Christ First (Part 2)

Christ First (Part 2)

Colossians 1:15–28 NKJV

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight—if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.

When I was writing up what is Part 1 of this sermon, I realized that I went into much detail about the person of Christ to the point that I could not take the additional time to explain the rest of the passage. As the topic of who Christ is very important to Paul, I did not feel at liberty to shorten the material. Instead, I decided to continue this sermon tonight. As we covered this morning, Paul goes into this explanation of the person of Christ to elaborate on Colossians 1:14 “in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.” I mentioned that there is a problem today that we want to oversimplify the Gospel. By elaborating on the person of Christ beginning in the 15th verse, the Holy Spirit working through Paul wants to let us know that this is simply not enough. It is a good start to learn that it is in Jesus that we have redemption by His blood, and the forgiveness of sins. But we need to know Who this Christ is as well as what He did for us. When we realize that in Christ all things in the universe were created by Him and for Him. He is not just the head of the Church but the head of the universe who holds it together. He is more than just our Savior but Lord as well. We learned that Christ is the origin of the Church who holds the Church together as her head.

We finished this morning with the statement that in everything He might have the preeminence. The many words Paul uses to describe Christ reinforce the idea that Christ is first in everything in heaven and earth. This is also true for the Church which is also His creation. It behooves us to remember this. It is His Church which is made for Him.

“For He pleased that all fullness should reside in Him.” This is being translated directly from he Greek text. The Authorized Version (King James) substitutes “the Father” for the word “He.” This substitution is true to the extent we learned this morning that “all things were created IN Him”, referring to Jesus. The Father and the Spirit, along with the Son created all things in Him, by Him and FOR Him. The united Triune God was pleased that their fullness would also be in Christ. We learned that Christ Jesus is the visible appearance of the invisible God. What we see of the fullness of the Godhead can only be seen by man through the veil of Christ’s flesh. Even when the veil is lifted at the Mount of Transfiguration it was not fully unveiled as no one can see the Godhead in its fullness and live. Peter, James, and John were overwhelmed as it was and fell into a deep sleep. Sleep is often used as an euphemism for “death.” This is the reaction of others who have had an exalted vision of God such as Isaiah. The Israelites could see a glimpse of the glory through the veil that Moses wore. But we are given a greater vision in that we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.