In this sermon, Pastor Joe Babij examines Colossians 1:15-20 and the apostle Paul’s presentation of the supremacy of Christ. Paul describes Christ’s supremacy in four different relationships so that you will also give Christ first place in your life.
1. Christ Is Preeminent in Relation to God (v. 15)
2. Christ Is Preeminent in Relation to Created Things (vv. 16-17)
3. Christ Is Preeminent in Relation to the Church (v. 18)
4. Christ Is Preeminent in Relation to Redemption (vv. 19-20)
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Summary
We are reminded that Jesus Christ holds absolute supremacy over all things—creation, the church, and redemption—and that this truth is the antidote to every heresy and distortion the enemy brings. Colossians chapter one calls us to examine whether Christ truly has first place in every area of our lives.
Key Lessons:
- Christ is the image of the invisible God—not a mere reflection, but the exact representation of God’s nature, meaning to know Jesus is to know God himself.
- Christ is preeminent over all creation as its origin, sphere, agent, goal, and sustainer—he holds the universe together and is the answer to every question about origins and meaning.
- Christ is the head of the church, the source of all spiritual life and power, and no teacher, angel, or authority can replace him in that role.
- Christ is the great reconciler whose blood on the cross makes peace possible between God and humanity, and who will one day restore the entire universe, reversing the curse of sin.
Application: We are called to examine whether Christ genuinely occupies first place in our homes, thoughts, and daily lives—not just in profession but in practice—and to resist any philosophy or teaching that diminishes or dethrokes him.
Discussion Questions:
- In what areas of your life do you find it hardest to give Christ first place, and what practical steps can you take to change that?
- How does understanding Christ as the sustainer of all creation change the way you respond to fear, worry, or uncertainty in daily life?
- What does it mean for your relationships and witness that Christ came not just to preach the gospel but to be the gospel as the reconciler of all things?
Scripture Focus: Colossians 1:15–22 is the central passage, teaching that Christ is the image of God, firstborn over creation, head of the church, and reconciler through his blood. Supporting passages include Hebrews 1, John 1, Acts 3:20–21, Romans 8, and Revelation 21.
Outline
- Introduction
- The Danger of Heresy and Fictionalism
- True Christology: The Antidote to All Heresy
- Christ Is Central in Colossians
- Christ’s Preeminence in Relation to God
- Christ’s Preeminence Over Creation
- Christ as Origin, Sphere, and Agent of Creation
- Christ as Goal and Sustainer of Creation
- The Glory of God in Creation
- Christ’s Preeminence in the Church
- Christ’s Preeminence in Redemption
- Christ Preeminent Over the Saints
- Application: Give Christ First Place
Introduction
Okay, let’s take our Bibles this morning and turn to Colossians 1. If you do not have a Bible of your own, you can use the Pew Bible, which is on page 1178.
Let’s pray. Lord, thank you this morning because we have the privilege to come here and worship the God who created the heavens and the earth and who has supremacy over all things: creation, the church, and redemption.
Thank you, Lord, that we can place everything in your hands and be safe till the end, because you’ve taken care of everything. But Lord, we know not everybody sees it that way. I pray, Lord, that people would see it that way.
Strengthen us in our faith so we can go through this life in a way that pleases you, gives us opportunity to minister for you, and shows that our life has been changed because we met Christ and his Spirit lives in us and his word has authority in our life.
Lord, I pray as people see that, your name may be uplifted and glorified, and that people would be brought to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray this in your name, amen.
The Danger of Heresy and Fictionalism
This book of Colossians was written to warn against error, which is much in evidence today also. People then believed that between themselves and God was a long line of shadowy beings who demanded worship and pacification, and that Jesus was one of these to get to God.
Whatever Satan uses from his toolbox of tricks, the enemy’s goal is always to distort biblical doctrine and the true Christian way of living. But specifically, the enemy’s ultimate goal and design in any kind of falsehoods is to rob Jesus of his central place and to cloud and distort the true redemptive work of Christ and the person of Christ.
These distortions of truth and heresies want to spoil and cheat you and take you captive and move you away from the true teaching of Christ’s supremacy. If you notice in Colossians 2:8, it says, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the traditions of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”
For example, just recently I read an article called “The Fallacy of Fictionalism.” I’ve never heard of this term before. Basically, it is a trend that is often used by atheists who live their lives and pretend God exists.
