The Ministry of Reconciliation, Colossians 1:19-23

Twice in this passage we see a form of the word reconcile.  Reconcile, or reconciled, is one of those Christian words that we hear so often in the church in regards to salvation and yet perhaps we really aren’t exactly sure what it means.  However, it’s a word that you may have also heard outside of the church. It’s used for instance, in divorce proceedings.  There usually is some sort of effort to reconcile both parties, the husband and wife.  And what that means is that they come to an agreement, they make up, they resolve their differences that had driven them apart, so that they can come back together.

In fact that is how it is used in 1Cor. 7:11 which says,  “(but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife.”

But it also has a financial meaning, which is often used in relation to balancing your checkbook.  To reconcile, means to make one account consistent to another.  The bank sends out your statement, and you take your checkbook and compare it in light of the bank statement (which is always the correct one, of course). And so you make whatever corrections are necessary to make your check book correlate to the bank.

Now both of those variations on the meaning of reconcile should help us to get a grasp on it’s theological implications.  To be reconciled to God speaks of a man being made right with God, his account with God being corrected in light of what God’s justice requires.

When Paul speaks though to the Colossians about reconciliation with God, notice that he first shows us the standard of righteousness which is in Christ Jesus.  In vs 19, Paul says that in Christ all the fullness of deity dwells.  He has just given in the preceding verses a liturgy of Christology, all the attributes of Christ which make up HIs deity.  And so he says in vs19 that in Christ is all the fullness of deity.  So Christ is the righteous standard of God in every respect.  And if we are going to be made right with God, then Christ is the standard by which we are reconciled.  He is the statement, so to speak, that we balance our checkbook against.

And so Paul says in vs20 that God is pleased that “through Him (that is Christ) to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”  God reconciles all things to Himself through Christ.  So not only is Christ God, as we saw in vs 15-19, but He is able to save in vs20-23. He is able to reconcile men to God by paying our debt through His death on the cross.

Salvation, or being saved, is another of those Christian words that we use very often, but perhaps not always understood. Because when the Bible speaks of salvation, there are at least 6 terms that are often used  to speak of salvation. Let me review them with you for a moment.  Five terms used in salvation; and the first one is justification.  In justification the sinner stands before God as a guilty sinner and is declared righteous.  Abraham was justified by faith, and so are we.

The second term used to describe salvation is redemption. In redemption, the sinner stands before God as a captive slave and is granted freedom by a ransom, or a payment.  That’s redemption.  The third term that is used to describe our salvation is forgiveness. In forgiveness, the sinner stands before God as a debtor, and the debt, having been paid, is forgiven, wiped clean. 

Fourth is the term we are looking at today; reconciliation. In reconciliation, the sinner stands before God as an enemy and through the peace offering of Christ becomes a friend of God. Fifth is the term adoption,  which also describes our salvation. In adoption the sinner stands before God as a stranger and is made His child.That’s adoption. And sixth, regeneration.  That which was dead has been given new life. So to summarize our salvation; We stood before God as the guilty sinner, and He declared us righteous. We stood before God as a captive slave, and He granted us freedom. We stood before God as a debtor, and He forgave us. We stood before God as an enemy, and He made us a friend. We stood before God as a stranger, and He called us His child.  We stood before God as dead in our sins, and we were given newness of life.

Now all of those speak of different aspects of our salvation, but today we are going to focus on reconciliation because that’s what Paul is addressing in this passage. And there are four aspects of reconciliation that Paul gives us here in these verses. The four aspects of reconciliation are the plan of reconciliation, the means of reconciliation, the purpose of reconciliation, and the evidence of reconciliation. 

First, let’s consider the plan of reconciliation. Vs 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.”

Now the key phrase there is “through Him to reconcile all things to himself.” So God reconciles all things to Himself through Christ.  All things can be taken to mean all of creation. And there is a sense in which as a result of Christ’s atonement all of creation will be restored to rightness with God.  All of creation is under the curse of sin. We live in a fallen world.  But the apex  of creation is man. When Adam sinned all of creation bore the curse of that sin.  And in like manner, when man is reconciled to God through Jesus Christ then the rest of creation will be reconciled as well. As Romans 8:19 says, “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God.”  And then in vs 21 it explains, “that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.”

All of creation is waiting for the reconciliation of God with man. Sin corrupted the universe. It destroyed the peace between one creature and the other, between all creatures and God. But the plan of God is that through Christ, the universe is going to be reconciled. It’s going to be restored to a right relationship to God. So that as Peter says in 2 Peter 3:13 “But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.”

