Home | Meeting Times | Directions | Contact

South Woods Baptist Church

• Welcome
  • Pastor's Welcome
  • Meeting Times
  • Directions
  • Sermon Schedule
• About
  • Our Leadership
    • Our Elders
    • Our Deacons
    • Our Pastoral Staff
  • Our Beliefs
  • Our Covenant
  • Our Connections
  • Our Calendar
• Ministries
  • Sunday School
  • S.T.I.N.T.
  • Missions
  • Music
  • Children
  • Youth
• Resources
  • Sermons
  • Orders of Worship
  • S.T.I.N.T. Audio
  • Articles
  • Reviews
  • Newsletters
  • Bookstore
  • Links
  • Library
• Search

Home > Resources > Sermons > Colossians

THE GLORY OF CHRIST TO THE REDEEMED

COLOSSIANS 1:18-20

JULY 25, 1999

 

At the heart of every cult, heresy, or aberrant Christian group is an unorthodox view of either the person or work of Jesus Christ, Sometime groups will be quite biblical in their view of who Jesus Christ is, but fail to embrace the biblical teaching of what Jesus Christ has accomplished. Other groups will twist and distort the clear teaching of Scripture concerning the person of Christ, denying either his deity or humanity or confusing some aspect of his personhood.

 

It was this kind of heretical teaching which was affecting the work in Colossae. The young believers were confused about Christ and consequently, confused about their salvation and ongoing sanctification, So the best way to address it, according to the Apostle Paul, was not to spend his time talking about the heretical teachers, but to focus their attention on the glory of Jesus Christ to the redeemed. Once they grasped the biblical teaching of Christ, they would no longer be intimidated and affected by the false teachers. They could press on in their spiritual walks unencumbered by the weight of confusion which had been laid on them.

 

I have little fear that any among us would drop out of church and begin following the teachings of the Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses, cult groups which have an aberrant view of Christ's person and work. But I do have a concern for all of us in relationship to what the Bible teaches concerning Christ. Our biggest danger is taking for granted that we understand orthodox teaching about Christ, almost presuming upon a full grasp of it. When this happens, we tend to lose something of the wonder and awe which should continually fill our minds when thinking of Christ. We will consequently look for experiences outside of Christ to satisfy us, thinking that there is nothing else in the well of truth concerning Christ to satisfy our thirsty souls. Let us learn to always look to Jesus Christ for the deepest satisfaction of our souls.

 

With this in mind, I want us to focus our attention upon what our text says concerning Jesus Christ, how it describes him, so that we might be filled with the wonder and glory of our great Redeemer.  

 

1. Christ, Head of the Church

 

(1) What do the metaphors, "Head" and "body" convey? That will help us to understand the organic relationship between Christ and the church.

 

"Head" (kephale) is a common metaphor used of Christ. In this instance it conveys the idea of rule, or the one who gives direction and meaning to the body, It also expresses the concept of the body living in dependence upon the head. No body can function without a head.

 

By using these terms we are reminded that the church is more than an organization; it is an organism, fully alive, functioning under the authority of its head. This concept must penetrate our thinking about the church. Otherwise, we will find ourselves having a low-view of what the church is. It is a living organism which we need; which must not be neglected; of which we are a part.

 

The head and body work together in unity. They are not pulling in different directions; which would be an absurdity. The unity of the church with Christ can only be found on his terms, the revelation of Scripture concerning the church.

 

Curtis Vaughan says the metaphor of "the body" suggests three things:

 

a. "that the church is a living organism, composed of members joined vitally to one another.

b. that the church is the means by which Christ carries out His purposes and performs His work.

c. that the union which exists between Christ and His people is most intimate and vital" [Colossians: A  Study Guide Commentary, 41].

 

(2) As a body, the church is to function. We have responsibilities, varying on what part of the body we might be, but responsibilities nonetheless. Paul amplifies this idea in First Corinthians 12 where he shows that each person is placed in the body as God intends and that each is important to the overall functioning of the body. Ephesians 4 adds to this by showing us that each part of the body contributes to the overall health and vitality of the rest of the body. And of course, the body is never to function independent of the Head!

 

What does this say about how you are to view the rest of the church?

What does this suggest about your own responsibilities in the church?

What does this imply about how you personally are to relate to Christ as a member of the body?

 

Does this help to make Hebrews 10:25 come more alive in its implications?

 

(3) The church is to find her direction from her Head, Jesus Christ. The word "Head" emphasizes the actual rule of Christ over the church. The previous text, 1:15-17, demonstrated how Jesus Christ is the sovereign ruler over all creation. Here the emphasis is that He also rules over the church. We might stress that this rule is somewhat different due to the relationship we have with Christ by His initiative and through His redemptive work.

 

How do we find the Head's direction in practical terms? This is where we must give attention to the New Testament revelation concerning the church. Christ has not changed his mind over the past 2000 years about the church! When there are areas that are not covered in clear precept in the NT, then look for a biblical principle for direction. If no principle, then we trust the direction of the Holy Spirit to guide us into the way of obedience. This relates back to the prayer of 1:9, being filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

 

2. Christ, first in rank

 

The phrases, "And He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead," are somewhat parallel in meaning. Both imply the idea of Christ being first in rank or priority , with both pointing to His rule and authority over the church.