By definition, a fictionalist is one who aims to secure the benefits of taking as if certain kinds of things exist, like numbers and moral properties and possible worlds that may exist, or composite objects or whatever, while avoiding a commitment to believing in their existence.
Like an avowed atheist who pretends God exists because it makes them feel better. He doesn’t know God, he doesn’t know how to know God, he may never care even to know God.
For an example, Scott Hersovitz is a philosophy professor and director of Law and Ethics at the University of Michigan. He was brought up in a practicing Jewish home, feels attached to Judaism, prays in the synagogue, feasts on Yom Kippur, has a son studying for the bar mitzvah, and doesn’t believe in God. Neither does his son.
Psalm 14 and Psalm 53 both say the same thing: “A fool has said in his heart, there is no God.” So they’re fools. He recently wrote an essay for the New York Times titled “How to Pray to a God Who You Don’t Believe In.”
His conclusion to his statement in his article was, “I pretend, and I don’t plan to stop. It solves a lot of problems.” Sadly, fictionalism is not confined to one person or one group. Maybe he defined the word, but there are church-going fictionalists, people who are just pretenders. They just go through the motions, they think religion is a good thing.
Just like Philip Goff, a British philosopher and consciousness researcher at Durham University in the UK, says the contentious claims of religion, such as God exists or Jesus rose from the dead, are all strictly speaking false, according to his opinion. Though he doesn’t believe in the doctrine of Christianity, he believes in the practice of faith. He believes the practice of faith is more important than believing in supernatural claims.
For Goff, God is used as a fiction. However, pretending to worship a God or to deny God is dangerous business. According to scripture, the Bible says in Hebrews, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living God.”
It was Warren Wiersbe who clearly observed that this age is the age of syncretism, people trying to harmonize and unite different schools of thought and come up with some kind of superior religious system. They take mysticism and legalism and Eastern religion and asceticism and man-made philosophies that secretly creep into the church, and they try to make something out of it.
They are not denying Christ, at least some of them are not, but they are diminishing Christ and they are dethroning Christ, and ultimately they are robbing him of his rightful place of preeminence.
See, we should never let anybody kidnap us or try to plunder our treasury of truth that God’s given us. We should never allow someone to forsake us of the truth of God’s word, because all that is is just worldly wisdom, half-baked truths that are juicy but they’re just crumbs of human wisdom packaged in words of freedom, which actually turn out to be slavery.
“We should never let anybody kidnap us or try to plunder our treasury of truth that God’s given us.”
True Christology: The Antidote to All Heresy
According to theologian Graham Scroggie, the antidote of all heresy is true Christology. A true Christology is a final answer to every heresy that ever has come down the pike, and it always will be.
The Bible is very plain and clear. The whole essence of the Christian position depends upon the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, from Genesis 1 to Revelation. It’s all pointing to Christ, all of it.
“The antidote of all heresy is true Christology—a final answer to every heresy that ever has come down the pike.”
One theologian said this is the thing that separates the Christian faith from all other religions. Their founders, while important, are not absolutely essential to them. If Buddha had never existed, you would still have Buddhism. If Muhammad had never lived, you could still have Islam.
In other religions, it is the teaching that matters and the person is non-essential. Other persons might have done equally well and the teaching would have remained unaffected. But that is not the case with the Christian faith.
Christianity is Christ himself. He is not just central, he is absolutely vital. Therefore, we have to see that we are concerned primarily and always with him.
Christ Is Central in Colossians
Many who call themselves Christians are not Christians. That is, the person of Christ is not essential to them at all. But the portion of Christ in Colossians teaches about Christ probably to the superlative position of any book of the Bible. It kind of brings it all together.
It has heights of truth and expressions that are beyond compare. Christ is everywhere in Colossians. He is God’s beloved Son, he is God’s mystery, he is the sphere in which our maturity is realized, he is the hidden treasure of wisdom and knowledge.
He is the spirit in which believers live their life, he is the soil in which we thrive, and the arena in which we are built up to become what we were designed to be, all because of Christ. Amen.
“Christ is everywhere in Colossians. He is the hidden treasure of wisdom and knowledge, the soil in which we thrive.”
The key verse in chapter one is verse 18. It says, “He is also the head of the body of the church, he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself will come to have first place in everything.”
