The Incomparable Christ

What does the scripture say about who Jesus is?

Continuing in our collection, Above All Earthly Powers, Ben Stuart walks us through Colossians 1:15-23 and shows us that Jesus is not simply a good teacher. He’s our Creator and our Savior.

Read Colossians 1:15-23

Jesus is the Lord of Creation. Colossians 1:15

If you want to know who God is, look at Jesus. (Gospel of John, 2 Corinthians 4:6, Hebrews 1:3)

Arius taught that Jesus was a created being and therefore denied the deity of Christ based on verse 15. However, this is proved false by the way the word is used in other texts. Exodus 4:22 says that Israel was the firstborn among nations, but Israel wasn't the first-ever nation. In Psalm 80:27 it says that He will make him (David) his firstborn, but David wasn't the first king. When you take a word apart, you don't always get closer to the meaning of the word. Sometimes, you get further from it. Firstborn in the Bible means the pre-eminent One, the One who inherits all the Father has. The Council of Nicea brought the Bishops together, and they determined that begotten does not mean made. It means that Jesus was saying that he was the same as God, the same substance.

For by Him, all things are created. Colossians 1:16

There is not a created thing that Jesus did not create. In heaven or on earth, visible and invisible. Paul is acknowledging that there is an unseen world, but it was created by Jesus and for Jesus. There was no secret knowledge that you have to have to truly know God like the false teachers were claiming. You don't need anyone else's help because you know the One in charge and created it. We were made BY Jesus and FOR Jesus.

In Him, all things hold together. Colossians 1:17

We exist because He allows it. He is the Creator, Sustainer, and end goal of all things. He is not a prophet, a remarkable man, or our homeboy. He is the pre-eminent One. There is no one like Him.

Laws govern the universe because there is a Law Giver of physical and moral laws. This makes you have to deal with the power of Jesus. He's either the stone you build your house on or the stone you stumble over.

In Colossians 1:18-23, Paul moves from the cosmological to the soteriological (what Jesus did for us).

He's the Head of the Body, the Church, and the beginning. Colossians 1:18

He is Almighty and intimate. He created the world, and yet we are known on a cellular level. He is the Lion and the Lamb.

He is the firstborn of the dead. Colossians 1:18-20

Jesus has all the fullness in the Father, all the fullness in the Son, and all the fullness of the Spirit. The Triune God dwells in Jesus. All things reconciled to Himself through the blood of the Cross. There was a massive dislocation between God and His Creation when we broke faith in Him. When He saw that happen, Jesus stepped in to save us through His sacrifice on the Cross.

You were alienated and hostile to Him. Colossians 1:21

We pushed Him away and rebelled. He wants us to trust Him. It's not a secret knowledge that we need, His Gospel is being preached all over the world. We are lost, and the Creator of all, the One that holds all things together, has come to save us.