The Son of God was made

“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.” (Rev. 3:14).

In many ways Satan has labored to hide the precious Child of the Most High from this fallen world, even theologically. People have used Revelation 3:14 to prove that Jesus was a created being, thus not divine. Many non-Trinitarians have so much desired to keep the Father as the “only true God” (John 17:3) that they have made Him the only divine being in heaven, and the Son as non-existent until He was incarnated. Jehovah’s Witnesses and Oneness Pentecostal folks have put this into their doctrines. The Mormons have denigrated Christ by saying that redeemed humanity will become Gods like Jesus is. Catholicism degrades the exaltation of Christ by exalting Mary above Him, or on an equal status with the only-begotten Son of God. And, more subtly, Trinitarians do damage to the Son of God by not allowing Him to be begotten of the Father. In their minds He must be equal in age and status, and thus He cannot really be the Son of the Father. By narrow interpretations of scripture, Trinitarians have lost the bigger picture given from the whole Bible, which the post-apostolic fathers wanted to have in order to be like all the pagans. As a result, they stole Christ’s Spirit of comfort and grace from Him, and gave it to Satan through the ages-old Third Person of the Godhead. But, as persons go, we have only one God and one Lord (see 1 Cor. 8:6), “the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3), whom to know is life eternal. Only two persons united in Their eternal Spirit.

Nevertheless, the Son of God is the one and only first begotten, “Monogenes Prototokos Uihos”, “who is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn^G4416 of every creature: 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.” (Col. 1:15,16). Jesus has dwelled in His Father’s bosom since the very beginning, from everlasting. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten^G3439 Son^G5207, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” (John 1:18). “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” (Mic. 5:2).

But in this post we aren’t going to try to prove that Jesus was created. Yet, many times throughout the New Testament the Book said that Jesus was “made”. However none speak of His creation. Of course, the most well-known “being made” of the Father was to make Jesus one of us. “Wherefore when He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a body hast Thou prepared Me.” (Heb. 10:5). To this mysterious work Jesus submitted. The human creation that He would indwell for eternity was a work from His Father that Jesus wholly agreed to. Thus, in all things it behooved Him to be made like us; and in all things it behooved Him to do His Father’s will.

“But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” (1Cor. 1:30). Jesus has become our total rehabilitation into the original image of God Adam lost. Jesus is made this because of all the other things He was made. “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” (2Cor. 4:10,11). Our total rehabilitation is a joint effort between His Spirit and our spirit.

“And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit.” (1Cor. 15:45). Though His Father prepared Him a body to tabernacle among us, He could not be bound within that tabernacle. The first Adam, who was not divine, though perfectly adapted to receive the quickening Spirit from Christ, had a spirit must reside within him for ever. Adam’s spirit could only be sensed apart from his person as influence. It was a holy influence that moved and changed the intelligent and conscientious world around him, but his influence could not affect inanimate matter. Yet, Jesus, the first Son of God and the last Adam, had the body of Adam, but the Spirit of His Father that filled heaven and earth.

“For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2Cor. 5:21). Jesus likened Himself to the brazen serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness. The serpent represented deception and sin. As He commanded Moses to make that serpent, God made Jesus the embodiment of deception and sin.

“Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” (Gal. 3:13). Likewise with 2 Corinthians 5:21, the serpent that was hanging in the tree of knowledge of good and evil was cursed above all beasts of the earth, reveals the curses from God that Jesus took in our place. The Son became a lightning rod to keep our tabernacles from burning down. He became the focus of all the Father’s pent up, righteous rage and hurt because we joined forces with the enemy of the eternal kingdom.