Christ is described in scripture as the preeminent one, the supreme one. There is no one like him, there was no one like him, there has been no one like him, there never will be anyone like him.
If you look in scripture and if you’re honest to read scripture, you’ll find Christ is everywhere in scripture. It is all about him, it is all about his work, it’s all about what he has done on behalf of creation and on behalf of the church and on behalf of the salvation of everything. It’s all about Christ.
In chapter one here in Colossians, Christ is described as preeminent in at least four distinct relationships: in relationship to God, in relationship to created things, in relationship to the church, and in relationship to the work of redemption, or the completion of salvation.
Christ is supreme and sufficient for all human needs and does not need any help or addition at all, whatsoever, never. Pay attention, because your spiritual health depends on Christ being essential to you in every aspect of your theology and every aspect of your practical life.
Because it will grow you to become strong in faith, where Christ will have first place in every single thing. Now let’s see what the Bible says. There are actually four or five things, I don’t know how far I’ll get this morning, but I’ll move through them.
“Your spiritual health depends on Christ being essential to you in every aspect of your theology and practical life.”
Christ’s Preeminence in Relation to God
The first one is this: that Christ is preeminent in relationship to God. In verse number 15 of chapter one it says, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Christ as the Image of God
Now, Christ is the image of God, it says here. But the two first words, “he is,” point to Christ being continuously, without end, existing eternally, both in past and in future. And this word “image” has two things to it.
First of all, an image is a representation. It’s just like a coin has an image. The head of a coin is not only a likeness, it is the image of the person it represents, like a president we have on our money—Washington or Lincoln or some other. It is derived from the president and it is a representation of him, it is a copy of him.
But the Bible says that God is invisible because he is Spirit. And we know from the scriptures that a spirit is also a person. The Holy Spirit is a person. So God is an eternal person, he is not limited to a physical body or to material things or to finite conditions or to time.
So how can Jesus be the image of one who has no image? Well, the Bible is speaking of the character of the person, the image of God, the identical mirror image of the attributes and identity of the Almighty God, because Christ himself is God.
So then Jesus is the invisible God made visible. And that is exactly what the demons don’t want people to know. In fact, it says that exactly in 2 Corinthians 4:4, where it says, “The God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
He’s trying to keep people blinded as to who Jesus is. Also, the second thing when it comes to Christ’s preeminence in relationship to God, in this thing of image, is that an image means a manifestation. That if a representation is perfect enough, it can become a manifestation.
It’s like Pastor David preaching in John 1: “The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him.” Jesus has come and showed us in scripture. When you’re reading the four gospels, what do you get? A sense of who God is, what he does, how he thinks, how he responds to people. All those things are there, and that’s for a purpose, so we can get to know God very personally.
Also in John 14 it says, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” And right here in Colossians 2:9, “For in him, that’s Christ, all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.”
So the scripture is definitely stressing that God has come into this world, God is taking on flesh, and now he dwelt among men, he pitched his tent here on Earth, so we can see who God really is.
So you see, the Son bears the exact likeness of God. That means that Jesus is not a mere resemblance or a reproduction or a mere reflection of God, or a mere emanation of God, or even a mere portrait of God. No, there is nothing missing. Jesus is God and shares completely in the fullness of his divine essence.
“Jesus is not a mere resemblance or reflection of God—there is nothing missing. Jesus is God and shares completely in the fullness of his divine essence.”
Hebrews 1 tells us he is the exact representation of his nature. So you see, the Son bears exactly the likeness of God’s nature. The divine image and the nature of God has been stamped on the Son.
So when you see Jesus, you see just what the God of the universe is like, how he thinks, how he talks, how he relates to people. In his word he prescribes the will of God that we can actually know and follow.
So God has spoken, it says in Hebrews 1, of his Son in these last days. So that means that Jesus is the image of God to us only because he is essentially and eternally his image. He always has been, and except we see God as imaged forth in Christ, we do not properly see God at all.
“Except we see God as imaged forth in Christ, we do not properly see God at all.”
Christ as the Firstborn: Supreme in Rank
And because he is God in the flesh, Jesus holds the chief place, he holds the first place in everything. That’s why in Colossians 1:15 it says that he is the firstborn of all creation. Now that’s used metaphorically here to emphasize the honor, the status, the supremacy that is given to Christ.