Now when Paul says that all things will be reconciled that does not mean that everyone will be saved, and  that even fallen angels will be restored.  But what it means is that at the final reckoning sin will be done away with, those who have chosen to live in sin will be sentenced to eternal punishment banished forever from the presence of God, and those angels who have fallen will be cast into the Lake of Fire, no longer to tempt or deceive or bind men.  But it also means that those creatures, and every creature on earth and in heaven will bow the knee, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.  And sin and death will be done away with, and only righteousness will dwell in the new heavens and new earth.

In vs21 he specifies who is reconciled; “And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.”  The Bible makes it clear that in our natural, sinful state we were enemies of God.  It says in Rom. 8:7 that we were hostile, that means to be at war with God.   It says “because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able [to do so,]”

And James uses a variation on that term, hostile, to designate the world as an enemy of God. James 4:4  “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” But through reconciliation, Paul says, you who were enemies of God have been made the friends of God.  God made peace through our Lord Jesus Christ by His death on the cross.

Eph. 2:12 says, “remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace.”  This was the plan of God from before creation, to create a people for Himself, who are like Him, for fellowship and communion with Him, and who will enjoy Him forever.

So that is the plan of reconciliation.  Now that brings us to the means of reconciliation.  Paul says how it was accomplished in vs 20; “And having made peace through the blood of His cross.” How did Christ reconcile man to God, who were His enemies, and make peace? He made peace between God and man through the blood of His cross.  He is speaking of a peace offering, a sacrifice. Now when the scripture speaks of the blood it is not referencing some sort of mystical power in the actual blood of Jesus Christ. We should not view the actual blood of Christ in some superstitious manner.  But what Paul means when he speaks of the blood of Christ or the blood of the cross is simply the death of Jesus Christ. Blood refers to the violent manner in which someone dies, not in some mystical power of the actual element.

We see the parallel between the blood of the cross and and death for instance, in Rom 5:10 which says, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”  So we were reconciled through the death of Christ.  Not by some mystical element of the blood, but blood speaking of the sacrificial death of Christ.

In verse 22; it says it another way, “In the body of His flesh through death.” The death of the substitutional  Lamb of God was the way that God dealt with our sin, so that we might be reconciled to Him. The justice of God had to account for sin, and we had to pay the debt of sin, the penalty for sin.  But Christ offered Himself as a substitute for us, and by dying on the cross, shedding His blood,  He satisfied that debt.

So the means of reconciliation was to offer Christ as as sacrifice and a substitute for our sin, so that our sins are forgiven, and we receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  By faith in the death of Christ on our behalf we are reconciled to God.

Then Paul addresses the goal, or the purpose of our reconciliation. And we see the goal of our reconciliation in the second part of vs 22, “yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” In order to have complete reconciliation with God, there are three areas in which God has to make right.  We must be holy, blameless and beyond reproach.

To some extent these might look like synonyms.  But perhaps there are some aspects of each that have a particular meaning which might be instructive for us.  Holy refers to our relationship with God.  Blameless has to do with ourselves.  And beyond reproach refers to our relationship with others.  There has to be a holiness between us and God. There has to be a faultlessness within our own selves. And we have to be above reproach in our relationship to others.

Now when we are justified by faith in what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross, then we are made holy, blameless and beyond reproach.  But Paul adds an important little phrase, “before Him.”  In other words, we are holy, blameless and above reproach in HIs sight.  God sees us in Christ.  God sees the righteousness of Christ in us.  It’s like the line from  the hymn the Solid Rock that we often sing:  “Dressed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne.”

An important verse in this regard is found in 2 Cor. 5:21.  It says, “(God) made (Jesus), who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.”  In salvation, God transfers our sin upon Jesus, and transfers Christ’s righteousness to us.  So that when God looks at us, He sees Christ’s righteousness.  He sees us as Christ is; holy, blameless, and above reproach.  That’s why Paul can say in Romans 8: 1 that now there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.  

Now that phrase “In Him” also indicates our position before God.  In daily practice we may not always be holy in all we do, or blameless, or above reproach.  But positionally, we are in Christ.  And so God sees us as dressed in Christ’s righteousness.

