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Again in Isa. 45: 21, 23:
". . . . . Have not I the Lord? and there is no God else beside Me; a just God and a
Saviour; there is none beside Me . . . . . 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."
Compare this with Phil. 2: 10, 11:
"That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in
earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
If there is any difference, greater glory appears to be given to Jesus Christ than to
Jehovah! But "My glory I will not give unto another".
Both Jehovah and Christ are identified as Creator. Isaiah records:
"For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth
and made it; . . . . . I an the Lord; and there is none else" (45: 18).
Jehovah claims to have created: I the Lord and none else. Yet John 1: 3 says of the
Word:
"All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made."
Jehovah exclusively created: the Word, Who is none other than Jesus Christ,
exclusively created. Either the two are one, or the Bible is completely unreliable and
false. Similarly Paul writes:
"Who is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of all creation; for in Him
were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things
invisible . . . . . all things have been created through Him, and unto Him; and He is
before all things, and in Him all things consist" (Col. 1: 15-17, R.V.).
Even though it is beyond our understanding, somehow the Word must be "God
Himself", somehow `the image of the invisible God' must be `God Himself'.
Salvation and redemption also are both attributed to Jehovah and to Christ:
"I, even I, am the Lord (Jehovah); and beside Me there is no saviour" (Isa. 43: 11).
"Yet I am the Lord (Jehovah) thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no
god but Me: for there is no saviour beside Me" (Hosea 13: 4).
Ample evidence is to be found in the N.T. to support this identification. In his first
letter to Timothy, Paul refers only to `God our Saviour' (I Tim. 1: 1; 2: 3), and to the
`living God, Who is the Saviour of all men' (4: 10): in the second epistle to Timothy it
is `our Saviour Jesus Christ' (1: 10). Most significant are the references to "Saviour" in
Titus:
"God our Saviour (or, our Saviour God)" 1: 3.