 

(1) By virtue of Christ's pre-existence, he is first in rank to the church. This is the implication of the term "beginning" (arche), which when used in a figurative sense, it points to Christ as the one who is pre-existent, the one in whom the church originates, the one who has the creative initiative (that is his leadership) in the church.

 

This term strikes at the heart of the false teaching in Colossae by pointing to the pre-existence of Christ, rather than him being subsumed under creation. It is similar to 1:17 but in this case points to the view that the church is to have of Christ.

 

Note the repetitive value placed upon the pre-existence of our Lord. Do you give much thought to this? Or do you just think of him as coming into existence in Bethlehem? As mere created beings, we are exhorted by this text to give thought to the eternality of Christ, that he is unlike us in His divine nature. That is why it is such a wondrous thing to contemplate his becoming (note contrast with 'beginning') a man (flesh).

 

(2) By virtue of his resurrection, Christ is first in rank to the church. "The firstborn from the dead" points us to the reality that Christ alone is the one who has conquered death, but having done so vicariously, we follow in his train of accomplishment. The word "firstborn," like that of its use in 1:15, points to "first in rank." But here it is an active sovereignty over the church because of the resurrection from the dead. Christ has conquered for us! We therefore gladly submit to his authority over our lives in all things. 

 

The implication of the "firstborn from the dead" also is a word of encouragement about the future resurrection of the redeemed. Cf. I Corinthians 15: 19-26.

 

(3) This idea of Christ, first in rank, is not simply a position which he has assumed that has no real bearing on our lives. Instead, it is a functioning preeminence for the believer. It implies that we are to live consciously with the thought that Jesus Christ holds first place in my life in all things. Thus the purpose clause of 1:18: "so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything." Do you see why this truth is not just a theological phrase to banter? It is a living reality: Christ has the preeminence in my life!

 

I believe this has the most practical application when it comes to our ongoing sanctification. How are we to live as Christians? Are we simply to make professions of Christianity, but live like everyone else in the world? Of course not! We are to live with the reality that He who has conquered death on our behalf is the one unto whom I am living. This affects the value we place on the things of the world (temporal, material issues) about us; it affects our morals and ethics; it affects the way we use our time (what are we putting before our relationship to Christ?); it affects how we make decisions in life.

 

3. Christ, the totality of God

 

In this string of weighted theological explanations concerning Christ, Paul says of our Lord, "For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him." Note that Paul had no hesitation with these young, rather immature believers, to set before them meaty theology concerning Christ. They could not pull out of the confusion in which they found themselves unless their theological foundation was strengthened. So he returns to this statement on the deity of Christ.

 

Just how much of God is in Christ? That was a question which was asked and argued in the first century and the succeeding centuries. Some said that Christ had a little of God in him, an emanation from God, but that he was not totally God. Others said that he only had in him a 'God-consciousness', which is a similar idea espoused by some New Age thinkers today.

 

Our part of the world may not ask this question as much, though other portions of the globe still ask this most-important question. But we are still affected nonetheless due to the low view that people have of Christ. Is he God in the same way that the Father is God?, we might ask some in our own community. I think we would surprised by the answers which some might give: 'Oh, well, he is not God in that way, but he is God' or 'He cannot be God like the Father because he is the Son'.

 

But the emphasis on the word "fullness" is totality; "Everything that God is, Jesus is" [Rick Melick, NAC, 224]. There is nothing of the character, attributes, being, or essence of God that is not in Jesus Christ! What a statement! While being fully human, with all the characteristics of humanity with the exception of sin, Jesus Christ was at the same time fully God. "It was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him." "Father" is not in the original Greek, but is implied by the context. The three Gospel passages about, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased," ring out in this statement. So it tells us that God was well-pleased to become a human. "Dwell" means a permanent residence. Christ continues today as the God-Man, our representative in heaven. So the statement is both an affirmation of the deity of Christ and of His humanity. Why is this truth, the Incarnation of Christ, so important?

It is true that the Incarnation was a great mercy on the part of God: an infinite condescension and an astonishing stoop of grace. God was not bound to take such a step; he did it in the freedom of an unnecessitated love. For fallen man by his rebellion had forfeited the natural outflow of the divine benevolence and now called down upon himself only the divine wrath for sin. Yet once God had purposed to save men from the eternal result of their fall, the Incarnation became a necessity and not an option. It was man who outraged the justice of God by sinning, and it was man who was bound to honor the justice of God by bearing and paying sin's true penalty. It was man who needed to be holy and righteous before God if man was to live with God forever. Hence God became man that as man He might atone for sin and meet the requirements of a holy God with a perfect righteousness and a holy obedience.

