Bob Allen

Behold Your Savior

Behold Your Savior

Colossians One: 15-16

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

MacArthur gives six reasons to study Colossians.

  1. We live in an age of science – so many things are being discovered.
  2. We live in an age of ecumenism – aiming for a one church.
  3. We live in an age of no authority – and no truth.
  4. We live in an age of pragmatism – we live by the motto that if it works, it’s valid. No matter if it’s true or not.
  5. We live in an age of frustrated relationships
  6. We live in an eschatological age. People have a sense that the end is coming around the bend.

 

There are a multitude of reasons that different preachers and teachers give for the purpose of this short passage and today, I’ll share my thoughts about this passage.  You might see it differently and I suppose I really don’t mind talking about the different views.  But I see this as Paul establishing who Christ is and what gives Christ the rights or authority to do what He has done – which redeem mankind.  There have been people throughout history that believed they had that right.  I bet if you were to sit down and talk with some of the greatest world leaders, they would tell you that it was their calling to redeem their people.  Adolf Hitler, as evil as he proved to be, was elected by the German people after convincing them that they needed him and his view that the Arian race was in danger.  What we and they later came to find out was that the man was crazy and in fact, a lunatic.  But in his lunacy, he believed that he had the right to redeem the German people from where they were.

I hate to find any point in common between Jesus and Hitler, but know this – Jesus came to redeem people.  The difference between the two is so remarkable that it makes the Grand Canyon look like a small ditch, and the Pacific Ocean look like a puddle is that Jesus was right and he had the authority to redeem the people he intended to redeem.  So who is this Christ who came to earth to redeem a people who (for the most part) didn’t even know that they needed redemption?  What gives Him the right to step into our world and evaluate our condition as lost?  How and why should He know what we should be, in terms of our morality?

