Awesome Realities
of Christ Jesus
Richard
Hollerman
Do you really know who Jesus Christ is?
Have you considered the awesome truths about Him?
Respond with Humility, Fear and Worship!
Some people only consider Jesus to be a famous Jewish
teacher while others think of Him as a baby born in Bethlehem. There
are those who think of Him as an advanced Guru, others
would say He was a great leader of people, and still others
would think of Him as the founder of Christianity. Professing “Christians” have
varying views on who Jesus is and what He has done. Some
have a rather loose view of who He was while others have
a precise and creedal view. Are there any truths that come to us from Scripture
that will help us to see the Lord Jesus more clearly? As
we open God’s Word and allow it to speak to us, what can
we learn about the Lord Jesus? Much
could be said about this, but we’ll limit our examination
to three basic facts and then look at the implications
of these facts. What
are these weighty truths about Christ that show His awesome
nature, character, and work?
1. Christ
Jesus is Judge of all.
It might surprise some people to think of Jesus as Judge
on the great Judgment Day for they have always thought
of God as the
Judge of all. Jesus
said, “Not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given
all judgment to the Son” (John 5:22). He
also said that God “gave Him [Christ] authority to execute
judgment, because He is the Son of Man” (v. 27). Because
of this important truth, Peter later declared that Jesus “has
been appointed by God as Judge of the living and the dead” (Acts
10:42), and Paul added that Christ is “the righteous Judge” who
is “to judge the living and the dead” (2 Timothy 4:8, 1;
cf. Acts 17:31).
Do we realize how awesome this
fact is? You
and I—and every
person who has ever lived in the history of the world,
from the point of creation until Christ’s glorious return—will
one day stand before Jesus Christ our Lord to be judged! “We
must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so
that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body,
according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2
Corinthians 5:10; cf. Matthew 16:27). Christ
will not only judge the deeds of every person, but even
the thoughts and motives (1 Corinthians 4:5), the words
(Matthew 12:36-37), and the secret things: “God will judge
the secrets of men through Christ Jesus” (Romans 1:16;
cf. Ecclesiastes 12:14). It
is then that we will give account for all we have been
and done (cf. Matthew 25:31-46; Ephesians 6:8; Colossians
3:25).
This will be an awesome day! It
will be a day of evaluation, a day of rejection, and a
day of acceptance. Some
will be shocked when they hear these dreadful words of
the Lord, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice
lawlessness” (Matthew 7:21-23; 25:41; cf. Luke 13:23-28). Others
will hear the blessed words, “Come, you who are blessed
of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:36). The
Judge will be thorough in His judgment and He will make
no mistakes.
This judgment points to the identity and character of
Christ the “Righteous Judge.” One
researcher estimated that about 50 billion people have
lived on earth from the time of the creation of Adam and
Eve until the present time. Think
with me for a moment. Suppose
the average lifespan has been around seventy years (at
first the lifespan would be around 900 years and then it
dropped to an average of forty to fifty years). If
we take sixty years as the length of one’s responsible
years, and we only reckon 18 hours a day, for 365 days
a year, we arrive at the following number of minutes during
the sixty years (60 minutes x 18 hours x 365 days x 60
years): 23,652,000 minutes. In
other words, the average person may live over 23 million
conscious minutes during his lifetime. If
we take this number times the 50 billion people who may
have lived in earth history, we arrive at this many minutes: 1,182,600,000,000,000,000
minutes.
This would amount to 1,182 quadrillion or more than
a million trillion minutes in earth history! If
the average person is accountable for every thought, word,
and deed in his lifetime (we will not count sleeping time)
and if he were to sin only once each minute (we are not
doubting that a person can sin many more times than one
each minute), this would mean that there have been more
than one thousand quadrillion sins committed. We
only offer this to illustrate our point.
