(Audio version; Music: "You Are My King" by Phillips, Craig & Dean)
Introduction
When Jesus
told his disciples, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the
Father except through Me (Jn 14:6),” what do you think He meant by that? Do you
think He meant that there are multiple ways to heaven? No that can’t be it
because He said the He is the Way. Do
you think He meant that truth is relative? No that can’t be it either because
He said He is the Truth. Do you think
He meant that there is more than one means to gain eternal life? Nope that’s
not it either because He said He is
the Life. And when He said “no one,” did he mean a select few? How about one
very holy and righteous person? No I don’t think that’s what He meant? Do you
know why I think that? Because if that’s what He meant, then that’s what He
would have said. But He didn’t say that. What He did say was that NO ONE
gets to the Father except through Him!
It is Jesus and nothing and no one else. Every week it seems like a new group
of zealous unbelievers charges me with arrogance for repeating this claim by
Jesus. They want to know who I think I am to make such an arrogant claim of
exclusivity. No matter how many times I tell them that the claim was made by
Jesus Himself, they still think it’s something I have developed on my own. I
don’t lose much sleep over it because I realize that unbelievers are blind to
the Way, the Truth, and the Life so they have a perspective derived from ignorance.
Do you want to know something I do lose sleep over? When Christians, and
especially prominent Christians have this same ignorant perspective.
I try to
steer clear of offering too many public opinions about complex politics matters
because my expertise is Christian theology and carpentry not geo-politics. So I
try really hard to stay in my lane. After listening to the President of the
United States speak at the National Prayer Breakfast this week, I really wish
he would stay in his lane. As someone who claims to be a Christian, I have
never heard so much theological garbage in my entire life. He spoke about the
moral equivalency of all religions, while relying on peoples’ ignorance of
world history specifically as it relates to Islam and Christianity. He also
praised the equivalent value of all faiths. However, he did muster the courage to
chastise Christians for arrogantly insisting that they are the sole purveyors
of divine truth and that God can speak to people of all faiths. I can tolerate
unbelievers for their foolish perspective but when Christians and especially
prominent Christians vomit out the same bilge, it lights my fuse! So before you
get too excited about this make-believe god the President seems to believe in
while rejecting the exclusive claims of Christianity, let me remind you (and
the President) what the Bible says about King
Jesus Christ.
Subject Text
Colossians 1:15-20
15He
[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For
by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were
created by him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him
all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the
church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in
everything he might have the supremacy. 19For God was pleased to
have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile
to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making
peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Context
It seems that
every time you read one of the New Testament epistles, the writer appears to be
correcting some type of false teaching or false belief and Paul’s letter to the
Church in Colossae is no different. The Church there was experiencing what was
commonly referred to as religious syncretism. The practice attempted to combine
orthodox theology, pagan religious practices, secular philosophy, and personal
opinion. I swear if I didn’t know Paul was writing to the believers in Colossae,
I’d say he was writing to us today! The Church in Colossae was being deceived
by people who couldn’t accept that Jesus was the Way, the Truth, and the Life and
that He was the Only way to the Father. They had to invent another way; an
easier way; a way that was more inclusive. The false teachers and deceivers had
to invent a gospel message that wouldn’t force people to change their
previously held belief structures. They wanted to retain the theological
concept of “God” as unseen and unknown so as to be able to encompass a broad
spectrum of belief structures. However, Paul was having none of it because the
incarnation of Jesus Christ no longer allows for a theological concept of a God
who is unseen and unknown.
Text Analysis
15aHe is the image of the
invisible God.
