Pauls Epistle to the Colossians (6)

Well, let's turn back in our Bibles to Colossians 1. This is the 7th

Lord's Day in which we have turned to this epistle, and of course here in Colossians 1, today we'll give attention to verses 18 through 20.

I trust we'll be able to address them. We have a beautiful setting forth of the glory of Jesus Christ.

Tell me the story of Jesus. Well, here it is. We've already pointed out these verses convey two major themes, that is verses 15 through 20.

First we have the preeminence of Jesus Christ in creation, verses 15 through 17, and then today, verses 18 through 20, we read of the preeminence of Jesus Christ in redemption.

In the first division, which we completed last week, five different traits of the Lord Jesus were set before us, and in this second division, we have the remaining four, there are nine altogether, set before us, in which again, the

Lord Jesus is shown to be preeminent in our redemption. Let's read these verses, and he, now this is the pronoun he, because again it's in one large or long sentence in Greek that Paul wrote to reference to Jesus Christ, he is the head of the body, the church, he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

As we consider these verses, it's important for us to consider the original context or intention the apostle had in writing this epistle to the church.

Paul was confronting error and correcting error to which this church had been subject.

There had been false teachers affecting the life of this church, and so these verses serve

Paul's purpose to correct their error, and to point them to Jesus Christ, as one wrote concerning Paul's purpose.

The false teachers not only wrongly represented the relation of the angel power to the universe, but they assigned them a false position in the work of redemption, and a false relation to the church, hence, for this reason

Paul, passes from the preeminence of the son in the universe, in creation, to speak of him as head of the body.

He is thus supreme alike in the universe and in the church, in every aspect of the reality of life.

And so under this heading, the preeminence of Jesus Christ and redemption, we read of the sixth trait of our

Lord Jesus, Jesus Christ, is head of the body, the church. Colossians 1, 18, verse

A. So Christ is the head, or he's the leader, or Lord of the church.

The father entrusted his son, the Lord Jesus, with this great responsibility. The father had commissioned his son to lead and guide his people in all their ways, and of course he suited in every way to be the head of the church.

And again, it's important to recognize this has relevance for Paul's purpose to correct, protect, and preserve the church at Colossae.

And proper presentation and focus and emphasis on the doctrine of Jesus Christ will correct a lot of error.

And again, as one wrote, now if the son of God is the organic and ruling head of the church, the church is in no sense whatever dependent on any creature, angel, or otherwise.

And that's exactly what these false teachers were saying, that they were dependent upon principalities and powers and angels, and do their homage and give regard to them.

This is the clear implication over against the teachers of error. Does not the church receive both its growth and guidance from its living

Lord? Is it not energized by his power and governed by his word and spirit? Hence, is it not true that in Christ it has all it needs, and also that without him it can accomplish nothing?

And that is Paul's purpose. Well, I think as we examine that phrase or clause,

Jesus Christ is the head of the body of the church, we need to answer a couple questions that we may take for granted.

In what ways is Jesus Christ the head of the church?

And in several ways we could understand this. First, Christ is what is commonly referred to as the federal head of the church.

What does this mean? Well, Jesus Christ is the head, and that he lived and died on behalf of his people, and that his people were in him during the days of his sojourn on earth.

He represented them. Throughout Scripture, we understand that God is pleased to deal with the human race corporately, with one person as our representative, our federal head.

Adam was our federal head. Jesus Christ is the federal head of his people.

Adam was the federal head of the entire human race. He stood as the representative of the human race before God, and not as a representative only, but really as a substitutionary head on behalf of his people.

And so God dealt with the human race in accordance with how Adam, its head, lived before him on our behalf, and that's why the

Genesis account is so important. It wasn't just two people there, Adam and Eve, it was the entire human race there before God.

As Adam went, so did all his posterity. When Adam sinned, the entire human race sinned in him.

Adam died due to sin, and because all were in Adam when he sinned, all died in him, and all do die.

