The Greatness and Supremacy of Christ
Study Text: Colossians 1:15 - 20
Introduction:
The best way to combat erroneous beliefs and false teachings about Christ is not argument or by defending Him, but by revealing and confessing the truth about His Person, His Purpose and His Power. The error and falsehood cannot last when the truth is revealed.
In these portions of the Scriptures, certain truths about Christ are being unfolded.
1. His pre-existence before all things: He is before all things, that is, He had an eternal being before anything that now is created.
2. His pre-eminence over all things: He is above all things.
3. His preservation of all things by His almighty power: By Him all things do consist. All creatures owe their continuance and preservation to Him.
We shall be discussing the topic under three subheadings:
1. The Pre-existence of Christ before All Things
2. The Pre-eminence of Christ above All Things
3. The Preservation by Christ of All Things
1. The Pre-existence of Christ before All Things:
Jesus Christ had a being before any of the creatures were made:
1. That he had a being long before He was born of the Virgin. John 8: 48
2. That He had a being at the time of the creation. John 1: 1
Therefore Christ had a being when the world and all creatures were made, both the visible and invisible.
3. That Christ was before the world was, from all eternity: Micah 5: 2
4. That Christ was God subsisting in the divine nature. Philippians 2: 6, John 17: 5.
Christ was from all eternity the glorious God. This glory of His Godhead, by His humiliation was not diminished and lessened, but obscured and hidden.
If Christ were before all things, let us prefer Him above all things. This consideration is of great use to draw off our hearts from all created things, and to lessen our respects to worldly vanities, that they may be more earnestly fixed on what is eternal and glorious.
He that was before the world was, will be when the world shall be no more.
To Him should we look, after Him should we seek: He is the first and the last, the beginning and the ending. It is for an everlasting blessedness, for the enjoyment of an eternal God, that our souls were made. He that was from the beginning, and will be when all things shall have an end, it is He that should take up our minds and thoughts.
2. The Pre-eminence of Christ above All Things:
Jesus Christ is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and He sustains all things by His powerful word. Hebrews 1:3
In Christ the invisible God became visible. Jesus is our opportunity to see God. God was one of us, a human, who walked on the earth. Through Jesus we see God. If you want to know God, learn about Jesus.
Jesus is the image of God. Nothing else. No one else. Only Jesus appropriately reflects the character and nature of God.
1. Christ is supreme over all other kings of the earth.
He is supreme over all creation. Christ outranks all things in creation.
2. Christ is supreme over all creation because He created all things. There is nothing created that Christ was not involved with in creating. Things in heaven and things on earth were created by Christ. Things visible and things invisible were created by Christ.
3. Christ is greater than angels and all spiritual beings. Angels are created by Christ. Christ is superior to all these things in every way because He created all things.
4. Not only have all things been created through Christ, but all things were created for Christ. Jesus is the goal of all creation. Everything exists to display Christ’s glory and ultimately He will be glorified in His creation. Creation is to praise and honor Christ.
5. Christ is eternal. He has no beginning because He was before everything. Not only is Christ eternal, but He holds all creation together. He sustains the creation.
Christ did not create the world and leave. He did not start things off and walk away. Christ is very much involved with the creation.
6. Jesus Christ is head of the body, the church. This includes people that are followers of Christ and all the followers of Jesus who have ever lived.
Jesus is in charge of our lives. He guides and governs His followers. We are not in charge. We are not the head. Christ is the head. Christ is in charge. We are incomplete without Jesus. We cannot exist without Jesus. We must stop thinking that we are the head and stop acting like we are in charge. We follow directions. We serve the head. The body does what the head says.
7. Christ is great and supreme in resurrection
Jesus was not the first person to raise from the dead. We see Elisha miraculously raising a child from the dead. But Jesus was the first person to raise from the dead never to die again.
Christ is supreme because of His resurrection from the dead, never to die again. Christ is preeminent in rank because of the resurrection. In being the firstborn from the dead that means that He might come to have first place in everything. The resurrection shows that He is supreme in all things.
Christ is to have first place in our families. Christ is to have first place in our marriages. Christ is to have first place in our jobs and careers. Christ is to have first place in our time. Christ is to have first place in our hearts. Christ is to have first place in our worship. Christ is to have first place in our love. Whatever it is, Christ is to have first place in it.
8. In Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Jesus is God. The full nature of God is in Christ. Christ is the full embodiment of God. This greatness and supremacy has a tangible benefit for us.
9. Jesus has the right, authority, and power to reconcile. Everything is reconciled to Him. For there to be reconciliation means that something has gone wrong. Sin is in the world and sin has changed everything. Sin has changed the creation. Sin has changed the relationship God can have with us. We cannot have a relationship with God because of our sins. Our sins have severed our relationship with our God.
Christ has made peace between us and God through His blood in His death on the cross. Christ is supreme and He used His supremacy to make peace between us and God. We deserve God’s wrath for our sins. Christ made peace through His death.
3. The Preservation by Christ of All Things:
As Christ made all things, so He doth sustain them in being and working.
Let us see how the creatures are preserved by Christ:
1. He upholds all things by the word of His power. Hebrews 1:3
The weight of the whole creation lieth upon His hands. If He should withdraw His withholding hand, they would quickly return to their first nothing; which showeth the great power of our Redeemer.
Christ hath the care and charge of all the world, not to rule them only, but to sustain them. A king or a governor hath a moral rule over his subjects, but Christ giveth them being and existence, and doth preserve and keep them in their present state and condition from dissolution.
2. Not only indirectly, but directly.
Indirectly, Christ may be said to sustain and preserve the creatures, as He keepeth off evil, or removeth those things that may be destructive to them.
But directly, He preserveth them as He continueth His providential influence: Acts 17: 28
The greatest creature cannot preserve itself by its power and greatness, and the least is not neglected; both would sink into nothing without this continued influence.
3. He doth this not only mediately, by means appointed, but immediately, as His efficacy pierceth through all.
God preserveth the creatures by means, for He giveth them those supplies which are proper for them: as to man, food and raiment; for other creatures, what may relieve them; and the wise dispensing of these supplies.
If He doth but loose His almighty grasp, all the creatures will fall down.
4. Christ doth this so as that He doth not overturn their nature.
He worketh by natural and necessary causes necessarily, with voluntary causes voluntarily.
He enlighteneth the world by the sun, causes man to discourse and reason. The sun would not shine if Christ were not the light of it.
John 1: 4
All that we do naturally and spiritually we have from Christ.
5. He is not the bare instrument of God in sustaining the creature, but as a co-equal agent.
As He made the world, and with the Father created all things, so He doth support and order all things.
It is as well the work of the Son as of the Father, for He is God, equal with him in glory and power: John 5:17
All things must subsist by him because preservation is a kind of continued creation, or a continuance of the being which God hath caused. God’s will in creation maketh a thing to be, His will in preservation maketh it continue to be. The same omnipotency and efficacy of God is necessary to sustain our beings as at first to create them.
Conclusion:
So what is so great about Jesus?
When you know Jesus then you know God. When you see Jesus then you have seen the invisible God. If you do not know Jesus then you do not know God. If you do not have a relationship with Jesus then you do not have a relationship with God.
Jesus is the head and has first place in everything. Jesus must have first place in everything in your life. He created you and He must be first.
We come to God through Jesus who reconciled us. Jesus is great because He made peace between God and us. Jesus brings us near to God. Jesus made a relationship with God possible.
