“The Supremacy of Christ”

What do you think of Jesus? What does He mean to you? Every individual who considers Jesus Christ makes some judgment about Him.

Jesus asked His disciples, in Matthew chapter 16, “Who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter jumped right in and answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus complimented Peter and said, “You are blessed, Simon, Bar­Jonah, because My Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being.” NLT

Thomas missed Easter by one week. The other disciples excitedly told Thomas that Jesus was alive! They had seen the risen Lord! We call him doubting Thomas for he replied, “Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe it.” NIV  He wanted eye-witness proof. A week after Easter the disciples were together again and Thomas was with them. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe .” Thomas exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” NIV

What do you think of Jesus? Every major religious cult agrees on this one point: Jesus is not God. They might praise Him as a great moral teacher, etc., but they believe He was only a human being.

C. S. Lewis said, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said, would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice! Either He was and is the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him my Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

In Colossians, chapter 1, the Apostle Paul draws a faithful portrait of the Lord Jesus in all His glory. Not in a dictatorial manner, but in a hushed and sweet mood, Paul gives a heart-moving affirmation of the dignity, deity, and glory of our Savior.

I. His Unique Relationship to God the Father. 15a

“He is the image of the invisible God.” NIV  I like Phillips’ paraphrase, “Now Christ is the visible expression of the invisible God.” Notice that it is in the present tense — “is.” When you want to know the God that we worship, look at Jesus. He reveals God; and what a God He revealed!  John 1:18 “No one has ever seen God, but God the only Son, Who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.” NIV  “For God. . .made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” II Corinthians 14:6 NIV  Hebrews tells us, “Looking unto Jesus. . .” We need to spend a lot of time looking at Jesus.

Verse 19 reveals the reason Paul wrote Colossians “For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him.” The same thought is found in chapter 2, verse 9, “For in Christ ALL the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” NIV  There is no element of the Divine nature that is absent in Christ. What God is, Christ is — except that God the Father is invisible and Christ reveals Him to men.

II. His relation to Creation. 15b-17

“(He is) the firstborn over all creation.” “First” does not refer to time, but to rank, His position. It is a title of dignity and spoke of the Messiah. “He existed before God made anything at all and is supreme over all creation.” NLT

In verses 16 & 17, notice three prepositions. “For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him. . .” When you and I refer to creation, we say “universe.” The Greeks said “all things” — ta panta. You will notice that phrase several times in this paragraph. Christ is not a created being for “He existed before creation began, for it was through Him that everything was made, whether spiritual or material, seen or unseen.” (Phillips).  Nothing is left out. All created things owe their being to Christ, therefore they are subordinate and subject to Christ. The process is not revealed. God used whatever process suited Him. (That’s what scientists study.)

There is another truth at the end of verse 16 “. . .and for Him.” The goal of all creation is for His use and His glory! Are you living for the purpose that God created you?

Verse 17, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” NIV  He is the One Who makes it a universe and not chaos. By His creative power, He formed the universe, and by His continuous activity sustains it. He holds the planets in their courses. We have a Christ-centered view of the world. He is not the law of gravity; He is the Lord of gravity, etc. The whole order of reality is seen in true perspective only as we see it in relation to Christ. So we sometimes say, History is His story.

III. His relation to the Church. 18

“And He is the Head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy.” NIV  I like the word that the King James Version uses: “that in all things He might have the preeminence.”

Our Lord is the source and sustainer of the natural creation, so He is the head of the new creation, the church. It is the one earthly agency ordained by God for our spiritual well-being. The word “church” in most New Testament letters usually refers to a local fellowship of believers, but not here. Here the church includes all the redeemed. Christ has only one body! Martin Luther was challenged by the Romanists, “The Church must have a head.” “Yes,” replied Martin Luther, “and that Head is Christ.”

What more could be said? Verse 18c “. . .so that in everything He might have the supremacy.” NIV  Vernon McGee said, “We cannot say too much about Jesus, and we will never in this life be able to comprehend Him in all of His wonder and in all of His glory.”

The glory of this preeminent Person is — He is mine, if you have asked Him to be your Savior from sin and the Lord of your life. Surrender to Him will be the greatest of joys. Reverence and love for Christ will flood your soul.

A. Theodore Ekholm