It's appointed on the man wants to die, and after this, the judgment. Death came upon all humanity because all humanity sinned collectively when

Adam, our representative, our federal head, incurred the penalty for sin. And so, people are not children born into this world innocent, no, they're not as vile and guilty as, you know, we who've been living in sin for many decades, but they're not innocent, they're guilty for Adam's sin coming into the world.

Unless Christ redeems them, they are without hope because we're all in Adam.

The entire human race is lost and needs redemption. Christ, however, is the federal head of the church.

In the same way Adam was the head of his people, Jesus Christ is the federal head of the church of his people.

And so, what happened to Christ happened to all the people over which he is head. When Christ died, believers died with him.

When Christ arose, believers rose with him. When Christ ascended and was enthroned in heaven, all believers ascended with him and were seated with him in heavenly places because he is our federal head.

Because Jesus Christ is the federal head of the church, our place with him in eternity is secure.

All the blessings of God flow to us because of him, not because of us, but because he is our head, our federal head.

He is the head of the church. Secondly, also, Christ is the organic head of the church.

Not only the federal head, but he's the organic head. In other words, he is a head to the church like, say, our heads are to our bodies.

From him we derive our life. We are members of his body, his arms, legs, his eyes, his ears, functioning together as he works through us.

This does not mean, of course, that the church has become Christ himself in a mystical sense, and you'll hear that, particularly among liberal churches, that somehow the church is the incarnation of Jesus.

No, Jesus is the incarnation of God. The metaphor does not reveal that our life and our functioning together are derived from or it does reveal that our life and functioning are derived from our head.

Another metaphor that conveys a similar idea is the John 15 passage in which we read of Jesus being the vine and we're the branches, the true vine.

And so it means that one's life exists because of his union,

Christian's union to Christ in whom is life. We have a common life and that life is derived from him.

But Christ is not only the federal head and the organic head of the church, but he's also, of course, the ruling head of the church.

Clearly Paul had this idea also in mind in this context, the Lord Jesus is the head of the church and that he is their leader and ruler.

Christ governs his church in a gracious manner, even as an omnipotent king over his people.

And so as the ruling head of the church, he protects the church, he provides for the church, he assures security for the church, enriching it with gifts and honors.

He is their king over Zion and Zion is an emblem for the church, people of God.

So God's eternal decree has established him, Christ, as the ruling head of the church, the role that he has occupied since his resurrection.

It is Christ that alone has authority to govern the church, that it is he to whom alone believers ought to have an eye and on whom alone the unity of the body depends.

And again, within the context of the error at Colossae, you can see why this was so important, would solve their problem.

They were looking to other matters, other things. And people commonly do that.

And then fourthly, of course, Christ is the loving head of the church, which is conveyed by this word head.

It's in this sense that he is husband to his bride. This is the idea conveyed in a similar passage, probably written about the same time as this epistle.

Ephesians 5, 23 and 24 reads, for the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church.

And he is the savior of the body, therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ. So let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

That's not a popular verse in today's world, but it is how God prescribes a

Christian marriage family. And of course, this submission of the wife to the husband is not the acquiescence of a browbeat woman to her master as a perversion.

That's not the kind of submission, of course, the church renders to her husband, Jesus Christ. No, rather it's a willingness to entrust herself to her husband because she knows that he has her interests upon his heart, that he will purpose to lead her rightly, if he's thinking rightly, toward the best possible end.

He will sacrifice his own desires in order to fulfill hers. And of course,

Jesus Christ is the head of the body, the church, the husband to the bride in this way. He is the head of the church.

Another question, however, that needs to be answered. You might think that it doesn't, but it's a very important question.

And I think one that is not answered rightly by many evangelicals in today's world.

