Several weeks ago, we were encouraged with the profound truth that "to live is Christ." In the last few months, I've come to realize just how important this truth is. Christ is everything. And the goal of everything that we do should be to know Christ better. Do you sometimes loose track of that goal? I sure do. But this is the only place where true happiness is found, and it is the only life that is pleasing to God. I've found that one of the biggest hindrances to my joy in Christ and my pursuit of Him is a failure to grasp His goodness and love towards me.
The reason that a grasp of God's goodness is essential to a strong and growing faith is because faith is essentially trusting Christ to satisfy of our souls both now and forever. Therefore, to the extent that you lack confidence that Christ is good and loving, you lack a strong faith that He will now and forever satisfy you with Himself and be working to give you a happy future. Now, don't misunderstand me. I don't mean that the kind of happiness we are to trust Christ for is a worldly happiness. Rather, the happiness we seek is the joy of knowing Him and the Father. We take joy in the things He gives us in the world such as food and friends because they are tokens of God's love given as opportunities to experience His grace and glorify Him.
However, in order to have a proper understanding of God's love for us, we must have a proper understanding of God's love for Himself. I received a catalogue for Christian resources in the mail the other day which said, "Many of us have been taught in Bible studies, Sunday School classes, over the radio, in seminaries and form pulpits that we are at the center of God's affections....He needs us. He is lonely without us. This man-centered gospel is profoundly defective. To believe that man is central in God's affections is to misunderstand the theme of the Bible. It's misunderstanding the purpose of the cross. It's an error in thinking that makes it very difficult to comprehend what God's grace is and how we're supposed to glorify God."
You see, we could never be fully happy in God if He was not fully happy in Himself. Have you ever thought about that? What would it be saying to us if the God who commanded us to delight ourselves fully in Him (Psalm 37:4) did not find Himself worthy enough to fully delight in Himself? If God is not fully happy in Himself, apart from any need for us, then He has a deficiency�a lack�about Him that would make Him unable to fully satisfy us. But thanks be to God, God doesn't need us in any way. God is not needy but is fully sufficient in Himself. Therefore, God is free to overflow towards us in unlimited love. God can be for us precisely because He is for Himself.
Therefore tonight we are going to examine two very significant truths. The first is the truth that God is passionate for His own supremacy. The second is that God is passionate for our joy in His supremacy.
Colossians 1:15-23 teaches the truths of God's passion for His own supremacy and God's passion for our joy very well. Verses 15-20 emphasize the supremacy of Christ, and verses 21-23 illustrate the love of God for us.
The Supremacy of Christ
Let's now explore verses 15-20. British Pastor and Theologian Peter Lewis says of this passage that it is "one of the most majestic and profound Christological passages in the New Testament. In a burst of confessional praise it arches from the dawn of creation to the restoration of all things, and Jesus as the Son of God is dominant throughout" (Peter Lewis, The Glory of Christ (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1997), p. 257). And here's an interesting piece of information for you: This passage was probably a hymn of the early church! Lewis says "If this is the sort of thing first-century congregations sang, what a depth of meaning and what a height of rapture must have characterized their gatherings" (Lewis, 257).
Something that stands out starkly in the Bible is that the Father is committed to glorify Himself by glorifying His Son Jesus. The Father seeks to be known and glorified through the Son. This comes out very clearly in Colossians, which is all about the supremacy of Christ. The fact that Christ is supreme over all things makes crystal clear for us that God is first and foremost passionate for His own glory. God's glory is His top priority. And since He is so passionate for His own glory, we can know that He is fully satisfied in Himself and therefore fully sufficient to satisfy us. I wish to briefly point out eight ways in which this text reveals the supremacy of Christ.
First, He is the image of God. Verse 15 begins: "And He is the image of the invisible God..." This means at least two things. First, it means that Christ reveals God to us. He points us to the Father and reveals what He is like. Jesus said that he who has seen Him has seen the Father. As the perfect and utterly unique revelation of God, Christ is the only way to God. Second, it means that Christ is the same essence as the Father. In the world of the New Testament, image didn't just mean something that pointed to a reality, but something that actually shared in the reality it pointed to. Thus, "He images God's real being precisely because He shares that real being" (Lewis, 260). In other words, Christ is able to image the Father because He is the same essence as the Father and is therefore God. This doesn't mean that Jesus is the Father. They are different Persons, different centers of consciousness. But they are they same being. So Jesus is God, but He is not the Father. Likewise, the Holy Spirit is God, but He is not the same Person as the Father or Son. We worship one God who exists in three distinct Persons.