Do we realize what this means when we remember that
Christ Jesus the Judge will judge every
single thought, word and deed we have ever committed! This
is the point: Is it not ludicrous to think that a mere
created Being, of whatever character, will be such a Judge? Indeed
it would be. Only
God, who is absolutely omniscient, will be able to judge
this many people with this many sins as well—as well as
the quadrillions of good deeds! The
judge of all the earth must be God in nature! Therefore,
if we only look at this matter, we should see that Jesus
must be our awesome Lord and Creator, the Judge of the
entire earth!
2. Christ
Jesus is Creator of all!
Not only is Jesus Christ the judge of the living and
the dead, this Judge is also our Creator. Some
may object to calling Jesus the “Creator” or “Maker” and
contend that only God is the Creator or Maker. But
Scripture teaches that God the Father did the creating,
but He did so through
or by Jesus Christ, thus it is not unreasonable also
to call Jesus the Creator. When we read
that “in the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth” (Genesis 1:1), we must also realize that “all things
came into being through [Christ], and apart from Him nothing
came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3). Does
Scripture really teach this? Let’s
explore this further.
It is plain that God the Father created all things. Paul
told the Athenian philosophers that “God . . . made the
world and all things in it, since He is the Lord of heaven
and earth” (Acts 17:24). Paul
wrote that God “created all things” (Ephesians 3:9). The
twenty-four elders in heaven worship God with these words: “Worthy
are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor
and power; for You created all things, and because of Your
will they existed and were created” (Revelation 4:11). Without
doubt, we should praise God as our Creator!
But how did God create all things? Did
He do so directly, as many people assume? What
does God’s Word say? Creation
was through the “Word” whom we now know as Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. A
number of clear passages explain what we mean. In
John’s prologue to his gospel, we read: “All things came
into being through Him [Christ], and apart from Him nothing
came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3). This
is a reference to the “Word” who is called God and who
came in the flesh (vv. 1-2, 14). Notice
that “all things” were created or came into being through
Christ the Word, and notice also that nothing at all came
into being apart from Him. Therefore, God the Father was
not alone when
He created all things in the beginning; the Word was with
Him and it was “through Him” that God brought all into
existence. Further,
in the same context John continues, “He [the Word] was
in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the
world did not know Him” (v. 10). Again we see that the
world was made “through” Christ. He
was the divine Agent of God in the creative work in the
beginning!
Let’s turn
to the book of Hebrews, where we read of Jesus Christ, “through
whom also He [God] made the world” (1:2). As
the ESV Study Bible puts it, “The preexistence, authority,
power, and full deity of the Son are evident in his role
in creating the world.” In
the same chapter of Hebrews, the writer quotes Psalm 102:25-27,
stating another amazing truth about Christ’s pre-incarnate
work of creating: “You, LORD [Yahweh], in the beginning
laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the
works of Your hands” (Hebrews 1:10). Here,
Jesus Christ actually has an Old Testament “Yahweh” passage
applied to Him, with the result that we learn that Jesus
laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning and also
created the heavens! Creation
was not by God alone but by God through Jesus Christ the
Lord.
Revelation 3:14 also adds to our understanding: “The
Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the
creation of God.” Does
this mean that He was the first of God’s creation? It
need not mean that at all. This
is one interpretation but it fails to harmonize with other
passages of Scripture on the origin of creation. The
passage can mean that Christ “is the one who began God’s
creation. . . . In Revelation, ‘the beginning’ with its
complement ‘the end’ is an expression for God’s eternity
. . . and here it signifies Christ’s sovereign rule over
the created order” (ESV Study Bible). A.
T. Robertson adds this: “The sense is not that he is the first of created things (as in a series) as the Arians held and
the Unitarians do now; but the beginning in the sense of
being the originating
source of creation through whom God works” (Word
Pictures in the New Testament). It
is probably safe to say that any interpretation cannot
conflict with other passages of Scripture.
