“HE IS EXCEPTED WHICH DID PUT ALL THINGS UNDER HIM.”

2 Cor 15:27; Eph 4:5,6

We are not from this statement to get the inference that the Son was superior to the Father, that the Father had created nothing previously because of lack of ability to create, but that the Father was pleased thus to recognize, honor and use this particular channel in his great work. The Apostle sets the whole matter straight, saying, “To us there is one God of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things.” This explains the matter. The power all resided in the Father – everything is of him, from him, through the Son, by the Son as his honored instrument and representative, “that all men may honor the Son even as they honor the Father also.” (John 5:23.)

It will be noticed from this last quotation as well as in all the other statements here examined that there is no suggestion whatever that the Father is the Son and that the Son is his own Father, but quite to the contrary – that there are two persons, both Gods, both Creators, but the one the superior, the other his honored representative in glory and in power.

Verse four transports our thought from the glorious Only Begotten, the Word of Jehovah, creating angels, worlds and man, to his work as man’s Redeemer – present among men. Elsewhere we get the particulars of how he who was rich became poor for our sakes; how the Only Begotten, the Word, left the glory of the Father to carry out the Father’s great and wonderful and loving plan of salvation toward man. Briefly the Apostle assures us that when Jesus was amongst men “in him was life.” There is a great force and meaning in this expression when we understand it. When our Lord was amongst men, he was the ONLY MAN who had LIFE IN HIM.

Father Adam once had life, but he lost it through disobedience in Eden, and instead the curse, the sentence of death, rested upon him and was inherited by all of his children, so that not a man in all the world of Adam’s race had life – except this Son of man of whom John was writing. Of all others the Apostle Paul wrote, “By one man’s disobedience sin entered into the world, and death as a result of sin; and thus, death passed upon all men, for all are sinners.” (Rom 5:12.)

Our Lord’s words respecting those about him were, “Let the dead (those without life) bury their dead.” True, not all were dead in the sense of having lost every spark of life, but all were more than nine-tenths dead and the other tenth fast ebbing away. But in him, in this Only Begotten of the Father when amongst men, there was life, absolute life, perfect life, because his life had not come from Adam through an earthly father but was directly transferred from his prehuman state or condition to the womb of Mary. Thus, born he was indeed partaker of a human organization but without any impairment of his life rights; hence, as the Scriptures declare, he was holy, harmless, separate from sinners – separate and distinct from all the race of Adam, peculiarly different because of his different begetting.

“AND THE LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF MEN.”

Needless to say, light is here used in a figurative sense: it signifies hope, intelligence, instruction. Our Lord’s life as the “man Christ Jesus,” his holiness of heart, his full obedience to the Father’s will, his loyalty to every principle of righteousness, his manifestation of divine character, no less than the words of instruction that he spoke as never man spoke – all these attest that indeed he was a great light amongst men – a light which ever since has been shining, not only through his recorded discourses and instructions but also through the lives of his disciples, and that in proportion as they were and are truly his.

“And the light shined in darkness; and the darkness appreciated it not.” How true! not only of the Jews of his own day, but how true still in respect to the world in general. How few grasp, comprehend, appreciate the light of divine truth and grace which shone out through the words and deeds of the man Christ Jesus. True, we are informed that … nearly one-fourth of the world’s population, are named by his name – Christians, – yet how impossible it would be to close our eyes to the great fact that the vast majority of these are in nearly as great darkness as the remaining three-fourths of the world’s population, the heathen. Into how few hearts and minds has this true light shined! The Apostle’s explanation is the only one that covers the case. He declares, “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the glorious light of the goodness of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ our Lord should shine into their hearts.” – 2 Cor 4:6.

How sad! Three-fourths of the world in total darkness, while nearly all of those who say, we see, are “blind also“! (John 9:40.) If by the grace of God our eyes have been opened to some degree to appreciate this great light, let us not be high-minded but fear lest the light should pass from us, lest we should ever get into darkness again, lest pride of heart or the cares of this world or the deceitfulness of riches, or any other thing should again blind us to the goodness and grace of God in Christ. Even Christians, the Apostle intimates, see only in part, but may see increasingly in proportion as they come into line and accord with the divine plan respecting them. Let us keep in memory how he wrote respecting some true followers of the Lord in his day, saying, “I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.” – Eph 1:16-18.

In verses six to eight the Apostle begins to particularize respecting the Lord’s earthly ministry, and shows us that John the Baptist was divinely commissioned to bear testimony and witness to the Lord, to this great Light, the object being the giving of a ground for faith in Jesus as the Light, the life of the world. John was not the Light, but merely the messenger of it, one to point out the true Light. And we remember, indeed, that John was particular not to take any honor in respect to these matters to himself, but declared plainly that his mission was to introduce the Messiah; and as soon as he received from the Father the witness that Jesus was indeed the expected one, he made haste to proclaim the Lord, declaring himself unworthy to even be his servant to unfasten his sandals. So faithful was John’s testimony that many of his own disciples at once forsook him and became followers of Jesus, as the record shows.

Continued with next post.