Now I want you to notice something that will make even clearer to us the all-satisfying sufficiency of God. Backing up to verse thirteen, we read that the Father has "...transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son." I used to get confused by the word beloved, thinking it was a deep religious word. But then I found out that it simply means "loved." So this verse is saying that the Father loves His Son. Christ is at the center of God's affections. What has God set His heart upon? Christ, His Son. Let us never forget that God is an affectionate God, and His Son Jesus is the focus of His love. How magnificent and wonderful Jesus must be if the Father loves Him so much! But there is something even deeper I wish to point out to you in regards to the unity of God. We've seen that the Father loves the Son. And we've also seen that the Son is the image, or reflection, of the Father. Therefore, in loving His Son, the Father is loving Himself! For the Son is the perfect radiance of the Father's glory. So the Father's love for His Son is a declaration of the surpassing worth of His own glory! How wonderful our God is. He exists in three Persons, and all three Persons are equally and infinitely glorious!
Second, the supremacy of Christ is shown in the fact that He is the first born of all creation. After saying "And He is the image of the invisible God," verse 15 continues, "the first-born of all creation." The Mormons will try and tell you that this means that Christ was created. But it can't mean that because the text has just said that Christ is God, and the text will go on to say that Christ is the Creator of everything. First-born actually means pre-eminent, supreme one. It is a title of exaltation and honor. It means that Christ has the highest rank in all creation.
Third, the supremacy of Christ is shown in the fact that He created everything for His own glory. "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 by Him and for Him" (v. 16). Notice that this verse begins with "for." This means that Paul is giving the basis for what He had just said before. In the previous verse he told us that Christ is the first-born of creation�that He has the highest rank in all of creation. Now he tells us why Christ has the highest rank�because He created all things. "He is the first-born of all creation, for He created everything."
The fact that Jesus is Creator of all things is fantastic enough. But the text says even more than that. Have you ever wondered why God created the universe? This text answers. Christ created the universe for His own glory. "All things have been created by Him and for Him." God didn't create the world because He was lonely. He created the universe because He was so filled with delight in His infinite worth that He wanted to make known His greatness and delight Himself in the manifestation of His glory in creation. God created so that He could have the joy of making known His excellency, having it reflected back to Him, and having it praised. That's what we mean when we say that God created everything for His glory.
Fourth, the supremacy of Christ is shown in the fact that the Father redeems His people through Christ for the glory of Christ. Verse 18 reads, "He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything." Why did Christ redeem His people by His resurrection, why is He the beginning of redemption, and why is He head of the church? This text answers: So that He might come to have first place in everything. An accurate translation of "first place" here is "supremacy." The Father's purpose (see verse 19, which seems to indicate that the Father is the one who gave these roles to Christ) in appointing Christ to these roles is that Christ would have first place in everything. Notice, it is not just supremacy in some things, but in all things. That's how worthy He is of honor�He deserves the primacy over all things without exception.
Fifth, the supremacy of Christ is shown in the fact that He is the beginning both of creation and the new creation. Verse 17 says "And He is before all things." This means that Christ "has the pride of place in this universe He has made, that He is before all things in importance" (Lewis, 263). As we saw earlier, this is because He is the cause of creation. Then verse 18, in speaking of redemption, says "and He is the beginning." But beginning of what? Answer: the new creation. Lewis writes that "Here �beginning' means a new beginning in the world of men. This is clear not only from the preceding reference to the church, but also from the succeeding reference to the resurrection of the dead. Christ is a new beginning in our fallen, dying world: the head of a new race, the initiator of a new order; the king of a new kingdom" (Lewis, 265). Thus, Christ is the Creator, or beginning, of creation and the beginning of the new creation (redemption), the new creation being the people He redeems and brings into His church.
It is a terrible thing that we, the creation Christ made, corrupted ourselves by sinning against Him. But in amazing love, He didn't leave us in our sin, but took action to save us by dying for us and raising Himself from the dead. Remember how the title "first-born of all creation" signified Christ's primacy over the creation? Notice in verse 18, speaking of redemption, that Christ is said to be "the first-born from the dead." Thus, Paul is saying that Christ has the primacy over the new creation as well as the original creation. Christ is supreme over the universe because He is the cause of its existence, and supreme over the church because He is the cause of its redemption. Thus, we see vividly illustrated the truth that Christ Himself has "first place in everything."
Sixth, the supremacy of Christ is shown in the fact that He rose from the dead. This event is the center of our faith. Believing�that is, cherishing and banking your hope upon�Christ's resurrection so that He will raise you as well to be with Him forever is the belief that brings salvation. It is by banking our hope on Christ as risen from the dead that we are saved. Therefore, make sure that you make Christ's resurrection central every time you present the gospel to people. "...if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved" (Romans 10:9). Too often we preach faith more than we preach Christ. But this is detrimental, for Christ is the object of faith.
