The Preeminent Christ: Part 2

Colossians 1:15-20

Thank you for joining us. It is good to have you here for another look at the Preeminent Christ. Last time was the first part of the lesson, and today we will finish looking at the three relationships that prove His preeminence. Paul packs a lot in a very short space, and this powerful paragraph is crucial to the rest of the book of Colossians. Your life cannot stay the same after understanding Christ for who He is, like Paul describes Him. Paul goes on to show how our understanding of Christ will impact many practical areas of life.  

However, before we go on to those areas, let’s spend some more time thinking about Christ and building our doctrine on Him. Last time, we looked at two proofs of His preeminence, His relationship to Deity and His relationship to creation. Today, we finish His relationship to creation and look at the last one, His relationship to the church. Let’s go now with Pastor J Mark to Colossians 1:15-19. 

Last week, we began exploring Paul’s teaching in Colossians 1:15 to 20, “The Preeminent Christ.” As we resume our study, here is the Scripture text.  

¹⁵He [Jesus]is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  

¹⁶For by Him all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.  

¹⁷And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.  

¹⁸ He is the head of the body, the church, the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that He may have the preeminence in all things. 

¹⁹For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,  

²⁰and 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. 

In this text, the apostle Paul produces several PROOFS confirming Christ’s preeminence.  

In verse 16, Paul ascribes the creation of ALL THINGS to Christ. In Him resides both the creative will (authority) and the creative energy (power). He is the initial creative force that brings the worlds into existence and the sustaining force that balances the whole universe.  

What keeps our earth in its proper orbit? What keeps Earth at the appropriate distance from the sun to sustain life? These and many other things are impossible by chance. Jesus created everything and sustains everything, including earthly rulers and heavenly powers. 

In the New World Translation of the Bible of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, you will find added words in verses 16 and 17. Their translation reads like this. “For by Him all other things were created that are in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All other things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all other things, and in Him, all other things consist.” They add the word, other, (in 4 different places) because they claim Jesus is a created being. That robs Him of His deity and preeminence. The addition is entirely unwarranted; it appears nowhere in our many manuscripts.    

Paul proclaims Jesus as Lord over the invisible spirit world and the visible created world. He rejects the idea of separating the spiritual and the material. Too many professing Christ-followers fall into this trap. For the genuine Believer, all of life is sacred. 

As a Christ-follower, your employment isn’t the same as your vocation. Your vocation, or calling, as the Scriptures explain it, is to know Christ and make Him known. Your job is simply a tool to live out that calling. But so often, we separate them. That’s why many people attend weekly worship services but neglect God and His commands the rest of the week.  

“Paul’s point is that such dichotomies between the visible and invisible, public and private, external and internal are false. His confession of Christ’s lordship over all things shows his confidence that Christ’s death establishes God’s grace in every [part] of God’s creation.”¹ A dichotomy says that two things are contradictory or mutually exclusive. Christ’s lordship eliminates those, and our relationship with Him impacts every facet of life.  

Verse 17 continues with this theme. The opening words, “He is,” are emphatic. They emphasize Jesus’ personality. He is not some mystical force or some nameless energy field. He is a person! Even secular history acknowledges the fact of His human existence.  

The word “is” emphasizes His preexistence. He preceded all things in time and infused them with His presence. He provides continuous stability and productivity for His creation. By Him, and NO other, all things hold together. One example of this is gravity. It keeps stationary stuff in its place and also regulates moving things. It does this consistently. It functions just as well in the workplace as in a Sunday morning worship service!  

If Jesus is the exact image of God, and He is, and if He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things, which He is, then the only logical thing you and I can do with these proofs is to line up under His lordship and enter into His salvation, which leads us to our final proof.  

The Final PROOF (of the preeminence of Christ) is, 

His Relationship to the Church 

Again, notice the emphasis at the beginning of verse 18. “He Himself is the head of the body, the church…” Jesus is proclaimed the Head of the spiritual realm, the realm of grace, just as He is the head of the natural realm of creation. He is this because He existed before the world’s creation and the church. He holds the first place among all things, both spiritual and material.  

Here, Paul highlights God’s ultimate goal for fallen creation: the restoration of all things. Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross has already brought this about. The effects of sin are still evident in our world and our relationships, but Paul claims the Creator’s goal has already been realized through Christ. That goal is being demonstrated in the life of a new creation, the church.  