One of the clearest passages on Christ as Creator is
found in Colossians 1:16-17 where Paul writes, “By Him
[Christ] all things were created both
in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things
have been created through
Him and for Him. He
is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” The
term, “by,” can also mean “in” or “by means of.” We
should note that “all things” were created by Christ. This
is a comprehensive creation, and includes everything that
exists! In
fact, Paul repeats “all things” twice. I
spoke to a Watchtower Witness once, observing that their
defective translation read that Jesus was the creator of “all
[other] things,” whereas the Greek simply has “all things.” I
pointed out that this resulted in “distorting” or “twisting” Scripture
(2 Peter 3:16-17) in order to maintain their theology that
Christ Himself was a created being.
The relationship of God the Father and Jesus Christ
in creation is spelled out in 1 Corinthians 8:6: “For us
there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things
and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom
are all things, and we exist through Him.” The
entire created order—“all things”—has its origin in both
God and Christ. All
things in creation are “from” God and “by” Christ. Furthermore,
we exist “for” God and “through” Christ. God
is “the ultimate source of all creation” while Christ Jesus
is “the dynamic one through whom, with the Father, all
things came into existence” (NASB Study Bible). Neither
God the Father nor Jesus Christ the Son (the “Word”) created
the heavens and the earth independently! God
created all things through Jesus Christ. A.
T. Robertson observes that God is the “source of the universe” and “our
goal” whereas “Jesus Christ is the intermediate agent of
creation” (Word Pictures).
What are the implications of this fact? The
Word of God teaches a fiat creation,
a creation that instantaneously came into being through
the word and power of God. This
is in direct contrast to the popular but false “Big Bang” theory. Scripture
simply says, “In the beginning God created the heavens
and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). The
psalmist adds this statement: “By the word of the LORD
the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all
their host. . . . He spoke, and it was done; He commanded,
and it stood fast” (Psalm 33:6, 9). Isn’t
this astounding! God
simply spoke and the world came into being. And
remember, God created all of this—the heavens and the earth—through
Jesus Christ the Word!
How vast is this created order? How
many stars exist? We
are not sure, but we know that God knows! “He
[God] counts the number of the stars; He gives names to
all of them. Great
is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding
is infinite” (Psalm 147:4-5). At
one time, people assumed that about 3,000 stars existed. They
should have known better. God
said to Abraham, “Now look toward the heavens, and count
the stars, if you are able to count them” (Genesis 15:5a). He
implied that they were innumerable, thus couldn’t be counted.
Today, various estimates have been made on the number
of stars in the known universe. NASA
says that an estimate of 1021 exist, which would
be 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 total stars! That would
be one million quadrillion or nine billion trillion stars
in known space! That
is an astounding number! In fact, it is much more than
we can begin to realistically imagine (imagine.gsfc. nasa.gov/docs/
ask_astro/answers/970115)! Other
estimates would number the stars a little different. One
source says, “The observable universe contains about 3
to 7 x 1022 stars (30 to 70 sextillion stars),
organized in more than 80 billion galaxies, which themselves
form clusters and superclusters” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Observable_universe). Another
way to think of this is to consider the mass of the universe. Notice
this: “Two approximate calculations give the number
of atoms in
the observable universe to be a minimum of 1080” (Ibid.). This
would mean that the number of atoms would be 10, followed
by 80 zeros! (See Grant R. Jeffrey, Creation:
Remarkable Evidence of God’s Design, for further evidence.)
Since God is infinite in power, wisdom, knowledge, He
easily created all of this. Furthermore,
according to our focus in this study, we must remember
that Jesus Christ, our exalted Lord and God, was the means or
the agent by
which the earth and all of the heavenly bodies exist! When
you go outside at night, especially if you are in the country
and away from the city lights, lift your eyes to the darkened
sky. Remember
that it was Jesus Christ who came in the flesh but who
earlier made all of that heavenly splendor! And
He did it not in 13 billion years or any other incomprehensible
number of years. No,
He created all of the wondrous universe immediately, in
the relatively recent past. Jesus
Christ is utterly amazing, isn’t He!
