The Son in the Creation of the Cosmos

Here is my feeble attempt at exalting the Son in the creation of the cosmos - while theological in content, it is particularly doxological in form. This is what is said of him who is above all earthly powers -

In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made (John 1:1-3). For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:16-17). The Father appointed him the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power (Hebrews 1:2-3). The LORD possessed the Wisdom of the Son at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old. Ages ago he was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth. When there were no depths he was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water. Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, he was brought forth, before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world. When he established the heavens, Wisdom was there; when he drew a circle on the face of the deep, when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep, when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, then he was beside him, like a master workman, and he was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the children of man (Proverbs 8:22-31).

The Son is the self-expression of the Father - he is both the Logos (i.e. the Word - the divine animating person of the order and knowledge of God cohering, upholding, and authoritatively governing the entire universe) and his radiant Image (meaning, he who perfectly reflects the divine Majesty and glory of the Father to the world). He is the creative medium through which the Father brought forth the cosmos. Even more, he is the very reason for which the Father created it. He is the active agent by which all things cohere, and he continually upholds the universe by his powerful word. He is the unfathomable wisdom of the Father. Most importantly, he is the only, unique Son of the Father, and it is in this deepest and most profound mystery that the key to both our existence and our redemption and eventual consummation into blessedness are found - namely, that the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father.

SDG

The Temple and the Priest

Meredith Kline, from his book Kingdom Prologue: Genesis Foundations for a Covenantal Worldview, talks about the ideas of "temple" and "priest" in their various forms in Scripture -

The conclusion appears warranted, therefore, that Genesis 2:15 contains an explicit reference to the entrusting of man in his priestly office with the task of defending the Edenic sanctuary against the intrusion of anything that would be alien to the holiness of the God of the garden or hostile to his name. From subsequent developments it is evident that Adam's priestly charge was meant to set him on guard, as at a military post, against the encroachment of the Satanic serpent. In the Zechariah 3 passage, we see the messianic figure of the Angel of the LORD fulfilling this primal priestly duty. He judicially rebukes the malicious accuser, who in effect poses in God's holy presence as one of the cherubim guardians, as though he would defend the sanctuary against the sin-stained human priest. Back at the beginning, the challenge of Satan's unholy trespass was to precipitate the critical hour of probation when man, under the priestly charge to guard God's courts, was faced with the duty of pronouncing the holy judgment of God's house against the preternatural intruder.

This judicial-military function of the office of the guardian-priest is an important aspect of the whole course of judgment executed by agents of God's kingdom subsequently in redemptive history. It is in fact the essence of holy war. Israel's conquest and dispossession of the Canaanites was carried out in fulfillment of their status as a nation of priests who were commissioned to cleanse the land claimed by Yahweh as holy to him. The priestly character of this and other such holy war undertakings was accentuated by the prominent role which the special Levitical priesthood within priestly Israel was assigned in them. Similarly, Messiah in his going forth in the great final judgment for the cleansing of God's cosmic temple, a judgment adumbrated in the temple cleansings recorded in the Gospels, is depicted in prophetic psalm and apocalypse as a priest-king leading a priestly army. Within the present age of the new covenant the function of negative consecration belongs to the church, this ecclesiastical form of it being declarative and spiritual and not applicable outside the holy covenant community.

At the level of the individual's identity as a temple of God the priestly office involves this negative, protective kind of sanctification as well as positive consecration. The judicial-military aspect of the priestly guardianship of the personal temple of God is brought out in redemptive revelation by the injunction that the armor of God be put on to defend against the hostile, defiling incursions of Satan. Since putting on the divine armor is a variation of the metaphor of investiture with the priestly glory-robes, a major biblical symbol of the imago Dei, the connection between priesthood and the image of God is again in evidence here. If the priestly privilege of beholding God is creative of the reflected image of God's Glory, possession of the dominion-glory of the image in turn equips for the priestly service of guarding God's sanctuary. Accordingly, the judicial as well as the ethical dimension of the imago Dei comes to expression in the triumphs of priestly guardianship of our personal sanctity.

