Chapter 10
From idontknownuthin
Contents |
The first shadow
Christ is the beginning
- Genesis 1.1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
- Re 21:6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
- Re 22:13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Since Christ is the beginning, Gen 1.1 says In Christ, God created the heavens and the earth.
This is consistent with good doctrine.
- Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
- 1Jo 4:13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
Second - A Hebrew pun
The second one is in the word Elohim itself. There is a pun in Hebrew by pronouncing the 'h' a little harder with "The Not Dark"
- Joh 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
- Joh 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
A third shadow
The third shadow is in Gen 1.1 also: "heaven and earth".
- 1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
The word for man and son is interchangeable because Eve told us:
- Ge 4:1 ...and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
She called her son a man. So we jump from first and second man to first and second son:
- 1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
Everyone knows that Jesus is the first son, because he is the only son of God, and also he is the first fruits of both man and Israel.
But he is also the usurping second son.
As the first and second son, he is the first and second man, and he is the 'earthly and heavenly'.
Three in one
Isn't it fun that in the first verse there would be three images of Christ, who is the fulness of the Godhead?
- Col 2:9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
I can't tell you what that means but can only marvel at the nature of Christ.
A theological problem
It now appears that Gen 1.1 says In Christ, the 'not dark' created 'Christ'.
But we aren't done. We have torn it apart into three shadows, but they must work together as a whole. The Bible would never contradict itself. So there is a riddle to be solved.
It is solved when we see that 'create' also means 'cut down'.
Now the verse says: In Christ, the Light, cut down the earthly and heavenly.
Christ was cut down or judged for our iniquity.
The purpose of the shadows in this passage
As in all of the shadows, these focus our attention upon Christ. But we should not just think this a novelty. We should ask ourselves what it means that the earthly AND heavenly were cut down.
Jesus the man was cut down, but there are too many images of things that split for us to ignore the heavenly consequence of the cross. Many people lose their first and/or only son. Many people died on crosses or suffered what could be argued to be worse deaths. The real agony of the cross was not the glorified Mel Gibson style torment and physical pain. It was that Holy God was made to be sin and couldn't tolerate his own presence to the point that He split. The Father left the Son on the cross and he cried "why have you forsaken me?".
The scripture doesn't tell us when the Father and Son were reconciled. Whether the separation was three minutes or three days, for one who was outside of time, it was an eternity.
The shadows are discovered by meditating on his word, and they lead us into deeper relationship with Christ.