Systematic
theology is like the process of putting a puzzle together. Theologians put
together the various pieces of God that are presented throughout the Scriptures
to reveal a picture of the characteristics of God or to better understand His
methodologies for interacting with His created order. It is a long and
difficult task so when we come across a statement like the one we find in v. 15a, it is an opportunity to breathe
a sigh of relief because it removes a significant amount of analysis from the
process of systematic theology. With one fell swoop, Paul provides perfect
clarity about who God is. The believers in Colossae didn’t have to let
themselves be deceived by the religious relativism and religious syncretism of
the deceivers in their midst. Very simply, God became incarnate in the person
of Jesus Christ. From the incarnation of Jesus Christ to our present day and
hereafter until the end of time, any reference to “God” can only be referring
to Jesus Christ. I want you to understand something very important; something
that is an essential belief if you want to call yourself a Christian: Any other
concept of “God,” no matter how good it feels or how wonderful it sounds, that
competes with Jesus Christ, is a lie coming right out of Satan’s handbook of
deception! If you can’t commit to the exclusivity of Jesus Christ as the “image
of the invisible God” then you cannot claim to be a Christian. You can pretend
to be a Christian. You can even act like a Christian. But I promise you that a
day will come when you will hear those awful words from Jesus when He says: “I
never knew you. Away from me you evildoers (Mt. 7:23)!” “We should not begin
with an abstract concept of deity nor with the historical Jesus but with the
living God incarnate in Jesus the man. I see Jesus not simply as a historical
figure accessible to historical and scientific research but as the Word made
flesh, the paradox of Eternity entering time at a particular point and place in
history. This Jesus Christ is accessible—not to the probings of the historian
nor to the speculations of the theologian but to the petitionings of the humble
and penitent, who simply believe even as they try to understand”[1]
For more on the deity of Christ, see a four part series on the Son of God at: http://seredinski.blogspot.com/2011/10/son-of-god-pt-1.html,
http://seredinski.blogspot.com/2011/10/son-of-god-pt-2.html,
http://seredinski.blogspot.com/2011/11/son-of-god-pt-3.html,
and http://seredinski.blogspot.com/2011/11/son-of-god-pt-4-conclusion.html.
15bThe firstborn over all
creation.
Since Jesus
became incarnate, theologians have attempted to explain what Paul was trying to
say in v. 15b. Unfortunately,
misinterpretations have given birth to one heresy after another. Most notable
of these was the Arian Heresy that taught that Jesus was a created being with
reference to the word translated “firstborn.” You can find remnants of this
heresy in today’s Jehovah’s Witness cult. The Council of Nicea in 325 AD and
the Council of Constantinople in 381 AD were convened specifically to clarify
and establish the uniqueness of Christ and the official position of the Church
with respect to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Instead of understanding this
part of the verse as an ontological reference to Jesus, we should understand it
as a positional reference to Jesus. Specifically, Jesus held the position of power and authority normally
associated with the firstborn son in the Ancient Near East culture of Paul’s
day. “Colossians 1:15, which calls Christ ‘the first-born of all creation,’ is
better understood to mean that Christ has the rights and privileges of the
‘first-born’—that is, according to biblical usage and custom, the right of
leadership or authority in the family for one’s generation…So [this verse]
means that Christ has the privileges belonging to the ‘first-born’ but with
respect to the whole creation.”[2]
For more on the Trinity of God, see the three part series on Defending the
Trinity at: http://seredinski.blogspot.com/2011/12/defending-trinity-pt-1.html,
http://seredinski.blogspot.com/2011/12/defending-trinity-pt-2.html,
and http://seredinski.blogspot.com/2011/12/defending-trinity-pt-3-conclusion.html.
16For by him all things were
created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones
or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.
17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
I suppose
the worse the deception, the more the truth has to be reinforced. Paul
continues to describe the deity of Jesus in vv. 16-17. Although Jews readily understood the God of the Old
Testament to be the Creator of all things, most ancient cultures also believed
that the world was created by some form of divine creator. It wasn’t until our
present age that created beings suddenly became so self-enlightened that they
were convinced that all things came into being by accident and not by the power
of an all-powerful Creator. However, Paul knows the truth that God is the
Creator of all things and he uses that truth to make an additional connection
between Jesus and God when he says that all things were created by Jesus for
Himself. Paul is using the principle of transitivity in this verse and in
essence is saying: ‘If God is the Creator and Jesus is God, then Jesus is the
Creator. Therefore, if Jesus is the Creator then by necessity He had to exist
prior to all creation. And if He has the power to create all things then it is
not unreasonable to believe that He has the power to sustain all of creation.
“[Jesus] is the cause, and the world is the effect. [Jesus] is unlimited, and
the world is limited. The Creator is self-existing, but creation is entirely
dependent on Him for it existence…Christianity holds that creation was out of
nothing [Latin: ex nihilo]: [Jesus]
brought the universe into existence, and He sustains it. [Jesus] is infinite,
necessary, and eternal; creation is finite, contingent, and temporal. Hence,
there is a real and radical difference between the uncreated Creator and the
created creation.”[3]
18And he is the head of the body,
the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that
in everything he might have the supremacy.
