THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CHRIST
Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>
April 7, 2002
evening
TEXT: Colossians 1:15-23
Paul's letter to the Colossians is a difficult text to deal with. I wish
I could say otherwise, but I can't. Paul wrote to the Colossians to greet
them and to let them know briefly that Christianity was bearing fruit and
to encourage them. But he also wrote to confront them. He wrote to try to
expand upon the meaning and significance of Christ. He did this because
the Colossians were beginning to stray from some of the primary teachings
about Christ. Some of the Greek philosophies of the origins of the
universe - cosmology; of the purpose and destiny of humanity; and of the
relationship between the material and spiritual were all being combined
and crafted into a strange Christology; that is, they were forming a
description of the person and work of Christ that was not in keeping with
historical revelation.
When we take all of these elements: philosophical speculation,
Christology, ancient descriptions of the spiritual world and so forth, we
can sometimes find ourselves left outside and wondering what's going on
and what it has to do with us! After all, we only need to believe in the
simple Gospel of Christ; what more need there be?
Well, let's be honest and try to recognize that none of us are really
able to believe in the "simple" Gospel of Christ. It would be great if we
could, but we cannot. And we cannot because we are conditioned by
elements of our social life well before we can comprehend the message of
the Gospel. One of the significant elements of our spiritual growth is
striving to recognize what is Gospel and what is society and which pieces
can fit together and which pieces of society must be rejected. With so
much diversity, misunderstandings and errors are bound to crop up. Paul
heard about it happening in Colossae, so he wrote to remind them that
Christ is still significant.
Christ is significant in the universe. "He is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn over all creation. For 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."
Paul responds to a quest of the Colossians into the meaning and
interpretation of the universe; that is, creation and origins and
purpose. While Paul never gives philosophical speculation a central place
in his explanations of the new faith revealed in Christ, he does not
shirk the responsibility to relate the Gospel to the whole conception of
the world in this widest sense. In fact, in addition to the practical
necessity of meeting the Colossian theorists on their own ground, he
seems to regard this as an obligation and a privilege, since the Creator
has endowed us with the capacities of reason and ordered thought. He
shows no trace of the stubborn view that revelation should suppress and
cancel out reason. What Paul opposes is the error of attempting to
explain the ultimate meaning of things without taking into account the
unique revelation of the nature and destiny of humanity and of God's
relationship to the world that has been given in Christ. It has been
Christ, revealing the invisible God, who makes the universe a cosmos
instead of a chaos.
We still ponder the awesome wonders of our universe, an expanse so big
that we have no concept of where its boundaries might lay. Men and women
are still exploring theories of the origin of the universe and of
humanity. And some are still trying to reject the possibility of the
Creator as our ultimate source of being. But I am not dismayed by this.
Oh, it is my wish - like yours - that all men and women receive the gift
of salvation through Christ. I don't want anyone to perish; neither does
God. But the fact that some people want to work with theories of origin
that reject God does not dismay me in the least. Why? Because God is
truth, and as these researchers proceed in gaining knowledge of the
truth, they continuously move closer to God than they usually care to
admit. A few examples:
Many theories of the origin of the universe have been forwarded
throughout the centuries. One has been the Big Bang theory, in which a
sudden, spontaneous source of energy threw out elements and particles of
matter that formed into galaxies and solar systems. Ever since this
theory gained credibility earlier this century, theologists have
excitedly pointed out who the source of that sudden, spontaneous burst of
energy has been. And religion and science claims a sort of truce on this
point.
A more recent theory now challenges the Big Bang. It is being forwarded
by Dr. Stephen W. Hawkings, who has written a book titled A Brief History
of Time. I recommend it to anyone who has an interest in these things. He
does try to make it as understandable as he can. In essence, Dr.
Hawking's theories lead him to believe in a universe that has no
beginning and no end. It is eternal. Now, not only does Dr. Hawking not
attribute this to God, he makes his case that an eternal universe has no
need of a creator. But that's his opinion. From my point of view, he has
done a remarkable job, as a physicist, describing the eternal nature and
work of God. As Paul has written, "[Christ] is before all things, and in
him all things hold together."
We no doubt all know that there has hardly been any more explosive issue
in this century than the debate between creationism and evolution.
Classic evolutionists usually make it clear that there is no need for a
creating God, and that the species were not created separate from each
other but instead evolved biologically from each other over immense
stretches of time. Yet, as I was watching the public television program
Nova several years ago, which happened to be about evolution, I heard the
most amazing of contemporary evolution theories. One of the major
arguments between creationists and evolutionists has been over the age of
the earth. In order to accommodate evolution, evolutionists have always
dated the earth as much older than have the creationists. But on that
program, I heard one major group of evolutionists state that their
studies lead them to believe that the evolution of humanity began many,
many centuries later - that is, not as long ago - than previously
believed. Secondly, one group of researchers, studying the transmission
of DNA, claimed that it is their belief that the human species can be
traced back to one woman; a mother of humanity; an Eve. Well, shuck my
corn, how come I'm not surprised? Like Paul, I think I can safely say
that Christ is still significant in the universe.