The church is the Ekklesia, the called-out ones. The focus here is Christ as the head of the realm of spirit and grace, not so much the local congregation. As the firstborn from the dead, Jesus is the beginning or foundation of the Church. The church is Christ’s new creation, the people of God whom He has redeemed. He is the source of the Church’s power and spiritual life. He became the head of the church through His incarnation and His passion, just as He is the head of the universe by His absolute and eternal existence.  

Paul is fond of the head-and-body metaphor when speaking about the relationship between Christ and the church. Christ is the Lord of the Church, just as the head governs the human body. The head supplies both authority and direction. This illustration also shows the organic unity between Christ and His Church. Each is necessary for the other; a head without a body and a body without a head are equally useless.  

 How is Christ identified as the Head of the Church? Verses 13 and 14 give us the answer. He became the Head of this called-out group of people by purchasing our redemption at the price of His lifeblood. Through that atoning sacrifice, He provided for our forgiveness of sin. But that sacrifice in itself didn’t give the power to live in victory over sin, the flesh, and Satan. 

No, that power for victorious living came because Jesus rose from the grave. As Paul says here, “He is the firstborn from the dead.” Jesus wasn’t the first person ever raised from the dead. We have records of resurrections in both the Old and the New Testaments. But He was the first and only one to rise from the dead, never to die again, and the first to rise by His power!  

According to Hebrews 2:15, Jesus’ resurrection broke death’s stranglehold of fear on the human race. That sets His resurrection apart from all other resurrections. It makes Him preeminent over all things. No one else has the power to do that! 

In verse 19, Paul writes that the Father was pleased that all the fullness should dwell in Jesus. The death and resurrection of Jesus ushered in the beginning of Jesus’ cosmic lordship. It inaugurated a new age of salvation history, something the Old Testament prophets and even the angels desired to understand but could not, according to 1 Peter 1:10 to 12.  

The new era initiated by Christ’s death and resurrection constitutes nothing less than a new order of human life in Christ, the essential ingredient of which is victory over death in its various expressions. Eventually, every creature, every kingdom, all creation, and even death will bow in submission before Jesus. When He has brought all things under His authority, He will give that authority to His Father. That will be the final consummation of all things!  

Paul speaks of the fullness of God dwelling in Christ. That fullness enables Christ to reconcile all things to God the Father, whether those things are on earth or in heaven. Paul’s use of the word “reconcile” has the force of looking back. In other words, it hints at restoring the original unity that Adam and Eve enjoyed with God before sin entered the human family. He secured our peace through the blood of His cross. Our reconciliation and peace were provided simultaneously by His sacrificial death. 

Ultimately, “The whole universe of things, material and spiritual, will be restored to harmony with God.”² What a wonderful reality to anticipate!  

So why is Christ’s preeminence so important? If He is not deity, we have no mediator between God and man. If He is not deity, He cannot represent God the Father. If He is not deity, He cannot reveal the Father to us and has no power to forgive sins.  

If He is a created being, He certainly is not part of the deity. If He’s not who the Scriptures assert, our faith is in vain. If He is not Lord over all creation, then you, I, and all other parts of creation are random accidents of chance, as Darwinian evolution falsely proclaims. Therefore, our actions, whether good or bad, are ultimately meaningless.  

If He is not the Head of the Church, then there is no church. There might be religion, but there’s no true church of Jesus Christ. And if there’s no church, then there are no people of God to display His love and power to a desperately needy world. And if there is no church, there is no anticipated future restoration of all things.  

I believe Paul lays out convincing proofs for the preeminence of Christ. You can accept those proofs and participate in eternal blessing. Or you can reject them and suffer the eternal consequences. The choice is yours. 

Thanks, J Mark, for ending this lesson by stressing Christ’s deity. Think about those last few paragraphs. Can you see now why a proper understanding of these verses is so important to the rest of Colossians? J Mark taught on Christ’s preeminence, and Paul clearly presented Christ with authority and majesty. Now, it is up to us to exalt Him and honor Him wherever we go.  

If you have any questions or if you want to contact us for any reason, here are a few ways you can do so. An easy way is email; our email is [email protected]. Or you can message us online; our website is heraldsofhope.org. Once there, click “Contact Us,” at the top right. And of course, you can write to us. Our address is Hope for Today, Box 3 Breezewood, PA 15533. 

Thanks again for joining. Lord willing, we can be together next time as we move into the rest of Colossians and see how we can serve our risen preeminent Savior. Till then, may Peter’s description of Jesus be ours: “You have the words of eternal life. We believe and are sure you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” God Bless 

*This episode is an exposition by J. Otis Yoder, re-recorded by J. Mark Horst, with an opening and closing by Arlin Horst.