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You have inspired me to do more reading and research about the atonement and the way this is discussed [by some who imply] that God is vengeful and wrathful and Christ is the loving and merciful part of the Godhead.
However, I was recently listening to the podcast of Q4 Lesson 1 – God’s Nature – The Basis for Atonement in which you made the statement that Christ was a created being.
The comment was made about 46 minutes into the recording following a comment from one of the class participants about ‘God not making trash’. You said that God made three human beings that we have a Biblical record of’. You go on to name, Adam, Eve and Jesus as being perfect when the came from God’s hand.
Can you please clarify whether you believe that Christ was a created being or what you could have meant by such a comment?
Your comments would be greatly appreciated.
Blessings, C. from England
I am so appreciative of your email because not only does it allow me to clarify an absolutely critical issue, but you have modeled genuine Christian charity by giving me the opportunity to clear up a misunderstanding rather than simply drawing, what would have been, an erroneous conclusion. Thank you!
So, to answer your question, Jesus Christ is fully God. His divine self is fully God, pre-existent, eternal, without beginning, omniscient, omnipotent, and invested with all the attributes of God. He is the second member of the Triune perfection of love we call the Godhead. Jesus’ divine self was NOT created and never had a beginning. His divine life is original, unborrowed, and underived:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. John 1:1-4
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Col 1:15-17
Understanding that Jesus is fully God in every aspect, however, does not complete our understanding of Jesus, because Jesus did something incredible:
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Philippians 2:5-8
Jesus chose to blend His divinity with our humanity or, as some say, take our humanity upon His divinity. There was a time when Jesus entered the womb of Mary and joined His divinity with our humanity. At that point in human history, God used His power to “create” or “cause to grow” a human nature for Jesus in Mary’s womb.
Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; Hebrews 10:5
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit…But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1:18,20
The point I was making in the lesson, to which you refer, is that the Bible only gives us evidence of God directly being involved (using His divine power) in the creation of three humans, Adam, Eve, and the human nature of Christ. I was pointing out that when God is directly involved in creating, there is always perfection, just as Adam and Eve were when God created them, and just as Jesus was also being without sin. God doesn’t use His power to directly create beings sinful or defective with birth defects, diseases, or deformities.
I was trying to explore a subtle error that has crept into Christian thought and which has brought mental distress and spiritual stumbling to many: the idea that God directly created each of us, as individuals, just as we are with genetic flaws. God created the human race perfect and sinless when He created Adam and Eve. God gave to Adam and Eve the ability to procreate beings in their image and once they sinned, then all of their offspring have been “conceived in sin, born in iniquity” (Psalms 51:5). I have many patient’s who have struggled with their relationship with God, because they have believed the lie that God created them, as individuals, as they are and they ask, “Why did God want me to be schizophrenic?” “Why did God want my child to have Autism?” “Why did God create me with Bipolar disorder?” The truth is He didn’t!
All defects are a result of sin contaminating, damaging, and working to destroy God’s creation. The human race was created perfectly by God in the being Adam, then humanity was infected with sin by Adam with all the subsequent defects, diseases, and sinfulness. Jesus Christ partook of humanity and became a unique being. His eternal divine pre-existent self united or joined with our humanity in order to fix humanity, cure this creation from sin, cleanse and heal us from all sin, and recreate humanity back into God’s original ideal! Only in Jesus is there perfection. Only in Jesus is there remedy for sin. Only in Jesus is there salvation, because only Jesus, (in the human nature He assumed), live a perfect, sinless life, and loved perfectly even unto death and thereby “destroyed him who holds the power of death that is the devil” (Heb 2:14), and simultaneously “destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light” (2Tim 1:9,10).
I hope this clarifies your concerns and thanks again for giving me the opportunity to respond.
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