Was Jesus created?

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The Word, the expression of the Godhead, has eternal being, distinct personality and proper Deity, not merely Θειότης (Rom. 1:20), but Θεότης (Col. 2:9). We see One Who was before time began. It is not even the beginning of creation, but before then, when the Word was with God before all things were made by Him. Look back as we may before creation, the Word was — not ἐγένετο, existed, as One that had commenced to be, but ἦν, was, the Word increase — yea, the Creator. Further, He "was with God," not exactly here with the Father as such; for Scripture never speaks with such correlation. "The Word was with God." Father, Son, and Holy Ghost were there; but the Word was with God, "and the Word was God." He was no creature, but essentially Divine, though not He alone Divine. Other Persons there were in the Godhead.9

The language is most precise; He was in the beginning with God, not egeneto (‘became’ eds.), […] in the sense of coming into being or caused to be, but ‘hn’, He “was" in His own absolute being. All things ‘egeneto’, "came into being" through Him. He was the Creator so completely that St. John adds, "and without him not one thing came into being which is come into being." On the other hand, when the incarnation is stated in verse 14, the language is, The Word was made flesh, not ‘En’ but ‘egeneto’

We must keep in mind that all this is said in relation to reconciliation. He must be pre-eminent to bring it all to pass. He is said to be before all things lest we might have thought that as the Firstborn He Himself was a product of creation. He was there before it all came into being, and He sustains it all. He did not only bring it in on behalf of the Godhead, but He also keeps it going.

But in that which comes before us in our epistle, it is not a question even of the highest creature on earth — one that was called to have dominion on earth, and be the image and glory of God here below. God had in view One infinitely above man; and yet He was a man. It was Jesus; and Jesus stood in what was altogether peculiar — in a relationship that was perfectly according to God's counsels; but more than that, according to a relationship that was peculiar to His own person. There was counsel, but besides there was intrinsic glory altogether independent of any plans of conferred honour. In other words, the Son of God never was made the Son, He is never even called the child (τέκνον) of God.* To us, to be called children of God is more intimate than to be styled His sons; but it would derogate from the Lord. Jesus is never called a child in the sense in which I am now speaking. He has His own relationship to the Father eternally. To us it is more to be born of the very nature of God, than to be sons adopted into the family of God. There might be an adopted son without the nature. One might be altogether a stranger to him that adopts. But in Jesus, the Son of God, there was this character of Son in His own title and being from everlasting. Need I say that this is altogether above human comprehension? Yet nothing is more certain than that God so speaks to our faith. Were there an interval of one instant between the Father and the Son, did the Father exist in any respect before the Son as such, all the truth of God as revealed in the Bible perishes. He to whom I look up, by and in whom alone I can know God and the Father, is God Himself. Let the notion of time come into the conception given of Godhead and of the persons — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and all would be falsehood and confusion. The Son would be a creature — not self-subsisting, not therefore truly God. For if God, He is as such not less truly God than the Father; for there can be no difference as to Godhead. As the Father is everlasting, so is the Son. The relationship in the Godhead has nothing to do with the question of time; and the great mistake that has been wrought by all human philosophy is from introducing notions of time where time can have no place whatever.

*Christ is not, and I think could not, be called (KTISMA); for this would be derogatory to the Creator. He is called the first-born of all creation (PASES KTISEOS) and also the beginning of the creation (KTISEOS) of God.

He is "the beginning." He did not have a beginning: He is the beginning. Revelation 3:14 speaks of Him as "the beginning of the creation of God" because He is Himself the Creator. Just as God the Almighty can say, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending" (Rev.1:8), so the Lord Jesus can say the same of Himself (Rev.22:12-13), for He is God.

In His first coming into the world, He took the place of the "Firstborn of all creation." Now following His death of infinite redemptive value, He is Firstborn from among the dead and recognized as such by His body, the Church. In this too, as in all things, He has the preeminence, the absolute claims of priority. Verse 19 is best translated, "For in Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell."

Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, died in A.D. 336. He taught that our Lord existed before His incarnation, but was created of God, the highest of His creatures, empowered to create all else; and, that as the highest and most ancient of God’s creatures, He is to be worshipped, but not in full measure as applied to God, the supreme Creator. This perversion of truth obtains more or less with Millennial Dawnists and its offshoot, Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The key element to remember in deriving the meaning of monogenes is this: it is a compound term, combining monos, meaning only, with a second term. Often it is assumed that the second term is gennasthai/gennao, to give birth, to beget. But note that this family of terms has two nu's, rather than a single nu, found in monogenes. This indicates that the second term is not gennasthai but gignesthai/ginmai, and the noun form, genos. Some scholars see the -genes element as having a minor impact upon the meaning of the term, and hence see monogenes as a strengthened form of monos, thereby translating it "alone," "unique," "incomparable." An example of this usage from the LXX is found in Psalm 25:16, "turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely (monogenes) and afflicted" (NASB). “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son (monogenes).” Hebrews 11:17 NIV. Hence the preceding references clearly demonstrate that monogenes does not mean generation, that Christ was God's firstborn or first creation. Rather it speaks of uniqueness, that Jesus' shares a unique relationship with God as Father from all eternity. This is true of Christ alone since no other person has ever shared an eternal filial relationship with God. [read more...]

Wisdom was possessed by the Lord in the beginning of His ways, before His works of old. But that is the beginning without a beginning.

In the beginning was the Word; and because the Word, the Son of God, is God, He like God has no beginning. The word "possessed" has also the meaning of "formed". "This word has been a battleground of controversy since the days of the Arian heresy. But it is well to remember that, all theological questions apart, it is impossible to understand the word, whatever rendering of it we adopt, as indicating that wisdom ever had a beginning, or was ever properly speaking created. Wisdom is inseparable from any worthy conception of Him who is "the only wise God" (1 Tim. 1:17), and therefore is like Him "from everlasting to everlasting" (Perowne). Wisdom, the Son of God, was always with God from everlasting. Before there ever was anything created, before the mountains were settled, or even the earth had been made, He was. And when creation began He was there. He, the Son, was by Him, as one brought up with Him. From the greater revelation in the New Testament we learn that all things were created not only for Him, but also by Him (Colossians 1:16). Wisdom speaks: "And I was continually His delight, rejoicing always before Him." This can only be true of God the Son. And furthermore He says: "Rejoicing in the habitable part of His earth; and My delight was with the sons of men." His delight was so great, that He laid by His glory, and left His eternal dwelling place to become man and redeem man by the death of the cross.

"Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way." There was Wisdom, not simply in Him, but with Him, as is said of the Word in John 1:1: "the Word was with God," just as surely as He "is God"; and such too is the account of Him as Life in 1 John 1:2, before He was manifested in flesh. "I was set up [lit. anointed] from everlasting, from the beginning before the earth was." He was no creature of God, but was in being before His works. When depths were not nor fountains abounding with waters, He was brought forth; before mountains or hills were settled; while as yet He had not made the earth or the fields or the beginning of the dust of the world. He was there for the making and ordering of all, as He was before any. Nor did He thus precede the lower scene only, but the heavens which contain all. When Jehovah prepared the heavens, Wisdom was there; when He set the circle upon the face the deep, when He established the skies above. When the fountains of the deep became strong, when He imposed on the sea its decree, that the waters should not pass His commandment; when He appointed the foundations of the earth: then was Wisdom by Him, a nursling [or artificer], and a delight He was, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in His habitable world; and His delights were with the sons of men. It is a grand, true, and highly poetic description, worthy of Him who was proclaimed in its season the Worthy One.