What constitutes his church? He's the head of the church. And so before we move on in our passage, it might seem to be a needless question, but actually it's a very great need and of great importance to answer the question, what did

Paul mean by the church? Most evangelicals in the last century, that is the 20th century, would immediately respond, the church is the total number of Christians who've been redeemed by Jesus Christ from the day of Pentecost until the future rapture of the church.

At the, you know, they would say at the onset of a tribulation period, most would. And this is the common understanding of evangelicals that was shaped and promoted by dispensationalists in the 20th century.

The church are all believers from Pentecost until the removal of the church by the

Lord. And so they regard Pentecost as the day in which the church of Jesus Christ was born and the

Lord has been building his church ever since. They regard the believers who lived and died before Pentecost as not members of the church, but rather citizens of Israel or true

Israel, true believers. They believe that God has two peoples in history,

Israel and the church. And so dispensationalists teach that these two distinct groups of people have different sets of promises given to them by God.

They have different destinies. God has a purpose for Israel. He has a different purpose for the church.

And they teach they will remain as two distinct separate peoples through eternity, Israel and the church.

Most evangelicals understand the scriptures in this way. Here is a typical statement of the belief of what constitutes the church according to dispensationalists.

The church composed of the whole number of regenerate persons from Pentecost to the first resurrection. Of course,

I put it in bold and italic to show what they were, how they were defining the church. United together to Christ by the baptism with the

Holy Spirit is the body of Christ of which he is the head. As such, the church is a holy temple for the habitation of God through the spirit, is one flesh with Christ, is espoused to him as a chaste virgin to one husband, and will be translated to heaven at the return of the

Lord to the air. And commonly say the church is a bride of Christ, but those before the church was founded like John the

Baptist were friends of the bridegroom, not part of the bride, the friends of the bridegroom.

They're mixing their metaphors is what's happening. So they draw that kind of conclusion.

But actually, this identity of the church as New Testament Christians is a fairly new understanding regarding what constitutes the church of Jesus Christ, for although certainly it's granted that in a sense the church began at Pentecost, it was then constituted as a single body of believers.

Nevertheless, the church has always been understood. In other words, down through Christian history, the church has always,

Universal Church has always been understood to comprise all people in history who've been redeemed by Jesus Christ.

And most evangelicals would reject this idea, but this is the historic position of Christians down through the centuries until really the 20th century, when that other view became predominant.

In other words, the church of Jesus Christ, Universal Church is the total number of gods elect of all history, whom

God has constituted as the body of Christ. And I cited John Gill here, writing upon Colossians 118,

John Gill was pastor in the church that Charles Virgin would pastor a hundred years later. He was a

Baptist pastor in London, a Hebrew scholar. He taught himself

Hebrew as a teenage boy. He'd go down to the bookstore and read the books on Hebrew, taught himself

Hebrew, standing there in the bookstore, and he became a Hebrew scholar. Guy was absolutely brilliant. He wrote this.

By the church, and this is on our verse, Colossians 118, by the church is meant not any particular congregated church, in other words, not a local church as the church at Colossi or Corinth or any other, but the whole election of grace to all people who are saved through history.

The General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, whose names are written in heaven in the Lamb's Book of Life, the church which

Christ has given himself for, has purchased with his blood, builds on himself the rock, and will at last present to himself a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.

This is compared to a human body and therefore called the body, which is but one consisting of many members in union with each other, set in their proper places in just symmetry and proportion to each other and subservient to one another and are neither more nor fewer.

And of this body, the church, Christ is the head. He was the representative head of this body of elect men from all eternity or all the redeemed, whoever was redeemed by Christ is what he's saying.

And in time, he's the political head of them or in such sense and head unto them as a king to his subjects.

He reigns in them by his spirit and grace, rules them by wholesome laws of his own in acting and which he inscribes on their hearts and he protects and defends them by his power.

He's an economical head, not talking about finances, but the way he practically governs them or in such a sense and head of them as the husband is the head of his wife and parents and masters are heads of their families.

