NAMES AND TITLES OF CHRIST
THE LIFE
DR. JIM DIXON
JOHN 1:1-4, JOHN 5:21-30, JOHN 10:10, JOHN 14:6
SEPTEMBER 7, 1997
The movie Contact, starring Jodi Foster posed the question, “Is there life on other worlds? Is there life on other planets?” Most people would like to know the answer to that question. Most Christians would like to know the answer to that question and this nation has spent billions of dollars and space probes and radio telescopes, seeking to find an answer, but the answer remains hidden. The Bible itself does not really answer the question of life on other planets but the Bible does tell us this. The Bible tells us that wherever there is life, wherever there is life, Jesus Christ is the source because Jesus said “Ego eimi he zoe,” “I am the Life.”
This morning we examine this title and I have two teachings. The first teaching is this. Jesus Christ is the source of physical life. Jesus Christ is co-creator with the Father and with the Spirit. We get a hint of this even in the Old Testament, in the book of Genesis, where God says, “Let us make man in our own image after our likeness” and where even the name of God, Elohim, is in th1e plural, suggesting Father, Son and Holy Spirit, co-creating. But we see this co-Creator role for the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, explicitly in the New Testament. We see it in John’s gospel, the first chapter, where the Bible tell us that “Jesus Christ was in the beginning with God and is God. All things were made by Him and apart from Him was not anything made that was made for in Him was life.”
We see this later in that same chapter where the Bible tells us that “Jesus Christ came into the world and the worlds were made by Him but the world knew Him not.” An incredible statement. In Hebrews, chapter 1, the Bible says “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets but in these last days God has spoken through His Son whom He has appointed the heir of all things and through Him also He created the worlds. He reflects the glory of God, bearing the very stamp of His nature, upholding the universe by His word of power.”
It says later in that same chapter, “Of our Lord Jesus Christ that He didst found the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the work of His hands. They will perish but He remains. They will grow old like a garment. Like a mantle, He will roll them up and they will be changed, but He is the same and His years never end.”
It says in Colossians, the first chapter, “Jesus Christ is the Creator of all things visible and invisible whether in heaven or on earth. All things were created by Him and for Him and through Him and in Him, all things are held together.” He is clearly co-Creator with the Father and with the Spirit. Now, of course, we live in a world where many people deny the very existence of a Creator and certainly it is true that some evolutionists deny the existence of a Creator.
This morning I would like us to deal for a few minutes with the subject of evolution as we think of Christ the Creator. I’ve been in the ministry for 25 years and I have never dealt with the subject of evolution from the pulpit. I know this is a sensitive subject. I shared with a few elders on Thursday when I was preparing this message. I began to understand a new “Why I have never dealt with this subject.” It is a difficult one.
It was the 19th century, and the year was 1859 when Charles Darwin wrote his book, “The Origin of the Species” by means of natural selection. Charles Darwin had been a divinity student and he had studied at Christ College in Cambridge. He was not a Christian, but he was a theist. He believed in God’s existence, and he believed that God created. He was a creationist.
For Charles Darwin, the fact that God is the Creator was tautological. It was, for him, obvious if there was a creation, there had to be a creator. He viewed his research; he viewed his theories as mere studies of the means through which God created. Charles Darwin was stunned when he saw people taking his theories and using them to script God out of His creative role.
Within the Christian community, within the community of believers in Jesus Christ, there are three different perspectives on evolution, and I will seek, this morning, to deal with each of them as fairly as I can.
First of all, there are Christians who are Christian macro evolutionists. Sometimes call theistic evolutionists. These are Christians who believe in macroevolution. Macroevolution teaches that life began on this planet when basic elements such as ammonia, carbon dioxide, methane and water combined in an interaction with primal forces such as volcanic heat and lightning flashes and solar and cosmic rays combined in such a way as to form the first living cell, the first unit of element capable of copying itself, the first unit of elements capable of reproducing itself. According to macro evolutionists, from this first living cell life evolved and to greater and greater complexities through an interaction, a process combining cell mutation and natural selection or genetics and natural selection.