There’s a
reason that believers are called Christians and v. 18 tells us why. Because we are part of the Church and Jesus is
the head of the Church. Jesus is the head of the Church because he is the first
to die and rise from the dead for the benefit of all those who believe. And all
those who believe become members of the Church. As such, Jesus has conquered
the final enemy of humanity and is sovereign over that as well. This can be a
complicated concept and difficult to follow. I’ll try to make it as simple as I
can. We have already established that Jesus is the Creator of all things.
However, Jesus was not the Creator of sin and evil. Sin and evil is, in
essence, disobedience to the Creator’s created order. Creation by necessity
means the birth of something new; it means new life. Sin and evil, however,
introduced something God did not intend as part of His created order—death. Not
just physical death but the death of relationship between God and His creation.
God is the author of life not the author of death. However, God will not
relinquish sovereignty over His creation to something He did not create.
Consequently, God did the only thing He could to take control of death, the
supreme enemy of humanity. But first, God had to deal with the creator or
death—sin, because God cannot simply ignore sin. Therefore, God became
incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ and paid the price Himself for sin and
died on the cross in humanity’s place. However, after three days in the grave,
Jesus rose from the dead as the “firstborn from among the dead.” Here again,
the reference to “firstborn” is not intended to be an ontological reference but
a positional reference. Through His resurrection, Jesus now has the power and
authority over death. However, not referring to earthly death but more
specifically referring to the death of relationship with God. Jesus’
resurrection now gives Him the authority of reconciliation with God. After all
is said and done, Jesus is the Author of life and the Redeemer of sinners
destined for eternal death; eternal separation from God. Like Jesus’
resurrection, all those who follow Him are now able to experience the same
resurrection to eternal life at the final judgment. “Jewish theology, following
the hints of some Old Testament passages (esp. Dan 12:1-2; Ezekiel 37), viewed
the resurrection of physical bodies from the state of death as an
eschatological event, signaling the coming of God in final kingdom power. The
resurrection of Christ initiates the end-time resurrection; his resurrection
guarantees and indeed, stimulates the resurrection of all who follow. In this
sense, he is not only the first one to experience resurrection; he is the
‘founder’ of the new order of resurrection. He is the ‘firstborn among many
brothers and sisters.’ The outcome of Christ’s being ‘beginning’ and
‘firstborn’ is that in everything he might have supremacy…Christ’s supremacy is
seen to be the result of his resurrection. This, of course, takes nothing away
from the reality of Christ’s eternal sovereignty over all creation. But it
reflects the common New Testament understanding of Christ’s resurrection as
having established his power over a fallen and rebellious world in a new
degree.”[4]
19For God was pleased to have all
his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself
all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace
through his blood, shed on the cross.
Paul uses
the preceding verses as his own form of systematic theology to reach his
theological conclusion in vv. 19-20.
Here’s a simplified version of what Paul is saying, “Jesus is God. Through His
own death on the cross, Jesus paved the way for relationship reconciliation
between God and humanity that was fractured as the result of sin.” This is
precisely why the concept of God can never be divorced from Jesus. Without
Jesus, there is no God. Without Jesus, there is no reconciliation. Without
Jesus, there is no way to have peace between God and humanity.
Without Jesus there is no hope. God in Jesus is humanity’s only
hope for the reconciliation that paves the way back to peace with God. This
summarizes the essence of the Gospel message which is Good News. “Christ is
fully human; He is also fully divine. Nor is there more than one God; this one
God, in all his fullness, resides in Christ. Christ has always been God and
always will be God. All of God (including his attributes, characteristics,
nature, and being) indwells the Son. When we have Christ we have all of God in
human form. Any teaching that diminishes any aspect of Christ—either his
humanity or his divinity—is false teaching…‘Reconciliation’ means
reestablishing a relationship, causing a relationship to become friendly and
peaceable when it had not been so. Because Christ is Creator and Sustainer of
everything, his death on the cross provided reconciliation for everything…When
Jesus came, he substituted his perfect life for our sinful lives, taking the
penalty for sin that we deserve. The penalty for sin is death. We are guilty
and culpable, but Jesus took the punishment. Thus, he redeemed us from the
power of sin and reconciled us to God…The scope of God’s reconciliation is
universal—it is offered to all people. But reconciliation is accomplished only
for those who accept Christ as Savior (2 Corinthians 5:17-18)…Just as all
creation fell when Adam sinned, so all of creation will be reconciled. Sin
caused all creation to fall from the perfect state in which God created it.
