The Supremacy of Christ
A Study of Colossians • Sermon • Submitted
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The Christ Hymn in Colossians - Colossians 1:15-20
The Christ Hymn in Colossians - Colossians 1:15-20
The foundation of our faith is our absolute certainty about who Jesus was and is.
The foundation of our faith is our absolute certainty about who Jesus was and is.
We see this in Paul’s statement of his purpose in writing to the church at Colossae:
We see this in Paul’s statement of his purpose in writing to the church at Colossae:
10 so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.
Colossians 1:
This is his purpose in light of the assault against the faithfulness of the church from an unknown source; the so-called Colossian Heresy.
As we read this letter we can see the things that Paul offers up as antidotes or defenses against this attack.
In character for Paul he begins with the one thing that must be settled before the church can defend itself against attack. The supremacy of Christ must be a settled certainty on with everything else rests. We must answer, each of us, with absolute certainty the most important question of the New Testament, “who do you say that I am?”
“But you,” he asked them, “who do you say that I am?”
This is not something new for Paul. In his mind and heart Christ’s identify and power are the foundations on which everything else rests.
He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens—far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he subjected everything under his feet and appointed him as head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.
In Ephesians Paul also states that this certainty is the foundation of what he longs for, for his people.
For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
John, in his Gospel told us exactly the same thing. He wanted the people to have “life in His name” and the first necessary requirement for that life is to know exactly who Jesus was and is.
30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
First comes “belief” and from that belief comes “life”. Belief in this case is a settled, confidence…a certainty of such power that it informs the very character of every part of a person’s life. It is the central truth on which life is lived.