We see in verse 15 he’s the firstborn over creation. In Colossians 1:18 he’s the firstborn from the dead. In Romans 8:29 he is the firstborn of many brethren.
Consider this for a moment. Before it’s all over, Jesus will come to have first place in every single thing. And if this defines our destination and that of all created reality, ought it not also describe our current journey?
This very Jesus is first in the Father’s heart. In verse 19 it says the Father, because of the Father’s good pleasure, for all the fullness dwells in him. Ought we not to hold this Christ, hold the same position in our own lives, in our own heart, that Jesus has supreme place as the firstborn, meaning that he is supreme in rank in everything?
“Before it’s all over, Jesus will come to have first place in every single thing.”
Christ’s Preeminence Over Creation
A second thing I want you to notice in Colossians is that Jesus should have first place in everything. Why is that? We’ll see that in a minute.
But Christ is preeminent in relationship to created things in verses 16 and 17.
Christ as Origin, Sphere, and Agent of Creation
So why should Christ be first place in everything? Well, there are six things given right here in this section of scripture. The first one is that he is the origin of all creation. It says he is before all things in verse 17.
And in him all things hold together. The pre-existent Christ is the author of all that is created. A second thing is that he is the sphere of all things. In verse 16, for by him all things were created. So in him, by him, denotes Christ as the sphere within which the work of creation takes place.
That means all the laws, all the purposes which guide the creation and the government of the universe reside in Christ. Things were created, they did not evolve. To create is to make out of nothing something. God made his perfect creation out of nothing.
Genesis 1:1-3, the last part of it says that God said, “Let there be light,” and what happened? There was light. And onward and onward. God spoke and it happened.
Also practically, in Luke 8, we see that when the disciples were in the boat on the Sea of Galilee, a storm came up, and these seasoned fishermen were scared to death that they were going to lose their life. Jesus was asleep.
They awakened him, they said, “Master, master, we’re perishing.” And he got up and rebuked the wind and the surging waves, and they stopped, and it became calm. And he said to them, “Where’s your faith?” They were fearful and amazed, saying to one another, “Who is this that he commands even the winds and the water and they obey him?”
Why did they obey him? Because he was their creator. And then in Hebrews 11:3, “By faith we understand the worlds were prepared by the word of God, and that what is seen is not made out of things which are visible.” Wrap your mind around that one for a minute.
Biblical faith has a perception that the universe can be seen, but its origins cannot be seen. The believer knows that the origin of the universe is God himself. But what is the invisible source behind the universe?
It seems the best way to understand that passage of scripture from Hebrews is to take what cannot be seen as parallel to the word of God. In other words, God’s powerful word putting it all together. Really, the sense of the passage would claim that God’s word is an invisible power that produces visible results.
God speaks and there are the results. But the source, I know, is God, but I don’t know how it happens. Nobody knows how it happens, nobody has the answer to that question, nobody. And they’re not going to get the answer.
But I tell you what, that answer is wrapped up and found in Christ. And I tell people all the time that I’m a firm believer in the Big Bang Theory. You heard this? I wait for their puzzled look, and I said, “God spoke, and bang, the universe came into being, and produced visible results of which I can now see.”
“God spoke, and bang, the universe came into being—producing visible results we can now see.”
Romans 1, God made it visible and evident in creation about his divine nature. He made it evident. Everybody was walking around, cannot deny that there is not evidence. There is so much evidence that’s overwhelming. They desire to take the evidence and suppress it, right?
They suppress the evidence of creation and they suppress the evidence of conscience, right? I’m going to shove all that down there because it makes my life uncomfortable to know that I may have to be judged for my life. We all did that until you came to Christ.
And then you understood from the scripture, “Oh, that’s what happened. Oh, that’s who I am.” And you start putting the puzzle together. Faith, because it is based on the character of God, the living God, the invisible God, the God who cannot lie, the scripture speaks of the formation of the universe as God giving the command. What was formed came into being. The universe was formed and then it was seen. How? By the word of God, which we cannot see.
So what this passage in Colossians 1:16 further says, it says, “For by him all things were created, both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.”
Colossians 1:16: “For by him all things were created, both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.”