To summarize, Kline addresses the various priest-temple relationships: first, of Adam as a priest within the temple of Eden, Israel as a nation of priests guarding the temple of the promised land, the Levitical priesthood ministering within the temple, the Messiah as the Great High Priest of the cosmic temple, elders and other leaders guarding the purity of the church, and finally, individual Christians as guardian-priests of their own bodily-temples. The priest-temple relationship allows us to define both the idea of holy war against Satan, beginning with the enmity between the seed of the woman and of Satan, as well as the priestly aspect of the glory reflected in our being images of God.

SDG

The One upon whom Isaiah gazed

I mention this because it is sometimes difficult for people to see the continuity in which the Triune God communicates with man throughout the Scriptures. The plans and purposes of God originate within the mind of the Father. The speech and image of the Father are expressed in the Son, who is the Word. The power with which the Word is spoken and the means by which that Word is brought to bear on the human heart is the Spirit. The Scriptures continuously speak in this manner.

The example I bring to the reader's attention is that of the prophet in Isaiah 6:1-6. Isaiah sees a vision of the Lord of hosts sitting upon his throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the heavenly temple. Above him stood the seraphim, resounding with, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the LORD of hosts..." Isaiah is stunned by the vision of such glory, at a complete loss as a sinner standing before the holy God. Isaiah proclaims the One who sits upon the throne to be the King, the LORD of hosts.

Here is the issue with continuity - can mere man look upon the invisible Father who dwells in unapproachable light (see Colossians 1:15, 1 Timothy 6:16)? This would seem incongruent with Scripture. John clarifies in his gospel account by quoting Isaiah from this same scene in ch. 6. John then explains why Isaiah said these things - "Isaiah said these things because he saw his [Jesus'] glory and spoke of him" (Jn 12:41). The exalted Lord that Isaiah looked upon in his vision in the year that King Uzziah died was the Son in his preincarnate glory, the image and radiance of the Father. Before the Son became flesh and dwelt among men, he was sitting upon the throne in heaven.

What does this tell us? It tells us that the Father has seen in fitting to express himself in the image of his Son to man (Hebrews 1:3, Colossians 1:15). The voice of the Father is enunciated by the Word, who is also the Son (John 1:1-2). The Son therefore grants access to the image and mind of the Father.

SDG

The Significance of Seth

Seth is often glossed over in Genesis. We go from Adam and Eve to Cain and Abel, skip forward to Noah and the flood, maybe touch on Babel, and then go ahead with the story of God's calling of Abraham. But Seth is a figure to consider - especially within the context of Luke's mentioning of him in Jesus' genealogy (see Luke 3:38, Jesus is the "son of Seth, son of Adam, son of God").

Things are not looking so good as the reader moves from Adam and Eve's sin to Cain's murder of his brother Abel, and then, to the corruptness of Lamech. As Moses in the wilderness unfolds the drama to Israel of their origins, the people might have been left with a feeling of despair - where is our hope? But then Moses ends Genesis 4 with the transition, "And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, 'God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him'...at that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD" (Gen. 4:25-26). The child of hope is born. His presence was a source of comfort to Adam and Eve, because previously evil seemed to have impeded the purposes of God. But the promise that one day Eve's offspring would rise up to crush the serpent's skull would not be thwarted (Gen. 3:15). Seth's birth brought about the beginning of true religion - that of calling upon the LORD's name.

But how do we know that Seth is special? If one continues to read into Genesis 5, Moses explains. Adam was created in the image and likeness of God. This image is composed of both structure and function. In the fall, while we retained the structure (i.e. intellect, reason, speech, physical and emotional faculties, etc.), our image no longer functioned in such a way as to glorify God. They were redirected to serve the creature rather than the Creator (Romans 1). All men born after Adam retained this same perverted image. But now we read that while Cain may have retained the image, the likeness and image of Adam were particularly reflected in Seth (Gen. 5:3). He is distinctly different from Cain in that it pleased God to have the younger son, Seth, be the heir of the divine promise instead of Cain. Cain was passed over, while Seth would be listed among the chosen vessels to carry the genealogy of our Savior to fruition.

SDG