Paul says in Ephesians 5 that we are  the bride of Christ, which will be presented without spot and without blemish.  And on that day, when the bridegroom appears, when sin will be done away with, when all things become new, when creation is reborn without corruption,  when we will be given a new, glorified sinless body, then we will become in practice what we are now in position.  Holy, blameless, and without reproach.

Now let’s look at the last point, which is the evidence of our reconciliation. Vs.23, “if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.”

Notice that Paul says if you continue.  That’s the evidence of someone who has been reconciled to God.  If you continue in the faith.  If you continue to walk by faith and not by sight. If you continue in the faith firmly established.  That means you haven’t deserted the faith.  You haven’t believed some higher level of intellectualism which denies the truth of the gospel.  Steadfast, means to tie your ship firmly to the anchor  so that you are not tossed here and there by every wind of doctrine.  This was really the danger in the church at Colossae.  It was in danger of being shipwrecked by false doctrines that denied the deity of Jesus Christ. 

In Luke 8:13, is the parable of the sower.  And as Jesus explains the parable, He says ““Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away.”  What does to fall away indicate?  It means they were never saved. True Christians will continue. In John 8:30 it says, “Many believed on His name. But Jesus said, ‘If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of mine.’” The evidence of  a true Christian is he continues in the faith.

Listen to 1 John 2:19, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out from us, that it might be made manifest that they all are not of us.” And then in verse 24, “As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.” Who has eternal life? Those who continue.  And one more, John 6:66. “As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.” True Christians continue.

But please understand that Paul isn’t saying that a true believer who falls away, or who backslides, can lose their salvation. What he is talking about is the sanctification of the believer, who continues to walk in faith, who continues to obey, and the goal is to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach. See, salvation is made up of three parts, justification, which can also be called reconciliation, then sanctification, and then finally glorification.  So to continue in the faith is the process of sanctification, and to be presented to God as holy and blameless is glorification.

And notice what they are to continue in; “not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.” The gospel is the message of Christ, the gospel of salvation. The gospel which Paul was preaching. They were to continue in the faith and hope of the gospel.  The gospel is what we are preaching.  In 1Cor. 1:21 it says, “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” There is a lack of gospel preaching today in the modern church.  People don’t want to hear about sin, about salvation, about sanctification. So the modern church teaches about relationships, about finances, about social justice, about how to live your best life now.  But God’s message is the message of Christ crucified.  It’s the message of the cross, the gospel of reconciliation.

Now, in closing, I would like for you to look at a summary of the gospel of reconciliation which is found in 2 Cor. 5.  This passage parallels and summarizes this gospel of reconciliation for us.  It’s like a series of bullet points, and I’m not going to expound on them at this time, but just set them out as principles of the gospel of reconciliation. 

Number one, the gospel of reconciliation transforms men. Verse 17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” The gospel transforms people into a new creation.

Number two; it appeases God’s wrath. Verse 21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” Christ bore our sins, so God could give us His righteousness. It satisfies the wrath of God.

Number three; it comes through Christ.  Verse 18, “Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”

Fourth, it is our ministry.  End of vs 18, “He gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” And the end of vs 19, “He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”  This is our ministry.  To tell the world that Christ has died to reconcile us to God, that we might become the children of God, and inherit eternal life in Christ. 

Fifth, it is God’s invitation; Vs. 20, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” 

 From time to time I hear Christians ask what kind of ministry opportunity can I get involved in at your church?  I want to participate in some sort of ministry.  And usually they are thinking of something along the lines of a homeless ministry, or a children’s ministry, or maybe a music ministry.  But God has already given you a ministry.  That being the ministry of reconciliation, where we act as ambassadors for God, representing Christ to a world that is at enmity with God, and giving them the word of reconciliation; that God has sent Jesus to die as our sacrifice and substitute so that we might be made right with God and receive the righteousness of God.  Our ministry is to go to the lost, the unsaved, those that have not yet trusted Jesus Christ by faith and believed in the work that He did on the cross to pay our penalty, so that they might be given the righteousness of Jesus Christ and be reconciled to God.

That is our ministry.  That is our responsibility.  I pray that you accept your commission as an ambassador of the kingdom of God, and carry out that office, pleading with those that are at enmity with God to accept the peace of Christ, so that they might be reconciled to God.

The Head of the Church, Colossians 1:13-20

Today we are continuing in our study of Colossians, and are picking it up in vs 13. Last week we looked at the previous section which was Paul’s prayer for the church.  Today we might title this section Christ the Head of the Church. As I was studying this book, I was really taken with this particular passage in chapter one vs 13-20, and it’s theme of Jesus, the head of the church. 