He's standing in all these relations to them and he is to them what a natural head is to a human body of all which the

Messiah is called one head. And he quotes Hosea 11, one where there's a prophecy that there will be one head over the people of God.

Now, this was the common understanding of the church until the rise of dispensationalism in the 20th century.

In further explanation of the teaching of dispensationalists on the church, here are seven distinctive doctrines believed and taught by them.

One, God has two distinct programs in history, one for Israel, one for the church. In other words,

Colossians 1, 18, he is the head of the church. The body of the church has nothing to do with Old Testament saints is what they're claiming.

Second, the church does not fulfill or take over any of Israel's promises or purposes. They're distinct.

Three, the church age is a mystery and thus no Old Testament prophecies foresaw it.

Peter declared in Acts all every prophet, everyone who ever spoke foretold these days.

They said none of them foretold these days. For the present church age is a parenthesis or intercalation during which

God has temporarily suspended his primary purpose with Israel. Most prophecy pundits will advocate this.

And so their view is on a political nation of Israel, and I'm from the nation of Israel, but they think that this is really plan

A of God's. And he's just been on plan B for the last two thousand years. But after the church is removed, he'll go back to his original intention and plan.

That was his purpose down through history. Fifth, the church age began at Pentecost and will end at the pre -tribulation rapture of the church before Christ's second coming.

Six, the church or the body of Christ consists only of those believers saved between Pentecost and the rapture.

And seven, the church is the body of Christ, therefore does not include Old Testament believers.

Very important matter, two peoples of God. And we would argue all of these are false doctrines.

Nevertheless, their doctrines believed and taught by most evangelical teachers and churches throughout the world, they have led to the 20th century and to today.

However, historically, Protestants have taught differently regarding the identity and constitution of the universal church and our old reformed confessions can be called upon to see this is very clearly the case.

For example, the Westminster Confession of Faith, 1646 finds a church in this way, the

Catholic and that's an old English word simply meaning universal. It's little c, not capital

C like in Roman Catholic, little c, the universal church, Catholic church, which is invisible, consists of the whole number of the elect that have been are or shall be gathered into one under Christ, the head thereof, and it's the spouse, the body, the fullness of him that fills all in all.

And then our own Baptist Confession of 1689 built upon the Westminster Confession elaborates a little bit more similar word, same teaching, the universal church, which may be called invisible in respect of the internal work of the spirit and truth of grace, consists of the entire number of the elect, all those who have been, who are or who shall be gathered into one under Christ, who is the head.

This universal church is the wife, the body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

And this is consistent with all of the old Protestant confessions. The doctrine of the church has only

New Testament believers and distinction of the redeemed of Israel is a solid, many difficulties and contradictions when you begin to work it out.

And books have been written to chronicle these differences and difficulties. But nevertheless, the doctrines, this doctrine of dispensationalism persists in the churches.

It's predominant. For our purposes, let's just look at one passage.

We could go to it probably a half a dozen, but we'll look at one passage which clearly discredits this to people's purpose in history.

And this is Ephesians 2, 11 through 19, where the apostle Paul, writing to the church at Ephesus, writing principally to Gentile believers, revealed to these

Gentile believers that they had been joined to the people of true Israel down through history.

They were formerly excluded as Gentiles, but now they're a part of Israel. And so we read into Ephesians 2, 11 and following.

Therefore, remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in the flesh by hands, that at that time you are without Christ being alien.

See, at that time, you were aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel. In other words, the family, the nation of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope without God in Christ Jesus.

You, who were once far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made both one, has broken down the middle wall, the part of separation, having abolished his fleshy enmity.

That is the law of commandments. That is the covenant that God made with both with Israel through Moses contained in ordinances so as to create in himself one new man from the two, thus making peace and that he might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity.

That is the hostility, the the clear separation between Israel and the

Gentile Jews, redeemed Jews and the Gentiles, because they had this covenant that was special and unique for them, separating all the

Gentiles from them, thereby putting to death the enmity. And he came and preached peace to you who are far off Gentiles and to those who were near.