Seventh, the supremacy of Christ is shown in the fact that the Father takes great pleasure in Him. We saw this earlier when we explored the Father's love for His Son. This love involves deep delight in Christ. Verse 19 declares, "For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him..." This verse is speaking specifically about the Incarnation: When God the Son became man. The incarnation was not something God did begrudgingly or hesitantly, but something that He was pleased to do.
Notice that this verse says that "all the fulness" of God dwells in Christ. Now this is interesting, because the Bible teaches that it was not all three members of the Trinity who became incarnate in Christ. It is just God the Son who became incarnate. John 1:14 says that "the word became flesh" not the Father or the Holy Spirit. But if all the fulness of God dwells in Christ, doesn't that require that all three members of the Trinity became incarnate? It does not. Rather, it shows us that Christ is fully and completely God. It shows us that the Trinity doesn't mean that God's being is divided up into thirds, like pieces of a pie, one-third belonging to each person. Rather, each Person of the Trinity shares the complete divine essence. All three Persons are fully God. In summary, since all the fulness of deity dwells in Christ, and it is only God the Son who became incarnate, then we see that Jesus Christ is fully God, not part of God.
Eight and finally, don't forget that Christ is happy. We have talked much about how the Father is happy. And this means that the Son must be happy as well. The Son takes great delight in being pleasing to His Father. And surely the Son takes great delight in being glorified through His supremacy over all things. Further, we read in Hebrews 12:2 that "for the joy set before Him [Jesus] endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Jesus went to the cross for the joy set before Him. Since He endured to the end and the cross is now behind Him, He has entered into this joy�which this text seems to say is His enthronement at the right hand of God. So therefore, the exalted Christ, who is now reigning over all, is happy because He has entered into the joy that was set before Him.
So Christ is not bitter, or irritated, or depressed, or mean. He is infinitely happy and joyful. What is amazing is that the joy we experience as Christians is Christ's very own joy. As we believe His word, it is His very own joy that He has as the King of the Universe at God's right hand which we are partaking of. "These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full" (John 15:11).
Now that we have seen the supremacy of Christ in both creation and redemption, it is clear that He is a fully glorious and fully satisfied God � satisfied in Himself. Therefore, we can be confident that there is nothing hindering Him from doing good to us. He doesn't have to use us to shore up needs in Himself before He can meet our needs. And we can be confident that since God is fully satisfied and happy in Himself, He can fully satisfy and delight us. If God is able to satisfy Himself, an infinite being, how much more must He be able to satisfy me! How satisfying it is even to know about God's satisfaction in Himself!
The love of Christ: God is for us
Having come to understand this, we will now take a brief look at the love that God has for us. When I say that God loves us I mean that He is joyfully and passionately committed to our welfare. As the apostle Paul says, "God is for us" (Romans 8:31). Do you believe that about God? It's true. I will briefly point out nine things, mainly from Colossians 1:19-23, which illustrate this so that we can rejoice in and be confident of God's love.
First, the fact that God loves us and is for us is evident from the fact that He took pleasure in redeeming us through Christ. Verses 19-20 in Colossians continue the passage by saying, "For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him, 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." Saving you was very costly to God. Yet He did not do it half-heartedly or reluctantly. He did it because He wanted to. He wanted to because His glory is of such infinite worth that He is willing to go to all lengths to have the joy of making His glory known and enjoyed to you.
Second, the fact that God is for us and loves us is evident from the fact that Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. Verses 21-22 declare "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..." This is similar to Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates His own love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." I'm sure you've all heard this verse. We repeat it so often because it is so amazing. We wouldn't expect God to love wretched sinners like us. But He does. He can do this because His love is not based upon anything in us, but in Himself and His delight in His glory. If you ever start doubting God's love, look at the cross. It is invincible proof that God is love, that He is concerned about and committed to our welfare. I once heard someone say that the cross frees us to be completely open before God with all of our sins and faults. Its true. Because Christ was willing to make the largest possible sacrifice for us�death�while we were yet sinners, we need never fear that God would reject us when we come to Him to confess our sins and inadequacies. He died to save you from your sins, how can you be afraid of coming to Him to be cleansed from them? God already knows everything about you. And the cross proves that there is nothing to fear if you come to Him in faith.
Third, the fact that God is for us and loves us is evident from the fact that He will not withhold any good thing from us. Psalm 84:11 says, "For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly." This is proved by the fact that God gave His Son to die for us. The apostle Paul argues "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?" (Romans 8:32). Amazing! God will not keep back from you anything that is good for you. Therefore the next verse in Psalm 84 says, "O Lord of hosts, how blessed is the man who trusts in Thee!" Let this encourage you to take great confidence in God's providence in your life and trials.
