Colossians 1:15-23 Christ, our all in all

Colossians 1:15-23

What is the most important thing in the world to you?
What is it, or who is it, that you cannot live without. That the thought of losing that person, that part of your life, that thing, fills you with dread. Perhaps it’s your husband or wife, your children, or parents? Maybe it’s your house or car. Or your health, your mind, your special skill or ability which defines you.

What’s the most important thing in the world to you?

Take a moment to think about that. Write down the answer, if you can.

Now look at your answer (or think about it). If your answer to “what is the most important thing in the world to you” was anything other than our Lord Jesus Christ…. Well, then we have some work to do on our hearts, on our attitudes, on the deep places of our souls. For this passage calls us to adoration, adulation, praise and worship of our great Lord and Saviour, our Christ, our Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth the Son of God. This morning we are to fill our minds with him, to let our hearts overflow with thanksgiving, with praise, with joy at knowing him. Let us rejoice! For he is our all in all. This morning as we are gathered together let us raise Christ up in our hearts to his rightful place. He is not just our Lord, our Saviour, our rescuer, our Brother, our guide to life, our Redeemer – he is more than that. He is our very life. Everything we are is found in him. We are expressed most fully in him. We are alive only truly in him.

Christ is supreme.

He is our life.

Now this passage is so tightly packed with awesome truth that we won’t be able to gets to grips with everything today. V15-22 are basically saying that Christ is supreme in everything. Short and to the point v23-24 then call us to respond: Believe it!

Today we’re going to focus in on just v15-17, and two aspects of Jesus:

1. Christ is our all in all, because he is God.

2. Christ is our all in all, because he is human

We’re going to spend time working through each verse basically because there is so much to absorb in each verse! We need to spend a bit of time chewing over each statement, understanding it, making it part of our thinking, our worldview, before we move on.

1. Christ is our all in all, because he is God.

So let’s get started, and what better place to start than our opening verse, v15: Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation, 16 for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him. 17 He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.

It seems that Paul in vv15-20 is quoting a creed or a hymn used in the early church. There’s some indication of this in the original Greek texts, and that’s why our Bibles have shown this by formatting it in a sort of “poetic” way. This is what they believed – those who knew Jesus, who were eyewitnesses to his resurrection. It’s good to know, because there’s many people wandering about calling themselves Christians but denying the supremacy of Christ – they either say he was not fully human, and therefore lacking in some way as our representative, or, that he is not God, and therefore unworthy of our worship.

The first problem of whether Jesus was fully human was a problem the early church faced, particularly with the rise of Gnosticism (“secret knowledge”) and their ideas that physical matter was evil, but the spirit was good. The second denial: that Jesus isn’t really God, was a later problem, starting with Arius around 300AD. Arianism accepts Jesus as a god-type figure, but not God himself. It states that he was created by God the Father, and is not equal with him. With the rise of materialism in the last 200-300 years, Jesus has been reduced to a mere charismatic human teacher, not divine in any way. This modern lie, is particularly found in the theological faculty at most secular universities, among many Western “ministers” today who deny the Virgin birth (Jesus was just a man) and even deny the resurrection – why are you a minister then??
Many “Christian” groups turned back to the Arian heresy under the influence of Materialism: groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Way International, Mormons, and the Church of Christ (Iglesia ni Cristo) – all who started within the last two hundred years and yet claim to hold to the original teachings of the early church. So for over 1800 years the church was in error? Big claims. Let’s see what the Bible says.

V15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

He is the visible image of God. To see Christ is to see God. They are one and the same. v19 confirms this For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ. The very nature and character of God have been perfectly revealed in him; in him the invisible has become visible. Arius was wrong. The secular theologians are wrong. Jesus is the very representation of God. He is God. V15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God

He is the “invisible God”: Both Old and New Testaments make it clear that “no one has ever seen God.”. For example John 1:18: No one has ever seen God. But it doesn’t stop there. It continues But the unique One [Jesus], who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.
In 1 Cor 4:4,6 it says understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God… God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.
In Heb 1:3 we read that The Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God.

That utterly knocks on its head the lie that Jesus is not God. He is not only God, he is the visible image of God, and indeed the fullness of God.
And therefore we need nothing else.

The reason for these groups wanting to diminish Christ in some way is so that they can put something else in between God. Felix Manalo claimed to be the Final Prophet and was the final authority in all things for the Church of Christ. Jehovah’s Witnesses obey everything the Watchtower organisation tells them to do. In many churches the minister has become a “Prophet” or “Apostle” or “Priest” – and demands that people look to him for spiritual wisdom, or guidance, or healing, or blessing, or forgiveness of sins. No, look to Christ. There is nothing lacking in him, for he IS the fullness of Christ. 2:3 In [Christ] lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

There is nothing lacking in Christ. We’re not missing out if we are consumed with him, and only him. Many will come claiming secret knowledge, a new experience, a deeper understanding. Do not be moved from Christ, for to know him is to know the Father (John 14:9). He is our all in all.
2:8 Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ. 9 For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body.

We never move beyond Christ. Christian maturity is going deeper into Christ, not moving on from him, as if he is the starting point, and then our good works are the end goal. No, he is the end goal – as it says at the end of v16 Everything was created through him and for him. He is our Alpha and Omega, our beginning and end, the ultimate goal and end point of our lives.

