Things

Colossians 1-Part 4 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.       Colossians 1:17


LET IT GLOW

When you hear the word "things" what do you think of? I think of material possessions around the house. They just sit there until I move them. They have no life in them. Of course, there are things outside, too. They don't move either. Especially when I want to mow the grass and things like the water hose are in my way and I have to mow around them. Things-they are everywhere. We have names for them. They are called nouns.

Webster's Dictionary defines a thing as a material object without life; a matter, affair, fact, circumstance, action, deed, etc.; a living being.

What an extended definition. I always though a thing was a thing, an object. I use the word loosely whenever I can't think of the word I'm looking for. Enough about things. Shall we get on with the Word?

Who is Christ? Paul is telling us about His nature. Here's what he said.

Christ is:
*the image of invisible God-verse 15
  (An image is a likeness. Eikon is the Greek word. it refers to the image on a coin or the manifestation of
   God fully revealed in Jesus.)
*first born of every creature-verse 15
  (The Greek word is prototokos, which is He who came into being
   through God prior to the entire universe of created beings; supremacy in rank.)
*the One who created all things-verse 16
*before all things-verse 17
*the One by whom all things consist-verse 17
*the Head of the church-verse 18
*firstborn from the dead-verse 18
   (Prince of Life-Acts 3:15)
*the One who has preeminence in all things-verse 18
   (First place, in a class of His own.)
*the One in whom all fulness dwells in Him-verse 19
   (All divine nature in all its fullness is in Him. Eph.1:23)

Christ is the manifestation of God, the Sovereign Creator, and the Head of the church.

[Resources: Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament; Liberty Bible Commentary;
                   David Guzik's Bible Commentary]

Did you know?
*Saturn's rings are 500,000 miles in circumference, but only a foot thick.
*The star Antares is 60,000 times greater than our sun. If the sun were the size of a softball, the star Antares
   would be the size of a house.
*If the sun were the size of a beachball, and put on top of the Empire State Building, the nearest group of
   stars would be as far away as Australia is to the Empire State Building.
*The earth travels around the sun about 8 times the speed of a bullet fired from a gun.
*A single human chromosome contains 20 billion bits of information. If written in ordinary boods and
   ordinary language, it woul take about 4,000 volumes.
[Resource: David Guzik's Bible Commentary]

How amazing is that? Everything was planned, not a coincidence.


LET IT GROW

Verse 22 says, "In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight."

Paul is talking about the work that  Christ by dying on the cross for us.
"There was actual atonement; not through His birth, His baptism, His miracles, His teaching; but through His death (Heb. 9:22), states Liberty Bible Commentary.

Atonement is an agreement, a reconciliation for sin, according to King James Bible Dictionary.

God has agreed to accept us because we trust in Jesus' death and resurrection, the perfect sacrifice for our sins. He has reconciled us, restored our union, to God because of Jesus' shed blood on the cross.(verse 20). Why did He do this? So Jesus could:
1. present us holy (concecrated, dedicated, and set apart for God. Christ's righteousness becomes our
    righteousness).
2. present us unblameable (without flaw, free from defects, without blemish, and stainless in character and
    conduct)
3. present us unreprovable (no charge and no accusation either here or hereafter).

All of this is possible because of the shed blood of our Savior Jesus Christ. How amazing! This happened, not by anything I did. Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe, sin hath left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow, as the old hymn goes. Praise the Lord!!!!!!


LET IT GO

Make Christ first place in my life today.

Prace and thank Him daily for all He has done for me.

Believe in the Diety of Christ; that He is Supreme Creator; that He is Head of the church.