3. Jesus
Christ knows all and is everywhere
We know that one of the primary attributes of God is
His omniscience. This
means that he has all knowledge, that He knows all that
there is to know—past, present, and future. God
is also omnipresent, which means that he is everywhere
present. These
two attributes can be seen as complementary. Notice
God’s omniscience described by the psalmist in Psalm 139:
O
LORD, You have searched me and known me.
You
know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You
understand my thought from afar.
You
scrutinize my path and my laying down,
And
are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Even
before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold,
O LORD, You know it all.
You
have enclosed me behind and before,
And
laid Your hand upon me.
Such
knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It
is too high, I cannot attain to it.
We know that this passage pertains to Yahweh God, but
this same description could be given of the Lord Jesus
Christ as well. Like God, Christ also has searched us and
known us. Like
the Father, the Lord Jesus also understands our thought
from afar. Like
God, He scrutinizes our path and our laying down and is
intimately acquainted with all of our ways. If
we had read Psalm 139:7-12, we would also see something
of God’s omniscience,
that we cannot evade or escape God, nor can we lose our
contact with Him. Therefore,
He is everywhere and knows all things. Likewise,
Christ is everywhere and knows all. Since
Christ is “the exact representation of [God’s] nature” (Hebrews
1:3) and is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians
1:15), the Lord Jesus must share the same attributes of
omniscience and omnipresence as God the Father.
Jesus said, “I am He who searches the minds and hearts;
and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds” (Revelation
2:23). Since
Christ will judge each of us and will judge every single
word, thought, and action (as we discussed earlier), we
know that He must be omniscient and omnipresent (2 Corinthians
5:10). Since
Christ will judge “the secrets of men,” we know that He
must know what is in man’s heart (Romans 2:16). Since
He will “bring to light the things hidden in the darkness
and disclose the motives of men’s hearts” (1 Corinthians
4:5), He must be everywhere to see and must be able to
look deep into the spirit and soul of every person.
If there are seven billion (7,000,000,000) people on
earth at this time, and if some fifty billion people have
lived since creation (which is only an estimate), can we
imagine what it would take to intimately know every single
thing about those people? Every
person has thousands of thoughts each day, and our Lord
knows them all! Those
people may live for forty, sixty, eighty years or longer—and
Jesus knows every one of their thoughts! He
knows where everyone is and has been and will be. This
demonstrates His omniscience (knowing all) and omnipresence
(always present). Even
though Christ is personally and bodily in heaven since
He was raised in a glorified body (1 Corinthians 15:20;
Philippians 3:20-21), and now lives in the presence of
God and the angels (1 Peter 3:22), we know that He is also
present with us through the Holy Spirit (cf. John 14:16-19;
16:7-15).
We know that Jesus promised to be in the presence of
His people in a spiritual way. He
said, regarding believers who gather for the purpose of
dealing with sinful saints, “Where two or three have gathered
together in My name, I am there in their midst” (Matthew 18:20). He
will also be in our midst when we gather in His name. Later,
when He gave His final commission, Jesus promised, “I
am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew
28:20). He
will be with us always! Although
personally in heaven, He is with us through the Spirit
who was sent into our heart and life.
4. Jesus
Christ hears the prayers of the saints.
Consider now a final awesome reality about the Lord
Jesus Christ. We
know that God’s children pray to God the Father and this
is one aspect of His deity (cf. Matthew 6:9; Philippians
1:3-4). Since He is God, the Father is able to receive
and answer the prayers of countless saints—even at the
same time. How
can He hear the prayers of 1,000 people or 1 million people? He
can do this since He is the infinite, all-wise, and all-powerful
God.