We should all understand by now that to become a member of Christ’s church we do not sign a paper, or submit to a vote by the congregation, or be baptized or any manner of various means by which people typically join a church, but if you are to be a member of Christ’s church you must be born into it.  Jesus said to Nicodemus that you must be born again to enter the kingdom of God, and He explained that means you are born of the Spirit. 

How you are born again is spelled out in Romans 10:9 and 10 which says, “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus [as] Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;  for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

The key to salvation then is believing, confessing Jesus as Lord.  And I would like to emphasize the gravity of that statement for a moment.  Jesus Christ is Lord is the confession of a Christian.  In Paul’s day, many Christians were arrested and charged with treason against the emperor.  They were given the option of preserving  their life by making the confession “Caesar is Lord.”  Caesar demanded to be worshiped as a god.  And of course, Christians were unable to make that confession and so many of them lost their life.

 

So to confess Jesus as Lord is to confess that He is God, that He is your Sovereign, and that He is to be worshipped. In chapter two, Paul says in vs9 “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.”  So to Him belongs all power and all authority over your life. From Him is life and peace. If Jesus is Lord, ie Sovereign, Master, Lord of all, then all we have belongs to Him - our life, our possessions, our will, our destiny.  Christ is Lord of all. And we must submit to that.

Christ is Sovereign Lord.  A sovereign speaks of a kingdom.  Lord is a title given to a ruler. And so as Paul says in ch. 1 vs 13, through salvation God has made us members of Christ’s kingdom.  Vs 13 “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

What that verse teaches is that all the world belonged to another kingdom.  2 Timothy 2:25 tells us that we once were held captive by Satan’s kingdom, to do his will.  Paul speaking of those who are in opposition to God, saying “…if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,  and they may come to their senses [and escape] from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.” So we were held captive by the domain of darkness, or the realm of darkness, the dominion of darkness.  All of which are other ways of saying the kingdom of darkness.  Satan is referred to in scripture as the prince of this world, the prince of the power of the air.  And so Satan is the prince of this kingdom of darkness. 

We that have believed were once held captive in the dominion of Satan. But through salvation we have been delivered, rescued and made part of the kingdom of Christ.  And I say to you that the kingdom of Christ is no less than the church of Christ. They are one and the same.  They are synonymous.   Jesus said in John 18:36 "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”  The kingdom of Christ is the called out ones, from the Greek eklesia, translated the church of Christ, the assembly of believers, the saints of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We see this echoed in Eph. 1:19-23 “These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might  which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly [places,] far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,  which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”

Notice back in our text that Paul says we were transferred to the kingdom of His Son. The word that is translated as “transferred” had a special significance in the world at that time.  When one kingdom conquered another, the custom was to take the population of the defeated empire and transfer it completely to the conqueror’s kingdom.  I believe that is what Paul referred to in Ephesians 4:8 when he said that when Jesus rose from the dead, he took captivity captive.  We that were held captive to Satan’s realm have been transferred completely into God’s kingdom.  Everything we have and everything we are now belongs to Him.  

But this victory was not accomplished without the shedding of blood.  Paul says “In whom we have redemption.”  Redemption means the release of the captive by a legal ransom. And the price for our redemption was paid for with the blood of Jesus, securing not only our freedom, but also the forgiveness of our sins.  Christ’s death was the legal satisfaction for the debt of our sin which we could never pay.

Then starting in vs 15, we have one of the most comprehensive statements of Christ’s divinity and His Lordship that can be found in the New Testament. Many Bible scholars think that Colossians 1:15-20 came from a hymn of the early church that described what Christians believed about Jesus. And that seems to be a possibility, but it can’t be proven conclusively.  Nevertheless, it stands as a magnificent statement about the divinity and Lordship of Jesus Christ. 

Paul says in vs 15, that Christ “…is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”  We should all be aware that the Bible states that God is Spirit, and thus He is invisible to the human eye, and that no man has ever seen Him.  But Paul says that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. 

I heard a story about a little boy who was sitting at the kitchen table drawing pictures one day as his mother was working nearby. And she said to him, “what are you drawing?”  The little boy replied, “I’m drawing a picture of God.”  The mother knew her theology though, so she said, “But no one knows what God looks like.”  The little boy replied, “Well, they will when I get through!” 