According to macro evolutionists, life in our world has evolved from that single cell amoeba to all the complexities of life we see in the world today including the most complex form of life, man himself. Now, the Christian macro evolutionist does not view this process of evolution as mere happenstance but views the entire process of evolution as the finger of God. The Christian macro evolutionist views the entire process of evolution as designed by God and managed by God, manipulated by God in such a way as to bring life to all of its complexities. The Christian macro evolutionist believes that when life reached its greatest complexity in the form of man as male and female, God then, in accordance with Genesis, chapter 1, verse 27, “breathed on man, imparting soul and spirit, creating man then in the image and likeness of God.”
This Christian macro evolutionist perspective is the official position of the Roman Catholic Church. It has been the official position of the Roman Catholic Church for more than 30 years although they have only recently publicly declared this. But the Christian macroevolutionary position is the official position of Pope John Paul II and Christian macroevolutionary beliefs are taught in Catholic theology schools and also in many Protestant theological schools.
You might be thinking, “Well, how could an evangelical be a Christian macro evolutionist because an evangelical not only believes in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, but an evangelical believes that the Bible is the infallible word of God. Can macroevolutionary theory be reconciled with Genesis, chapter 1 and 2?”
Well, there are many evangelicals, I must tell you, who are macro evolutionists. They believe they can reconcile this with an infallible scripture. Evangelical macro evolutionists point out that in the Bible, the Spirit of God has chosen many forms of communication. In the Bible, sometimes God speaks literally historically. In the Bible, sometimes God speaks poetically. In the Bible, sometimes God speaks prophetically and apocalyptically. In the Bible, sometimes God speaks allegorically. In the Bible, sometimes God speaks parabolically, parables involving elements of allegory. There are no Bible scholars who would deny that Jesus Christ spoke parabolically and some of those parables, indeed all of those parables, had elements of allegory. When Jesus Christ spoke parabolically, He was not speaking literally historically.
According to evangelical macro evolutionists, Genesis 1 and 2 are to be taken allegorically. God is communicating truth in Genesis 1 and 2, timeless eternal truth, through the medium or the mode of allegory. Christian macro evolutionists claim that this is evident contextually, that as you look at Genesis, chapter 1, you see that the first man is called Adam, which in Hebrew means man. And you see the first woman is called Eve which is Hebrew means life or life giver. These are obvious elements of allegory they say. They say that God’s purpose in Genesis 1 and 2 is not to communicate how God created but God’s purpose is to communicate THAT He created and WHY He created. And so, from Genesis, chapter 1 and Genesis, chapters 2 and 3, we are to understand, according to the evangelical macro evolutionist that God is the Creator, that man as male and female are the crown of creation, created in the image and likeness of God, that mankind has fallen into sin and in need of redemption. This sets the stage for the rest of the Bible which communicates God’s plan of redemption through Jesus Christ.
Even evangelical macro evolutionists love to point out that in Genesis, chapter 1, the process of evolution is perhaps reflected in the sequence in order of events and life proceeds from plant, Genesis 1:11, to animal life, Genesis 1:20. And animal life proceeds in complexity from sea life to air life and land life, Genesis 1:20 to Genesis 1:24, and then land life proceeds in complexity until we reach man in Genesis 1:26 and Genesis 1:27 when God imparts soul and spirit and man is created in the image and likeness of God. According to the Christian macro evolutionists, this order and sequence of events in Genesis reflects macroevolutionary theory and indeed man comes from the dust of the earth, even though it’s a process spanning millions of years. Now, I want to say that I am not a Christian macro evolutionist, but I also want to say that I know people who truly love Jesus Christ and are Christian macro evolutionists.
There’s a second view within the Christian community and these might be called Christian micro evolutionists, sometimes called day/age theorists. Christian micro evolutionists are those who believe in a literal historical view of Genesis 1 and 2 and 3. God is speaking literally and historically but they also believe in a certain measure of evolution. They believe there is a certain amount of truth in evolution. What Christian micro evolutionists do is they go back to Genesis 1, and they examine the Hebrew word for day. They point out that God created in six days , as clearly the Bible says, but they point out that the Hebrew word for day is a flexible word. The Hebrew word is “yom.” The Hebrew word that is translated day is a flexible word. They point out that the word yom is used in three different ways just in Genesis 1 and 2 with three entirely different meanings.