 

Consequently our redemption, even by God, was impossible apart from the incarnation of God. How could God, who is Spirit, suffer for the sins of man, who is flesh? How could God take upon Himself all human suffering and the penalty for sin in human experience without entering human physiology and human psychology and human spirituality? It was a human penalty he had to bear; therefore it was a human nature He had to acquire. The sin-bearer must be a true member of the race that fell. [Peter Lewis, The Glory of Christ, 141-142]

This truth connects Christ with his divine mission of reconciliation. For, as we have just noted, unless he was fully qualified both as God and Man, then the reconciliation could not have taken place; man would have still remained forever in his sin.

 

4. Christ, the Reconciler

 

Paul explains the reason for "all the fullness" dwelling in Christ, "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." We have the great affirmation that Jesus Christ did not come to earth to merely be an example or to do good deeds or to ease the sorrows of a few people or to make life easier for those who met him in Israel. He came to reconcile all things to Himself! This is similar in thought to what Paul explains in Romans 8:18-25, in which we are told that Christ is the end of all things; that all things await the ultimate consummation of the work of Christ in the ages; that all creation anticipates the restoration of all that was marred and lost in the fall.

 

(1) The use of the term "reconcile" points to a breach in relationships. The word implies that there is a hostility between two parties and the need to bring them together. We might use this term in reference to trying to bring the Orthodox Serbians together with the Muslim Kosovars (quite an impossibility!). They are both at enmity with each other. It is not a one-sided issue if you study it historically.

 

We do not have to look far in Scripture to discover the need for reconciliation! Genesis 3 and the fall of man sets the stage for man's need for reconciliation to God. Throughout the OT and NT we are brought face-to-face with the separation and even hostility between man and God.

 

We must understand that on man's part, he is hostile toward God; and on God's part, because of his righteousness and man's sinfulness, God is hostile toward man. There is enmity between God and man. Man's hostility is sinful because there is no just reason for him to be in rebellion against God nor to hate God nor to disobey God the Creator. On God's part, though, the hostility is just, for man has violated his holy law, which therefore requires a divine response to man's sinfulness. That response is justice, the divine wrath.

 

(2) We have this pictured for us time and again in the OT. When the high priest offered a blood sacrifice to atone for the sins of the people of Israel before God, he was in effect satisfying the requirement of God so that these people might be reconciled to God. Old Testament atonement carried the concept of reconciliation. When we come to the NT, we have the word reconcile or reconciliation used in numerous places. They convey the underlying idea of an atonement being made so that man might be brought into a right relationship with God due to the justice of God being satisfied (propitiated). Reconciliation required a price of blood.

 

(3) The effect of "the blood of the cross," which was the price of reconciliation God required, was two-fold:

 

a. man's enmity was removed; that which separated him from God was taken out of the way vicariously through the bloody death of Jesus Christ at the cross;

 

b. God was fully satisfied by the bloody, sacrificial, atoning death of Christ at the cross; this therefore removed the wrath of God which was aimed at the sinner.

 

Morris sums up the meaning of reconciliation:

It is the consistent teaching of Scripture that man could not overcome the cause of the enmity. The barrier which the sin of man had erected the wit of man could not find means to remove. But in the death of Him whom God 'made sin' for man the cause of the enmity was squarely faced and removed. Therefore a complete reconciliation results, so that man turns to God in repentance and trust, and God looks on man with favour and not in wrath [p. 249].

The result of reconciliation is that Christ has "made peace through the blood of His cross." Peace is not just the absence of hostility between man and God; as though there was some kind of cease-fire. Much more, it is a sense of well-being. Perhaps it is best summed up by the hymn-writer who declared, "It is well with my soul." That's what peace means, it is well with my soul, my relationship to God has become whole, I'm no longer on the receiving end of God's wrath but now his gracious blessings.

 

Ultimately, "all things" are reconciled to Christ. This does not mean a universal salvation, which the Scripture clearly speaks against. Basically, I believe he is saying that what was marred and lost in the fall is eventually brought back into its pristine condition through the reconciliation of Christ. Even the natural order is affected by the death of Christ on the cross. For all of creation has been marred by the fall and the entrance of sin into the world. Ultimately, all things will be brought to their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. He is the end of all creation and redemption. Rick Melick offers a superb summary of this clause:

Reconciliation must be defined in this context, therefore, as all things being put into proper relation to Christ. Those who respond to his voice will be brought into a relationship of grace and blessing. Those who oppose and reject him will receive eternal punishment involving removal from God's blessings and the active outpouring of his judgment. In the end, everyone and everything will be reconciled in this sense. Everyone and everything will be subordinated to Christ [p. 227].

Cf. Philippians 2:5-11 for a good parallel statement on this truth.

 

Conclusion

 

Jesus Christ is everything to those who are reconciled! Do you have this burning in your own heart? Is there the consciousness that Jesus Christ is your all in all, your joy and life, the one who owns your deepest affections?

 

Christ came to reconcile sinners to God. Is this your need? Then flee to Jesus Christ and the satisfaction of his sacrifice on the cross. Find eternal refuge in Him whom all the fullness of God dwells.

3175 Germantown Rd. S. | Memphis, Tennessee | 38119 | (901)758-1213