanity suffered.  God in his own humanity, not a humanity separate from his person, was put to death in the flesh, while at the same time his divinity was holding all things together.  The Word, remained by nature immortal, even as He was put to death in his own flesh.  We can say the Son of God; the fulness of Deity in human flesh; has suffered; that He died on the cross; but only in the part of him that can die, His humanity.  We can also say that though the 2nd person in the eternal Godhead was born as a man, hung on a cross, and laid to rest in a tomb.  He did not cease to govern all powerfully the whole of the created world, in virtue of His divinity which suffers no change, even though his humanity suffered death.  

Colossians 1:12-13 Giving thanks unto the Father, which has made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who has delivered us from the power of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:  In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For 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, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; 

Pauls talking about Jesus.  He says Jesus is the image of the invisible God.  The term image signifies ‘same substance’.  Paul is saying Jesus is the express image of God; the very substance of Gods being; the very essence of God’s person; the fulness of Deity become flesh.  Pauls making a connection to Genesis and the creation account when he says Jesus is the image of the invisible God.  God says in Genesis let us make man in our image after our likeness.  Paul is saying Jesus is the physical manifestation of God, whose image we were made to embody.  We were made to be an image of The Image.  Christ Jesus being the very image of God.

Paul says Jesus is the firstborn of every creature.  Paul tells us what it means that Jesus is the firstborn of every creature when he says that all things were created by Jesus, both in heaven and earth.  He says all things were created by him and for him.  They were created by him, so they can find their conclusion in him.  He says Jesus is before ALL THINGS, and by Jesus ALL THINGS consist.  You cant be before all things, if you have a beginning, because that would mean there is something before you.  You cant be THE BEGINNING if you have a beginning.  You cant be the Creator of all things if you are a created being.  To be the Creator of all things you would need to be self existent, having life in yourself. 

Paul says Jesus is the beginning of the church.  Meaning Jesus is the beginning of the new creation because he’s the firstborn from the dead.  Jesus himself describes what it means that he’s the firstborn from the dead in Revelation 1 by saying I am Alpha and Omega, the Almighty, the beginning and the ending, Him who was, and is, and is to come.  I am He who lives, and was dead; and behold am alive forevermore.  Jesus is referring to Genesis when he says he is the beginning and the ending.  Genesis 1 says in the beginning God made the heavens and the earth.  The beginning means to be the chief or the cause of everything that exists.  When Jesus says he’s the beginning and the ending it means he’s the cause of everything that exists, and his immortality is the culmination, or the ending for which all things were made.  

Paul say Jesus is the first born of every creature, not the firstborn of other creatures, as if Jesus himself was one of the creatures.  He calls Jesus the firstborn of every creature meaning Jesus is the only begotten Son.  The only one dwelling with the Father in the Light of immortality from all eternity.  Thats why Jesus says to the Father in John 17 glorify me with the Glory I shared with you from before the world was.  Jesus is called the firstborn of every creature because he’s the one who brings creation from non existence into existence.  Just as he is the firstborn from the dead, meaning he is the one who grants resurrection.  As Jesus himself says, I am the resurrection and the life.  

Paul is connecting redemption with an act of creation.  He says we werent redeemed by corruptible things.  We werent redeemed by a mere creature.  We were redeemed by the blood of the Creator.  The Creator of all things is become a man, allowing Himself to taste death, that through the shedding of his own blood, he can create us anew, becoming not only the beginning of all things, but also the conclusion of all things.  

Heb 2:5-11  For unto the angels has he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.  But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that You are mindful of him? or the son of man, that You visit him?  You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honour, and set him over the works of your hands:  You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.  But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.  For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.  For both he that sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,

The author of Hebrews points to Jesus as the Creator.  He says by Jesus are all things, and for him are all things.  Hebrews begins by telling us Jesus is the express image of God.  Remember we are meant to be created in his image.  Hebrews say since we were made by him, to be in his image; that is to say we were made to find our conclusion in him.  It became him, meaning it was fitting for him to partake with us in flesh and blood.  If Jesus, the Creator made flesh, wanted to create us in his image.  If He wanted  to sanctify our flesh for deification, it was fitting that he would become one of us.  Its only fitting since He is the creator of all things, that if He wanted to make a new creation; or rather bring the first creation out of death; that he would by necessity have to first partake with the children in flesh and blood.  

