Beginning of the Creation

In his letter to the “messenger” of Laodicea, the Risen “Son of Man” is called the “Beginning of the Creation of God.” In his death and resurrection, he inaugurated the New Creation. In the same sentence, and in the present tense, he also is called the “Amen, the faithful and true witness,” appellations applied to him previously in the Book’s prologue.

[Photo by lucas wesney on Unsplash]

The English term ‘amen’ transliterates the Hebrew word ‘amén, signifying strength and faithfulness. Thus, the testimony of Jesus is reliable in contrast to the fickleness of the Laodicean church. In liturgical usage, it denotes “truly” – What is unequivocally true - affirming the veracity of what has been said.

• (Revelation 3:14) – “And unto the messenger of the assembly in Laodicea, write: — These things saith the amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God: I know thy works; — that neither cold art thou, nor hot: I would that cold thou hadst been, or hot” – (The Emphasized Bible).

• (Revelation 1:5-6) – “And from — Jesus Christ, — The Faithful Witness, The Firstborn of the Dead, and The Ruler of the Kings of the Earth. Unto him that loveth us and loosed us out of our sins with his blood, — and he hath made us [to be] a kingdom — priests unto his God and Father, Unto him be the glory and the dominion unto the ages. Amen.”

CREATION OF GOD

The descriptions of Jesus as the “faithful witness” and the “amen” allude to two passages found in the Hebrew Bible:

• (Psalm 89:37) - “Like the moon, shall it be established unto times everlasting, and a witness in the skies has been made sure (‘amén).”

• (Isaiah 65:16-17) - “So shall you leave your name for an oath to my elect, so, then, My Lord Yahweh will slay you, and his servants will he call by another name, so that he who blesses himself in the earth will bless himself in the God of faithfulness (‘amén), And he who swears in the earth will swear by the God of faithfulness (‘amén), because the former troubles have been forgotten, and because they are hid from my eyes. For behold me! Creating the new heavens and the new earth, and the former shall not be mentioned, neither shall they come up on the heart.”

The passage in the Book of Isaiah combines the term “amen” with declarations about the coming new “Creation of God.” Thus, the “faithful” God of Israel announced the creation of the “new heavens and new earth.” The verbal allusions are deliberate and the source for the clause describing Jesus as the “Beginning of the Creation of God.”

His resurrection marked the commencement of the New Creation, and now he bears faithful witness to that reality.  This understanding is borne out by the previous declaration that he is “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead” - (Revelation 1:5).

INAUGURATOR OF NEW CREATION

Elsewhere, the New Testament links the bodily resurrection of Jesus to the New Creation. Because God raised him from the dead, he became “the beginning, the firstborn from the dead.”

The term “firstborn” points to his preeminence, not simply to chronological sequence. The Risen Jesus is the sovereign and heir par excellence of the “new heavens and earth” - (1 Corinthians 15:20-23, 2 Corinthians 5:15-17, Colossians 1:18).

Several themes from the letter to the Laodiceans appear again in the vision of the New Creation when the book concludes with the vision of the City of New Jerusalem:

• (Revelation 21:1-6) – “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away, and the sea is no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband… The first things have passed away. And he that was sitting upon the throne said, Lo! I make all things, new. And he said, Write! because these words are faithful and true.  And he said to me, It is accomplished! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I, to him, that is thirsting, will give of the fountain of the water of life freely.”

Thus, the Book of Revelation looks forward to the final and ultimate victory of the “Lamb” in the New Creation – the “New Heavens and the New Earth” - a reality that commenced in the death and resurrection of Jesus. What the “Firstborn of the Dead” began will culminate when the New Creation replaces the old order and the holy city, “New Jerusalem,” descends from heaven to the Earth.

All this is the result of the faithfulness of Jesus, especially in his self-sacrificial death on behalf of his people, a victory validated by God when he raised Christ from the dead. Truly, therefore, he is the sovereign over the Cosmos and the “Beginning of the Creation of God.”

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