Those would be Jews for through him. We both have access by one spirit to the father. And now he draws a conclusion from this.

Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints.

He's talking about Old Testament saints there, isn't it? Your fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the

Lord and whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit.

So here Paul describing the universal church with particular attention given to the place in part that Gentile Christians have within the church.

And these verses, Paul identifies five things that were true of Gentiles before they became

Christians. These include one, unconverted Gentiles were separate from Christ, unconverted

Gentiles were excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel, unconverted Gentiles were strangers to the covenants of promise they were given to the

Jewish people of Israel, for unconverted Gentiles were without hope, unconverted

Gentiles were without God in the world. But then Paul declared that these things were no longer true of converted

Gentiles, those who had become Christians after they had become Christians.

It may be said that these first Christian Gentiles are in Christ. Second, Christian Gentiles are included in the

Commonwealth of Israel. Third, Christian Gentiles are heirs of the covenants of promise for Christian Gentiles have hope.

And five, Christian Gentiles are with God in the world. And so Paul was declaring these believing

Gentiles are now citizens of spiritual Israel, the Israel of God, fellow citizens with the

Jewish believers in Jesus Christ. Dispensationalists would say that numbers one, four and five in the second list are true of Gentile Christians, but they deny in their doctrine the truth of number two and number three.

This conflicts with their two separate peoples of Israel and the church. They do not believe

Gentile Christians are included in the Commonwealth of Israel. Israel and church are two separate entities.

The two will never be separate purposes, separate destiny, separate promises. Nor do they believe

Gentile Christians are heirs of the covenants of promise. There are covenants and promises that God gave to Israel and not to the church.

And the promises to Israel are never realized or seen fulfilled in the church is what they teach.

Now, it's true that on the day of Pentecost, the church became a spiritual reality. Clearly, in that sense, there was a beginning, the birthday of the church.

But that's not to say that the church was comprised of believers only upon that day and after.

It never states that. This is a false deduction of dispensationalists.

Paul was teaching that on Pentecost, due to the work of Christ and the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the

Lord had taken all of the saints of the past, all believers of the Old Testament, and joined them with believers of this age, whether Jewish or Gentile, combining all believers of all ages into one body, his church.

And that's how Christians have always understood the universal church until the 20th century.

Now, it was taught in the 19th century by the early dispensationalist J .N. Darby and some of the other guys, particularly in England, the

Plymouth Brethren and whatnot. But it really did not take hold until the 20th century with the publication of Schofield's study

Bible in 1909 and then 1917. And that's what really brought it into evangelicalism.

As Bible -believing Christians separated from the mainline denominations that had all gone liberal and corrupt, they formed churches of their own, solid evangelical churches,

Bible institutes, Bible colleges. And the study Bible that was put into their hands was a

Schofield study Bible. And they adopted and accepted the doctrines that was promoted by these people.

But they were new doctrines, not consistent with the teaching of Protestants in the past.

And so it's all important for us to consider what the church is. Christ is head of all the redeemed of all of history, not just a group of redeemed people from Pentecost until the rapture, but anybody and everybody who's ever and will be redeemed is under Jesus Christ, their head.

Hebrews 12, we also see the one church of Jesus Christ encompassing all believers in history.

There, the writer is addressing Jewish Christians who were spiritual pilgrims journeying to Mount Zion, where they would gather together as a people of God.

And of course, in Hebrews 11, the writer had set forth many witnesses that had already journeyed in their pilgrimage.

All of the Old Testament saints are rehearsed. There are many of them, the leading ones, of course,

Enoch, who walked with God and Moses, of course, Abraham and Sarah.

All these people had gone on ahead. They were witnesses. They had journeyed. They lived in tents.

They were on a pilgrimage. They were journeying to Zion. Abraham wasn't looking for earthly Palestine as a homeland.

