The Great Creator
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We are entering upon a most wonderful portion of Scripture. It has several very vital things to say, both about Christ, and about us, the servants of Christ. It magnifies redemption through the Blood of Christ, and places emphasis upon Christian living, and its final glorious consummation.
1. By Him were all things created. If we were to ask the question, "Who created the heavens and all things?" some would doubtless say that God created them. That would be correct, for the Bible says, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." However, the word God (Elohim) is in the plural, and refers to the Triune God.
It is correct to say that God the Father created all things; it is also correct to say that God, the Spirit, created all things. Have you not read "Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created"?
It is also true that God the Son created all things. In the Book of Hebrews it is written, "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands." When we think, therefore, of Jesus Christ, we must think of Him as the Creator. Have we not read that man was created in the image of God? It is for this reason, that the Bible says we have borne the image of the earthy.
2. By Him were all things created, that are in Heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible. Here we have the marvelous scope of creation. It includes not only those things which we see with the naked eye, such as the sun, and the moon, and the stars, but it also includes innumerable heavenly bodies which lie far beyond the naked eye, yea, far beyond the strongest telescope.
Under the things created by Jesus Christ, unseen by man, are dominions, principalities and powers. These have to do with things heavenly. They include angels, and their ministrations; they include Satan, and his whole regime. Back of them all is Jesus Christ, and all things were created by Him,
3. All things were created for Him. Not only were all things created by Him, but they belong to Him. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. So also are the sun, the moon and the stars His, and all their fullness.
4. He is before all things. This statement (Colossians 1:17) only emphasizes and enforces the statements of Colossians 1:16. He is, of necessity, before the things which He created. To the Jews, Christ said, "Before Abraham was, I AM." In the Old Testament we read, "Yea, before the day was I AM." Thus it is that we might say, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
5. By Him all things consist. The word "consist" means "held together." We are accustomed to calling it "gravity." It is, supposedly, gravity that keeps all of the countless myriads of worlds in their place. However, what is gravity? We plainly state, Christ is gravity. He once said, "I am the Resurrection, and the Life." We say that He is gravity, because God says in effect, "In Him all things are held together."
I. CHRIST, THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH (Colossians 1:18)
1. The Church is an organism. Some people think of the Church as an organization, that it is man-made and isolated from any contact with God. The Bible conception is entirely different. The Bible describes Christ as the Head of the Church, and each of us as members of the Body.
We cannot operate apart from Him, nor can He operate apart from us. We are, therefore, as stated in First Corinthians, "Labourers together with God." In Ephesians there are these words, "That we * * may grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ: from whom the whole Body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth."
2. Christ is the Head of this organism. The head stands for headship. Headship stands for authority, and power, and for control. Every one of us, as members of the Body, are under the authority and guidance of the Head. We are to act and move as the Head directs.
We would that the church of today would recognize the supreme Headship of Christ. Headship in our day has been too often taken away from Christ, and vested in an individual, or in a group of individuals.
3. The Head of the Church is He who is the First-born from the dead. How wonderful is the One who holds authority over us! We can almost see John, on the isle of Patmos, as he hears the voice of the Lord Jesus, saying: "I am the First and the Last! I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."
With such a living and victorious Head, the Church has nothing to fear. Christ, the Head of the Church, is the Conqueror of death and of hell. We, too, shall live, because He also lives.
II. THE PREEMINENT CHRIST (Colossians 1:18, l.c.)
1. Christ is preeminent in Heaven. He is one with the Father in this preeminence. How marvelous are the magnificent scenes of Revelation 4:1-11 and Revelation 5:1-14. There we behold the throne and He who sits upon it. There we see the Lion of the tribe of Judah, standing before the throne, as the Lamb who had been slain. Around and about the throne, were the four living ones, and the four and twenty elders.
Beyond them, were an innumerable number of angels, ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; and they were saying: "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created."
In all of this, we see the preeminent Christ in the glory and preeminence which He had with the Father before the world was.