Things in heaven would be the created heavens, the atmosphere around the earth as well as the universe beyond. Invisible things would be the spirit world, the principalities and the powers, usually referring to the domain of Lucifer, Satan’s dynasty, and not merely earthly kingdoms.
The domain of darkness behind the scene, the mystery of iniquity is working behind the scene even now, setting the world up for what’s coming at the end. It’s not done yet. We’re at the end of the story, but it’s not done yet. God hasn’t consummated everything yet, but the world’s being set up for satanic rule. That’s right. If you read the scripture you would know that, we ought to know that.
The Glory of God in Creation
But now, just thinking about this thing about God creating everything, I remember sitting in my friend’s father’s massive water company truck that had a skylight in it. In the wintertime, my friend and I would take his father’s binoculars so that we could look at the moon and the stars and the planets.
As we peered into outer space, it was with wonder because of the complexity of the heavens. That was also coupled with admiration, because we both thought, just what existed behind the range of our vision? How did it get there? When did it get there?
You may have had the same experience and questions. But I didn’t realize then that I was gazing into the glory of God in the heavens and his handiwork. I was having a David experience, didn’t even know it. Not until I got saved.
Because what does David say? He says the heavens are declaring, or telling, the glory of God, and their expanses declaring the works of his hands.
Today, as I look at the space photos taken by the Hubble telescope, I am even more amazed at the wonder, the beauty, the mathematical structure of the universe created by God. The very orderliness and design of the universe still speaks very loudly of God’s awesome majesty and wisdom.
I don’t know if you did this, but my wife Jane and I caught the most recent lunar eclipse. We got up at five o’clock in the morning to see that, and it was perfect. The night was clear, everything was there.
But all I kept thinking, standing looking at this eclipse, is that it just affirms the orderliness of the created heavenly bodies. God did that, and everything is working like a clock, everything’s on schedule.
Somebody who says I don’t believe God is a fool, just as the scripture says it. When we come to scripture, we find out who made all these things. John 1, again, right? It says the Word made them. The Word is Jesus Christ. And it says all things came into being through him, and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being.
“The very orderliness and design of the universe still speaks very loudly of God’s awesome majesty and wisdom.”
When I first read that passage of scripture, I was shocked by it, because I never really connected that Jesus created everything. You may have not made that connection either, not until you got into scripture and found out what it says about him.
Now, if you go back to verse 16, there’s a third thing. It says there he is the agent of all things. It says all things have been created through him. One linguist made a good point. He said that Jesus is not in all things, like some people believe, but all things are in him. Jesus is not in the tree. Through him describes Christ as the immediate instrument of creation.
Christ as Goal and Sustainer of Creation
Also, number four, in verse 16, he is the goal of creation. It says, “For him,” which describes that Christ is the goal. It’s for him all of creation was created.
But notice in verse 17, fifthly, he’s the sustainer of creation. It says, “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” This is the principle of cohesion in the universe, that God is the unifying band which encompasses everything and he holds it together.
This applies to the largest things, to the smallest things, to the visible things, to the invisible things. He did not create and then abandon his creation. He spends time with it, as it says in Hebrews 1, he upholds all things by the word of his power.
The Son is the sustainer of all things. Jesus did not create and then let his creation continue on its own. But he upholds it, he bears it, he supports it. Jesus actively exerts his divine power in the conservation of creation, by keeping it from sinking back into its original state of confusion and nothingness.
“Jesus did not create and then let his creation continue on its own—he upholds it, bears it, supports it by his divine power.”
Some people have called this that he is the nuclear glue that keeps it all together. Christ keeps the cycle of nature in order that we depend on so much. We expect the sun to come up the next morning, right? We expect the sun to go down in the evening. We expect certain things that are a given because of creation.
He prevents the atoms from splitting at the wrong time. We all know what happens when atoms are split, right? They have destructive force that we’ve discovered, massive destruction it can cause. Christ creates life, he allows death. That means he is the king of creation.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of creation. The prophet Jeremiah said this: “It is he who has made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding he stretched out the heavens.” Jeremiah 51:15, that’s what it says.
So brethren, because of the understanding we are given in our text about Christ, we never have to give in to fear or to worry or to doubt and be shackled by those things. Our God, who has all things under his control, he will safely guide us through this life to our eternal home.
