But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.
1 Corinthians 8:6 (KJV marginal reading)
As Christians, we worship the Father as the One God. We perceive Him as the supreme authority from which all created things derive their life, and the One for whose glory man was made. But this is only half of the verse, and if Paul had ended here, we would be left with an incomplete picture.
‘One Lord Jesus Christ’
As we have One God in the Father, we have One Lord in Jesus Christ. After His resurrection, Jesus declared, ‘All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth’ (Matthew 28:18). As the Father has delegated the full measure of His authority to His Son, the Christian works under the power and authority of Jesus as their one Lord. Jesus is the divine Superior of every created subject; the Mediator between Heaven and Earth (1 Timothy 2:5).
‘By whom are all things’
Although Jesus secured His inheritance of Heaven and Earth by defeating Satan, He was in fact the active agent in the creation of both. ‘God…created all things by Jesus Christ’ (Ephesians 3:9). Jesus has fashioned everything from the mightiest angel to the smallest grain of sand.
‘And we by him’
When Paul says, ‘But to us there is but one God’ he is referring to the believer, and not to the unbelieving world in general. Similarly, the phrase, ‘and we by him [Jesus Christ]’ is primarily in respect to the believing Christian.
Although Christ breathes life into every living soul, the greater portion of the human family refuse the regenerating work He seeks to perform in their hearts. Sin has almost entirely erased the divine image in man. Only those who allow Jesus to recreate in them the divine image are ‘by him’ in the fullest sense. Such ‘have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him’ (Colossians 3:10). Indeed, just as a potter’s vessel bears its maker’s mark, so the lives of those who are fully surrendered to Jesus Christ testify that they have been made anew ‘by Him’.
In my own words:
But to us, there is one Lord Jesus Christ, Creator and re-creator, who made all things at the first, and who makes all who believe on Him again, that we might bring glory to the One God, the Father, and fulfil His purpose in our creation.
Christopher Sparks