“But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law.” (Gal. 4:4). When God gave His only Begotten a human body, He gave His Son no special treatment. There was no respect of persons given to this new Man. “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.” (Heb. 5:8). His body, inheriting the fallen, weakened nature of Mary, was subjected to the same forces that we are subject to in our inheritance of the same nature. And He suffered the same consequences for having that fallen, weakened nature. With weakened brain power, He received an intellect that God developed into infinite wisdom. With a weakened soul, He received a depth of yearning for His Father that developed into infinitely deep soul, which could be so full that when He poured it all out it satisfied the Father’s need to have that again from Adam’s race. His holy relationship with the Father permitted His Father’s Spirit to have perfect access to the fallen, weakened nature that He inherited, to keep His Son from sin. Therefore, Jesus had a fallen, weakened, yet sinless nature. “For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:3,4).

“But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.” (Phil. 2:7). In this verse we see that everything that made Jesus what He was came from not the Father’s doing solely. Jesus played a big part in everything that He was. It was His choices every day to seek to be sculpted by His Father’s Spirit and providences that would chisel the Son into the perfect exhibit that pleased the Father. The Son was cut out of the mountain of God’s righteousness without human hands. The Son’s perfect product of sanctification and sealing was a cooperative effort between the Creator and the special, God-like creation, Adam. It was that way with the second Adam; and so it must, and can, be with us.

“Being made so much better than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.” (Heb. 1:4). His name was Michael Jehovah, Son of Elohim. “The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1). “Michael, your Prince” (Dan. 10:21), “Michael, [the first] of the chief princes” (Dan. 10:13), “Michael…the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people” (Dan. 12:1), judging “with equity [in favor of] the meek of the earth” (Isa. 11:4), saving “them to the uttermost who come unto God by Him”, He “ever liveth to make intercession for them.” (Heb. 7:25). “From of old, from everlasting” His “goings forth” (Mic. 5:2) in His Father’s constant, long-term development grounded the Son into an immoveable Being of perfect God-likeness, a Chip off the old Block, a perfect Mediator for all of creation before the Ancient of Days. Michael, the only name that means, “who is like God”, in His angelic form was much higher than the highest created angel, “that in all things He might have the preeminence, for it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.” (Col. 1:18,19).

“For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.” (Heb. 2:16,17). Jesus’ incarnation is the most often meaning of His being made. But here we begin to see that a greater work than incarnation was the work put into Him becoming the High Priest to save mankind.

“But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” (Heb. 2:9,10). Jesus was perfect in character every day of His life. Even at the moment of conception He was “that holy thing…called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35). Yet, He wasn’t made perfect for His priesthood without going through Gethsemane and Golgotha. He had to be made a High Priest. A female may be a mothering person, but she cannot be a proper mother until she passes through the agonies of childbirth. Likewise, our great “Mother of all living” (Gen. 3:20) must pass through the waves of agony in Gethsemane for our second birth. “And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” (Luke 22:44). He must suffer infinitely in order to have the infinite patience and forebearance that we need from our upbringing into the perfection of His Father.

“For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins:

Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.

And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.

And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.

So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made an High Priest; but He that said unto Him, Thou art My Son, to day have I begotten Thee…. And being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.” (Heb. 5: 1-5,9). A queen bee is regular worker bee until it is made into a queen. Likewise, Jesus was the highest in heaven, equal to His Father in power and glory. But, not until Gethsemane was the Son made equal to God as Mediator when His love held up under the infinite justice of the Most High for our sake, God thus creating in His Son the necessary equal and opposite power of infinite mercy sufficient to save repentant man and to maintain the righteousness of the Law.

“Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.” (Heb. 6:19,20).

“For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Juda; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood.

And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another Priest,

Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.

For He testifieth, Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.” (Heb. 7:14-17).

“For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto God.

And inasmuch as not without an oath He was made priest:

(For those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by Him that said unto Him, The Lord sware and will not repent, Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec:)

By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament.…

Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.

For such an High Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;

Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this He did once, when He offered up Himself.

For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.” (Heb. 7:19-22,25-28).

God made His Son all that He is. And Jesus will make His children all that we need to be if we will be as submissive to His workmanship as He was to His Father’s.