God Did It

The following list is the merest starting point. The moment you begin reading it, you will notice all the verses I’ve missed, which is inevitable. Lord willing, I will keep adding to it as I come across more. I’ve barely touched the Old Testament and the Gospels.

The idea started with two friends of mine who grew up among Christians with a bent for legalism. Their upbringing fixed in their minds an image of God their Father as wrathful, implacable, enthroned and distant, while Jesus in his role as advocate and intercessor constantly appealed to him to restrain his abiding anger from breaking out against his children. That image has been difficult to shake off, even with repeated readings through the scriptures.

That’s not the picture I grew up with. Not one bit. How do we get that from a God who so loved the world and a Son he gave, in what may be the single most well-known verse in all the Bible?

The Jesus I grew up with never acted independently. Not prior to being sent into the world, not during his ministry, not in his subsequent resurrection and glorification, and not in his post-resurrection ministry on earth through his Church. We can be sure he will not act independently in the future either. All that Christ has done for us was at our loving Father’s direction and initiative, working and acting in harmony with him. Everything that Christ is the Father is too, humanity apart.

That’s not just my idea. The scriptures teach it from cover to cover, and my friends are not unfamiliar with these verses. Perhaps putting a bunch of them in one place may make the extent of the harmony and unity of the Godhead in the work of Christ more obvious.

What things does scripture say the Father (or God) did with, in or through Christ in sending him into the world and receiving him back into his rightful glory? I limited my list to only those verses that attribute initiative to God and agency to Christ, either by acting at the Father’s instruction on our behalf, or by declining to call on his limitless power and privilege to deliver himself. All this in order that the purposes of God in salvation might play out in the world.

Where our salvation is concerned, Jesus may have been the agent through which it was accomplished, but God did it, does it and continues to do it. Glory be to him through the Lord Jesus.

At the Foundation of the World

• Created all things by him (Ephesians 3:9).

In Preparing and Sending Him

• Prepared a body for him (Hebrews 10:5).
• Gave him an open ear (Psalm 40:6).
• Sent him forth (Galatians 4:4; 1 John 4:9).
• Made him lower than the angels (Hebrews 2:9).
• Spoke to us in him (Hebrews 1:2).

In Making Him Fully Human

• Made him like his brothers in every respect (Hebrews 2:17).
• Condemned sin in the flesh (Romans 8:3).

In His Ministry

• Raised him up as a prophet for Israel (Acts 3:22).
• Brought to Israel a Savior (Acts 13:23).
• Gave him as the true bread from heaven (John 6:32).
• Anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power (Acts 10:38).
• Was with him (Acts 10:38).
• Preached good news of peace through him (Acts 10:36).
• Testified to him and worked through him (Acts 2:22).

In His Suffering and Crucifixion

• Gave him up for us all (Romans 8:32).
• Delivered him up according to his definite plan and foreknowledge (Acts 2:23).
• Crushed him; put him to grief (Isaiah 53:10).
• Put him forward as a propitiation (Romans 3:25; 1 John 4:10).
• Displayed his love toward us (Romans 5:8).
• Made him to be sin for us (2 Corinthians 5:21).
• Made us the righteousness of God in him (2 Corinthians 5:21).
• Forgave us for Christ’s sake (Ephesians 4:32).
• Reconciled us to himself (2 Corinthians 5:18).
• Reconciled the world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:19).
• Gave us eternal life in him (1 John 5:11).

In His Resurrection

• Raised him from the dead (Acts 2:24; 2:32; 3:15; 4:10; 5:30; 13:30, 33, 37; 1 Corinthians 6:14; Galatians 1:1; Colossians 2:12; Hebrews 13:20).
• Displayed him openly (Acts 10:40).
• Declared him to be the Son of God with power (Romans 1:4).
• Gave him children (Hebrews 2:13).
• Caused us to be born again to a living hope (1 Peter 1:3).
• Called us to his eternal glory in him (1 Peter 5:10).

In His Exaltation

• Anointed him with the oil of gladness beyond his companions (Hebrews 1:9).
• Exalted him to his right hand (Acts 2:33).
• Exalted him to be a Prince and a Savior (Acts 5:31).
• Gave him a name above every name (Philippians 2:9).
• Made him Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36).
• Glorified him (Acts 3:13).
• Appointed him as judge of the living and dead (Acts 10:42).
• Called him to be a high priest after the order of Melchizedek (Hebrews 5:4-10).

In Christ’s Post-Resurrection Ministry

• Sent him to Israel first (Acts 3:26).
• Justified the Gentiles through faith in him (Acts 11:9; Galatians 3:8).
• Displayed his power and wisdom through him (1 Corinthians 1:24).
• Created us in him for good works (Ephesians 2:10).
• Blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3).
• Gives us the victory through him (1 Corinthians 15:57; 2 Corinthians 2:14).
• Supplies all our need by him (Philippians 4:19).
• Gave him the content of Revelation to show to his servants (Revelation 1:1).

In the Future

• Appointed us to obtain salvation from wrath through him (1 Thessalonians 5:9).
• Will bring with Jesus those who sleep in him (1 Thessalonians 4:14)
• Will judge the secrets of men by him (Romans 2:16).

Addendum

You will probably note the mind-blowing number of references to the resurrection of Christ that attribute it to God. Perhaps that tells us something about both the importance of the resurrection to our faith and the importance of the role of God in accomplishing it, though the scriptures also attribute the action of raising Jesus from the dead to both the Holy Spirit and Jesus himself.