Our Saviour and Lord by George W. Reaser

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, Cal. · Jul 16, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 27.

Our Saviour and Lord

By George W. Reaser

Christ as Creator

THAT Christ, the Anointed One, was before the fall of Adam a member of the Godhead who filled the office of Creator, is evident to the Bible student. Whether the thing to be created was a mighty sun, or a tiny plant, or animal life in infinite variety, from the tiniest living creature to the mightiest leviathan, the execution of the design was His handiwork.

Of the infinitude of His created works the prophet speaks when he says, "Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: He calleth them all by names by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power; not one faileth." Isa. 40:26.

Modern astronomers, in lifting up their eyes on high to try to compute the vast number of shining orbs, have placed the total as high as sixty-six thousand million and more. Yet, gazing upon these scintillating orbs, the old emir of Idumea said: "Lo, these are parts of His ways: but how little a portion is heard of Him!" But the Creator has a name for each star that He has created, for it is written, "He calleth them all by names."

These myriads of suns doubtless have their respective worlds. Over each of these worlds possessing inhabitants, Christ doubtless placed a head, created in His own image, the father, the progenitor, to replenish his world with his own family. At least this would be His plan if we reason from the analogy of our own world; for the expression given us of the counsel between the Father and Son, relative to the creating of the first man of our world and to the peopling of our globe, was, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness," and to the man He said, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion . . . over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." Gen. 1:26, 28.

In passing, it may be worthy of note that in one respect our world occupies a unique position among the whole galaxy of worlds. Because of sin, and the consequent loss of eternal life to the many, the multiplication of the race was vastly increased in order to secure the perfect number, to fill the earth with "a righteous seed." This increase was declared immediately after the calamity of the fall, in these words addressed to Eve: "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception." Gen. 3:16.

That Jesus made provision, in the creation of all worlds, for their complete replenishing, each with a race of beings in His own image of character, is further suggested in the following inspired words: "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created." Rev. 4:11. His "pleasure" is in making others happy; and proving that He finds His joy in inhabited spheres, He says, speaking of Himself, "Rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth; and my delights were with the sons of men." Prov. 8:31. And again: "Be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people" (Isa. 65:18, 19), "in whom is all My delight" (Ps. 16:3).

Proof that Christ Was Creator

But the one who wisely bases his faith upon the living Word of God, will naturally expect additional proof-texts to support the statement that Jesus was the active agent in the work of creation. John bears witness to this truth in the introduction of the Gospel which bears his name. He says: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made." John 1:1, 3. That it may be clear to our minds as to whom he is introducing under the title of "the Word," he explains, "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." Verse 14. Paul adds his testimony by stating that "by Him [Christ] 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.

The North America Nebula in the constellation of Cygnus, or the Swan, in the far north, remarkable for its peculiar shape. It is not visible to the eye through a telescope, but the eye of the camera caught it. This was taken by the 10-inch Bruce telescope at Yerkes Observatory, by an exposure of four hours

Astronomy informs us that Arcturus is one of the mightiest suns yet discovered, being immensely greater in volume than our sun. God's question addressed to Job, "Canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?" has peculiar force, when we learn that this mighty giant, Arcturus, is called by astronomers "a runaway," that is, his volume is so vast, his velocity so great (ninety-two miles a second), that he seems to spurn the combined attraction of all the systems known to science, as he sweeps majestically through our universe "for the first time." Altho "a runaway" so far as the science of astronomy is developed, he is safely under the perfect control of the Master Builder of the universe, Jesus Christ.

Where our dim, unaided vision may see but a point of light, a high-power telescope will perhaps reveal twenty thousand suns. Where we see but a pale mist or haze of light, the science of astronomy unfolds the indescribable glories of apparently another universe, with its vaulted chambers ablaze with the glory of God, it would seem leading up to His throne, the glory center of the universe. And all these proclaim the matchless, the incomprehensible glory of Christ our Saviour, for "by His Spirit He garnished the heavens." Surely "help for fallen humanity" has been "laid upon One who is mighty to save." "Our wildest dreams and conceptions of the power of the Creator shame us with their insignificance."