That was an emblem. He was looking for a city whose builder and maker was God. He was looking for a new heavens and a new earth.

That's why he dwelled in tents while on this earth. He did not regard this earth as his home. They were in the days of their pilgrimage and the writer is citing them.

We are, too, as Christians in this pilgrimage, like the saints of Old Testament. They would travel up to Jerusalem three times a year to worship

God. All believers throughout history are in this pilgrimage, journeying to heaven, to Zion, to the full gathering of the people of God, the church.

And the writer declared in Hebrews 12 that New Testament believers had joined with these

Old Testament saints, falling into line as a large, steady stream of pilgrims journeying by faith through history onto their final destination.

And so we see our one people of God set forth in Hebrews 12, 18 through 24, for you've not come to the mountain that may be touched, that burned with fire, reference to Mount Sinai, and to blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and voice of words so that those who heard it beg that the word should not be spoken to them anymore, for they could not endure what was commanded.

If so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. And so terrifying was that sight that Moses said,

I am exceedingly afraid and trembling. But in contrast, he says, you're not coming to Sinai, you're coming to Mount Zion.

And there's the emblem of the church there. You're coming to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God. See, that's the city built without hands.

The city Abraham was anticipating, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable number of a company of angels.

And here it is to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God, the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

In other words, all the redeemed. And it's all one church, all one gathering.

And we're all journeying there. But there's another, by the way, real problem with this dispensational doctrine that the

Bible sets forth these two separate peoples, Israel and the church, with different purposes and destinies.

The older classical dispensations, by the way, in order to fit their doctrine into the Gospels, tried to define the kingdom of heaven as a different kingdom than the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of heaven was a prophecy of the earthly thousand year millennium. The kingdom of God was a spiritual kingdom, which you and I are part of.

And so they tried to just say they were two different kingdoms. And that just leads to all kinds of weird conclusions and teachings on the parables and whatnot.

But again, they teach Israel and church are different, two separate peoples in history. God has different destinies, different promises, different purposes, and they'll dwell separately throughout eternity.

Some argue Israel will dwell on the new earth and the spiritual church will dwell with Christ in heaven.

They go that far to distinguish them. But I've never heard a satisfactory answer of a dispensationalist to this question.

If there are two and only two separate peoples in God's program, Israel and the church, to which entity do the saints before Abraham belong?

Noah lived before the formation of Israel, as did Enoch, Seth, Adam and Eve.

If they were redeemed, and certainly they were, I think Adam and Eve were, which group are they apart, Israel or the church?

And the answer would have to be neither. Because they were believers before the formation of Israel and certainly before the formation of the church, according to dispensational teaching.

What promises belong to them? And of course, the biblical answer is that all people have ever been saved and whoever will be saved will be so due to the life and death of Jesus Christ.

He's one head of the church, all of the redeemed, all of the elect. There's one people of God, one universal church over which

Jesus Christ is head. And the two peoples' understanding of the dispensationalists have no place for believers who lived prior to Abraham.

And that's a real problem. Never heard it answered. And yet it persists and all kinds of pernicious doctrines flow from this.

And yet this is what everybody gets all excited about. It would seem strange.

And by the way, when I speak with some vehemence about this, it's because I believed all this and taught all this as a young man, as a pastor.

I promoted all this and I would have stood up and argued against me today at one time.

And so I came fighting and struggling, biting and clawing out of that. And so when

I talk about these things, I'm talking against myself as I was as a young man with a sense of remorse and regret that I misled people.

Mercy. Let's answer one more question quickly before we move on.

What is implied by the church as being his body? Well, the universal church, as well as its expression in a biblical local church, is the body of Christ and that it is the way in which

Jesus Christ reveals himself and accomplishes his work in the world. It's his body.

This is how the Lord Jesus functions and works within the world as we employ our physical bodies to live out our lives each day, accomplishing our desires and designs.

So the Lord Jesus uses his body, the church, to accomplish his work in the world.

