Christ is First
Colossians One: 17-20
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.
Paul continues to write about all that Christ is. And I am sure that Paul would say that he could not possibly do justice to the magnitude of Christ. The more that you grow in your understanding and walk with Him, the more He becomes.
- Christ is before all things. This phrase holds both the meaning in terms of time and importance. He existed before all things. But it also holds the concept of being more important than all things. This is a very interesting thought if a person were to spend a little time on it. Remember, that the importance of Christ aligns perfectly with the Father’s value for you and me. He didn’t send just anyone to redeem His creation and us creatures. He sent the One who is before and above all things. The Bible talks about our lives and equates them to a vapor. We could have used some of those vapors this last week. But they wouldn’t have lasted very long, not with this heat. That is the nature of vapors. They come and they go. That is our life as compared to the eternal nature of the Son. He is eternal. He is first. And it was Him that the Father sent to die for you and for me. Should that make us feel guilty? I don’t believe that is a theme of the Bible. I believe the theme around the sacrifice of Christ is that we should live with grateful hearts and lives so that our gratitude shows through in every relationship, in every task.
The next thing that Paul focuses on in this passage as he writes is the role of Christ, or the supremacy of Christ. What does it mean to be the head of something, in a responsible manner? I don’t mean the example that we have in some places, where the head is someone who finds someone else to fire. The Head is the one who takes the helm, who leads and who had a plan that is accomplished, no matter what it looks like might happen. The Head is the one we all look to when everything else seemed to be falling apart.
The first idea that is believed that Paul is thinking about when he uses the term “head”, is that he is writing about Christ being both the most important and the Chief or Leader. The second idea is the principle that Christ is the One who leads and guides the Church. The first idea is that Christ alone is the Head, or the One who has first place in the church. There should not be any mature believer who imagines that the church is there for them. Some things that happen when a people start to believe that the church is there for them is that they tend to look first to have their own needs met. They are not looking for what they can contribute to the church, but mainly and primarily what the church can do for them. There will be people who don’t have a clear understanding of the church that might think that the church is there to give them a handout, or a helping hand. And honestly, that is one of the roles of the church. To offer assistance to those who need help without creating a dependency on the church. How can I say that? That comes from the verse 2 Thess. 3:10 “For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.” But that is not the thinking of a mature believer. A mature believer seeks to serve the Lord in their church.
And just so that we are aware, when the Bible uses Church in this context, it is referring to the Big Church, the whole Church, all believers. Paul also gives us a glimpse of his knowledge of how the Church works together. It works like a body. There are few things that can be drawn out from this connection:
- The Church is a living thing – and the parts are collectively more impressive than the individual members.
- The Church is a Guided thing – guided by Christ the Head, it lives to do what He wills for the church to do. Just as body carries out what our heads tell it to do, and by the way, when they don’t it is frustrating. So it is true that we should be about carrying out what Christ would have us to do.
- The Church is a Connected Thing – connected directly to Christ. One without the other would not be pretty. Amazingly, Christ choses to do His work through us. Very often, that seems like a less than perfect plan, but we forget that Christ has a purpose for using us. It is not to make us the greatest Christian that ever walked the planet. That role will always be held by Christ. No, Christ wants to make us like Him, which I believe means completely and totally submissive to the Father. I remember an interesting quote: If dependence is the goal than weakness is an asset.
He is the beginning – of the church. It all starts with Him. We follow the path He forged. That path includes a life of sacrifice. That path probably includes death unless we are here when He returns for us. That path includes resurrection into glory. That path includes living for eternity next to Him. But it all began with Him. Firstborn from the dead – Here again is the concept of being the firstborn, the rightful heir. Supremacy. Some might ask, what about the OT believers that died believing in Christ prior to when He came to the earth? For example, Abraham lived and died long before Christ. He had to be resurrected. He was not resurrected before Christ because Christ was the Firstborn from the Dead. There was a reason why Christ had to be first.
