Question:
How do we understand the following scriptures: Psalms 90:2; Isaiah 42:8; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Deuteronomy 6:4? Also, from Revelation 3:14 and Colossians 1:15, can we conclude that our Lord Jesus had a beginning, and there was a time when God the Father was alone?
Answer:
Psalms 90:2 would seem to apply to our Lord. The term used is not “Jehovah,” but Adonai (‘ădônây), which, without question, is applied to Christ; and this is the One whom Moses is addressing. He declares, “even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.” And this is in harmony with Micah 5:2. Isaiah 42:8 refers to God. It is Jehovah Himself who speaks: “I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.” That is the very family name of the Godhead. Sometimes our Lord is called Jehovah. That is emphatically true in Jeremiah 23:6. In verse 5, He is called the Branch. “In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
1 Corinthians 8:6 presents before us the agencies by which the earth was created, the relative positions of the two Persons: “But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.” The same thought is expressed in John 1:1-3 and in Colossians 1:16— that God wrought all the creation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Deuteronomy 6:4 is simply an expression of the unity of the Godhead: “The LORD our God is one LORD.” Often, when mention is made of God, it simply implies the Godhead. Of course, there is absolute unity in that, just as truly as though there were but one Person; therefore, it is spoken of as one. Our Lord’s prayer in John 17 indicates the same thing: “…as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee…” And then He prays that the same unity may exist among His followers. (See verse 21).
As for Revelation 3:14, yes, some do conclude that there was a time when the Son did not exist, save in the all-comprehending purpose and potency of God. Yet others, like us, believe — and there is nothing to the contrary in the text —that “the beginning of the creation of God” means the One in whom the creation began, as declared in Colossians 1:17, “And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” The finite cannot grasp the infinite. Let this suffice— that our Lord is God with the Father “from the days of eternity”; that “He is before all things, and in Him all things consist,” and He brings to all those who believe in Him the abundance of the power of the Godhead according to our needs.
Of course, expressions such as in used in Colossians 1:15, “the firstborn,” refer to preeminence rather than priority. God calls Ephraim His firstborn, although Manasseh was the firstborn. (See Jeremiah 31:9). He calls Israel His firstborn, while Esau was the firstborn of Isaac. (See Exodus 4:22). That is, God had adopted these as such. They became preeminent because of character. So Jesus is called “the first begotten of the dead” and is distinguished above all other resurrected persons, and only by His power do all the others live. (See Revelation 1:5).
