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meaning is that God created everything because of Jesus and through him and for him. The creation
is for Jesus, since he is to inherit all things. But this one verse is much too shaky a basis on which
to build a whole theory of Jesus as the actual executive of the Genesis creation. A pre-human Je-
sus cannot by definition be human. Matthew 1:18 speaks of his origin (genesis) as Son. An angel-
Jesus contradicts entirely the first chapter of Hebrews which declares him superior to any form of
angel. And there is not a word anywhere in the Bible about Jesus being begotten as Son before
his conception in Mary.

The same vivid history of Jesus is given in Philippians 2:5-11. Once again we must ap-
proach this much-disputed passage with our understanding firmly grounded in Paul's presentation
of his champion. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Messiah Jesus." There he is again: the
human Messiah. We know what Paul means by "the Messiah Jesus." In I Timothy 2:5 he declares
his creed with complete clarity: "There is one God and one Mediator between that One God and
man -- Messiah Jesus, himself Man." That phrase needs to be etched in our minds -- the Man Mes-
siah Jesus. So then in Philippians 2 Paul has more to say about the Man Messiah Jesus. We are to
imitate his perfect style. Paul teaches us that "Though Messiah was in the form of God" (note the
improper rendering of the NIV, "being in very nature God." The text does not say that Jesus was
God, but that he was "in the form of God"), that is, the visible manifestation (morphe refers to
something seen) of God his Father, he did not reckon his being like God something to be used for
his own profit. He emptied himself of all privilege and all of his life took on the role of a servant.
Paul never imagined here a pre-human existence followed by a transition into human life. He no-
where uses the verb "preexist" for Jesus, though the Greek word prouparchein, to preexist, is
available to him. Paul is discussing the visible, historical Jesus. A decision by a non-human Per-
son to become a man is hardly a model which makes sense to you. But the matchless behavior of
the Servant Jesus depicted in the Gospels, as he battled with human stupidity and opposition
(mostly, be it noted, from established religion), is put before us as the example for us in the same
struggle.

The fullness of the deity dwelt in Jesus (Colossians 2:9). "Fullness" is a "spirit word" in
the New Testament. It points to the character and heart and mind of God as He transmits it to be-
lievers, and chiefly as He placed it in Jesus, who was begotten uniquely by the spirit and provided
a unique portrait of the character of his Father. Paul does not expect Christians to be unable to fol-
low their Master. He prays that "all the fullness of God" would be exemplified also in believers
(Ephesians 3:19). That does not mean, of course, that believers are God (heaven forbid!). But by
the grace of God at work in them, they are to shine forth as lights in a dark world.

Bible students will find it illuminating to rethink their concept of who Jesus is. Start with
the Old Testament and encompass that 75% of the Bible with its various promises of the distin-
guished Son of God to come. Then ponder this: Matthew and Luke deal in detail with the origin of
the Son of God. They trace his ancestry to Abraham and David (Matthew 1:1) or right back to
Adam (Luke 3). Matthew declares that the Father brought into existence His Son through Mary --
"that which is begotten in you is from the holy spirit" (Matthew 1:20). This indeed was how the
Son began. Luke then gives the causal basis for Jesus being the Son of God. It is because of the su-
pernatural begetting effected in Mary (Luke 1:35). Acts 2:34-36 declares that Jesus achieved Mes-
sianic lordship and exaltation to the right hand of God by fulfilling the terms of Psalm 110:1. At
that event the Messiah was confirmed as the lord of David, the lord Messiah in the sense required

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