This is why the Holy Spirit, through Paul, is giving us this amazing song of praise to Jesus Christ, the Son. It is not just head knowledge, not just so we can sit back and nod our heads and stroke our beards and go, hmmm. No, this is why: 2:6 And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. 7 Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.

He is our all in all. We are to be consumed with him. He is our delight and our joy.

My Dad told us a few weeks ago how he has to smack his tomatoes. In order to make them strong and healthy plants, you need to smack them! Because when you do, they go deeper in to the soil, putting down roots, strong secure. That is what we must do. Let us “smack our tomatoes” so that we are rooted and fixed in Christ.

Where have you been tempted to look to something or someone other than Christ? Perhaps you’ve been trusting in your own good works, a form of your own righteousness – how am I living, how am I performing, will God still love me if I mess up. Guilt or pride are the marks of that kind of living. Repent and embrace the forgiveness of Christ. We are reconciled to him, declared holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault (v22).

Perhaps you’ve been tempted to try to get your significance and security from your relationships: particularly your husband, or maybe your friends. Repent. Christ is your all in all. Be satisfied in him. Draw your significance from him, and then you will be able to be the wife and friend you should be. Same for you husbands – delight in the Lord, draw your joy and strength from him that you may love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave up his life for her.

Or perhaps it’s your job – that defines you. No, it is Christ who defines you. He is your life. He is first in everything: first in your heart, first in your passions, first in your desires, first in your dreams for the future, first in your family, in your time, first in your monthly spending. He is first. Our all in all.

Christ is our all in all, because he is God.
Christ is our all in all, because he is our God.

2. Christ is our all in all, because he is human

Now we need to go back to v15 and spend a bit longer on it. Because it addresses not only the lie that Jesus is not God, but also the lie that he is not human. For as 1:15 says Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He is the image-bearer of God – which is what we are. Or at least, were created to be.

Remember Gen 1:26-27 Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

We were created to reflect the glory of God. But we exchanged the glory of God for a lie, and chose to become utter fools. (Rom 1:21) Christ, then, is the second Adam, the true image-bearer, the true Human Being, the firstborn among many brothers. (Rom 5 and 8:29) In Col 2:9 For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. Fully God, fully man. That is our Lord Jesus. He is the first, the only, true human. The rest of us turned from that path long ago.

That is why we become who we are born to be only in him. In Christ we discover our humanity. In Christ we give up our lives – only to gain them. It is not like Eastern philosophies where you are absorbed into some Consciousness like the Force. No, you become you, only brighter, more intense - you, fully realised.
Become who you were born to be. Embrace Christ in all his fullness. Abandon yourself to him – and you will find yourself.

A bit of a silly example, and I think a little embarrassing, but, oh well: when I was 19 I really wanted to be the type of person that people could share their secrets with. Not because I was particularly interested in their secrets – I’m an introvert! - but because that was a character trait I wanted. I wanted to be seen as trustworthy, reliable, safe. An honourable man.
But no-one did share their secrets with me.
Until Christ got hold of me and I gave up my life to him. And all of a sudden people left right and centre were committing to me their deep thoughts and secrets. I gave up my life, only to gain it.

A silly story, but there’s a kernel of truth in it. In Christ we become who we are born to be. He is the image of God, like we are meant to be – and in Him we too can reflect the glory of God.

Christ is our all in all, because he is human. He is the first to rise from the dead – the first of the new man, raised imperishable, eternal. And he is supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything (v18).

I’m going to end by telling you a story, a story of a man who was consumed by Christ. Christ was his life. He was his all in all.

In Piccadilly Circus in London there is a famous statue commonly known as Eros (although it’s actually called the Angel of Christian Charity). It was erected in honour of Lord Shaftesbury. He was led to faith in Christ by his maid as a child, and his adult life was described like this by one of his biographers, Georgina Battiscombe: "No man has in fact ever done more to lessen the extent of human misery or to add to the sum total of human happiness".

For example, his works in Parliament: He pioneered the Lunacy Act, which provided that the mentally disabled be treated like human beings instead of being made to sleep naked on hay in cages and fed food not fit for human consumption; the Ten hour working day act, which prohibited children under the age of nine from being made to work in the factory, and under eighteens to work more than ten hours. He pioneered Ragged Schools and the Education bill for all children in Britain, so that even the poor could learn to read and write. The Colliery bill which removed women and children from the mines; the Chimney Sweeps Act which stopped young boys being used as chimney sweeps (they were sent into the chimney pipes and developed all sorts of health problems as a result); and much, much more. All things we take for granted now – but all things Lord Shaftesbury had to fight for because he was convinced of the inherent dignity of people made in God’s image.

What would Britain, and indeed Norway and the rest of the world, look like today without that man’s influence? It is staggering.

His private life matched his public life. He is described as having an “abnormally happy” marriage, and had 10 children.

At his funeral the streets were packed with poor people, costermongers, flower-girls, boot-blacks, crossing-sweepers, factory-hands and similar workers who waited for hours to see Shaftesbury's coffin as it passed by. Shaftesbury was known as the "Poor Man's Earl".

He also founded multiple charities, children’s homes, the Church Pastoral Aid society, and on and on it goes.
Why did he live like this? Well, these are his words “I do not think that in the last 40 years I have lived one conscious hour that was not influenced by our Lord’s return.”

His life was a life given up to Christ. He was consumed with Christ – he was his all in all – and his life reflected that. May we follow in the footsteps of men like Lord Shaftesbury.

19 For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, 20 and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. 21 This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. 22 Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. 23 But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it.