We need to stop once in a while and look up and catch a glimpse of his glory and majesty, not only in the heavens but in the word of God. If you do that on a regular basis, your earthly concerns will not seem so daunting. This life won’t seem so worrisome or confusing, because Christ is taking care of it.
“If you look up and catch a glimpse of his glory on a regular basis, your earthly concerns will not seem so daunting.”
Christ’s Preeminence in the Church
The third thing is that Christ is preeminent in the church. If you notice in Colossians 1:18, it says very clearly, “Christ is the head of the body, the church.”
He is the head of the body of the church. That means that the God-man is in a living spiritual relationship to the church, his body. All spiritual life and power of the church are drawn from Christ. He is the head, and this construction indicates he himself, and there is no other.
The one who is the creative center and focus of the universe and the source of its cohesion is also the head of the church. Therefore the stress is always Christ, and no one else is the head.
Who is the church? The church is the assembly of believers, called out from darkness to light. All true believers in Christ, those chosen before the foundation of the world, called out of the world by regeneration and conversion, and those given a new heart and the indwelling Holy Spirit—that’s what he’s talking about when he’s talking about the church.
The church is the body of Christ and Christ is the head. The body is servant of the head and is powerless without the head. Just like if we lopped off your head this morning, you would lose all power, all control. Christ is the head, it can be no different.
But that’s exactly what the false teachers are denying, and it has always done so. If you notice in Colossians 2:19, these false teachers were not recognizing Jesus as the head. That’s why Paul writes in verse 19 of chapter 2: “not holding fast to the Head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with the growth which is from God.”
In other words, Christ was not essential to them and to their teaching. Christ was not supreme to them, Christ was not preeminent to them. He was just one of many emanations or angels, that’s all he was.
But Christ is the head and supplies the church with energy and with life. He also exercises authority over the church and guides it and directs it by his word and his spirit. Because Jesus is the creator and organic and ruling head of the church, then the church is in no sense whatever dependent on any creature or teaching or angel or power or authority. It is all about Christ, he has all that.
“The church is in no sense whatever dependent on any creature or teaching or angel or power or authority—it is all about Christ.”
Christ as Head and Beginning of the Church
Also, Christ is the beginning of the church. In verse 18, Christ is the beginning, which means that Christ is supreme in rank. He is the origin and source of the church’s life.
In verse 18 it also says Christ is the firstborn from the dead. He is first in rank when it comes to the resurrection unto life. Christ is first to come from the dead in true resurrection life, never to die again.
That’s what he says to us in the Gospel of John: “I lay down my life, I can take it back again. I have the authority to lay it down and I have the authority to take it back again.” And that’s what he did. He laid his life down and he took it back again in the resurrection.
The promise is that you who believe in Christ, who are saints, would be resurrected to live with him. Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even if he dies. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”
That means Christ is supreme in all lordship. In verse 18, at the end of the verse, it says “so that he himself will come to have first place in everything.” Nothing in life or death can bind him. He has the preeminence in creation, he has the preeminence in the church, and he has the preeminence in redemption, which we’re going to see here in our text.
John 11:25: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even if he dies.”
Christ’s Preeminence in Redemption
That means the Creator and Redeemer are one and the same, the all-powerful God in Jesus Christ. A fourth thing we see in our text is that Christ is preeminent in redemption.
In verse 19, notice what it says: “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Christ.” That means Christ is the God-man permanently, and he came into this world because it was the good pleasure of the Father to send him, to be the second Adam, to be the one who would live a perfect life in obedience.
Because he lived that perfect life, he would be the one who would go to the cross to die for sinners like you and I. So he’s the God-man permanently.
But he is also Christ the great reconciler. Look at verse 20: “And through him to reconcile all things to himself.” Jesus will reconcile all things that exist, once for all, permanently.
This very word reconcile means to transfer from one state to another, to a quite different state. It means to effect a thorough change. Jesus will also bring peace. It says in our text, “having made peace,” which means he will bring peace in harmonious relationships. It will be a restoration of the universe and a restoration of relationships.
The Blood of the Cross and Reconciliation
How will this change take place? How will this restoration take place? Well, it’s going to take place in our text in verse 20. It says, “Having made peace through the blood of his cross.” That’s how the change takes place.
