The Son of God: Architect, Builder and Heir of all Things

Hartmut Ising

In the epistles to the Colossians and the Hebrews, the supremacy of the Son of God is portrayed, for example his supremacy over the angles which he had created. The apostle Paul glorifies the Son of God to counteract threats against the Christian faith, first the threat due to Greek philosophy, in particular from Gnosticism and second the threat from Judaism with their traditional ceremonial services and their mysticism. Paul writes: Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men... Let no man therefore judge you in food, or in drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days: Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ. Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen (Col.2,8+16-18). The most effective defence against these threats is the glorification of the Son of God, who has supremacy over all, For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; ... who is the head of all principality and power (Col.2,9-10).

His position in relation to creation is outlined with the words: "the firstborn over all creation" (Col.1,15), which is synonymous with God‘s purpose for his dear Son which is summarised in V. 18: "that in all things He may have the pre-eminence."

Both in creation (Col.1,15-17) and in redemption (V. 18-20), the Son of God occupies the highest place. We tend to associate this truth with redemption rather than with creation. In doing so, we tend to forget, that every revelation of God in time and space, including the creation of the world always occurs in the person of the Son.

All initiative for creation can be traced back to God the Father (Rev. 4,11 For You created all things, And by Your will they exist and were created.”).

Every execution of God’s will in creation is given over to the Son.

The Son of God – Architect and Builder of Creation

For by Him all things were created ... through Him and for Him (Col.1,16 by: Greek en: in). Thus, a better translation is: For in Him all things were created. He is therefore

1) the architect, in whose mind the miraculous work of creation in was planned

2) the master builder, through whom this plan was implemented in time and space.

However, that is not all. The initiative of God the Father serves the purpose of establishing all of creation - visible or invisible - for his dear Son. Therefore, the Son is in one person, the architect, master builder and heir (Heb. 1,2) i.e. the future owner and Lord of creation.

The work of an architect can be clarified with an example. The government of a country decides to dam a river. Therefore, a landscaper gets commissioned, to develop potential blueprints for this project. He visits the river valley and tests the various possibilities. He has already identified positions where he can imagine the future reservoir with the elegantly curved dam. From these images in his mind he then selects various possibilities which are suitable for the landscape. Through short sketches he illustrates his thoughts to his engineers and draughtsmen. His planning staff then work through the entire folder of diagrams and calculations, from which the Government choses a variant. Finally, the detailed planning must be worked out – an arduous task – before the building work can begin.

The Son of God had the entire plan for the universe including every detail of this planet as the habitat for his creatures in Him, before time, space, energy and matter were called through Him into existence. The original realisation of this plan in time and space could be tantamount to an unimaginably big information flow, to which the sum of today’s

entire information flow, all energy and all matter in the entire universe correspond.^*)

The creation of the world (compare Gen.1,1) is, therefore, the command of the Creator by which the plan of creation in its completion was implemented at the beginning of time and space. His command was a massive flow of information which appeared in part in the form of energy and matter.

These thoughts are comprehensible for the believer: "By faith we understand that the worlds (aiones = The world’s course of time) were framed by the word (rhema = speaking = Information flow) of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible (out of nothing which can be perceived) (Heb.11,3).

Through the Word of God, all things were made: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...All things were made through Him (Joh.1,1+3). Unlike in Heb.11,3 the word used for ‘word’ in John 1 is logos = everlasting word. This Word is the eternal God (Joh.1,2), who in the beginning (Gen.1,1) brought creation into existence and in the fullness of time, was made flesh (Joh.1,14).

The Son of God – the future Heir and Lord of Creation

All things were made for him, so that he as the heir could be the future Lord of the whole of creation. According to Ps.110,1 the Son sits at God’s right hand and is waiting for his enemies to be made subordinate to him. This will be realised on the Earth in the coming millennial kingdom. Then the Lord will exercise his right as Lord without limit. Currently, this right is given voluntary to him by the Church. When the final enemy, death, is put away then will the Son enjoy complete recognition as Lord in his universal property, while also being subject to His God and Father (1Cor.15,26-28).

We therefore realise that the entirety of God’s plan for creation and redemption serves only one purpose: providing his dear Son with universal recognition as Lord. After the vast display of power at the beginning of creation the crucial pre-requisite for this purpose was accomplished in redemption in a diametrically opposed way i.e. the complete veiling of the Son’s power. While we are still in the day of grace, this desire of God is only brought into fulfilment within the true Church where the Lord Jesus is voluntarily and universally recognised as Lord. – In this way the true church can be identified! – At this point, we should ask to what extent we voluntarily acknowledge the Lord Jesus as Lord in our personal lives and in the Church, out of a spirit of love.

Before the Son is recognised as absolute Lord, wars, judgement and a completely new creation will still be necessary, in order to reach God’s great purpose, even with his enemies:

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2,10-11).

^*) For this reason, the law of conservation for energy and mass has to be extended by third term: the product of the information flow I and Planck’s constant h. Since the creating word of God, the information flow, is the universal beginning, the information flow I is in first place. As a formula the law of conservation is as follows (after division by h):

I + E/h + mc²/h = constant.

(2019-03)