They point out that the Hebrew word yom in Psalms 95 and in Hebrews, chapter 3, when it’s in the Hebrew, refers to the entire 40 years in the wilderness and the wilderness wanderings. It’s called a day, a yom. They point out that in Para biblical literature, the word yom has incredible flexibility, and they point to examples in Para biblical literature where the Hebrew word yom refers to vast periods of time and where the Hebrew word refers to what we would call an age. And so Christian micro evolutionists believe that God created in six days six yoms, six ages, six periods of time, spanning millions of years.
Christian micro evolutionists believe that this actually fits the scientific evidence of the fossil record in the geological column because in the fossil record in the geological column, there is a conspicuous absence of transitional lifeforms. The Christian micro evolutionist believes that this absence of transitional forms is there because God created new life with each new day, new life with each new age. And so, the Christian micro evolutionist views six ages of creation and evolution taking place within each of those ages so that God created sea life, God created land life, God created air life. One did not evolve into the other but within each of those categories of creation, significant evolution takes place.
This is the day/age theory Christian microevolutionary view. This, as I understand it, is the view of James Dobson at Focus on the Family. This is the view of Hugh Ross at his research institute. This is a highly respected view and there are many evangelical Christians who hold to the Christian microevolutionary view.
There is a third view. There’s a third view in the greater Christian community and the third view is what we might call Christian non evolutionist view, Christian non macro evolutionist, Christian non micro evolutionist, Christian non-evolutionist view. Of course, the Christian non-evolutionist also takes a literal historical view of Genesis 1-3, but they view the days as literal 24- hour days so that God created the world in six 24-hour days. Christian non evolutionists seek to reconcile that position with the geological column and the fossil record and the radioactive dating through a variety of means. They use what’s some have called the gap theory and they use what some have called the apparent age theory, and they use arguments from flood geology. I don’t have time to get into all of those but generally speaking, the Christian non evolutionists point to fallacies and weaknesses within macroevolutionary theory.
They point out that radioactive dating is not as precise as evolutionists would have us to believe. That’s true whether you’re speaking of carbon 14 dating or potassium argon dating or uranium lead dating. These datings can be highly inaccurate. They also point out that the geological column and the fossil record in the geological column is not uniform, non-consistent. According to evolutionists, the fossil record in the geological column is stacked like layers of a cake forming the earth’s crust. The fossils from ancient history are on the lower strata of the geological column, and the fossils from more recent history in the higher stratus of the geological column. Supposedly, according to evolutionists or macro evolutionists, the complexity of the fossils in the geological column increases as you rise to the surface.
It sounds pretty convincing but Christian non-evolutionists say it’s not as uniform, it’s not as consistent as evolutionists would have us to believe. They also claim that evolutionary theory contradicts the second law of thermodynamics, particularly the law of entropy. They claim that evolutionary theory is not mathematically palatable or plausible. They claim that evolutionary theory denies the laws of statistical probability. They point out that macro evolutionists oftentimes do not play fair with the data.
Have you ever seen those Time Life books where you see the evolutionary timelines that kind of trace the origins of man? You look at these timelines and at one end you see a hairy quadruped and you move along the timeline, and you move to this hairless bipod at the end of the timeline. It looks pretty convincing. I mean you move from Sivapithecus to Australopithecus to Paranthropus to Homo erectus to Neanderthal to Cro-Magnon man. It all looks pretty convincing. You’re moving from this hairy quadruped and gradually the creature rises until you have this hairless bipod, and at the end of the line you have this guy standing there in a double-breasted suit with styling gel!
It looks pretty convincing but, you see, Christian non-evolutionists point out that evolutionists are not really playing fair with the data. From the fossil remains, they do not know the amount of hair that was on the body. They simply portray diminishing hair in order to provide a convincing picture. From the fossil record, they really don’t know whether these were quadrupeds or bipeds, but they move them towards a bipedal standing because they want it to look convincing.
Christian non-evolutionists also point out that the use of the data is prejudiced by macro evolutionists. For instance, when macro evolutionists, through radioactive dating, are able to date a skull, a humanoid skull… When they discover a humanoid skull and it looks fairly modern, I mean it looks fairly advanced, it looks perhaps to be like Neanderthal or Cro-Magnon, but when they date it, it dates to the. of Australopithecus. Even though it looks advanced, it dates to be primitive. It, therefore, doesn’t fit the evolutionary timeline.