The application to Jesus is this.  The life and work and nature of Jesus Christ created an exact image of the invisible attributes of God. What Paul meant was that Jesus was the perfect likeness and manifestation of the nature of God.  He is the great and final theophany.  The word translated image is eikon, from which the word icon is derived.  So that we might say that we see Jesus as the mirror image, or reflection of God. He is the exact representation of the nature of God.

We find that same description by the author of Hebrews in chapter 1 vs 3; “[The Son] is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of the [Father’s] nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power.”  We cannot see God, but we can see Jesus, who is the exact image of God.  Remember when Philip said to Jesus “show us the Father.” And Jesus said, “if you have seen Me you have seen the Father.” “The Father and I are One.” 

Then notice that Paul says Christ is the first born of all creation. Some cults have wrongly used this verse to support their belief that Jesus was created.  Some even go so far as to say He is just a higher order of the angels, a brother of Lucifer.  That erroneous view seems to be similar to the error of the Colossians to whom Paul had written this letter, in an attempt to correct a false theology that was creeping into the church doctrine.

But first born has, in the sense as Paul is using it, as the heir, the owner, the possessor of Creation.  Dr. Carl Henry, regarded as one of the greatest theologians of the mid 20th century said, “it should be translated as the Primeval Creator of all created things.” So Jesus is the one who possesses, as heir or owner, all things that are created.

Therefore, when Paul says, "Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation" He's not saying that the Lord Jesus was the first created.  But in regards to his divine person, he is the eternal Son to whom belongs all things. In the OT, we see in the lives of the patriarchs this principle of the firstborn son who inherited everything of the father’s estate.  So firstborn signifies ownership, being the heir of all things, not a created entity.

This word, prototokos, which is used here for firstborn, is a term that has special significance. It is used in the translation of the passage in Psalm 89:27: "I also shall make him [My] firstborn, The highest of the kings of the earth.”  Furthermore,  in the Greek language, there was another word that meant first created, which is protoktisis. That word is never used of the Lord Jesus. They never say that he was first created, though the word was available to them. But in Scripture as a whole, when it says that He is the first born of the whole creation, it means that He is the heir of all creation.

Then in vs 16 he says Jesus is the Creator. “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.”  Jesus is the creator of all things. Perhaps Paul lays stress on this doctrine, possibly for the sake of the Colossians error, in order to emphasize that Jesus was not created, nor equal to anything in creation, but that He is the Creator of all things.

Notice Paul uses three prepositional phrases.  "All things were created through Him." "All things were created by Him." "All things were created for Him.”  All things were created through Him refers to the design of creation. Jesus was the architect of creation.  All things were created by Him refers to the fact that He is the builder of creation. And all things were created for Him means that everything was made for His glory.

One may illustrate it by the construction of a building.  The architect designs and draws the plans of the building. Then the builder  constructs the building according to the plans. And then when the building was finished, the building is used by the owner for their own purposes.

In the case of the creation, to apply that analogy, the Lord Jesus Christ is responsible for this universe as the designer, the architect. Further, he was the builder, all things have been made by Him. John 1:3 says “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made.” And furthermore this whole creation, not only physically what we see about us, the earth and the heavens that we see, but the whole universe, visible and invisible is designed and built to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and for His purposes.

Then perhaps again as an effort to correct the bad theology pervading the Colossian church, Paul elaborates that even the invisible angels, described as thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities are created by Him.  Paul uses similar language to describe the dominion of darkness in Eph. 6:12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places].”  So that we might agree with the people of Jesus’s day, who said that even the demons are subject to Him.  Jesus created them and thus He has authority over them.

Now he goes on to say, not simply that he's the architect and the builder and the one for whom the creation has been constructed, but He is superior to all things and He sustains all things.  Notice the 17th verse, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” Before all things speaks not only of chronology, but also of superiority.   He is over all, before all, superior to all.  There is no one before Him. Chronologically speaking, He is before all, because He was from the beginning with God.  John 1 says , “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, The same was in the beginning with God.”  So Jesus is before all things and superior to all things and furthermore He sustains all things.