In the fifth chapter of Revelation, the same group surrounds the throne. They ascribe an added glory to the Lamb, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing."
2. Christ is preeminent on earth. Our verse says that in all He must have the preeminence. We grant you that for the time, the men of this world have revolted against Him. There are thousands, yea, millions, who blaspheme His Holy Name. We read, however, in the Book of Philippians, these words: "That at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." All of this is written because "it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell." Thank God that of His fullness have we all received, and grace for grace.
III. THE CHRIST OF THE CROSS (Colossians 1:20-21)
1. Christ made peace through the Blood of the Cross. Here is a wonderful statement, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God." When Jesus Christ died upon the Cross, He brought us back to God.
In Ephesians, it is written: "At that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the Covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the Blood of Christ. For He is our peace." The result of the peace made at the Cross, we mention next.
2. Christ reconciled us by the Blood of the Cross. Our sins had separated us from God. The Lord, however, on Calvary, suffering, the Just for the unjust, settled the sin question. We who were enemies, became friends. We who were alienated, were bought back and given access to God. Thank God for this blessed truth. We now may approach the Father upon the basis of the Blood of Christ.
3. The time when all things will be reconciled. Colossians 1:20 says, "By Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in Heaven." What a wonderful perspective there is here. Jesus Christ will reign until He hath put all things under His feet.
When every unrepentant and unbelieving foe of God shall have been cast out into everlasting darkness; when Satan and all his hordes shall have been delivered into chains of darkness, even to the lake of fire and of brimstone, then, without a vestige of sin or rebellion left, there will be perfect peace, perfect reconciliation, and perfect comradeship between God and man.
All things in Heaven, and all things in earth, through the Blood of the Cross, will be reconciled. This is the perspective which lies before us; as we consider it, we rejoice.
IV. THE PRESENTATION OF THE SAINTS (Colossians 1:20-23)
1. A presentation which awaits the saints of God. Colossians 1:22 reads: "To present you * * in His sight." There is a time coming when we must all appear before Christ. This time is described in Thessalonians, where we read: "Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him."
In the Gospel of John, Christ said, "If I go * * I will come again, and receive you unto Myself."
Paul tells us of how the Lord shall descend from Heaven with a shout; of how the dead in Christ shall arise first, and of how we who are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
This will be a marvelous hour. It is the hour of our Rapture. It will be wonderful to us. It will be wonderful to Him. Wonderful to us as we behold His face, and enter into His glory. Wonderful to Him as He beholds the marvelous heritage of His Cross.
2. A presentation, holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. To be so presented we must continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which we have heard. This Scripture does, in no wise, offset the fact that in Christ, clothed with His imputed righteousness, we shall be saved from wrath and made inheritors of the saints in light.
In Second Corinthians it is written, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, * * whether it be good or bad."
V. REJOICING IN SUFFERINGS (Colossians 1:24-25)
1. Saints are called to minister. Paul, in the last clause of Colossians 1:23, says: "Whereof I Paul am made a minister." Colossians 1:25 opens with the same words: "Whereof I am made a minister." The Holy Spirit evidently wanted to emphasize the fact of Paul's Apostleship. A minister is one who serves.
Paul was a minister who served in a very large way. He speaks of how, in his day, the hope of the Gospel had been heard by the Colossians, and had been preached to every creature which is under Heaven.
2. Saints are called to suffer as they minister. So far as Paul was concerned, he rejoiced in his sufferings, desiring to fill up that which was behind of the afflictions of Christ. Paul did not mean that the Calvary work of Christ was not a finished work. He did mean exactly what Christ meant when He said, "If they have called the Master of the House Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of His Household?"
The soldier of his country dare not expect to be forever free from fighting; nor need he expect to escape the deprivations, the dangers, or even the death that belongs to war.