But did you ever consider that Jesus Christ also hears
prayer? After
all, He is the mediator between God and man and is the
intercessor and advocate between us and God (1 Timothy
2:5; Romans 8:34; 1 John 2:1-2). The
Bible clearly teaches that Christ Jesus—like God the Father—is the
object of our prayers (cf. John 14:14; 2 Corinthians
12:8-10; Acts 9:10-14). This
means that Jesus has the capacity to hear all of the prayers
(both audible and inaudible) of all people—at the same
time! Further,
He has the ability to come to the aid of those who cry
to Him for help, both physical and spiritual.
Although most of the world’s billions of people don’t
know God and don’t even profess to have a relationship
with Him, in truth Jesus could “hear” the prayers of all
of them at once if they were to come to Him for salvation. Even
if He hears the prayers of thousands or tens of thousands
of true followers of His, this is inconceivable to our
minds. How
could the exalted and reigning Christ hear more than one
person at a time—much less, thousands or millions? Besides,
we know that He does “hear” (have knowledge of) billions
of prayers even now, even though He does not “hear” such
prayers with approval.
Isn’t this another evidence of Christ’s deity and magnificent
status? Wouldn’t
God alone be able to hear and answer the prayers of such
an innumerable number of people! (This
is why it is blasphemous for members of one religion to
teach and encourage the membership of a billion souls to
pray to and worship Mary—a mere woman, now dead—and expect
that she could answer! Indeed,
they are attributing divine attributes to a mere human
being.) Jesus
not only has the ability to hear our prayers,
but He also has the power to answer them.
Indeed, our Lord is an awesome Lord!
We have already noticed that Christ Jesus, the Word,
created all things—thus He is far above His creation! We
have noticed that He will judge every single person of
every single act—thus He must be omnipresent and omniscient to
be able to accomplish His judging work. This
should strike terror into the heart of one who is yet in
his sins, for this same all-knowing and ever-present Lord
is also a Judge and King who exercises righteous wrath
on those guilty of sin (2 Thessalonians 1:7-9; Revelation
6:16-17). But
this same truth of Christ’s omnipresence and omniscience
is a deep comfort and blessing to those who have been redeemed
by Him through His sacrificial blood! We
long to be intimate with our blessed and loving Savior,
Jesus Christ.
What Will You
Do with Jesus?
We have examined several awesome realities about the
Lord Jesus Christ. It
is important that we don’t think of Jesus as merely a good
teacher—which He was. And He was not just a miracle-worker—which
He was. He
was far more amazing than many of us have ever imagined! Quite
plainly, He is the most amazing Person who has ever lived! He
is more than a mere person or mere man, for He is also “Lord” and “God” (John
20:28).
We haven’t discussed many things about Christ Jesus,
such as His pre-earthly work, His conception by a virgin
named Mary, His sinless life, or even His redemptive death
and glorious resurrection and ascension. We
have focused on several awesome truths about Jesus Christ. Jesus
created everything that exists! He
is ever-present and all-knowing! And
He will judge every person of every sinful thought, word,
and deed. He
cannot be merely an exalted angel, a glorified man, a worthy teacher, a good
example, and a proclaimer of truth. Jesus
Christ was and is Lord of lords, King of kings, the Lord
of glory, the Savior of the world, the Judge of the living
and the dead, and the Sustainer of all that exists. Let
us give Him the praise and glory that He deserves!
This examination of Scriptural truth should call forth
our response. We
should fear the Lord (Ephesians 5:21) and this fear should
stimulate us to share this truth with others: “Knowing
the fear of the Lord, we persuade men” (2 Corinthians 5:11). We
should love the Lord Jesus and others. “We
know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and
we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. . . .We
love, because He first loved us” (1 John 3:16; 4:19). We
should worship and praise the Lord. This
is the only reasonable response in light of our Savior’s
exaltation and glorious position.
Let us worship Christ Jesus the Lamb along with the
angels:
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and
riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.
And then, along with the heavenly host, let us worship
God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ together:
To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing
and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.
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