God the Son Archives - Page 3 of 6

Apostles Creed 7: Our Lord

Ben Zornes on July 30, 2017

What we now know as the Apostles Creed descended from an earlier form of the creed, known as the Old Roman Symbol. The beginning of the creed dates from as early as the second century. We do not have any direct evidence that it was penned by any of the apostles, but it is an admirable summary of the apostolic teaching.

Introduction:
The foundation Christian confession is that Jesus is Lord. We find this at the very beginning, and there is no hope without it. As we have been making our way through the Creed, we have addressed who Jesus is. But what do we mean by Lord?

The Text:
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the virgin, Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hades. On the third day He rose again from the dead, ascended into Heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Summary of the Text:
“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Rom. 10:9–10). “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13).

This is the confession that is unto salvation. Two organs are involved—the mouth and the heart. If you confess that Jesus is Lord with your mouth, and if you believe in your heart that God raised Him up from the dead, then the end result is that you will be saved. According to this message, salvation is the result of believing something about Jesus and confessing something about Jesus. But what?

Jesus is Jehovah:
First some background. YHWH (or JHVH) is the covenant name of God, the name by which God was known to Israel. These are four consonants in Hebrew known as the Tetragrammaton. The vowels can be supplied in different ways. One common way is to speak of Yahweh. Another is to take the consonants JVVH and combine them with the vowels of Adonai (another name for God), which then gives us Jehovah.

And now it gets interesting. The prophet Joel says this: “And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered” (Joel 2:32). Joel was obviously written in Hebrew, and the word rendered here as Lord is YHWH. This verse from Joel is quoted by Paul, and is part of our text (v. 13).

Now the Greek word for Lord (kurios) has the same range of meaning that it does in English. It can refer to God, Lord of heaven and earth, and it can also be used of Lord Highfalutin, stone cold member of the aristocracy somewhere. So when we are called to confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord, which kind of lord are we talking about?
The answer is straightforward. In Romans 10:13, the word kurios is used to translate the Hebrew YHWH. Whoever calls on the name of YHWH/kurios will be saved. But just a breath earlier, Paul had insisted that we had to confess with our mouth that Jesus was Lord in order to be saved. Piece all this together, and it is most plain that the fundamental Christian confession is that Jesus is Jehovah. Jesus is to be identified with the covenant God of Israel.

Authority in Relationship:
Christ does not wield authority over His people from a remote distance. He has true authority, but He holds this authority in a particular way. His is the authority of bleeding sacrifice. “Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet” (John 13:13–14). The fact that Christ washed His disciples’ feet did not detract from His authority; it was the foundation of His authority.

But in case we are tempted to hide our emotional cowardice under the camouflage of something we like to call “servant leadership,” it must be emphasized that servant authority is true authority. “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).

As we come to imitate the Lord in all that we do, it must be said that feminism comes in many forms, including the kind that pretends to have nothing to do with feminism. We need to take care not to confound sacrificial leading with cowardly following.

Savior and Lord:
Christ is not divided. That means we cannot shop for different aspects of our salvation a la carte. In some fundamentalist circles it is common to hear people saying that receiving Christ as Savior and receiving Him as Lord are two different things—as though someone could be saved by Jesus without paying the slightest regard to what He taught. But half a Christ is no Christ, and no one was ever saved by no Christ.

Our Lord:
It is also worth mentioning that we have confessed our faith in “Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord.” We are confessing the fact that Jesus has been enthroned over absolutely everything that is, which means that His Lordship of Heaven and earth is the basis for my confession that He is my Lord. He is a king who has been crowned and enthroned, and the message has now come to me that it is time for me to bend the knee.

He is a king who has been crowned and enthroned, and the message has now come to me that it is time for me to bend the knee.

It does not run in the other direction. Jesus is not campaigning for president. It is not the case that if we only get enough people to “make Him Lord of their hearts,” then we could really get some momentum going, and then elect Him to something. Jesus is Lord already. This fact is declared to us. It is preached. We believe it, not to make it true but because it is true.

The Brightest Light & the Blackest Night

Ben Zornes on July 30, 2017

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Introduction
In Adam the human race declared war with God. We became a rebel kingdom; sunk in the darkness of the blackest night of hatred toward God. We want to rule ourselves, to determine good and evil by our own reckoning, and worship at the altar of self-glory. Our position before God is that of traitors and rebels. Left to our own devices we will not seek God, nor reconciliation with Him. Yet, we were made to enjoy the fellowship of His glorious presence. We hate this darkness, but we hate the light of God’s holiness more. The good news is that the Son has risen; and His light brings life.

