Chapter 5: Is Christ a Created Being?

Before passing to some of the practical lessons that are to be learned from these truths, we must dwell for a few moments upon an opinion that is honestly held by many who would not for any consideration willingly dishonor Christ, but who, through that opinion, do actually deny His Divinity.  It is the idea that Christ is a created being, which, through the good pleasure of God, was elevated to His present lofty position.  No one who holds this view can possibly have any just conception of the exalted position, which Christ really occupies.

The view in question is built upon a misconception of a single text, Revelation 3:14:  "And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God."  This is wrongly interpreted to mean that Christ is the first being that God created--that God's work of creation began with Him.  But this view antagonizes the scripture, which declares that Christ Himself created all things.  To say that God began His work of creation by creating Christ is to leave Christ entirely out of the work of creation.

The word rendered "beginning" is arch, meaning, as well, "head" or "chief."  It occurs in the name of the Greek ruler, Archon, in archbishop and the word archangel.  Take this last word.  Christ is the archangel.  See Jude 9; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; John 5:28, 29; Daniel 10:21. This does not mean that He is the first of the angels, for He is not an angel but is above them.  Hebrews 1:4.  It means that He is the chief or prince of the angels, just as an archbishop is the head of the bishops. Christ is the commander of the angels.  See Revelation 19:19-14.  He created the angels.  Colossians 1:16.  And so the statement that He is the beginning or head of the creation of God means that in Him creation had its beginning; that, as He Himself says, He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.  Revelation 21:6; 22:13.  He is the source whence all things have their origin.

Neither should we imagine that Christ is a creature, because Paul calls Him (Colossians 1:15) "The First-born of every creature" for the very next verses show Him to be Creator and not a creature.  "For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and   that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist."  Now if He created everything that was ever created and existed before all created things, it is evident that He Himself is not among created things.  He is above all creation and not a part of it.