Before you read this post, make sure you read my previous post where we began this discussion! Otherwise you won’t understand the context of this post and you may just wonder why you’d want to read this. Now, before I continue my list from the previous post by listing four more powerful truths about Christ from Colossians 1:13-20, I want to once again include the passage in its entirety (in bold, below) from the NASB 1995 translation of the Bible.
“13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 15 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. 19 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.”
As I emphasized in my last post (which you should definitely read before reading this post), we need to know whether or not Jesus Christ is fully God from all eternity (and again: He absolutely is!), and therefore we need to understand the depths of this passage in Colossians.
Here are four more truths we learn from this passage:
4. The Son is before all things and He holds all things together. Before anything was ever made, He was. To even say that “God exists” is insufficient because He is. He created existence and He is before existence, and it is only by His power and grace that all things hold together. If the Son of God were to ever “let go” of creation, so to speak, everything would disintegrate into nothingness. Christ is the One Who sustains every fabric of creation, and apart from Him everything falls apart. He is therefore not a part of creation, He is the Creator Himself!
5. The Son of God is the source of and the authority over His Church. Christ is not only Lord over the entire created order (the world “out there”), but He is also Lord over His Church! The way we know a true church from a false church is that the True Church has Christ as its Head (see John 14:15, 23; Matthew 28:19-20; Matthew 5:17-18). Christ is our Lord, He is our King and Master. We are His slaves. And we experience the greatest love and freedom and life that could ever be known in Him. He is our authority and we submit to Him by submitting to His Word (the Bible). Churches that do not submit to the Bible, or seek to explain the Bible away, or seek to diminish the Word of God, are not churches. They’re synagogues of satan. They are liars and their master is the father of lies, the devil.
6. The Son of God is the priority over everything. We do well to remember that the Old Testament foretold of a resurrection from the dead for all God’s people on the Day of the Lord – a bodily resurrection on Judgment Day was a thoroughly Jewish concept (see Daniel 12:2, for example). Christ, taking on human flesh, was the first to be raised from the dead. Before the Day of the Lord, in the middle of history, God raised up Jesus from the dead after He suffered and died in our place on the cross for our sins, and after He was buried in the tomb for three days. Thus, the Scripture makes clear, Christ is the priority over everything. He is the beginning (from eternity), and taking on the fullness of humanity, He is the firstborn from the dead so that He would have first place in everything. Since there is no one greater than God, the Son of God was raised up first! And His resurrection is a guarantee that His people will also be raised from the dead on the Day of the Lord.
7. The Father was well pleased to reconcile all things to Himself through the Son, having made peace through the blood of His cross. In other words, through Jesus Christ’s crucifixion for our sins, all of our sins have been paid for in full. Jesus was buried after He died for our sins, and on the third day of his burial He rose from the dead, making the way to eternal life for all human beings. If we will simply turn from our sins (repent) and believe on Jesus Christ for salvation, we will be saved and we will have peace with God (see Romans 5:1). Through the accomplished work of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins, we have the guaranteed hope of eternal life when we put our full belief in Him. Our sins are paid for and we have peace with God through the blood of Jesus Christ (the Son of God) spilled for us!
Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, is fully God from all eternity. All things were created through Him and for Him, all of creation belongs to Him and is held together by Him, He is before all things, He was raised from the dead, and He has first place in everything. He is worthy of our worship, and we are to surrender ourselves entirely to Him, obeying every part of His Word.
Again, these are powerful truths! But you must understand, if you believe in something you act on it. Do you truly believe that Jesus is both Lord and God (fully God from all eternity)? Have you trusted in Him as your Savior? Have you been born again by turning from your sins and believing in Jesus? If so, your life will reflect that change. Your life will reflect that conversion. You will be a part of Christ’s Church, of which He is the Head. If your life doesn’t reflect that conversion, would you take a moment to consider Jesus and to ask the question we began with, “Who is Jesus?” Pause and ask the question, “Is Jesus the Lord of my life?”
I hope that He is. God bless you!
Chase Thompson 