3. Saints should suffer for the body's sake. If we suffer for the Church, we suffer for Christ. It is still true, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" The Lord thus showed that He and His Church are one. Therefore, if we suffer for the body, we suffer for the Head of that body.
VI. THE HIDDEN MYSTERY (Colossians 1:26-27)
1. The Church itself was a mystery hidden from the ages past. The time came, in the mysteries of God, in His dealings among men, that it was necessary for Israel to be broken off, temporarily. God set her aside, as His agency to make Himself known to men.
The eleventh chapter of Romans discusses this matter. It shows, however, that not only was Israel broken off, but that the Church was grafted in.
The Old Testament Prophets prophesied Israel's downfall. They also prophesied Israel's final restoration. They did not see, however, that during this age, which has now spanned twenty centuries, God would be making Himself known by the Church, which was the Body of Christ.
2. The glory of the mystery concerning the Church is Christ in us, the hope of glory.
(1) Christ and the individual possess one life. This is true for the simple reason that Christ and the individual believer are indissolubly linked. An earthly parent may die, and his son may live. Or, the son may die, and the father live. Their lives are two lives.
We, however, cannot die because Christ is our life.
It is the analogy of the vine and the branch. No one can say, the branch begins here, and the vine ends there, because the two are woven and interwoven, linked and interlinked. As a result, the life of the branch is in the vine.
(2) Christ and the Church, which is His Body, possess one life. The head cannot live apart from the body, nor the body, apart from the head. The one is subject to the other, and joined to the other.
Ephesians tells us that we are "fitly joined." It is for this cause that Paul writes that the mystery of the Church, a mystery hid from the ages and generations of the past, is "Christ in you, the Hope of Glory."
VII. THE PREACHER'S MESSAGE AND AIM (Colossians 1:28)
1. The preacher's message. After we read in Colossians 1:27, of "Christ in you, the Hope of Glory": we continue reading in Colossians 1:28 : "Whom we preach." In other words, Paul preached Christ, and he preached Him as the One who died for sinners, and as One who indwells saints. He preached Him as the Hope of Glory.
Christ should always be the theme of the pulpit. On a certain church, there were words written on the corner stone, "We preach Christ." Some vines, however, had grown up, which covered the word "Christ," and caused the inscription to read, "We preach."
Alas, alas, how often is this true in these days of apostasy! Let us cease to preach ourselves, our own reasonings, and let us begin to preach Christ.
2. The preacher's warning. Here is the way it reads: "Warning every man." He who would be faithful to his flock, must warn them of the dangers which lurk in their pathway. He must warn them lest they succumb to the tempter, and miss those marvelous rewards which await the faithful.
3. The preacher's teaching. Our verse speaks of "teaching every man in all wisdom." The preacher must do more than the evangelist; more than the exhorter. He must be a teacher. He must teach those things which concern the victorious life, the glories of his Lord, and everything which concerns the Gospel once delivered.
4. The preacher's preaching, warning, teaching, should have one thing in view. He does all of these things, according to our Scripture, that he "may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." God pity the pastor who can do no more than present newborn babes to his Lord.
Babyhood, in Christ, should present but the beginning of our work. The passion of the pulpit should be the perfecting of saints.
AN ILLUSTRATION
In this study the Cross holds a vital place. Our Creator is our Saviour; His Blood is our ransom.
Shed for many for the remission of sins (Matthew 26:28).
Dr. George L. Robinson in his book concerning the archaeological discoveries in the land of Edom about the City of Petra, tells of visiting a hot spring called the Bath of Pharaoh, near Tafila, south of the Dead Sea.
The native men, he says, sacrificed a kid and a lamb, cutting the throats and allowing the blood to flow into the bubbling water. Then after much shouting and emotion, they leaped into the bloody mixture and plunged beneath the reddening flood.
The idea of propitiatory sacrifice still lives in these lands of hallowed memories. Dr. Robinson said that as he watched the proceedings, there came to him the old lines of that great hymn,
"There is a Fountain filled with Blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that Flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.