Thus, the world is subject to decay so that it cannot fulfill its intended
purpose. One day, all creation will be liberated and transformed (Romans
8:19-21)…Nothing in the universe escapes Christ’s reach. There is no neutral
ground. No alien force of darkness can undermine his work for his church. Satan
and demons will not be reconciled to God; instead, their end is certain
(Revelation 20:7-10).”[5]
Application
In case
you’re unaware, we have something called NASCAR here in America. It stands for
the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing. I’m not really much or a car
racing enthusiast but in some parts of America, particularly in the South, it
is darn close to being a religion. Whether or not it is fair or accurate,
NASCAR drivers are characterized as being uneducated, socially awkward,
rednecks. So why am I telling you this? Because I want to come to the defense
of at least one NASCAR driver in an effort to perhaps dispel some of that
stereotype. In fact, with one illustration I can demonstrate that they can be
wiser than the famed Dalai Lama and smarter than the President of the United States
who is revered by some of his more devoted sycophants as the smartest President
ever.
NASCAR
driver Darrell Waltrip gave the keynote address at the National Prayer
Breakfast this past week ahead of the President’s speech. While standing just a
few feet away from the Dalai Lama and the President, Waltrip told everyone that
unless they accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, they are going to
hell. Waltrip, a confessing Christian, explained that his world changed
dramatically as the result of a serious race accident at Daytona Speedway.
Here’s what he went on to say: “I realized the wreck knocked me conscious. It scared the hell out of me.
I mean literally. I realized, what if I had lost my life that day at Daytona?
Would I have gone to heaven or would I have gone to hell? I thought I was a
good guy, but folks, let me tell you something: good guys go to hell. If you
don’t know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you don’t have a
relationship, if He’s not the master of your life, if you’ve never gotten on
your knees and asked Him to forgive you of your sins, or if you are just a
pretty good guy or a pretty good gal, you’re going to go to hell.” I still
don’t love auto racing but I love Darrell Waltrip. He explained the truth of
the gospel as concisely as any PhD professor ever could. Following Waltrip,
President Obama, who says he is a Christian, stood up there and talked on and
on like a blithering idiot about the universality of God and the inherent value
and relative truth of all beliefs about God. He rejected Christian exclusivity
with respect to the truth of God in Jesus Christ. I have a suggestion for both
of these men. For Waltrip: Never stop using the platform God has given you to
proclaim the message of salvation available through Jesus Christ and only
through Jesus Christ. For President Obama: You placed your hand on the Bible
when you took your oath of office. You should track that thing down and crack
it open to see what it says about what you claim to believe. That way a NASCAR
driver won’t make you look like an idiot in front of all of us who have actually
read the Bible and believe what it says.
Even though
this week’s lesson doesn’t appear to be directed at unbelievers, I think they
can glean something very important about the theology of God as revealed in
Jesus Christ. God is not unknown and unseen. God is not a concept that can be
molded into whatever humanity might want it to be from time to time. For
Christians, our Subject Text
presents an exclusive and non-negotiable understanding of God in the person of
Jesus Christ. For those of you who call yourselves Christians, you cannot
accept that there is any other God besides the God revealed to us in the person
of Jesus Christ. If you don’t have the stomach to deny the existence of any
other god besides Jesus then you are not confessing belief in the Jesus of the
Bible because He doesn’t give you that option. There is only one throne with
only one God on it. You have to decide who is sitting on that throne. If you
are an unbeliever, you foolishly believe that you sit on that throne. If you say you are a Christian yet refuse
to accept that only Jesus Christ is on that throne then you cannot call
yourself a Christian. The only true Christian is the one who can kneel in
humility before heaven’s throne where God rules and confess that there is only
one God, one Lord, one Savior, one King—King
Jesus Christ.
[1]
Donald G. Bloesch, Christian Foundations:
Jesus Christ—Lord & Savior, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press,
1997), p. 57.
[2]
Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology,
(Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), pp. 243-244.
[3]
Norman Geisler, Systematic Theology—God
& Creation, Vol. 2, (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House, 2003), pp. 433;
439.
[4]
Douglas J. Moo. The Letters to the
Colossians and to Philemon, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Co., 2008), pp. 129-130.
[5]
Bruce Barton, Philip Comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, Dave Veerman, Life Application New Testament Commentary,
(Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), p. 874.
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