I'm not going to I hope I don't embarrass Victoria, but she stood up last last Sunday afternoon in our after our meal and commented, the answer to the world is the church of Jesus Christ.

She's absolutely right. This is this is the manner in the way that Jesus Christ accomplishes his purposes of redemption in the world through his church, which is his body.

This is how he manifests his life. And he is the head of the church.

We derive our life from him. He infuses his body with his life. The church is his body.

Also speaks of the interdependence we have with one another as his people joined together by him to live together for him and to him in this world together.

We're not simply as individuals coming to Christ. Yes, as individuals, we have to come to Christ.

You don't come together as a family. You come together as individuals and oftentimes families will come together.

But as individuals, they put their faith in Christ. But then the Lord wants us to forsake our individualism and see that we're a part of others connected with one another and dependent upon one another, capable of serving and helping one another and being served by others about us.

And so it would seem like a part of growing as a Christian is getting away from the idea it's me, my

Bible and Jesus and coming to understand that I'm a part of something that is very large and very great and is a part of his body of which

I am a part and I have a place and I have a purpose and I have a role and my brother and sister has a place and a purpose and a role that I'm going to value.

And so this matter of the body is very important. The church of Jesus Christ and as his body instructs us how we should view ourselves.

We're part of a whole saved to be integrated and cooperative with his people and his body as we serve the

Lord in his world. That's all dealing with that sixth trait of the

Lord Jesus. He is the head of the body of the church. Let's deal with number seven now.

Jesus Christ has precedence over all things. In verse 18b

Colossians one, he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

He was preeminent over creation. He is preeminent over redemption. All things began with the eternally beyond son of God when he created all things.

He is a creator. Moreover, he was the first human being to be raised from the dead.

He was the firstborn of the dead. Also speaks of his preeminence. He is the first of a vast multitude who will one day come forth from the dead.

As one has said, rightly, it is the risen Christ who is head of his body, the church.

He receives the titles that beginning and the firstborn and resurrection as well as in creation.

His resurrection marked his triumph over all the forces which held men in bondage. That first Easter morning saw the dawn of a new hope for mankind.

Now Christ is the firstborn among many brethren. He is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep or died in the

Lord. His resurrection is a harbinger of the great resurrection harvest of his people. But the resurrection day is anticipated here and now by those who know him as a resurrection in the life and enjoy eternal life through their participation in him.

By his primacy and creation and resurrection alike, the divine purpose is fulfilled.

That is, in all things new creation as well as old, he might be preeminent. Over all.

And then, of course, the eighth trait, Jesus Christ is God incarnate. Verse 19.

For in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. It was to the end that the father would have

Jesus Christ have precedence over all things. It pleased the father that in Jesus all the fullness of the

Godhead would dwell. God is spirit and there's no place in this universe where God is not fully present and manifest.

And God also in his fullness is manifest in Jesus Christ. It's not like God is diffused throughout the universe, he's everywhere and he's diffused.

But God is in his fullness in every place. Also in the person of Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is the second person of the blessed

Holy Trinity who took upon himself our human nature, thereby God becoming fully man. And so in Jesus Christ, we have the transcendent

God becoming eminent. Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, God with us.

I won't read that quote because of the time. And I'm not going to read all of the passages and verses that we have following other than I began to list a number of biblical ways in which you can see the deity of Jesus Christ set forth.

And so Jesus is God is amply testified in scripture from direct statements of the holy scriptures.

And I listed what about seven of them there. There are others. And then secondly, there are biblical descriptions of Jesus that can only lead to the conclusion that Jesus is

God. And what we mean by that is, is that God, of course, is the creator of all things.

He is the manifestation of his attributes. It really is not correct to say

God has the attribute of so and so, but rather he is his attributes. And theologians down through history, as they've sought to identify and describe

God's attributes, they have classified them into different categories, mainly two. And I think that the best way to classify the attributes of God are those attributes of God, what he's like, that are communicable to us.

