​There is some confusion among those who claim to follow Christ and one point of disagreement is his eternal nature. The title above quoted from Revelation 3:14  “And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God's creation.’” Is one of the verses that some misunderstand. 

As we read this phrase it sounds like Christ was the first thing that God created and some think because of this that Christ is a created being and don’t recognize him as God because of this verse and others like it. Is that what this verse means? Absolutely not! There are too many verses that clearly state that Jesus was born of a woman, but that before that he was known as the Word who was with God and was God and that he has no beginning nor any ending.

If it doesn’t mean that what does it mean? It is similar to what is taught in Colossians 1:16-17 and John 1:3 That Christ began the creation. In fact, “Plummer and many other able scholars declare the second meaning to be the one intended here. ‘The words mean, the one from whom creation took its beginning.’”(Coffman Commentary) So rather than proclaiming him to be a created being himself this verse indicates that he is the source of all created things. We should find the harmony of scriptures with English translations that appear to contradict. God doesn’t contradict himself. When we think there is a contradiction it is our lack of understanding or poor translation or some other problem that has caused it. 

Christ is not only the beginning of the physical creation, but also of the spiritual creation of his kingdom and all of its citizens. Christ created us twice once physically and once spiritually. We await his final creation when we are recreated to live in Heaven with him. 

​jp

If I asked you to name the apostles I am sure that we could get Jesus’ twelve apostles named and someone would remember Matthias and there’s no way we would forget about Paul. Eventually, someone would probably even bring up Barnabas and James, the Lord’s brother, and references that seem to indicate that they were considered apostles (Acts 14:14 and Gal. 1:19). But be honest, would you have thought of Jesus as an apostle if you hadn’t seen the title of this article? 

Some of you may still be thinking that there must be some mistake, Jesus chose the apostles surely he’s not one of them. In Hebrews 3:1 Jesus is called “the Apostle and High Priest of our profession”. We’ll look at ‘High Priest’ another time, let’s focus on ‘Apostle’. Even though we don’t often think of him as an apostle and though he is not referred to with this appellation anywhere else in the New Testament, Coffman says it shouldn’t surprise us “since the primary meaning of the word is ‘one sent or commissioned for some important communication’” (James Burton Coffman Commentaries reproduced by permission of Abilene Christian University Press, Abilene, Texas, USA). What more important communication could there be than the good news that Jesus brought? The Hebrew writer has already said that God spoke through the prophets in the past, but now has spoken to us by His Son (1:2). How much farther could one be sent than from Heaven to Earth? What greater commission could there be than to show people who God truly is by God coming in the flesh?

Malachi 3:1 prophesies of the Lord coming and refers to him as “the messenger of the covenant” and said that he “is coming”. Indeed, the messenger of the covenant, the Apostle of our profession or confession, our Lord did come just as Malachi prophesied he would. But have we heeded his important communication? Jesus certainly brought much important information from the Father (John 12:49) not the least of which is that no one comes to the Father except through Jesus Himself, God’s own Son. Are we professing and confessing Jesus, our Apostle, as the Son of God?

JP