Outline
I. Introduction
II. Transition
III. CIT/CIS: Christ is Supreme.
IV. Exposition
a. Christ is supreme in creation. (vv.15-16)
i. His glory is the chief aim of creation.
ii. His glory is the chief aim of human history.
iii. His glory is the chief aim of redemptive history.
b. Christ is eternal. (v.17)
i. Hebrews 7:3.
ii. Early Church Heresies and Modern Misunderstandings.
c. Christ is supreme in the Church. (v.18)
d. Christ is supreme in salvation. (vv.19-23)
i. I shall state this point negatively, according to what we do not have without Christ. Without Christ there is no:
1. Recovery of what we lost.
a. God’s image (Imago Dei)
b. God’s perfect fellowship.
2. Removal of the misery incurred at the fall.
a. Eternal Death. (Separation)
b. Present Curse. (Suffering)
3. Obtaining our true and proper happiness.
a. Man was made for God.
b. Christ alone brings present and eternal bliss.
e. Christ is supreme in the purpose of man.
i. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, (Psalm 86) and to enjoy him forever. (Psalm 16:5-11). (Westminster Shorter Catechism)
ii. Christ makes man’s purpose possible.
V. Conclusion
“The Supremacy of Christ,” Colossians 1:15-23
Colossians: Our Identity in Christ, Part-2
Introduction
In a discussion of the supremacy of Christ, what is “The real issue before us? It is this: Have we, or have we not, an authoritative revelation of God in Jesus Christ? We have no such revelation unless his life is actually the unveiling of deity. It was a wonderful thing that Jesus Christ did for religion – nothing less than the rediscovery of God.” Christ is supreme in the universe. Christ is supreme in the world. Christ is supreme in the Church. Christ is supreme in our lives.
Often we neglect the supremacy of Christ in our lives and disregard His supremacy in the world and in the Church. We get lost in the maze of religious machinery or we get sidetracked from His supremacy for lust of our own.
Transition
This morning we’ll look at what is perhaps the most central matter with regard to the prevailing theme of the book of Colossians – finding our identity in Christ. In fact, the book of Colossians is chiefly about finding our identity in Christ because of the supremacy of Christ. We are His and in Him and He is supreme.
CIT / CIS: Christ is Supreme.
Exposition
The supremacy of Christ is the very aim of creation. (vv.15-16) A lot is made these days with regard to the manner of creation. Is the Genesis account of creation a literal account? What about the purpose or highest aspiration of God in creation?
Creation cries out the glory of God. This is a theme well attested to in the Scripture. It really needs no elucidation. However, what are we to make of the glory of God in the fall of man almost immediately subsequent to creation?
God in His sovereignty decreed and allowed the fall of man into sin so that Christ could be glorified at the Cross. Listen, God doesn’t play guessing games. Even the fall is within the scope of sovereignty and its highest aim is the glorification of the Son at the Cross, in the Resurrection, and unto eternity!
The glory of Christ is the chief aim of creation. This is precisely because God the Father is glorified through God the Son through the suffering and pain of the Cross, the glory of the resurrection, and the eternal reign of the Son through the Church and in eternity. The suffering of the Son brings glory to the Father!
The suffering of Christ highlights the love of the Father. The suffering of Christ at the Cross highlights the mercy of the Godhead. What I’m saying is simply this: creation, even and especially in its fallen state, cries out the glory of God through the suffering and redemption of the Church through the Son.
Against the backdrop of pain and misery the grace, mercy, reconciliation, and healing of God shines like a white-hot burning ember amidst the ashes.
The glory of Christ is the chief aim of human history. Think not the progress of redemption in the historical account of the Bible to be the record of aimless wondering. The word that we use to describe the study of the incidences of the past, history comes from the Greek word historia which is derived from the Greek verb hisore, which means to learn by inquiry or investigation. When one makes inquiry of the nature of the happenings, the incidences of the past, it quickly becomes apparent that God has had His hand on the guidance of human history.
In fact, it is a troubling factor in modern culture of America. Oversimplification and ignorance of our past, the meaning of the founding documents and framing principles of this great land of ours has led to a relative disdain for the very things that made us a people of hope, liberty, and every increasing freedom.
The chief end of man is the glorification of God. The chief end of God in human history is the glorification of Christ. History is moving along steadily toward the goal and ultimate consummation of the perfect Lordship of Christ.
“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11 NIV84)
This passage is the earliest Christian creed. It acknowledges the exalted place the Savior now occupies and the universal bowing in the future to His Lordship.
The glory of Christ is the chief aim of redemptive history. The glory of Christ is not only the chief aim and ultimate end of human history; it is presently the chief aim of redemptive history. We are a mission minded church and for that I am most grateful. In fact, we are never nearer the heart of God than when we go and send for the sake of gathering the nations in response to the Great Commission.
Why? Why can I say that and you not question it? Why do we accept that as true? Missions and soul winning are near the heart of God because those endeavors of the church that seek to call sinners to repentance create worshippers who call attention to the supremacy of Christ!
* Salvation is not the act of making Jesus lord but bowing in repentance to His Lordship! The difference between those two statements is a whole lot more than the placement of a few nouns and verbs in a sentence. In salvation I don’t crown Him as King. I come weeping into the throne room of glory and beseech the King for the grace that I know He offers to His subjects.
