Christ Is Supreme
Colossians 1:15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
16 for through him God created everything
in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through him and for him.
17 He existed before anything else,
and he holds all creation together.
18 Christ is also the head of the church,
which is his body.
He is the beginning,
supreme over all who rise from the dead.
So he is first in everything.
19 For God in all his fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,
20 and through him God reconciled
everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.
23 But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News. The Good News has been preached all over the world, and I, Paul, have been appointed as God’s servant to proclaim it.
Paul wrote the letters to the Colossians from his prison cell in Rome to combat the false teachings that had infiltrated the church body. The issue was 'syncretism,' combining ideas from other philosophies and religions with Christian truth. The resulting heresy became known as "Gnosticism,"(gnosis in Greek) emphasizing 'special' knowledge and denying Christ as God and Savior. To battle this devious error, Paul stressed Christ's deity, his connection with the Father, and his sacrificial death on the cross for sin. Only by being connected with Christ through faith can anyone have power for living. Christ is God incarnate and the ONLY way to forgiveness and peace with God the Father. Paul also emphasized believer's connections with each other as Christ's body on earth.
As I read Colossians, I see an embattled church, much as the church today. For heresies creep in today's church - human disciplines of thought permeate many Christians' faith. I must stay in the God's Word-connected to our Lord, Jesus Christ.
This Easter season, I read Colossians for its timeless truths, to gain a fresh perspective and appreciation for Christ as the fullness of God and the only source for living the Christian life.
"Our task in the present...is to live as resurrection people in between Easter and the final day, with our Christian life corporate and individual, in both worship and mission, as a sign of the first coming, and a foretaste of the second." (N.T. Wright, in Surprised by Hope)
Yesterday I was crucified with Christ;
Today I am glorified with Him.
Yesterday I was dead in Christ;
Today I am sharing in His resurrection.
Yesterday I was buried with Him;
Today I am waking with Him from the sleep of death.
(Gregory of Turkey/329-389)