We were made for union with the divine nature.  Our human nature was meant to be joined together with the divine nature in the person of the Eternal Word.  But we partook of flesh and blood instead.  We created a new existence, where we made ourselves in the image of the serpents death.  The distance between the created and uncreated became an impassable abyss for man after he willed himself into a new state, of sin and death, which was near a state of nonbeing.  We couldn’t lift ourselves out of mortality into immortality.   But, God did what we couldn’t do.  He achieved the union, we were called to, by descending to us and becoming a man.  What was impassable for man, that is death, sin, and the distance between the divine and human nature is broken through by God: the distance between natures is broken through by His incarnation, that of sin by his death, and that of death by his resurrection.  

Jesus talking about his death on the cross says in John 12:24 unless a seed falls into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it die, it brings forth much fruit.  

When a seed falls into the ground its outer shell is broken and dies.  When that happens the nutrients of life that are contained in the seed are sown in the earth, and the life that is sown brings forth fruit.  The seed must first have life in itself when it falls into the ground and dies, otherwise its death is of no effect to bring forth fruit.  

We all know the parable of the sower sowing the seed.  The sower sows the seed.  The seed is the Word.  Jesus is the Word.  The Lord from heaven; the Word; The Creator was manifested in the flesh.  He is the seed that is sown.  The Godman sowed his body and his blood in the earth, knowing that if His body was broken and His blood was shed, the life He has in himself would be sown into the creation held in corruption.  Gods the only one who has life in Himself … Only the body and blood of God can be sown in the earth and bear much fruit; because only the body and blood of God has life in itself to give. 

The cross is an act of creation.  The Creator; the One who created all things allowed Himself to be crucified for the purpose of making His creation anew.  God didnt want to abide alone.  He wanted to reproduce after His own kind, so just as He did in the first creation when he said let there be light, he sowed himself.  The only difference is that in order to make creation anew; the Word that was sown to make the first creation must now become flesh.  Since God gave man dominion over the earth, and man sowed themselves and the earth in corruption, and that corruption was woven into our bodies, woven into the very fabric of our being.  It was necessary for the Word to assume the nature of human, so that in becoming flesh, he might find the death that was interwoven in man, and blot it out.  1st Corinthians 15 says that since by man came death, by man must also come the resurrection from the dead.  It’s not a mere man that can bring about the resurrection from the dead.  It has to be a man possessing immortality in himself, so that when he is sown in corruption, his body being broken, and his blood poured out, his life is able to take all those who were sown in corruption, and raise them up in his own resurrection.  The resurrection of the dead, happens through Gods own resurrection.  Meaning just as the crucified Creator, who is before all things, was dead, and then rose from the dead, alive forever more, the creation that was made subject to vanity in Adam, can rise with the resurrection of the crucified Creator.  

What we know is that if God descends into the abyss.  If God becomes a man, not that he stops being God because no being can change what they are by nature.  If God, by nature, or by the essence of his being, remaining unchanged, becomes flesh; becomes a man.  And through that is able to descend into the abyss that is holding mankind.  We know that He will also ascend out of the abyss by nature of  His being God, and it not being possible for him to be held by corruption.  

If you look at the trees in Genesis 1 it says each tree has seed in itself that reproduces after its own kind. Yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself.  

The cross of our Lord, is like unto a tree, which has seed in itself, that reproduces after its own kind … I don’t think it’s any accident Deuteronomy 21 says cursed is the man who hangs on a tree to describe the cross.  The image of the invisible God; the Creator, by way of His own cross; the Creator, by way of becoming a man, allowing himself to be hung on a tree, was able to reproduce after His own kind.  Jesus, the Creator, having seed in Himself, having life in Himself, allowed himself to be hung on a tree, sowing his humanity into the earth, that in entering His creations curse, he can sow his life into the corruption holding mankind and creation, yielding fruit after his own kind.  The Godman, the Creator of all things sowed his body and his blood in the earth as a seed, that by hanging on a cross, falling into the ground and dying; his body lying in a grave, He would make creation anew, bearing much fruit, bringing many children to glory …. That in His being sown in corruption as a man, He can be not just the beginning of creation, but He can also be the swan song of creation.  

Prayer