The Text
1 John 1:5-10
This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Summary of the Text
John’s introduction (vs.1-4) is no innocuous greeting. It is laden with theological and philosophical claims regarding Jesus Christ, concluding with the crescendo that this is all written that our joy may be full. The message which John heard from Jesus and declares unto us is that God is light, and there is not a shred of darkness in him (v5). This is followed by five “if/then” statements; these are foundational to John’s later discussion of antichrists (1 Jn. 2:18, 4:1-3) and assurance (1 Jn. 2:3).

First, claiming to have fellowship with God, yet continuing in the darkness of error, is evidence that you are a liar like your father Satan (v6, cf. Jn. 8:44). Second, walking in the light results in fellowship with God and His people, and being cleansed from sin through the blood of Jesus (v7). Third, claiming to be without sin is self-deception and is a tell-tale sign of the absence of truth (v8). Fourth, confessing our sins brings the assurance that Christ is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse from unrighteousness (v9). Finally, claims to sinlessness blaspheme God’s holiness, and prove that His word (by which we are born again, cf. 1 Pt. 1:23) is not in the one who claims to be without sin (v10).

God is Light
This is Jesus’ message, not John’s. John has simply been sent to proclaim. While later on John teaches that “God is love (1 Jn. 4:8),” he doesn’t lead with that. Rather, Jesus’ message is: “God is light!” Light here encompasses all of God’s perfections: His white hot purity of being. All of His divine attributes in perfect concord, no disharmony, no external source. As the hymn states: “Self-fed, self-kindled like the light, changeless, eternal, infinite.” His holiness, wisdom, understanding, and power. All without mixture, defect, or deficiency.

In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ declared: “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life (Jn. 8:12).” Following Jesus, then, is man’s only path out of the darkness of sin and into the glorious light of God’s favor in which is found abundant, eternal life. Jesus’ Gospel is quite simple: “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him (Jn. 3:36).” This is why we confess our belief that Jesus is “God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made.”

Light for the Greek mind would signify knowledge, wisdom, understanding; for the Jew, it would be understood in the context of God’s creating power and thus His holiness as the Almighty God. The Jews’ longing for the promised Messiah who would restore holiness to the people of God, and the Greek longing for true wisdom are found in the light of Jesus Christ: God in the flesh, the eternal Word of Life, and the lone Mediator between God and Man, our only way to fellowship with God (Jn 14:6). The pathway to life was not through the dark promises of the gnostic’s hidden knowledge, nor in the shadowy figures of the Old Testament. The life-giving light of God’s holiness and wisdom shine in the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

However, “What communion hath light with darkness (2 Cor. 6:14)?” How can God’s holiness and our sinfulness be reconciled? By a Mediator of the covenant: the man Jesus Christ. While many attempt to exalt the love of God to a place of supremacy within God’s attributes, and while it is a glorious reality that God is love, we must remember God is light and God is love. Light before love. Holiness which endures no sin subsisting with affectionate charity which grants mercy. John lays the foundation of God’s holiness, in order to reveals His lovingkindness.

If Then
These if/thens are promise language. You experience the light of God’s holiness, wisdom, and power as either wrath and justice or love and mercy. In order to be saved from God’s wrath we must be convinced of our positional guilt in Adam, and receive the positional righteousness of Christ. False Christology always leads to man’s sin not being dealt with or forgiven. These false gospels explain away sin. Covenant breakers insist on finding in themselves, or in some antichrist, a savior. They always run to one extreme or the other: hedonism or asceticism; intellectualism or sentimentalism; traditionalism or spontaneity; legalism or licentiousness. So they remain under the wrath of God.

New Covenant Saints walk in the light–which is the Lord Jesus Christ–for in His light is the only hope for propitiation of our sins (1 Jn. 2:2) and eternal life (1 Jn. 2:25). Tozer once said: “We must hide our unholiness in the wounds of Christ as Moses hid himself in the cleft of the rock while the glory of God passed by. We must take refuge from God in God.” Matthew Henry put it wonderfully: “[Jesus Christ’s] blood applied to us discharges us from the guilt of all sin, both original and actual, inherent and committed: and so far we stand righteous in his sight; and not only so, but his blood procures for us those sacred influences by which sin is to be subdued more and more, till it is quite abolished.”