So that He Himself will come to have first place in everything – Christ was first among all the old creation by virtue of His role in Creation. Now, in this newly formed family, Christ steps forward as being the first member of a resurrected, renewed family. Through His resurrection, the honor of Christ was raised even more. The reason is because this church is a new creation, just like you and I are new creations. And Christ doesn’t come in as an outsider, but as the founder, the beginner of the Church, the foundation of the Church, and Head of the Church.
For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, — this might have been some of Paul’s efforts to combat the false teachings of the day. There were those who taught that God’s fullness was too big to be held by Christ and they liked to imagine that there were other lesser gods who might have gotten some of God’s fullness. They would have included Christ in their list of God’s but when you put any other thing on the throne with Christ, you actually remove Christ from the throne. Paul was stating quite clearly that it pleased the Father; it met His approval for all the fullness to dwell in Him.
What is fullness in this context? It is generally held to be God’s deity. Another way it was expressed was “all that God is”. Wait a minute here – I thought we believed that Christ set aside His deity. He did, and He permitted God to live through Him. What is the difference? The difference is that instead of exercising His own will as Divinity, He was living His life here on earth completely submissive to the Father, and the Father was living through Christ’s submissive spirit. This is why Christ could say, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father”.
Through Him to reconcile all things to Himself – This tells us a few things. First of all, we would be surprised to learn that all things needed to be reconciled but they do. Yes, all things and all creation. Since the creation was under the leadership of man, when man fell everything he had dominion over fell. That is not unlike a common family, when the leadership fails the entire family is impacted. That is not to say that wives can do as they like, but it is a question of responsibility. I have always found it interesting that Christ was the owner of all things and yet He came here with the purpose of reconciling all things to Himself. But we know when we read Genesis three that creation was impacted by the Fall of Man. Romans 8:22 tells us “that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” When you look out over a beautiful valley, or you happen to get up one morning and see Mt Rainier shining in what appears to be all it’s glory, remember that you haven’t seen nothing yet. Just wait until you see creation when Jesus is in charge of it all. You see, just like you and me, creation is waiting for her redemption. And the earth after redemption will be like you and me after redemption. Sure you will probably be able to tell that it’s me, but you’ll also probably be amazed at what a little time in eternity will do for my countenance and personality. The divine order that once ruled creation will once again be in place, and there will be true peace in the new heaven and the new earth.
Having made peace through the blood of His cross through Him:
So that there is no question about the means for the purchasing of our redemption, Paul states it clearly. This might seem a rather graphic description of the process, but remember another teaching of the false teachers was that Christ wasn’t really in that body that was upon the cross. They tried to teach that the divine part of Christ left his physical body before the judgment began. But it was His blood that was shed and there is a certain “messiness” about a sacrifice. I was once questioned by some friends who are Muslim and they were a little shocked by the idea that the Christian God would require a sacrifice. This was a little repelling to them. This was something that I found odd, knowing that Muslim’s have a religious ritual that offers a sacrifice. But they might have just been surprised to hear that in our teaching we also had a path to God that lead through sacrifice. However there is a huge difference between their concept of sacrifice and ours. In their case it is a goat that loses its life. In our case, it was our God who came to earth to give His life a ransom for many.
Whether things on earth or things in heaven. This is another reminder of the scope of the redemption of Christ. It is complete and it includes all creation. But don’t be mislead into thinking that this is teaching some kind of universalism. Universalism is the teaching that says that God is too nice to send anyone to eternal punishment, so Christ’s death will take care of everyone’s sins. That Bible clearly teaches that those who don’t accept Christ as their personal Savior by faith will not be part of the Father’s family.
Not sure if you can image for a moment if you had to spend eternity in heaven while still blemished with sin? Have you ever had those dreams where you sleep walk to school and you have no clothes on? The reason those dreams are so painful is because you are so uncomfortable. Next time someone tells you they have had that dream, let them know that is a picture of someone who attempts to enter heaven with unforgiven sin but heaven will be millions of times more painful than their dream. To attempt to live in the presence of God while remaining in your sins would most likely be worse than hell. It might sound unusual, but being shielded from God’s presence which is the essence of hell, might be more merciful than permitting a sinner to enter into the holy presence of a Holy God.