  1. He is the image of the invisible God – are you surprised that the Bible is so direct about God being invisible? The world is deluded in their thinking that because God is invisible that He is not active but we know that is not the case.  By the way, this is one of the great reasons for the Old Testament, to show us that although God doesn’t live among men, He is very active and concerned about mankind.   The reason God doesn’t live among men is because were sinful man to be in the unimpaired presence of God, we would perish.  We could not survive.  No man can look upon God and survive.   Jesus tells us that those who worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth.  If you think about the Bible, you realize that the whole of it is God revealing Himself to mankind so that we can know God.  There is some very interesting ties when you realize that Jesus Christ is the Living Word of God and the Bible is the written Word of God.  However, there was no possible way that the Bible was going to die for all of mankind since blood was required for redemption. But what is intended in the phrase “image of the invisible”?
    The question some have asked is:  How can something that is invisible have an image?  Think of the words we use to describe God the Father.  They are love, light, holiness, righteousness, power, might, and strength.  When Christ lived on this earth, He showed us what those attributes look like when they are lived without flaw in the life of a human being.  This image is Christ the Son as the expression of the invisible God in the essence of His attributes.  And in the case of the source of the light, we have probably all heard about the difference between the sun and a mirror.  One is the source of light, the other is a reflection of the light.  In this case, Jesus in not the perfect reflection of God, but He is the very image of God.  The very fullness of God the Father.  There is no difference between the attributes and character of Jesus and the attributes and character of God the Father.   And we are told that Jesus emptied Himself, not of the attributes and character of God but of the things that man cannot be such as God’s glory and majesty when He became a man.
  2. The Firstborn of all creation – this has been a troublesome phrase because some like to believe that Jesus is a part of God’s creation. If this is true, then Jesus is not like God in that He would have been created, not eternal.  If Jesus is a part of all that God created then the following phrase this one would not be true.  A thing cannot create itself.
    We take the idea of being firstborn and focus on the born part but firstborn in this case is more of a title.  This is his position in the family of God.  And in the Greek frame of word usage, this would mean that Jesus inherits everything.  Jesus is also the highest of all.
  3. For by Him all things were created, – well that pretty much covers everything. There is an indication that he was the force behind all of creation.  Lots of people like to believe that it was a big bang behind creation.  That a huge or big bang started everything.  I don’t know about you, but two questions come to mind when I hear that:  If it did start that way, where did the stuff that was blown up come from?  And it was a big bang, who pushed the button that made it all blow up?  The Bible is clear, by Him all things were created.  The next few phrases are the extent of creation but there is no room for doubt what God was saying through Paul.  By Jesus, all things were created.  Sometimes we have more confidence that God made the universe than that God can make me to be like Christ.  We trust Him for all of creation, but that one thing we are wrestling with is too hard for even God.  You might think that God never got the resistance to His work that you have put up – but have no doubt about it, He will win in the end.
    1. Both in the heavens and on earth – here is the length or reach of Jesus’ creation, both heaven and earth. And I know that when anything is created by man, it is created by using something already present.  This is one reason why men are consumed to try and create new elements. So that they can claim to have created something.  And when I say consumed, they spent 9 billion dollars on the Hadron Collider.  Next time someone asks me to approve a tax hike, let them consider what they are spending money on already.  They want to find new things and create new elements because since the beginning of time, mankind has wanted to be like God.
      Putting aside men’s futile efforts think with me the size of the universe.  The observable universe is about 28 billion parsecs (91 billion light-years) in diameter at the present time. The size of the whole Universe is not known and may be infinite.  There are a lot of people who like to believe that even the planet and the universe if very old but I am of the belief that God made a mature world just as He made a mature human.  There is no record that Adam had to grow teeth in order to eat.  In fact, we know that Adam’s blood sugar was not zero when he was created.  It is as if he had already eaten because he would have passed out immediately if it had been lower than 35.  So God created Adam with enough maturity that he could go forward from that point in time.  He made the world and the universe the same way.
    2. visible and invisible –According to Wikipedia, there are about 950,000 different species of bugs, 1.5 million different species of animals have already been discovered and about 10,000 are found each year. And speaking also of things you can’t see: If you think it has been hard to chart all the visible things Jesus made, try talking to someone who is attempting to chart the human brain.  The average human brain has about 100 billion neurons (or nerve cells) and many more neuroglia (or glial cells) which serve to support and protect the neurons. And other things we can’t see.  Things we have like emotions, love, fear and others.  Things we know we have but cannot see like redemption and the immutable laws of the universe.  S. Lewis called it the Old Magic because he was writing to children, but laws that God put in place and will not break.  And then the things that are discussed a little deeper into the passage.
    3. Whether – The rest that follows are so unclear that you could build a cult on these things, so let’s not spend too much time on them. (Some will make the list below both good and bad, others make it just bad, others just angels as MacArthur did in his commentary.  Personally, I’m not convinced it matters.  The point is that they were all made by Christ and are under God’s control whether they know it or not.
      1. thrones or (human powers or dynasties)
      2. dominions or (spiritual Powers behind the thrones)
  • rulers or (human rulers)
  1. authorities (the power behind the human rulers)
  1. all things have been created through Him and for Him
    1. He is the source for creation –
    2. He is the purpose for creation – All creation was made for Jesus. There is a reason the climate is not going to destroy the world, but Jesus made the climate.  Jesus made the sun.  Jesus made the earth.  Do you think He made all this just so that someday it would get out of control?  Barnes notes say: For his glory; for such purposes as he designed. There was a reference to himself in the work of creation, just as, when a man builds a house, it is with reference to some important purposes which he contemplates, pertaining to himself. The universe was built by the Greater to be his own property; to be the theater on which he would accomplish his purposes, and display his perfections. Particularly the earth was made by the Son of God to be the place where he would become incarnate, and exhibit the wonders of redeeming love. There could not be a more positive declaration than this, that the universe was created by Christ; and, if so, he is divine. The work of creation is the exertion of the highest power of which we can form a conception, and is often appealed to in the Scriptures by God to prove that he is divine, in contradistinction from idols. If, therefore, this passage be understood literally, it settles the question about the divinity of Christ.