"The Completeness Of The Reconciliation" Series

“For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”

We must be careful, in coming to a new lesson and focusing on a specific couple of verses in particular, to not let ourselves be disconnected from what has come before.

Remember that the Bible writers did not make chapter and verse divisions and that they wrote systematically to convey spiritual truth.

It would be wonderful if we could just begin at a portion of an epistle such as this one and teach the full of what is being conveyed. That would be impossible however, since none of us has the time or the ability to sit and absorb the wealth of it; nor could I or any other preacher ever begin to exhaust the fullness of it.

So instead we have to be smart and begin on a fresh day by looking back to a past day and tying things together.

Paul has been talking about Christ’s ‘titles’, as it were, and extolling His majesty and His greatness over all and His unsearchable mercies toward us.

He is beloved of the Father. He is the express image of the invisible God; and you may remember that we observed the similarities between chapter one of Colossians and chapter one of the letter to the Hebrews.

He is preeminent over all creation since He Himself is the One who spoke all things into being and holds them together by the power of His Word.

Doesn’t that amaze you every time you hear it? Think of it. The Bible teaches us that the continuance of the universe is owed to the perpetual exercise of the very Word of God to hold everything in place.

Your own personal continuance, your every moment of physical existence and function, is all due to His faithfulness to hold all things together. This is not exaggeration and it is not some fanciful, imaginative way to symbolize His authority or His power to do the supernatural. It is a simple, straightforward fact written down by the Apostle, having discerned it either by Divine inspiration in the moment or during his time being taught by the risen Jesus in the wilderness, that it is God’s spoken Word that maintains all things.

Listen, Christ-follower… let’s ignore any silly talk about God setting creation into motion and letting a process of macro evolution take over as though He wound some cosmic clock and set it to ticking.

Let’s not give a listening ear to those who would claim either with their specific words or the implication of their teaching that God is not deeply concerned and constantly active in His creation.

Since He said “Let there be light” all that He subsequently made and all that has ever been or ever will be exists and continues by the Word of His power, and only the removal of that power in His timing and by His own determination will change that.

Now this is turning into a long introduction and we haven’t even begun to get to today’s point. But it is needful that we think on these things and let them serve to purge some of the cobwebs of idiotic thinking that the spirit of this world has fostered upon us for generations.

He is the Creator of all things physical and spiritual and is preeminent over them all. That simple statement of truth denies, diminishes and destroys any contrary claim, whether it be of the proponents of the evolution theory or of disciples of philosophy and psychiatry as the cure to men’s ills or of the worshipers of false religions and exalted men.

You can’t have Christ and evolution. You can’t have Christ and secular philosophy or psychiatry. You can’t have Christ and Mohammed or Christ and Joseph Smith or Christ and anything. You may only have Christ alone, or no Christ – and anything else you want because none of it will lead you anywhere but eternity in Hell if you don’t have Him and Him alone.

We need to get to our text, so read down through verses 15-18 with me and then we’ll slow the pace.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.”