It means by means of Christ’s blood on the cross, all these things are going to be restored or reconciled. Without the cross, Abraham couldn’t have been saved unless it was the cross. Moses couldn’t have been saved unless it was for the cross. The cross had to happen for their salvation, as it is our salvation.
Everything’s pointing—Old Testament, New Testament—all pointing to the cross. They’re looking forward, we’re looking back, but it’s all about the cross. Everything is going to be made peace by his blood.
Jesus did not just come to preach the gospel; he came to be the gospel, to pay the price, to redeem the church with his own blood. Therefore he took upon himself the form of a man, and as a man he had to die. That’s why he became a man.
But there first must be a death before there could be a resurrection, and only death could pay the penalty for sin. That’s all over scripture. The only one who is able, who is willing, and who is qualified to die in the place of sinners and pay their penalty is Christ Jesus, who is the creator and Redeemer.
“Jesus did not just come to preach the gospel—he came to be the gospel, to pay the price, to redeem the church with his own blood.”
Sin ruined everything in heaven and on earth, in the whole universe. The curse came upon everything. Jesus’ death on the cross changed everything.
Christ is the aim and the purpose and the objective point in the whole plan of creation and the whole plan of salvation.
“Christ is the aim and the purpose and the objective point in the whole plan of creation and the whole plan of salvation.”
The Restoration of All Things
Christ as the reconciler will restore the whole universe. I want you to take your Bibles and turn to a passage of scripture in Acts 3:21. We did read that today, but I want to focus on just one section there, because this same word that Paul uses in Colossians about Christ being the reconciler is the same word that Dr. Luke uses in writing the book of Acts.
He’s unfolding here the future of salvation. Notice in verse 20 he says, “And that he may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you.” Then in Acts 3:21, “Whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things.”
Let me stop for a minute. Heaven must receive Jesus—that’s the ascension. That’s when Jesus went back to heaven, right? So what is he doing in heaven? He’s reigning and ruling, right? Till the end of the age. It says in Matthew that all authority has been given to him in heaven and on earth until the end of the age.
In Matthew, he is calling people to himself while he’s in heaven. He is interceding for us in heaven. He is preparing a place for us. So he is in heaven now, seated at the right hand of the Father. His work is done as far as creation and redemption.
But he’s also waiting to restore all things, and this process will come in the end. If you look at verse 21, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God, will come back into this world. He is talking here of the return of Christ.
He will come as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He will come riding the clouds of heaven, surrounded by an innumerable host of holy angels and redeemed saints. And why is he coming? He’s coming to reconstitute all things.
Christ will come back to reconstitute the universe. There is the word restoration, which means to place things back in their former condition. He’s going to reverse the curse, in other words. That’s what he’s going to do. Jesus is going to do that.
Ephesians says this: “Summing up all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth.” Philippians says this: “By the exertion of power he has even subjected all things to himself.”
Now why must he do this? The fall of man into sin brought chaos upon all of humanity and upon the whole universe. The universe was cursed because of Adam’s sin and rebellion, and yes, because of our sin and rebellion.
When the curse came, it brought disease, thorns, briars, war, murder of all kinds, social disorders, earthquakes, hurricanes, and the wearing down of the whole creation. That’s why we have what we have today—because this whole world is wearing out like an old garment.
You want to call it global warming, global cooling, global anything, it’s wearing out. And why? We live on a disposable planet. It’s just temporary. And that’s exciting to think about.
Because Paul says in Romans 8: “For the anxious longing of creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, because of him who subjected it, in hope.”
When God sends his Christ, his Son, again into the world, he will send him back to put things right again. Messiah was to lead the whole universe from bondage to paradise. In Christ it will be delivered and restored again.
In Romans 8:21, “The creation itself also will be free from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pain of childbirth together until now.”
What does Peter tell us? “The heavens will be destroyed by burning and the elements will melt with intense heat. But according to his promise, we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”
Then we come into Revelation: “Then I saw the new heaven and the new earth, and the first heaven and the first earth passed away. It’s gone, and there’s no longer any sea.” In Revelation 21:5, “He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’”
Revelation 21:5: “He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’”
He will restore the universe, but he will also restore relationships. The scripture, like Romans 5, says, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son.”
And then in Colossians 1:22, it says, “Yet he has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death, in order to present you before him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.”
