Word for Today: Saturday, February 2, 2013

Colossians 1:15-29 Supremacy Of Christ

Memory Verse Colossians 1:18(KJV)

 “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence”.

Yesterday we saw Paul’s prayer and thanksgiving for the Church in Colosse and we learnt about three basic Christian principles- faith in Christ, Love for others and Hope for an eternal rest. As Christians, we shouldn’t relent in praying for the church and other believers. Paul never stopped praying for the church in Colosse verse 9, this is a good example for us to imitate. Today, we are going to study about the supremacy of Christ. By now we should know that Jesus is superior over everything and every being because we treated that in our study of Hebrews.

There are three truths to note in this passage

•        Jesus is the firstborn of all creation vs. 15 and the firstborn from the dead vs. 18

•        Creator and saviour of the world vs. 16

•        Human and divine

Let us look at verse 15-18 which is in line with John 1:1-5 and what we studied in Hebrews. Jesus came down to earth taking our human form. He came to represent God to man, bringing God to us. Although Jesus came in human form and was born of a woman, he was before time began. He was present even before the formation of the earth, and through him all things were created.

Knowing Jesus created everything gives us such a great confidence when we are overwhelmed by problems or when we are being persecuted by people that are stronger than us. The power that the devil possesses was given to him by God, so why should we be afraid of the devil and his agents? We have a saviour who is superior and we are his children, he has given us authority over the evil ones (Luke 10:19)

Jesus is the glue that holds the world together. Ever wonder what holds the earth and all the other planets in place? Verse 17 gives us the answer.

The church is the family of God, just like our own biblical family, we have a head and our head is Jesus. Without the head, the rest of the body cannot function; the head is where the brain and other vital organs reside. In short if the head of a person is cut-off, he dies almost immediately. As the body of Christ, we need to look up to our head (Jesus) constantly. Read Ephesians 1:19-23

Verses 20-22 tell us about the purpose of Christ death. The two-fold purposes to the death of Jesus on the cross are:

•        To bring creation back to its original beauty and grace. Roman 8:19-23

•        And to reconcile mankind to himself and with one another. Verses 21-22

Through the disobedience of Adam, sin came into the world and we were alienated from God. This wasn’t God’s intention for man, and God loved us so much to leave us in this wretched state hence his son Jesus dying to redeem us back to God.

Now that we know we are no longer strangers to God, let us therefore continue in our faith and hope in God. God bless.