Fourth, the fact that God is for us and loves us is evident from the fact that He causes all things to work together for our good. This is the logical conclusion from the fact that God will not withhold any good thing from us. "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). God works to make sure that everything turns to your benefit! Suffering, difficulties, joys and everything�it is all being made to contribute to your good. And what is that good? Closer fellowship with God Himself by being made more like Christ. God predestined us "to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren" (Romans 8:29). God wants there to be millions, even billions, of people who mirror back to Him the radiant glory of Christ. We will be like mirrors reflecting Christ's glory back to Him and the Father. Christ will be center stage, and we will have immense joy in Him because we will be like Him.
Fifth, the fact that God is for us and loves us is evident from the fact that Christ will present us before the Father in perfect holiness and without accusation. This is one of the good things God plans on giving us. Colossians 1:22 continues "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 purpose of Christ's death for us and saving us is to bring us into His eternal glory, where He will present us to Himself as holy people who are free from any blame. Free from blame: He won't count your sins against you! You will be from all accusation of wrongdoing from your life on earth! Holy and beyond reproach: You will be free from any presence of sin in your heart. And this will be because Christ has justified us and made us to be like Him. How joyful this day will be when we see Christ face to face to be presented before Him! Jude closes his letter with the benediction, "Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen" (Jude 24-25).
Sixth, the fact that God is for us and loves us is evident from the fact that He has made us His children and thus His heirs. God didn't just clear us from all blame for our sins. He made us members of His family. Therefore, we have a close and intimate relationship of love with Him as our Father and with fellow Christians as our brothers and sisters. Romans 8:16-17 is a wonderful passage: "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him." What a powerful verse. Because we are His children, God has given us an inheritance that we will come into when Christ returns. We will be glorified�exalted�with Christ. What a high privilege this will be! And God gave it to us freely.
Seventh, the fact that God is for us and loves us is evident from the fact that He predestined us
to be His children. It's right here in Romans 8:29. "For whom He foreknew He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son." The Greek word "foreknew" in this verse doesn't mean that God merely knew in advance who would believe. The word basically means "chose to love in advance." Thus, the verse is saying that those whom God unconditionally chose to set His love upon, He predestined to be conformed to Christ.
Predestination is one of the highest expressions of God's love because it means that He saved you because He wanted you, specifically. And because it means that God loved you so much that He didn't leave the possibility of your salivation in your own reckless hands. He took action to make certain that you would believe and be saved. Another amazing thing about predestination is the security it gives. For it means that God has always been committed to our good and will always continue to be committed to our good. His plans for you didn't begin when you were saved. They are from eternity and they will last to eternity. There was never a time when He didn't know you, and there is never a time when He will let you fall away (see Romans 8:35-39).
Eight, the fact that God is for us and loves us is evident from the fact that Christ intercedes for us at the right hand of God. Where is Christ now? The New Testament answers: He is at the right hand of God. This means that He has been exalted to the place of highest authority and majesty in the universe and He rules all things for the sake of the church. He has been crowned as king of the universe. What is Christ doing right now? The New Testament answers: Many things, one of which is praying for you. "Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us" (Romans 8:34). It is a very comforting thought to know that Christ, whose prayers are always answered, is praying for us!
Ninth and finally, the fact that God is for us and loves us is evident from the fact that He takes pleasure in doing good to us. Jeremiah 32:40-41 is a very encouraging verse. "And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me. And I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul." Wow! The Almighty, everlasting God is not only working for your welfare, but He is eagerly working for your welfare! He takes great pleasure in doing good to you. He takes great pleasure in doing good to you because He takes pleasure in Himself, and when He does good to you He is acting to make known His glory in your life.
Notice how this verse says that "I will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul." For various reasons, I think that "this land" means heaven. Thus, God is saying that He will bring us to heaven with all His heart and soul. He is looking forward to eternity with us. God wants to be with us. He is excited for the future that He has planned for us! And Christ is not coming back reluctantly, but is looking forward to it because then He will present you to Himself and bring you to your new home in the renewed heavens and renewed earth. Christ will return for us with all His heart and with all His soul.
Therefore, hope in Christ
People, know that God is passionate for His own supremacy and that God is passionate for your joy in Him. Because God is passionate for His own supremacy, we can be confident that we have an all glorious God who can completely satisfy our hearts with Himself. Because God is passionate for our joy in Him, we know that He loves us and is for us, and therefore will act to completely satisfy ourselves in Him Therefore, take joy in Christ. Stand firm in Him. Joyfully trust Him for all your needs. You can trust Him because He is joyfully committed to the welfare of all those who hope in Him. Keep as the focus of your life the pursuit to know Him more and more fully. May we be imitators of Paul, who wrote "I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord..." (Philippians 3:8).
All Scripture quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, copyright1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1975, 1977, by the Lockman Foundation.
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