Christ became a curse for us so we can be saved. We were bought with the price, the precious blood of Christ. This could never have happened if Jesus did not shed his blood on the cross. By the shedding of blood he made peace with us and with all of creation, so he can come back and restore it and make it new. That’s the hope that we have. There’s no greater hope.
“By the shedding of blood he made peace with us and with all of creation, so he can come back and restore it and make it new.”
Do you realize, if somebody says they don’t believe Jesus is God, they have no idea what they’re talking about? All you have to do is bring them to this passage. This is not just the carpenter, this is not just a good teacher, this is not just the example to follow. This is the supremacy of Jesus Christ as God in the flesh, ascended into heaven, seated at the right hand of the Father, coming back again.
He’s coming back for us. That’s something to be thankful for. If you’re going to be thankful for anything this week, you have to be thankful for that. Even if you don’t have a turkey, you may have a ham, whatever you have. All these things come from the hand of God.
Christ Preeminent Over the Saints
And so one other passage: that means that Christ is preeminent over the saints. In verse 20 it says, “In him you have been made complete, and he is the head over all rule and authority.” He is the head of the church and of every individual saint in Christ.
And since this is true, let him have first place in your life. If you never received Christ as your Lord and Savior, then you are already rejecting the Almighty God himself. Is that what you want? I hope not.
Especially when rejecting him means that there will be a resurrection also of unbelievers, and it will be a resurrection to damnation. And why is that? Because a person dies in their sin and they remain under the condemnation and judgment of their sins. God must hold them responsible.
“If you never received Christ as your Lord and Savior, then you are already rejecting the Almighty God himself.”
Right now, if you’re in that condition, right now is the time to repent, turn from your sin, and pray and ask Jesus to save you. He is the Savior and he is the Lord, and he will do that. That’s why he came into this world: to seek and to save that which is lost.
Application: Give Christ First Place
But if you were a Christian this morning, can it be that we are putting ourselves ahead of the Lord? We do live in a self-centered society. Everything’s about self. Everybody’s making selfies and all that. It’s about self, me, me, me. What can I get? If I don’t have any benefit to it, I don’t want it.
Do we put Christ first in our home, or do we close the door on godly behavior as soon as we close the door of our home? We’re a different person. Does Christ have first place in our thoughts, in our imagination, or are we always thinking about ourselves? That needs to change.
In light of this passage this morning, Christ must be essential. He must have the first place in everything. And because he is our caring Creator and our merciful Savior, and because Jesus Christ is Lord, he must have the first place.
I read the story about a man named George Truett. He was a pastor visiting someone he knew, a very wealthy oil man in Texas. After dinner, the oil man took the pastor to his roof and showed him.
He said, “Listen, I came into this country poor, penniless. If you look in front of me, you’ll see the oil fields and the oil derricks. I own all those. Twenty-five years ago I came here penniless.”
Then he looked to the other side. He said, “Here, see these fields of grain? I own them also.” Then he pointed to his herds and cattle and said, “I also own those. I’ve worked hard since I came to this country and I made a life for myself. I own all that you can see north, south, east, and west.”
He paused and expected the pastor to praise him. But to his astonishment, the pastor laid his hand lovingly on his shoulder, pointed upward, and said to him, “My friend, how much do you own in that direction?” The man dropped his head in shame and said, “I never thought of that.”
We are privileged to be Christians. Don’t ever take that for granted. But remember, we’re growing. Christ is first in everything, and when he is, you will find that your peace and your joy will be intact.
“Christ is first in everything, and when he is, you will find that your peace and your joy will be intact.”
When your peace and your joy are not intact, look for sin, because you become first and not Christ. Let’s pray.
Lord, this morning I thank you again for the awesome passage of scripture that describes who you are in your preeminence. What a privilege to have this even come into our ears as human beings, to know that you are the God who’s done all these things.
You are the God who is preeminent in creation, preeminent in the church, preeminent in salvation. You will bring everything to consummation. I pray that in our life as Christians, you would always have the first place. Grow us to that point, Lord, so we bow before you in worship.
I pray, Lord, you would guard our heart and mind, that we not let any person rob us of those truths. Bless us now, Lord, as we go our way and as we meet with family and friends this week and gather around a Thanksgiving dinner, whether we’re home or not.
Lord, let us remember how thankful we ought to be for so great a salvation. I pray this in Christ’s name, amen.