Tuesday, December 20, 2022

Orange Moon Tuesday, December 20, 2022 "The Creator and His Creation

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

    
              "The Creator and His Creation"     

    

 
    The Bible begins with the Lord Jesus Christ.

    "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth" (Genesis 1:1).
    "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 any thing made that was made" (John 1:1-3).

    In its opening declaration, Genesis proclaims Christ without identifying Him by name.  The Apostle John informs us that the second Person of the triune God - the Word - played a direct role in bringing all things into existence.  The Apostle Paul echoes the affirmation: "His dear Son… by Him were all things created" (Colossians 1:13;16).  Certainly, this does not minimize the role of the Father and the Holy Spirit in creation.  When the one God acts, all three Persons move in perfect union and harmony.  However, the Christ who would become a very part of creation can be said to have the most direct role in its origination, and in its continuation.  Of the Lord Jesus, the New Testament affirms, "By Him all things consist… upholding all things by the Word of His power" (Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3).

   Again, this speaks to a most sublime aspect of Christ, the Creator who entered into His creative work as a human being.  "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:14).  Paul reveals that our Savior remains human - "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (I Timothy 2:5).  The writer of Hebrews also tells of the wondrous truth that the Lord Jesus, for our sakes, will forever abide as part of His creation.  "He ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25).  Thus, the One who made all things took upon Himself - at the greatest of sacrifices - a part of His own craftsmanship whereby wounds suffered upon the earth would forever imprint the body that adorns Him for our sake.  "Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself: handle Me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have" (Luke 24:39).

   The hymn writer beautifully inquired, "What wondrous love is is this?"  Doubtless, he anticipated no complete answers to a glory that "passeth knowledge" (Ephesians 3:19).  It is enough to know that we cannot know, and that an eternity awaits us with endless discoveries of the character and nature of our Creator/Redeemer.  Thankfully, we possess a Bible that begins with Him in its first verse, and in every passage that follows.  Like Genesis 1:1, the Lord Jesus may not be directly named or identified in all.  But He is there, dwelling in the written Word that bears witness in all to Himself, the living Word.  The same holds true of our Creator and His creation.  He is there in all, and in wonder of the Incarnation, He is there as a part of the things He made for the purpose of our redemption.  What wondrous love indeed is this?

"And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself… Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me (Luke 24:27; John 5:39).

"For both He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, Saying, I will declare Thy name unto My brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee.  And again, I will put my trust in Him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given Me. Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily he took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people."
(Hebrews 2:11-17).

Weekly Memory Verse
   "But Thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering." 
(Psalm 86:15)

     

   





















  
    
     






















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