In other words, we can become like God in some ways. But there are other attributes of God that are incommunicable.

You and I cannot be like God in these ways. There are some ways we can be like God. There are some ways we cannot be like God.

And so there are certain incommunicable attributes of God that you and I cannot be. You and I cannot be eternal.

We're finite. He is infinite. You and I cannot be omnipotent, all powerful.

You and I cannot be omniscient. You and I cannot be omnipresent. These are incommunicable attributes of God.

And yet all of these attributes are assigned to the Lord Jesus Christ in the scriptures. He is

God. You have to conclude that because no person, no human being apart from God becoming, you know, taking flesh, human nature upon himself, no one could have the incommunicable attributes of God unless he were

God. And that's basically the argument there. And then secondly, there are relations that Jesus has with God, the

Father, that can only lead to the conclusion that Jesus himself is eternal God. Jesus, on one occasion, set him forth himself as a son of God.

And what did the Jewish people do? The Jewish leaders, they picked up stones to stone him because you declared yourself a son of God, you're making yourself equal with God.

Jehovah's Witnesses seem to think that you can be the son of God, but not God. That's not how the Jewish leaders saw it.

When he claimed to be the son of God, they would stone him because they regarded him as blaspheming, making himself equal with God.

There are other things as well. And then it can be shown in the manner that the disciples treated and regarded

Jesus, that he is indeed God for any number of reasons. And again,

I only listed several pages here of ways in which Jesus can be understood as God incarnate, ways that we may not be commonly familiar with.

And I could have listed another four or five pages. In fact, I did it first and I deleted them. Um, but it is so apparent and clear in scripture that it cannot be denied by any honest person that reads the scriptures as they were intended to be read.

Well, the ninth attribute or characteristic of Jesus Christ is that Jesus Christ is the reconciler of fallen creatures, the fallen creation.

Verse 20, through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

When Adam said in the garden, all creation fell, nothing from that moment was willingly subject to God, not

Adam, not Eve, not any of the creation. The creation itself fell. And was not working as it had originally been created, even the earth was giving up thorns, it wasn't giving up fruit naturally as it had formerly.

The whole creation was out of sync in rebellion and what

Jesus Christ is doing through his kingdom is bringing everything in creation back into willing submission to the father.

And that's what we are as Christians, he's put life in us that we desire to do the will of God, to please the father, to conform our thinking and our ways to the will of God.

And it's because of the work of Jesus Christ reconciling us to the father and he's reconciling all things to himself.

What about those who refuse to believe he's going to have them bow the knee one day and confess that he is

Lord to the glory of the father? Even they are going to be submitted to God, not in a saving sense, but they're going to acknowledge that Jesus is

Lord. They, too, will be willingly submitted to God because they'll be forced to do so. Through the judgment of God.

But when Jesus Christ comes and after that great judgment takes place in which the world inhabitants of history are separated sheep from goats and their destinies declared, the

Lord Jesus will take his final full kingdom and give it back to his father, having accomplished the purpose for which the father sent him.

There's that fallen world, that fallen, decayed, deteriorating universe. Go forth and bring it back to me.

And that's what the son is accomplishing and accomplishing in us to the degree that we live for him rightly in this life.

May the Lord help us do so. There's some good quotes in there

I would encourage you to read at your convenience. Father, we thank you for the

Lord and Lord, as we see that a proper understanding of him, who he is and what he does was an answer to the problems and difficulties there.

The Church of Colossi, Lord, we realize that a proper understanding of these matters would correct a lot of difficulties and problems in our lives, too, and would help us as a church,

Lord, to grow and mature and to become more like you want us to be. Help us, our father, as we close out this year and begin the new year, to truly seek

Jesus with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. And may you bless us,

Lord, in this effort. Restore in us, Lord, renew within us an intensity of desire and a rejoicing when we see this realized in some measure.