In Flux

Oldest daughter moves in today and youngest daughter moves out tomorrow, so things are very busy here. Oldest daughter lost her cat Wednesday night when someone broke into her apartment while she was at work, and then left access to the outside through a broken window. If the cat isn’t found by the time daughter has to leave for the airport this morning, it will have to be left behind. As you can imagine, this is causing her quite a bit of anxiety.

 

And I still have a lot of planting to do. 

Update on Friday, June 1, 2007 at 9:48AM by rebecca

Well, the cat came back just as oldest daughter was leaving her apartment for the airport! It would be difficult to overstate how relieved and happy she is.

Seven Statements about the Son: Creator of the World

This post examines the second of the seven statements about the Son made by the writer in Hebrews 1:2b-3: through whom also he created the world. I’m starting at the beginning of the statement this time, so it’s forward ho!

• Through Whom He Created
  This statement tells us that Christ is the agent of creation, an idea that is found in other places in the New Testament as well. One of these texts, Colossians 1:16, was used in the previous post in this series, where Paul tells us that “by [Christ] all things were created.” Another is John 1:3:

  All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

  Want more? There’s also 1 Corinthians 8:6:

  … one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

  It is through Christ that God made the world and everything in it. All that exists is in one of two wholly separate classes, either creator or created. Christ is in the creator class, which means he cannot be a created being. And he must be eternal, because in order to have been the one through whom the universe is created, he must have existed before the beginning, or in the eternal realm. He himself, then, could have no beginning. Both of these things—that he has creative power and that he is eternal—are affirmations of Christ’s diety. That he created means he is one with the Father, eternal God himself.
  

• The World
  The word used here is literally “the ages.” Some take this to mean that Christ is the one through whom all times are created, and of course, that Christ created all times is true. But the word can also be used to simply mean “world” (or in this case, since it’s plural, “worlds”) and that’s the way I’m more inclined to think the writer of Hebrews meant it to be taken. I’d think it refers to the whole universe in the same way that the all things that Christ inherits refers to the whole universe. Either way, however, it means that Christ is the agent by which everything that exists came into existence. 

So what does the statement that God created the world through Christ mean to us?

• It is a strong affirmation of Christ’s diety and of his equality with the Father, which should cause us to worship him.
  
• Knowing that Christ possesses the creative power that called the universe into existence should give those who belong to him, who are “new creation” in him, the impetus to act as the new creation they are in Christ.
  

Can you think of other things to add to the list of what this statement means for us? As you can see, I’ve come up a little short on this one! And how do you understand the word “worlds” in this statement? Anything else you’d like to add or discuss is welcome, too.

What is effectual calling?

Effectual calling is the work of God’s almighty power and grace,[1] whereby (out of his free and special love to his elect, and from nothing in them moving him thereunto [2]) he doth, in his accepted time, invite and draw them to Jesus Christ, by his word and Spirit;[3] savingly enlightening their minds,[4] renewing and powerfully determining their wills,[5] so as they (although in themselves dead in sin) are hereby made willing and able freelyto answer his call, and to accept and embrace the grace offered and conveyed therein.[6]

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