In the Wizard of Oz Dorothy and her companions sought the wizard because of his wonderful reputation but the reputation turned out vastly different than the reality. It is not so with Christ. He is the King of Kings! The Lord of glory! He has need of nothing and no one yet… He brings glory to Himself by loving me.
The supremacy of Christ is such that as one writer put it, “Without Him the world is only an “all-devouring grave” an “eternal cud-chewing monster,” a giant organism, which down to the smallest and minutest details is, indeed, regulated with exactness and with a purpose, but in its vastness and totality has as its very motto that it is without goal and without purpose.”
Apart from the glorification of Christ human history has no purpose and redemptive history is without aim. With Christ there is indeed purpose.
The passage goes on to draw attention to the supremacy of Christ my noting that He is eternal. (v.17) Similarly the writer of Hebrews writes “Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever.” (Hebrews 7:3 NIV84) Jesus is no self-help guru. He is the invisible eternal God.
Christ is supreme in the Church. (v.18) Suffice it to say that my personal prosperity, my immediate happiness, and the continuance of our institutional preferences and predilections are not at the center of supremacy in the Church.
The glory of Christ alone is supreme in the Church! All that we do, say, believe, teach, preach, and practice must be centered on ascribing worth to Christ. * I am not here describing a work that must be accomplished but a state of mind, heart, and soul that God invites us into. Peace comes from resting in Christ.
Resting in Christ comes from knowing the supremacy of Christ. When He is first in my heart I am comforted in affliction because I am comforted with His presence. When He is first in my mind I am free from fear because His glory sustains me. When He is first in my soul I am at peace because His presence brings harmony.
Christ is supreme in salvation. (vv.19-23) I shall state this point negatively, according to what we do not have without Christ. Without Christ there is no:
(1) Recovery of what we lost. In the fall man lost the perfection of the God’s image (the Imago Dei). Because of the gluttony of sin man’s soul is distorted, twisted, and out of shape. The image of God was defaced by sin.
I wrote an article for a certain online theological journal a year ago based on the biblical idea that a chief aspect of salvation is the work of God restoring His image in us. In I wrote “Jesus’ death on the cross does provide atonement for our sin, but God’s purpose in salvation is not primarily our good. His purpose in salvation is essentially to glorify Himself through Christ and ultimately in us. As such, we are free to delight in His worth as His children and give ourselves over completely to trust in Him.” In us God is at work in us restoring His image in us – His holy image.
We don’t talk enough about holiness in the churches today but it is the basis for fellowship with God. In the fall we lost perfect fellowship with God and in Christ God restores us to right standing and we can know God and enjoy fellowship with Him. When I am in Christ I can relate to God on the basis of son ship.
The other day I was watching the tractor pull at the Suffolk Peanut Fest with 3 of my children. A man asked “Are all these youngin’s yours?” I said yes. He said, I figured, especially because that looks just like you.
(2) Removal of the misery incurred at the fall. Apart from Christ the misery that we incurred at the fall is ever present with us. Without Christ we are lost in eternal death. (Separation) Without Christ our present sufferings are worthless.
(3) Obtaining our true and proper happiness. But with Christ we are able to obtain our true and proper happiness. Man was made for God. Christ alone brings present and eternal bliss. It is tragic that so often we seek through Christ the same ends of the world. We seek the same things as the world. But our purpose is not the same as those that are in the world.
Christ is supreme in the purpose of man. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, (Psalm 86) and to enjoy him forever. (Psalm 16:5-11). (Westminster Shorter Catechism)
Conclusion
Sometimes we get it terribly backwards in our minds and hearts. While it is true that Christ is like God. It is more accurate to say that God is like Christ. When we are godly it is fair to say that we are looking like, living like, behaving like God or in a manner befitting our God. Oppositely, when Christ appeared before men God stood in their midst. Jesus is like God because in Christ God crashes into creation!
When we behave in keeping with the attributes of love, truth, generosity, compassion, steadfastness, and so on – when we behave like God – creation mimics the creator. When Jesus displays godly character it is because that is His character. In Christ humanity gazed into the eyes of God veiled in mortal orbs.
In Christ creation looked into the eyes of eternity. Jesus is not the representation of God in flesh the way that George Washington is depicted on a quarter. Saint Augustine of Hippo said that “God is more truly imagined than expressed, and he exists more truly than is imagined.” God in Christ confounds our imagination.
It is not enough to say that God is in Christ in the same way that I am in my sons. They have my DNA. They may have a mark of resemblance. They may even behave like me, (surely Christina wishes they would not), but that isn’t a strong enough analogy in the case of God in Christ.
Jesus is eternally existent with the Father. In only a chapter Paul is going write t “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.” (Colossians 2:9 NIV84) The head of the Church is Christ and in Christ is the mystery and majesty of the incarnation of the eternal, all powerful God of creation. Why do we dismiss Christ as an appendage to our religion?! Why are so filled with fear, doubt, faithlessness, and a lack of prayer when our connection to Christ is connection to Him who reigns supreme, sovereign, sufficient for all things?
I was once given a Holy Spirit empowered dream when I was 14 in which I looked into the eyes of Christ. I was walking behind him calling in my anger and confusion when Jesus turned and pierced my soul with His gaze. His words were reassuring but His penetrating gaze transformed me. Refocus your gaze for when you look into the eyes of Christ you look into the blazing eyes of eternity, authority, supremacy. Amen.