Things Terrestrial

Coming down to our own little sphere, let us observe a few of the manifestations of His creative genius, power, and love, displayed in our planet home. First of all, the Garden of Eden contained "every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food." Whoever delights his eyes for the first time in beholding the surpassing beauties of a primitive tropical forest, with its myriad variety of trees, plants, fruits, flowers, and brilliant orchids, has a vividly thrilling object-lesson of the infinite fertility of the mind of Christ expressed in the picture before him. He who from a smoothly gliding, glass-bottomed boat, beholds the wonders and marvelous beauty of "the sea gardens" in the mighty deep, is impressed with the thought that "His ways are past finding out."

As we travel from continent to continent, from ocean to ocean, we are surprised to discover entirely distinct varieties of plants and animals in each. The domesticated trees, plants, and flowers of America not indigenous to the land, are borrowed from other continents. To illustrate, Australia is the only native habitat of about one hundred fifty varieties of the eucalyptus, and of some seventy varieties of the marsupial family, of which the giant kangaroo is the largest. Mexico has approximately one hundred varieties of the banana; Africa, thirty varieties of the antelope, each entirely distinct from those found in any other portion of our globe. America has its bison; Africa, India, Madagascar, and the Philippines each their own varieties of the ox or buffalo; Tibet, "the roof of the world," its useful yak, perfectly adapted to the needs of the country; South America, its llama; and the extreme north, the musk-ox. But why multiply, when it would require volumes to list them all!

It would seem that no continent, nor even the world, was large enough for the full expression of the conceptions of the mind of Christ, in plant and animal life. Botanists, zoologists, ichthyologists, have busied themselves for generations in discovering, classifying, and naming the infinite number of species and varieties in plant and animal life in our little world, but have found no end to the task. The instincts of self-preservation, of selection of suitable food, often of conserving the same, and of home-building, of perpetuating their own kind, and of protection of their offspring, were planted in the animal kingdom by a divine mind, in the day that they were created.

The infinitude of fauna and flora in our world, altho shorn of much beauty, and (Continued on page 9)

Our Saviour and Lord

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robbed by sin of qualities to delight our senses, should ever remind us of Him who said, "Consider the lilies of the field [uncultivated], how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." He who pointed to the lily was the One who designed and painted it.

The magnitude and the color of each star,—"for one star differeth from another star in glory,"—as well as the form, coloring, and perfume of each flower, was a conception formed in the mind of Christ, before He spoke it into existence. The glory-rings of Saturn were in His mind before He spoke them into being. As His genius is unsearchable, so His love is boundless.

In contemplating the creative works of Christ, the overflowing praise of the psalmist is, "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork."

And, Jehovah be praised, He that telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by name, is the same as He that "healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds." Ps. 147:3, 4.

But the subject is boundless, even as He is infinite. "It was Christ that spread the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. It was His hand that hung the worlds in space and fashioned the flowers of the field. It was He that filled the earth with beauty and the air with song. And upon all things in earth, and air, and sky, He wrote the message of the Father's love."

"Let the distant stars, with their attendant worlds, whirl, and wheel, and roll, and shine in the boundless empire of space, while a new light—the light of God's universe—shines upon His Word, that carries us backward to the time when 'in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,' and when 'the morning stars sang together,' and forward to the time when there will be 'a new heavens and a new earth,' and 'the overcomers shall inherit the kingdom.'"

Fellow God

Jesus said, "I and My Father are one." In nature, in power, in spirit, in glory, in righteousness, in love, in counsel in regard to the creation and operation of the universe, Jehovah and His Son are one; and yet in personality, two distinct beings. Jehovah employs these expressions in speaking of His Son: "The mighty God," "The everlasting Father," "The Man who is My Fellow;" and again, "Unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy kingdom. . . . And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands." It was a "determinate counsel" between the Father and the Son which settled the matter of Christ the Creator being given to redeem the world that He had created.

The oneness, the unity, the harmony, between the Father and the Son, is a guarantee of the stability of the universe and of the eternal peace which will persist when "all things are put under Him" (Christ), for the "counsel of peace shall be between Them both," and "then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all."