GOD'S CREATIVE ORIGINAL is Christ Jesus, the Lord, the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness (Rev.3:14). At Bethlehem Christ Jesus did not put on a human body because He was patterning Himself after Adam. Rather Adam was fashioned as a man because he was patterned after Christ. He is the Image of the otherwise invisible God, the Image after which man was made, created and formed. In Christ, God is with us: Emmanuel (cf Matt.1:23).
In Philippians 2:5-8 we have two distinct acts presented for our consideration. The first of these is His emptying, which theologians call the "kenosis," which comes from a Greek word meaning "empty" kenoo*. (* A.E.K. has dealt with our Lord's vacating His place supreme in The Kenosis of the Christ.) He Who was in God's form empties Himself, taking the form of a slave. The second of these is His humbling, being found in fashion as a human, becoming obedient unto death. The apostle Paul adds, "even the death of the cross. "All of this He did for us, true to His name: "God with us."
When He empties Himself He strips Himself of all He had in God's form and took upon Himself the form of a slave. Hence in fashion as a human He placed Himself where He could be laid hold of by death. This is what the writer of Hebrews tells us. "Since, then, the little children have participated in blood and flesh, He also was very nigh by partaking of the same, that, through death, He should be discarding him who has the might of death, that is, the Adversary" (2:14,15). Since death cannot lay hold on messengers but can lay hold on the seed of Abraham, He comes with a body adapted or suited for sacrifice, one on which death can lay hold. In God's form death could not touch Him. Hence He takes part in blood and flesh, deliberately putting Himself in the path of death. Death struck Him, and in that act slew itself. So His descent from God's form to a slave's form is described as "He empties Himself." His coming in the likeness of humanity, His being found in fashion as a human is "He humbles Himself." Thus He made it possible for us to be brought to our God and Father. This shows that God is with us.
It is well for us to realize that only our Lord, Jesus Christ, could do that. His Father was God, His mother was Mary. His Spirit was without measure and divine, for it was from God, His Father. His body was fashioned as any body is fashioned in the womb of a woman who is with child. The union of superhuman spirit and human body in the Lord, Who is Jesus Christ, made a Being unique in the history of mankind. He was powerfully designated Son of God, coming of the seed of David according to the flesh (Rom.1:3,4). Our Lord was sinless, He was holy. He knew no sin, did no sin, could not be convicted concerning sin. It is through His death and resurrection and return that all these things are made possible for us.
God is acting through His Son to bring all to Himself. Scripture tells us there is one Mediator of God and man, a Man, Christ Jesus, Who is giving Himself a correspondent Ransom for all (1 Tim.2:5,6). Redemption is human, ransom is divine. Redemption is for believers during the eons, ransom is for all at the conclusion of the eons.
He gave a Ransom which corresponds with what had to be brought back to God, namely, ALL. His death is my death, His burial is my entombment, His resurrection is my rousing. We believers wait for one of two things. If death should overtake us before He returns, "this corruptible will put on incorruption." If the Lord returns before our decease, "this mortal must put on immortality." Our Expectation is the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 1:1), Who will come for us, gather us to Himself and present us to God, for they shall be calling His name "Emmanuel," i.e. God with us.
When God gets through working through His Son, there will not be a single individual ever estranged from Him who will not have been won to Him by that love. When all are subjected to the Son Who is the Saviour of the world, the Son will abdicate in favor of the Father, that God may be All in all. The Son Himself will be subject to Him as will all others in His vast universe. There will be one God, the Father, as there was in the beginning. Then He was All in Himself. At the consummation He will be All in all. And this shall be made possible through the obedience of the One Who met all the demands love made of Him, the Son, Emmanuel.
To recapitulate: The Scriptures clearly teach that in the form of God Christ was before all. Creation took place through Him. Revelation 3:14 tells us that He is the beginning of the creation of God (AV), and the Amen is the One Who so informs us. Do not discard this statement about God's creative Original (CV). Do not attempt to explain it away. This verse is in agreement with 2 Corinthians 1:20 and Colossians 1:15-17.
God is One, and all is out of Him, including the Son. Do not reason about it. When God says He is One, He does not mean He is also two or three. One God means one God. To postulate more than one Deity creates conflict. And modern Protestantism has spawned this senseless struggle. It does not believe in one God, but in a number of Gods. Protestants are not even good Trinitarians in this sense, for they believe that there are at least two different gods in this world, one good and one bad. One is doing the best He can, and the other is frustrating His intentions and winning nearly all the way down the line. When this battle is over God will have a few and the other god will have the many, or so they say. Away with such a travesty of the truth! May we be delivered from such God-belittling and Christ-dishonoring teaching. Its alleged facts have no foundation in His inspired Originals. For "Emmanuel" is, being construed, "God-with-us" cf Matt.1:23).
There is another travesty of the truth from which we should be delivered. The unity of God is not a trinity of Persons, but a oneness viewed from without. God has become Man, but only in the Lord. The one God, in the Lord, is made visible to men in Jesus Christ. God's secret is Christ, in Whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are concealed (Col.2:2,3). In Him dwells all the fulness of the Deity bodily (2:9). The invisible God became the visible Lord. As art is the giving of outward expression to an inward impression, that is, the use of things to give visible form to ideas, so does the Invisible become flesh and thus make Himself visible in His secret, Christ, in Whom all is concealed. Thus God is with us in Emmanuel, Whose name is Jesus (cf Matt.1:21, 23).
Soil is but the robe of the Spirit, as iron filings make visible the otherwise unseen lines of force of a magnet. In Christ the inaudible God became the Word, in Christ the invisible God became the visible Lord, Emmanuel.
Our hearts are broken when we realize what we did to Him. Like Jacob, we were wearying Him with our sins and depravities (Isa.43:22,24), which He took to the cross when He was made a sin offering for us (2 Cor.5:21), taking our sins in His body on to the accursed tree (1 Peter 2:24). In Him God was with us. In Christ, we are with God. Thanks be to Him for His indescribable gratuity.