So, what do macro evolutionists do? They make it tangential. They create a tangent. They put this aberration on the tangent, and they call it a dead end in order to preserve the integrity of evolution and the evolutionary timeline. This is a manipulation of the data prejudicially based on the preconceptions.
Now, at this church we have offered classes by Dr. Dale Hudson on the Christian and Evolution. These classes by Dr. Dale Hudson have taken a Christian non-evolutionist position. We have done that in order that you might see the viability of a 6-day, 24-hour view. However, the Christian non-¬ evolutionist position is not the official position of our church. This church has no official position on evolution. We recognize the fact that in the body of Christ, in the Christian world, there are a variety of views. Some are Christian macro evolutionists. Some are Christian micro evolutionists. Some are Christian non-evolutionists.
The word that I feel led to share with you this morning is this. Don’t make evolution a litmus test for orthodoxy. I feel like I have the Spirit of God on this. God doesn’t want us to look at another person who loves Jesus Christ and refuse to call them brother or sister simply because we don’t like their particular view on the subject of evolution.
What we do affirm as a church is that God created. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God in His fullness created. We affirm the Bible IS the infallible and authoritative word of God, but we recognize that on this subject of evolution there are Christians with a variety of views.
This morning I hope you believe with all of your heart that Jesus Christ is co-Creator, that He is the source of life, that He is the source of physical life, that He didst found the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the work of His hands and that He has power over physical life. That’s why He was able to heal the deaf, the blind, the dumb. That’s why He was able to heal people of so many diseases, because He is the Life. That’s why, when a leper came up to Him and his body was ulcerated and dying. He said, “Master if you will, You can make me whole.” Jesus reached down and touched him, and Jesus said, “I will. Be whole.” That man was healed in a moment in time because Jesus Christ is the Life.
Jesus stood outside the tomb of Lazarus and Jesus cried, “Lazarus, come forth” and the dead man came forth, resurrected and alive because Jesus Christ is the Life. He raised from the dead the widow’s son in the village of Nain. He raised from the dead the daughter of Jairus, the official of Capernaum. He did this because He is the Life, and He will raise you from the dead if you believe in Him as Lord and Savior because He is the Life—the Resurrection and the Life.
He is not only the source of physical life but, of course, He is the source of spiritual life. I know that our time is up. I want to close with a few comments. When you look at the book of Genesis, you see that God created not only physical life, but God gave man, male and female, spiritual life. This not only means that He gave us a soul and a spirit. This means that He created us in fellowship with Him because biblically spiritual life is union and communion with God.
The Bible is very clear that spiritual life was lost in Eden. It was lost in what theologians call the fall. It was lost when sin entered the world, and we now are spiritually dead and separated from God. So, Christ came to offer spiritual life. That life is eternal. Zoe aionios. Life never-ending. The world longs for eternal life. Jesus Christ gives eternal life. He said, “I know My sheep. They hear My voice. They follow Me. I give them zoe aionios. I give them lite everlasting. No one is able to snatch them out of My hand. My Father is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand. Everlasting life.”
Of course, that life is not only quantitative, but that life is qualitative. The life that Christ offers has purpose. This world has no purpose, no lasting purpose. Everything is transitory but Christ offers everlasting purpose. When you serve Christ, you serve eternity. When you teach Sunday School, you’re doing something of eternal worth. When you go into the inner city in compassion and you minister with Whiz Kids or Save our Youth, you’re doing something in the name of Christ that has eternal significance. That’s life.
The life that Christ offers is filled with joy because it’s the life of God Himself. It’s a life that is characterized by freedom. The Bible says, “The world is in bondage to sin, bondage to guilt.” Even at a subconscious level, bondage to guilt because of sin. The world is in bondage to death, in bondage to fear of death. But if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed. In Christ, you can be free of sin, and you can be free of fear, even fear of death, because Jesus Christ offers life, eternal, purposive, joyful, free.
So, this morning as we close, we want to invite you to embrace Jesus Christ and the life that only Christ can give. Let’s close with a word of prayer.