Preeminence (Col 1:15-23)

I love this picture. I took it a few years ago in the fall. The beauty of this picture isn't only in the man-made structure of the pier in Grand Haven, MI. The beauty is in the placement of this structure amidst the beauty of God's creation. I love it that we serve a God that created this! This is just an aside to the topic of today. Let's dive in!

I took Latin in college. And yes, I lived a very exciting college life ;-).
Anyways, it is a convenient thing in hindsight to be able to use some of my very basic Latin knowledge. In this case the prefix "Pre" in the word Preeminent. Ok ok, so it didn't take my one year of college level Latin to figure out what "pre" meant, but I wanted somehow and in someway to feel good about taking that class.
In Colossians 1:15-23 Paul gives a fantastic description of why the prefix "pre" is so important when it regards Christ and another term, "eminence." In case you don't have your bible in hand, I'd love to provide you this little break today to read this and fuel your walk with Christ today:
Col 1:15-23
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And 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. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

The word eminent is an adjective which means, "high in station, rank, or repute; prominent; distinguished." If that word weren't enough to describe Christ, the prefix "pre" is placed to say, not only is Christ high in rank or prominent, he IS the highest of the highest rank, he CREATED the rank he is PRE-the highest there is. Paul reminds us that he is "the image of the invisible God." He is the creator of all things, mentioned twice in this passage. He ordained all rulers and authorities, both invisible and visible. He was not just in the beginning, he IS THE BEGINNING (vs18).

Vs 18 is an amazing verse to me. If Christ IS the beginning, does that me he was never created but that he can only create? YES. I get this question a lot while working with high school students. It is a question that I've mulled over and over about. There's a point when a human get's the cognitive recognition to realize, wait a minute, something is fishy about God always "being" and never was created. When it comes to human standards and natural law, this is an impossibility according to the laws of thermodynamics. The 1st law states something along the lines that matter is neither created nor destroyed it's just in balance. So long story short, in everything that our science has been able to discover and experiment, something can only be created by something else using OTHER preexisting matter. That begs the question and argues so nicely the fact that there is only one answer to the ultimate beginning of all matter: Jesus Christ the Creator of all things (our passage today). BUT... what about him!? He's the Image of the invisible God so he IS matter too by humanistic scientific definition. Where did his matter come from? How has Christ always just "been" and never has been created?

It took me awhile to get past the chips on the shoulders of the esteemed academic realm to finally allow God to enlighten me with an answer to this that is both biblical and comforting: We are not meant nor have the capability to understand this concept of "eternal." Just even talking to a Junior in high school last week about this, he said, "It scares me a little bit about going to heaven, I don't like the thought of "forever" because I'm afraid of getting board." ;-) As funny as that is, it proves two very important points. One, beyond the biblical survey of Heaven and the fact that somehow and lovingly "eternality" with Christ will NEVER get boring. Two, we just can't, in our human capacity, fully understand or even scratch the surface of this concept. My pastor puts it this way, "if the bible doesn't tell us, then God didn't mean for us to know." I love that! It's like litmus test to our faiths, are we going to have faith enough to just trust God with a bit of information that we can't figure out!? or not?
This brings me back to PREeminence. Christ is preeminent and thus the head of all things, particularly our lives, should we recognize that or not. It is then my honor and comfort to you reading this to say, "TRUST the guy who is in charge and clearly knows more than us." I'll leave the "out of human knowledge realm" category for Him and focus on his word to us and learn as much as I can.
When a boss tells you what to do, do you ask why? No! Or you shouldn't, maybe that's your lesson today from this blog. Why can we understand that model here on earth, but sometimes miss the fact that we ultimately serve our boss' BOSS (vs16). And why do we serve Christ? We find that answer in verses 19-23.
Only a PREeminent Christ can truly reconcile all things to himself because of the fact that he's the creator of all. He's the ruler of all. He's the giver of all. So the ONLY way that we could be reconciled is if Christ "created" that option. And he did: Grace by sacrificing himself on a cross for the payment of OUR sin. The only thing we create is trouble. He, being preeminent gives us the opportunity to BELIEVE, to have faith, and join him back into the preeminent sinless eternal life with himself in the future! Praise God!
Our response?
Some of you reading this may actually feel alienated from God. You may think, "if he's so preeminent, how come he hasn't created a solution to my issue." Satan's best tool is deceiving you into believing that that is true. The solution to ANY issue, is the Preeminent Christ who gave his life so that you could be reconciled to him and SAVED from your sin! Recognize and believe in Jesus as your boss' Boss. Recognize and believe in Jesus as the HEAD of all things, the creator of all things. Recognize Him as the amazing and awesome image of the invisible God of the Universe! Dive into his word and pretty soon, he will seem so big in your life that your other issues seem like ants that you will have the strength in the Holy Spirit to stomp on an kill.

Some of you reading needed a little encouragement or challenge. "I know about all of this, but I really needed to be reminded of Christ's Preeminence in MY life, because my priorities have been out of order." I'm telling you, Christ's preeminence in your life is the key. If you are your own boss right now, there's trouble brewing, the pressure cooker is hissing. The heat isn't stopping and you are about to blow. God is gracious, allow the preeminent Christ to pick you up off the heat. Perhaps you want to pray to the Lord, "Lord, I know you are there, I've been allowing other things to get in the way of your preeminence in my life. I recognize you now what you have always been, first of the first, and the ruler of all, especially now in my life."

I don't know where you land in the above two categories. But my prayer for you is that you take the word of God and grow from it. Recognize your position as NOT preeminent and TRUST in the only person you can trust: Christ. He reconciles us to himself, and we should want nothing more, and be motivated the most in our actions by this amazing grace that he has made available to us by faith.

Blessings on your day!