But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom are all things, and we by Him. 1 Corinthians 8:6
John Morris, the president of the Institute for Creation Research, makes the following interesting observations concerning this verse: In the modern world, the atheistic evolutionist worships the great god Chance in the shrine of Darwinism, while New Age pantheistic evolutionists attribute everything to Father Time and Mother Earth. The materialistic social Darwinists pay homage to the god Mammon and modern feminists adore the goddess Sophia. Animists sacrifice to demonic spirits and Hindu worshipers honor a thousand divinities. Popular celebrities speak patronizingly of the Man Upstairs and Muslims fight in the name of Allah. There are ‘gods many and lords many’. So how is one to know which ‘god’ is the true God, the Creator, Sustainer, and Judge of the whole creation? Which ‘god’ is the God who is real, the one able to provide eternal salvation and everlasting life? There is one infallible way to know – one sure test, and no other. The one God who can defeat death is the only God who can give life!
Dr. Morris is right! The victory of Jesus Christ over death has not only proven His claim to deity but has conferred that victory on all who will receive it from Himself. In defining the roles of Deity, our text speaks of the Father of Whom are all things, referring to the Father as the Sustainer of all. Then, it refers to the Son, by Whom are all things, as the provider of life for all. John 1:3 and 4 tells us that all things were by Him, and in Him was life. Colossians 1:17 reminds us that He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. All life, including all human, animal, and plant life on earth, is directly from Him. But what is more important to us today is that all spiritual life is also from Him. Because of sin, all life is doomed to die, and is in fact in the very process of dying. But the victory over death achieved at Calvary provides a sure antidote to the deadly poison of sin. There is no other antidote, no good works, no religion, no payment or effort of ourselves can avail the least. The love of God intervenes and provides the work of redemption. Therefore we have life through Him.
Our Bibles tell us about God’s plan of salvation, about the fulfillment of that plan in the work of Christ, and in the offering of that plan through the preaching of the Gospel to all of mankind. There are no truths more precious or important to us than the reality that when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6) and the promise that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish (John 3:16). -Jim MacIntosh