Paul says, “In Him all things hold together.”  He is the glue that holds the universe together.  Do you know that science tells us that Earth is traveling through space around the sun about 67,000 mph?  Then in addition to that it is spinning at 1,040 mph.  How does the world hold together with all these forces moving upon it?  The answer is that the power of Jesus Christ holds all things together.  Now that may be difficult for you to believe.  But I say to you that for me it is harder to believe that scientists say we are hurtling through space at 67,000 mlles per hour while spinning over a thousand miles per hour and yet the hair on my head is hardly moving. I’m not sure which takes more faith, to believe in science or to believe that Jesus holds all things together.  I choose to believe the scriptures. 

So Jesus is the Lord of creation, but he's also Lord of the new creation. Notice the 18th verse. After having said that he's the Lord of the first creation, Paul says, "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.”

Notice Paul says He is the head of the body, the church.  In 1Cor. 12:27 Paul says to the church, “Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it.”  That’s an amazing thing to consider, that we are called the body of Christ. Not just body as in an assembly, but body as a physical part of Christ. That’s hard to fully comprehend.  And yet it is more than an analogy, it’s a reality. The church is a new creation. The Spirit of Christ lives in us, so that we are His body on earth.  We are His hands, His feet, and we do His works, His deeds.  We speak His words. We accomplish His will. 

And Paul says, Christ is the head of the body. That indicates how inseparable the church is  from Christ even as our head is essential to the life of our bodies.  He's the head of the body. The head and the body are not the same. The church  is called the body of Christ. It's not called the body of Christians. And the reason for that is very simple because the church is His.  The head expresses ownership. Authority is suggested by head. Control is suggested by head. He's the head of the body. He's the head of the church. And consequently he controls the church. He owns the church. He has authority over the church. And also the head refers to Jesus’ role as source of the life of the church,  similar to how we refer to the head of a river as the source.

So to put it another way the head refers to Christ’s relationship to the church. We are related to the head who is in heaven. And if we are to live a life that is acceptable to the Lord God, we must be submissive to the head, to the Lord Jesus in a personal sense. And as a body of believers who are under shepherds, it's most important for them and for us to be under Him and to look to him for control and guidance and authority in the things that we do.

He's the head of the body, the church for this reason, that he is the beginning and he's the first born from the dead.  He's the firstborn from the dead, because he's the first and only one  to break the power of death. He triumphed over death in His resurrection, and He has the keys of death and Hades as a result.  He is head of the church, supreme and sovereign over it. Government is not in control nor does it have authority over the church. Only Christ has authority.  We acknowledge Christ alone as our head.  Not Peter, not the Pope, not any president or potentate.  But Christ alone is the head of the church. Jesus said, “I will build MY church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Vs 18 says, “So that He might have first place, or preeminence in everything.”  First place, not second place or third place.  Jesus is preeminent in our worship.  Paul summarizes the doctrine of Christ by saying that Christ is to have first place in everything.  Jesus is fully God. Paul speaks in vs19 of the fullness of deity dwelling in Christ by saying, “For it was the [Father's] good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.”  The noted theologian Lightfoot says, The word fullness was “a recognized technical term in theology, denoting the totality of the Divine powers and attributes.” So Jesus is fully God.  And because He is God He is to have first place in our worship.  He is to have first place in the church. He is to have first place in our life.

Paul says, “And through Him to reconcile all things to Himself.”  One day, the scriptures tell us, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess Jesus is Lord.  Those who do so today, by faith, receive salvation and forgiveness of sins.  They receive a citizenship in the kingdom of heaven and are transferred into His church.  But one day at the consummation of the age, Jesus will return to earth, and every eye shall see Him, and every knee will bow, and the kingdoms of this world will submit to the kingdom of Christ.  Phil. 2:9-11 says “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,  so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,  and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

When Paul says Christ made peace through the blood of the cross, that speaks to us of the real, physical death of Jesus Christ in our place, on our behalf, before God by which we are redeemed and receive forgiveness of sin. Faith in HIs  literal death in our place, and the literal judgment He bore on our behalf, is what saves us.  But those who do not believe  will not be saved, but nevertheless, all will one day bow, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

I want to conclude today by proclaiming to you that there is a standing invitation from the Head of the Church to come and be a part of His body, to confess Jesus as Lord.  At the end of Revelation, after all the warnings and pictures of those who rebelled against the sovereignty of Christ has been foretold, Christ gives an invitation to anyone who hears to come to Him and be saved, to become a part of His body.  He says in Revelation 22:17, “The Spirit and the bride (that is the church) say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.”  That invitation still stands.  Redemption has been made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the payment for your sins.  Come to Him today and find reconciliation with God and be transferred into HIs kingdom, His church.