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With the added revelation of the N.T., we now know that this Almighty Creator took
upon Himself the nature of man and humbled to the death of the Cross. And we also
know that the passage which reveals that wondrous condescension assures us that there
was no "grasping" on His part to be "equal with God", for it was His by right. What
He laid aside for our sakes, however, He will take up again; and every knee shall bow
and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father
(Phil. 2: 6-11).
We now turn back to Isa. 45:
We have already quoted verse 18, where, in
connection with the great work of creation, God declares that "there is none else". We
discover further that in the new realm of salvation this is still true.
"There is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside Me.
Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is
none else. I have sworn by Myself, the word is gone out of My mouth in righteousness,
and shall not return, That unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear"
(Isa. 45: 21-23).
The writer of the Fourth Gospel seems to have had no difficulty in writing "The Word
was with God, and the Word was God". We must credit him with possessing at least as
much alertness as ourselves, and yet he seems to see nothing incongruous in the
statement and does not attempt to meet objections. Similarly the writer of the Epistle to
the Hebrews has no difficulty over the fact that "God" should address the Son as "God"
and "Lord". Neither does the Apostle hesitate to quote Isa. 45: 21-23 with reference to
the Lord Jesus Christ, even though this chapter declares: "I am God and there is none
else." To those who accept the revelation of Scripture that the Lord Jesus Christ is "God
manifest in the flesh" there is no problem--although there is and must be a "great
mystery". To those who deny the Deity of Christ, the statements of Isaiah and John,
Hebrews and Philippians, can only be a set of contradictions that no argument can
reconcile.
We advance no theories concerning the Godhead; we are content to believe what God
has revealed. And as we think these things over, we begin to see more clearly that what
has been revealed concerning Christ and the creation of man in the image of God, has an
intimate and important bearing on His coming in the flesh and His dying for sinful man.