Do The Truth
False saviors can only offer false righteousness. Jesus Christ offers cleansing from our unrighteousness. Antichrists command us to do; Christ commands us to rest in His doing. Claiming to have fellowship with God, while walking in the darkness of a false gospel, is the vanity of “doing not the truth (v.6).” They remain blind corpses.

By contrast, if you are to “do the truth,” you must believe in Jesus and all that He claimed to be: the one mediator between God and man. By faith you are united with Him in His righteousness. The light of Christ pierces through the darkness of unbelief, and by grace opens the eyes of your faith to behold in Him your only salvation from sin and means of fellowship with Almighty God (cf. Ps. 36:9 & Is. 45:22). Christ is the only channel whereby eternal life is extended to you, along with the fullness of enjoying the Father’s love. So as you walk in the light of Jesus Christ, you are reckoned righteous and may say with John, “what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God (1 Jn. 3:1).”

Apostles Creed 6: His Only Begotten Son

Ben Zornes on July 16, 2017

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

What we now know as the Apostles Creed descended from an earlier form of the creed, known as the Old Roman Symbol. The beginning of the creed dates from as early as the second century. We do not have any direct evidence that it was penned by any of the apostles, but it is an admirable summary of the apostolic teaching.

Introduction:
What we know as orthodoxy is of course taught in the Bible. But that does not mean that every orthodox truth is found everywhere in the Bible, or that every verse that is used to defend the truth is being used appropriately.

Summary of the Text:
“In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9). It is a commonplace among us that Jesus was the “Son of God.” But the Bible talks about this in different ways, and so should we. One word in Greek is translated in our two words—monogenes is rendered as only begotten. Looking at the context, John uses this as a technical phrase, with a precise theological definition. That definition is the same as what is used in the Creed.

This verse may be summed up in this way. God loves and we live. The bridge between these two realities is the only begotten Son. By this phrase we are referring to the unique status and nature of Jesus of Nazareth. Our confession is this—He is the Son of God by virtue of the divine nature that was united with our human nature

Only Begotten:
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). These are all references to the Incarnation of the Son of God. They are references to Immanuel, God with us.

Chalcedon:
It would be absurd to ask you all to grasp in the course of one sermon what it took the whole Church three centuries to formulate. But we are part of that same Church, and so let me summarize what our confession is. We confess that our Savior, the Lord Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, is one person. He is one unified, well-integrated person, but He has two natures. These two natures are connected in what is called the “hypostatic union.” (Hypostases was the Greek word for person.) So there was a “one person” union that possessed two natures that were not comingled. And the result was not schizophrenia.

That which is predicated of one nature may be predicated of the person. That which is predicated of the other nature may be predicated of the person. But that which is predicated of one nature cannot be predicated of the other nature. This is quite important as we shall see.

So then, human nature has a particular height or hair color and so we can say that Jesus of Nazareth was (say) 5 foot 11, or had black hair. And the divine nature is infinite, and so we can say that Jesus of Nazareth possessed that attribute. But we cannot (and must not) say that infinitude is 5 foot 11.

How and Why:
Jesus had a true mother. He was born in the ordinary way, with the one exception being the fact that His mother was a virgin when He was born. He had a maternal grandmother and grandfather, and a lineage that went back to Adam. He was true man. But He had no biological human father.

“And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).

If original sin is passed down to us from our human fathers (covenantally, not genetically), then this accounts for how Jesus could be sinlessly perfect. He did not inherit sin from His mother because no one inherits innate sin from their mothers.

Other Senses:
But it is not the case that any references to the “Son of God” are necessarily talking about something as remarkable as the hypostatic union. Let me give you an example. “Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God” (Luke 3:38). There was no hypostatic union in Adam, and yet he is described as a “son of God.” And remember that celestial beings can be called “sons of God” without being partakers of the Godhead.

What Manner of Love:
We return to the earlier point that God loves and we therefore live. But remember the bridge between the two is the perfect God/man, offered up in sacrifice. This is seen in a type, when Abraham takes Isaac to Moriah (where Jesus was crucified) in order to prophetically foretell our coming salvation. “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son” (Heb. 11:17).

