WEDNESDAY 30th
Colossians 1:15-20
NIV (v15) – ‘The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.’
ESV (v15) – ‘He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.’
In this chapter, Paul makes much about the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, there was no doubt in his mind as to who Jesus really is, the eternal Son of God, fully God who took on flesh and became fully man.
In the verses before us today he recognises Jesus as God, as the Creator, as the one who holds all things together, as the head of the Church, as the one through whom God reconciled the world to himself, (as we saw in the previous verses yesterday this was through becoming the source of our salvation) and seen in verse 20 which thankfully still mentions the blood! ‘. . .and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.’
Who Jesus is and what we believe about him is so important, he wasn’t just another man who lived and died, he wasn’t just a man who did amazing miracles, he wasn’t just a man who spent three years preaching good sermons and telling powerful parables, he was God in the flesh. We have just been through the Christmas period where I emphasised this in some of the devotions, John1:1-2,12 are such an incredible source of truth, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God . . . And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.’ Sometimes I am conscious of the fact that I am repeating truth that I have already written about, but then I remind myself that if it keeps coming up in the various Scriptures then it must be worth repeating! And to me the wonder of who Jesus really is, is truth worth repeating, he is the eternal Son of God, he was there with God at the beginning, he was involved in the creation of all that was created, he is constantly involved in its being sustained and he is the One who became flesh, became a man so that we as men and women by putting our faith and trust in him could one day appear, be found in his eternal presence.
Paul continues in verses 21-23 to encourage the Colossians that just as they had been reconciled because of what the God Man had achieved for them so they need to continue in it, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard. As I write this I feel compelled by the Holy Spirit to emphasise this, to my Church family, to my brothers and sisters in Christ, to you who are the flock that the Lord Jesus has put under my care, and of course to others that read the devotions it is for you as well, ‘continue in the faith’, remain stable and steadfast, do not allow anything to shift you away from the hope of the gospel which you have believed.
And should you be reading this and have never yet believed, today place your hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.