Contemplating the nature and origin of the universe is overwhelming for
most people - even Christians. Besides, even though God is our Creator,
His purpose for revelation is redemptive, not necessarily instructive. So
Paul brings God in Christ closer by reminding the Colossians that Christ
is significant in the Church. "And he is the head of the body, the
church; he is the beginning and the first-born from among the dead, so
that in everything he might have supremacy."
By dwelling on the universe, Christ can be kept distanced and abstract.
Not so, though, when we dwell on Christ's Church. "The firstborn of all
creation" comes into human history to redeem to himself, and to launch
into the stream of human history, his Church - the community of redeemed
persons. Christ is the head of the Church, meaning that nobody, whether
natural king or supernatural spiritual power, supplants him. Paul's use
of the word "body" here is different than his other references found in
Romans and Corinthians. Rather than pointing to the diversity of members
of the same body, and how they work together, Paul lays out to the
Colossians that the body of Christ is a whole organism, deriving its
vital powers from the head. The church in this ultimate sense is not a
body of people, self-organized to perpetuate the teaching and practice of
Jesus, but a living organism of which he is the life and animating
spirit.
The significance of Christ in the church is not so much, then, that he
gets a few believers together on one day a week to sing hymns, pray,
fellowship and have a sermon. The significance is that he has created a
living organism, so to speak, that throbs its life-giving blood
throughout every aspect of life on this planet. We, members of his Church
- this organism - respond obediently to the instructions from Christ the
head. When we tell our arm to stretch out and our hand to grasp a cup,
then arm and hand move in obedience to our desire. Christ tells his
Church to stretch out in witness and evangelism and to grasp others in
love, and his Church moves in obedience to his desire. Or is supposed to.
Sometimes, though, arms, hands and other limbs can become diseased and
paralyzed to the point of unresponsiveness. Christ's Church, too,
sometimes fails to respond as it should. Sin attacks the church and keeps
us from functioning as Christ, the head, desires. This has happened to
his Church before; it will happen again, I am afraid. But this does not
diminish Christ's significance in the church. Instead, it seems to
elevate it. Always, somewhere, somehow, there is a branch of the Church
which rises up, moving as the head desires, reminding the rest of the
body what it is like to be healed, reminding the rest of that which Paul
wrote: "For God was pleased to have his fullness dwell in him, and
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."
Christ is significant in application to the readers. Not too long ago, I
was in discussion with some friends. Our topics seemed to be broad in
scope, as Paul's are here. As we talked of God, we tried to reconcile to
ourselves how God can be both Creator of the universe and savior of the
individual. It is difficult. On the one hand, God's will will be done in
spite of humanity's pitiful attempts to stop it. We humans have an
immense amount of freedom, but our freedom will not overturn God's will
regardless of how we apply our freedom. On the other hand, "His eye is on
the sparrow, and I know He watches me."
How are the two resolved? How can God be so cosmological and at the same
time so personal? The response that Paul gives here to the Corinthians is
found in verses 21-23: "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies
in your own minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has
reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you
holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation - if you
continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope
held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has
been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which, I, Paul,
have become a servant."
Paul the servant did a superb job of reminding the Colossians that the
Christ who is significant to the universe is significant for the
individual. The cosmic Christ became incarnate; the holy of holies became
human; the divine became flesh. If we want to understand the nature and
the method of God's saving work, to realize the depth and influence of
his forgiving love, to know in our own lives his reconciling power, then
learn of him, who "became man for us men and for our salvation." This is
what Paul is holding up here. To the Corinthians he wrote, "I determined
not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified."
(1 Corinthians 2:2) The thought is not that Paul closes his mind to any
area of truth, but that he must view all truth, all reality, in the light
of the crucified Christ. Reconciliation to God is not effected by
thinking one's way to a new philosophical position, as the Colossians
were in danger of doing, but by Christ's challenge to the evil wills of
men and women, and by his conquest of the moral will of those whom he
enables to believe in and love him. Reconciliation was brought about his
"physical body through death;" not in the realm of speculation, but in
the experience of humanity.
To the both the Colossian Christians and us, Paul has said this: You who
have been looking elsewhere than to Christ, foolishly thinking that you
have found a fuller and more effective guidance than Christ can give into
a life well-pleasing to God; you who are substituting mystic ceremonials
and dependence upon supposed angelic mediators of redemption for a frank
and full reliance upon the spiritual energizing and the moral direction
of Christ in your lives - you have to be reconciled to God, not by
speculations, nor mystic ritual, nor by fancied rulers of some super
mundane sphere, but by Christ. It is he - who lived in the terms and
under the limitations of a human life - who confronts moral evil and
breaks its power, and wins wrong wills to right ways by the divine
potency of God's self-giving love.
The sole and sufficient reconciler between the eternal God and the
temporal human being is Christ. This is the significance of Christ to the
individual. (G. Preston MacLeod, "Colossians," The Interpreter's Bible,
vol. 11)
He leadeth me, O blessed thought!
O words with heavenly comfort fraught!
Whate'er I do, where'er I be,
Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me.
Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN
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