| Understanding the Christ, Part 4: The Revelation of Christ as God in Colossians 1:15-20 (concluded) |
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| Written by David Lawrence |
| Monday, September 18 2006 00:00 |
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(We continue our study at Col. 1:18) Paul asserts that Christ stands at the first rank of everything, preeminent over all. He writes “so that in everything he might have the supremacy”. His supremacy extends to everything in creation and to the realm of the dead. There is no nook or cranny in this universe over which Christ is not supreme! Then Paul adds that it was God’s pleasure (his sovereign, free, unencumbered will) to have all His fullness dwell in Him. The idea is that Christ is all that God is; there is no attribute of God the Father that is not to be found in God the Son. Such is an important idea for the pagans who searched for some expression or manifestation of the divine. In the incarnate Christ the divine is full and complete. Paul continues the thought of the good pleasure of God, saying that it pleased God to reconcile all things to Himself. Again Paul makes sure that we understand the comprehensive nature of all things, for often all in Scripture means all within a category or all without distinction rather than all without exception. But here it is indeed all without exception: He specifies all things on earth and all things in heaven. Christ also has made peace by His blood shed on the cross. Here we have a view into another great mystery. The atoning sacrifice of Christ served to provide complete and full salvation for all God’s elect, but its effect is far more extensive, for it serves ultimately to reconcile all of creation. Paul speaks of this reconciliation as a completed fact, but we await the restoration of all things to see it fully realized from our perspective. He continues by discussing in detail our own personal reconciliation after our original alienation and enmity with God. In our next study we shall examine an important text regarding Christ from the second chapter of the Colossian letter. |
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