Southwestern Journal of Theology 68, 1 (2025) on Celebrating Centenaries

The latest volume of the Southwestern Journal of Theology contains the below essays on the theme of ‘Celebrating Centenaries’.

The entire issue is available as a pdf here.

Editorial

Malcolm B. Yarnell III

From Colossae to Nicaea: Paul’s Witness to Christ’s Deity

Benjamin Hawkins

A “Tendentious Translation”?: An Appraisal of William Tyndale’s English New Testament after 500 years

Michael D. Wilkinson

Pilgram Marpeck: Theologian of the Incarnation

Mac Brunson

The Anabaptists and Their Hermeneutic

W. Madison Grace II

“Our Gospel Fellowship”: The Presidential Inaugural Address of Robert E. Naylor

Anthony Wolfe

“Irresistible Cooperation”: Intercongregational Financial Cooperation as a Spiritual Impulse and Theological Obligation according to Lee Rutland Scarborough

Coleman M. Ford

“For Us Humans and for Our Salvation”: The Beauty of Salvation in Athanasius and Gregory Nazianzus

Book Reviews

Calvin D. Redmond on Jesus as God’s Agent of Creation

Calvin D. Redmond, ‘Jesus: God’s Agent of Creation’, Andrews University Seminary Studies 42, 2 (2004), 287-303.

Redmond discusses the four main passages in the New Testament which speak of Jesus’ role in creation:

• 1 Corinthians 8:6
• Colossians 1:16
• Hebrews 1:2, 10
• John 1:3, 10

1 Corinthians 8:6
In the context of Paul’s discussion of meat offered to idols, ‘the supremacy of both God the Father and the Lord Jesus is demonstrated by the act of creation, in which God the Father was the source of all creation and Jesus was the agent by which God’s creative purpose was accomplished in creation’ (290).

Colossians 1:15-20
A hymnic passage which has two stanzas containing a number of parallels, where the first stanza speaks of Christ’s work in creation while the second describes his work in redemption. Jesus’ role in creation is found in 1:16, where ta panta is used (as it is in 1 Corinthians 8:6) to describe the things created. Jesus is, as Larry J. Helyer says, ‘the regent of creation, and the reconciler of creation’ (294).

Hebrews 1:2, 10
The first reference to the Son as agent of creation appears in a comparison between Jesus and the prophets, and is reinforced later in 1:10. Ta panta appears in 1:3 (already encountered in 1 Corinthians 8:6 and Colossians 1:16), and ‘earth’ and ‘heavens’ appear in 1:10 (as they do in Colossians 1:16), showing ‘a conceptual and partial verbal parallel’ (297).

John 1:1-3
Once again, we see the use of panta (1:3). With the exception of John 1, all the other passages make a comparison between Jesus as agent of creation and other objects of veneration – unless John the Baptist is in mind here, when he is set in contrast to Jesus (299).

•••

Redmond briefly discusses the implications of these references for…

• Apologetics – providing ‘a contrast between Jesus and other beings that might be revered or worshiped… by pointing to the superiority of Christ as demonstrated by his work in creation’ (301).

• Wisdom christology – with the language of creation drawing on wisdom traditions and applied to Jesus.

• Indication of early christology? – seen possibly in the similarities in form in the passages.

• Contemporary application – perhaps especially pertinent in places where ‘an animistic worldview honors departed ancestors, as well as spirits of rivers, fields, trees, and so on’ (302) and thus where an understanding of the cosmic Christ might be significant.

Word for the Week: Whole Life, Whole Bible (1/50) – The Lordship of Christ

‘Word for the Week: Whole Life, Whole Bible’, from London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, is a series of fifty emails designed to look at the main milestones of the biblical story, seeking to show how whole-life discipleship is woven through Scripture as a whole, from beginning to end. Here is the first of the fifty emails…

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible… all things have been created through him and for him… And he is the head of the body, the church… God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Colossians 1:15-16, 19-20

Jesus… Well, where else could we start exploring the main contours of the biblical story? With creation, perhaps? Yes, and we will get to it soon – though we shall find Jesus there before us. Or, on the basis that we best understand the beginning from the perspective of the end, could we start with the consummation of all things? Again yes, and that will be in our sights – though we shall find Christ there ahead of us.

Paul wrote letters not narratives, but it is the biblical story that funds his pastoral engagement with churches, and that story sometimes bubbles to the surface as it does here in Colossians 1:15-20 (and Philippians 2:5-11), where we are taken from creation to consummation through the cross in six verses. And at the heart of it all is Jesus.

So, we begin with the one who embraces both beginning and end, who stands at the heart of God’s plan for the ages, himself the image of the invisible God, the Lord of creation and redemption – for the sake of his church. Since all things were made through him and all things will be finalised in him, there is nothing left that does not come under his lordship. The creator, sustainer, and reconciler of all is none other than Jesus, the Lord of all.

And what goes with the confession of Jesus as Lord is the assurance that there is no part of ordinary, everyday reality that falls outside the orbit of his loving oversight. As Paul makes clear in the rest of Colossians, Christ’s lordship has implications for every area of life – to the extent that what funds our discipleship, our marriages, our working days, and our engagement with culture is not just the truth about Jesus as creator and redeemer of all things, but our relationship with him as Lord and with each other as his people.

Jesus is Lord – begin here.

For further reflection and action:

1. How does Colossians 1:15-20 broaden our horizons, and what difference might that make to how we go about our next task, our next conversation, our next meeting, our next purchase?

2. Read and reflect on Philippians 2:5-11, noting from the immediate context (2:1-4 and 12-18) how those who are ‘in Christ’ are shaped by the story of Christ.

3. In the first-century Roman imperial context, where Caesar is in charge, there are political implications in confessing Jesus as Lord… What are the imperial rulers – the ‘Caesars’ – of today? How do they exercise their ‘lordship’, and how does Christ’s rule subvert theirs?