Because Jesus is the Son of God, it is possible for our status as sons of God to be restored. Remember that Adam was a son of God but that through the Crash, he and we became sons of the devil. How can we be restored? This includes a heart transplant, but there is something far more remarkable going on. This is a Father transplant.

“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not” (1 John 3:1).

Apostles Creed 5: And in Jesus Christ

Ben Zornes on July 9, 2017

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

What we now know as the Apostles Creed descended from an earlier form of the creed, known as the Old Roman Symbol. The beginning of the creed dates from as early as the second century. We do not have any direct evidence that it was penned by any of the apostles, but it is an admirable summary of the apostolic teaching.

Introduction:
Although we haven’t mentioned Jesus until this point in the Creed, in another sense, every word in the Creed revolves around Jesus Christ. The reason for that is something for us to explore now.

Summary of the Text:
“Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Cor. 5:16–17).

We began the Creed by confessing that we believe. Now in Scripture, believing and knowing are intertwined. “But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him” (John 10:38). We believe in Jesus Christ, and this is how we come to know Him. When we come to know Him, we come to know the Father, and the only way this is possible is through the Spirit of Jesus, poured out into our hearts.

But we know Jesus in two senses, both of which are reflected in the Creed. The first is the Jesus of history—or as the Creed puts it, born of the Virgin, Mary, and who died under the term of a Roman provincial prefect named Pontius Pilate. If it had not been for Jesus, he would be as historical obscure as his predecessor Gratus, or his successor Marcellus. This is the Jesus who is the historical figure, as much a man of history as Napoleon, or Attila, or Confucius. But according to Paul in this passage, this same Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, has taken the throne of the cosmos. He is the cosmic Christ. We cannot understand any man without understanding Him.

Jesus:
If Jesus had a last name, the way we have last names, it would have been Jesus Davidson—Jesus ben David. He was born in the house of David, and this was his true human lineage (Rom. 1:3). He had a home town; He had a mother; He went to Nazareth High; He weighed a certain amount; some other men were taller. He was tempted in every point as we are (Heb. 2: 17-18), although keep in mind that this excludes temptations that require a history of sinning behind them.

Remember that Jesus was fully human—not part human and part divine. God did not put on a man suit the way one of us might put on a gorilla suit. He was not “man on the outside, God on the inside.” No, He was fully God and fully man—one person, Jesus of Nazareth, who had two natures, two complete natures. Jesus had a nature that was entirely human, which is our point here, as well as a nature that was fully and completely divine.

Christ:
I said above that Christ is not the Lord’s last name. The word Christ means anointed, and it is the parallel to the Hebrew word Messiah. The word Christ is a title, like King or Prince. Throughout Scripture, anointing is the rite used to set someone apart to a particular office, and that person assumes the office empowered by the anointing to discharge the responsibilities of that office. The anointing was not so that we would look at Him as the Messiah. The anointing was so that He would do what the Messiah was destined to do, and so that we would recognize Him in His glory.

There were three great offices among men as seen in the polity of Israel—prophet, priest, and king—and men were anointed to all three. “And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room” (1 Kings 19:16). “And the priest, whom he shall anoint, and whom he shall consecrate to minister in the priest’s office in his father’s stead, shall make the atonement, and shall put on the linen clothes, even the holy garments” (Lev. 16:32).

So when Jesus was anointed as the Christ, He was being established in all three of these offices. That is what it means to be called to be the Christ. He is our great Prophet (Dt. 18:15), our Priest (Heb. 3:1), and our King (John 19:19; Acts 17:7). As priest, He died and rose to put an end to the old world, our old way of being human. As king, He rules the new world, the new heavens and new earth. And as our prophet, He teaches us about both worlds. He is the cosmic Christ—not in some New Agey sense, but in the sense that His name and authority overarch absolutely everything. We will come back to this.

Come to Jesus:
So call upon Jesus. Turn to Jesus Christ. Bow before the Lord Jesus Christ. Partake of Jesus. He offers Himself. The Spirit and the Bride say come, and they say the same thing . . . come to Jesus.

Now when I say this to you, when I issue this invitation—which I am authorized to do, by the way—I am doing so because I am not looking at you “after the flesh.” Look carefully again at this passage. Paul here says that a direct result of having a right vision of the cosmic Christ is that we no longer look at anyone in a mundane way. How could we? Christ is risen. Christ is enthroned. More than this—He is here, and summons you to come.

Apostles Creed 4: Maker of Heaven and Earth

Ben Zornes on July 2, 2017

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

What we now know as the Apostles Creed descended from an earlier form of the creed, known as the Old Roman Symbol. The beginning of the creed dates from as early as the second century. We do not have any direct evidence that it was penned by any of the apostles, but it is an admirable summary of the apostolic teaching.

Introduction:
We confess the absolute authority of God, and there are layered reasons for doing this. He has authority over us in the first instance because He created us, and in the second because He redeemed us from our sins. We will come to the issue of redemption shortly, but we must begin where the Bible does, with the doctrine of creation.

Summary of the Text:
“Know ye that the LORD he is God: It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture” (Ps. 100:3). When we confess that God is the Maker of heaven and earth, there are three basic things entailed by this. First, God is the Creator. And second, He created all things, heaven and earth both, and we are part of that. We are a subset of the created order, making us creatures. And third, we are not the Creator. He made us, and not we ourselves. God created us. We did not create us. However hard he strains, a creature cannot stand in a bucket and then pick it up.

Biblical Categories:
We see the created order described in a particular way—described as heaven and earth. The union of the two was disrupted by our sin, but in the redemption of Christ, the reunion of the two is coming. “That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him” (Eph. 1:10). It is no sin to say that God created the universe, or that He fashioned the space/time continuum, but take care not to lose the Bible’s way of speaking of it.

Ground of Worship:
The doctrine of creation is a strong incentive to worship. “O come, let us worship and bow down: Let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For he is our God; And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand” (Psalm 95:6–7).

The created order evokes both praise and worship—but they are not the same thing. “Praise ye him, sun and moon: Praise him, all ye stars of light.” (Ps. 148:3). To praise God is to exalt Him, to lift Him up, to honor Him. To worship is to prostrate yourself in humility before Him, having been poleaxed by the grandeur. Having done so, you make yourself available for service. Here am I, Lord. Send me. Present your bodies, which is your spiritual worship (Rom. 12:1-2).

Ground of Mercy Work:
The doctrine of creation is a strong incentive to mercy work. “He that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker: But he that honoureth him hath mercy on the poor” (Prov. 14:31). It is a disincentive to oppression, and the sin of rejoicing in iniquity. “Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker: And he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished” (Prov. 17:5). And the doctrine of creation provides social perspective on the right kind of equity. “The rich and poor meet together: The LORD is the maker of them all” (Prov. 22:2).

Ground of True Sovereignty:
A robust doctrine of creation helps us to not trip over our Calvinism. A Creator God is a transcendent God, while a sovereign god “within the system” would be a muscle-bound Zeus, and a bully. But if God is the Creator, every difficulty vanishes. When Hamlet spoke of doing away with himself, how much of that soliloquy was Shakespeare, and how much Hamlet? 50/50? 90/10? Or 100/100? “Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? Or thy work, He hath no hands?” (Is. 45:9).

Ground of Covenant Redemption:
“For thy Maker is thine husband; The LORD of hosts is his name; And thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called” (Is. 54:5). He is the God of the whole earth. He is the transcendent God. And, by the grace of God, we have been made the bride of Christ.

Something Is Eternal:
“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear” (Heb. 11:3).

So we must make an important distinction. God creates from nothing, ex nihilo. We are created in His image, and so it is that we are makers also. We are lower case makers, lower case creators, because we must always and necessarily work with preexistent materials. But God is the Creator Absolute.

Christ the Creator:
God created all things, but He did so through His agent, our Lord Jesus. Scripture tells us this repeatedly. Speaking of the Logos, John says, “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). The apostle Paul teaches us the same thing. “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist” (Col. 1:16–17).

“Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:2–3).

The Son of God created all things. The Son of God sustains all things—if He were to cease speaking it, the world would vanish again into the nothingness from which it came. It wouldn’t even make a noise. Not only is it all from Jesus, it is for Jesus.

And so this means—and we must never forget it—the one who fashioned you, made you, shaped you, and created you is the same one who died on a gibbet for you outside Jerusalem. The one who created the sky had the sky turn black over Him. And He did it so that you might sing the next song with a full heart.