BASICS OF THE FAITH #4 (by
John Korsgaard)
ALL GOD'S TRUTH PONTS TO ITS
CENTER-JESUS
CHRIST
The one of whom we speak now is the one of whom it can be said: He is the most inexhaustible subject for man to ponder. Indeed, consider the first two words of that sentence.
He is.
Those four English letters in the third person correspond to a statement of three English letters in the first person that He once made to some minions of his enemies.
I am.
That statement knocked a platoon of soldiers to the ground.
Jesus. Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ. That He is central to God's truth. That His person and work are the subject of God's truth. In the radio program that this chapter came from, I had 22 minutes to cover the subject. After you are in heaven 22 million earth years you will still be experiencing renewed discovery, increased depth and fresh astonishment on the subject. I had to satisfy myself with getting some definitions down and a few topics rolling.
I have to start with who He is by definition and declaration. I relish the task because it is a particular of dedication and loyalty to put the truth in words that will limit deviation. At one and the same time, I am frustrated by it because the words fall so short of the depth.
One of my favorite statements of the Old Testament about Christ (let me use this opportunity to declare that the Old Testament is not at all understood until you approach it aware that the subject is Jesus Christ) is in Psalm 85:
Lovingkindness and truth have met together,
righteousness and peace have kissed each
other.
The context is that all this has happened in the person and work of Jesus Christ. All four of these concepts: truth, righteousness, love and peace converge and are fulfilled severally and together in Jesus Christ himself and on Jesus Christ's CROSS.
All four of these concepts and realities; truth, righteousness, love and peace are continually on the lips of mankind. They are in man’s art and in man’s argument. They are not opposites, but they are the things the soul of man quests and questions. The residue of man's God-image-bearing tells him that truth, righteousness, love and peace ought to be achieved or discovered. And they ought to find a meeting place.
But these four have not actually even been studied by anyone who doesn't know the Lord.
Truth, righteousness, love & peace do find a meeting place. But only where they do. In Jesus Christ.
One implication of this is that Jesus was the only human who ever existed who was balanced.
I mean perfectly balanced. Careless thought causes folks to believe that balance is being part this and part that.
Whoops. Not the case. Listen.
Jesus is 100% man. Jesus is 100% God.
Jesus is 100% King. Jesus is 100% servant.
Jesus is 100% Saviour. Jesus is 100% Lord.
How about that. Three minutes and I'm already in over my head.
Colossians Chapter One
He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
This passage says so much. Let's touch on it briefly.
1. HE IS the image of the invisible God
God's purpose in the first Adam had been to have a whole race of exact image bearers of Himself. Where Adam failed to continue the image of God--Christ succeeded. Christ is the second Adam. The original purpose will be accomplished in Christ--in you.
2. HE IS the first born of all creation
First born does not mean that He was the first created item. No, the Son is eternal. The word translated "first born" gives the idea of "chief" or "first in authority and position."
Remember how Joseph was given supervision over his brothers by the reward of the many colored coat? Reuben had been the first born but forfeited the privileges.
It refers to leadership and headship. Ephesians One portrays the concept this way:
With a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of times, the summing up of all things in Christ.
3. HE IS author of all created things Now, what does "all things" include?
First, we have "both in the heavens and on earth." Everything in the physical universe is included under the heading "all things." Everything on earth, in the atmosphere, the exosphere, trophosphere, ionosphere and in outer space was created by Christ and through Christ.
Advance technology to enable you to explore regions far beyond the imagination of "Star Wars" and you still come upon the creative genius of God the Son AND that's all that you come upon.
"Whether visible or invisible." Christ created not only the visible but the unobservable! What is light? Why doesn't the universe burst? The workings of DNA. Time. Space. Energy itself. Phenomena too small to be guessed at even with use of the highest powered electron microscope were created by Christ. The large picture so vast & all encompassing that man, with the benefits of 6000 years of man's research, cannot even glance at--such were created through Christ.
Finally, "thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities." This has reference to the world of spirit beings--good or evil. Need we pontificate on man's incapability of perception in this area?
All these things were created by Christ and through Christ. Is there a limit on what Christ created? Yes. Looks like there are only a dozen things He created. The physical and spiritual, the microscopic and immense, the material and immaterial, the outer limits and inner limits, the imaginable and the unimaginable, the knowable and the unapproachable.
4. HE IS the purpose of all created things All things were created FOR Him.
Evolution has, as ultimate meaning of existence, the sum total of purpose in all of life--primeval chaos. My Bible tells me that there is a sensible, just, equitable final end for all the strange, painful cruel things that we see--and experience--around us.
A loving Savior is going to make all things right and fair and good. All things were created FOR Him. The glory we will have in Him makes all earthly sorrow unworthy to be considered. If that were not the case, as it is not in evolutionary humanism (or any other system that falls short of what the Bible declares), all life would be futile, amounting to “sound and fury signifying nothing”. What could be more practical than knowing and digging into the genuine meaning of life? Not the search to find out what it is, but the enjoyment of the experience and foretaste of it. All things, including you and me, were created FOR Him--FOR Jesus Christ.
5. HE IS before all things
The Lord prays: "Glorify Thou Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the earth was."
Ephesians: We were "chosen in Him before the foundation of the world." Hebrews: "Thou Lord in the beginning did lay the foundation of the earth."
Christ demonstrated His Deity while on earth through His person, His work and His lack of encumbrance to time. His eternality. The fact that He Is before all things.
Many arguments stop when one person says: "Look, I was there." Christ has no academically contrived philosophy to offer. No amalgamation of opinion of a bunch of experts. He says adamantly: Look I was there. In fact: I AM there. He has a type of authority to speak whereby we should dump our arguments and listen.
6. HE IS holder together of all things
Hebrews says: "He upholds all things by the word of His power." Preventing them from returning to the previous state of being without form and void. Man's rebellion right now can be characterized as the unwillingness to bow to the one who actively keeps them from disintegrating on the spot. But a true believer who knows who "He Is" will not be in rebellion.
7. HE IS head of the body--the church
HE nourishes and cherishes it, because it is His body. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. There is one body, one Spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father. We are to grow up in all aspects unto Him who is the Head; from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by every joint and ligament, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
8. HE IS the beginning
9. HE IS the first born from the dead
No other had died here on earth bodily & then been raised here on earth bodily to ascend without dying again to where He now resides bodily. As first born from the dead others must follow. So this phrase of praise to the Lord is also a guarantee of bodily resurrection. That is the sense in which He can be said to be the first born from the dead AND He is said to be the beginning.
10. HE IS to be first place in everything
The inflexible rule of measuring an idea or practice by whether or not it gives the preeminence to Christ leaves much wreckage in its' trail. Revival tarries because God would expect the glory for a revival to go to His Son. One becomes suspicious that giving the preeminence to Christ is so uncommon to us that we wouldn't have any idea how to do it, even if we were so inclined.
Yet, America knows what first place is. They give awards to each other for it all the time. First place for the best athlete, the greatest current thespian, the best decorated Christmas tree, the hottest selling popular tunes, the mostest Scripture memorizer & on it goes. But to acknowledge and act as if He who IS IN first place should be given the preeminence seems far too foreign.
11. HE IS the "at home" fulness
There's no place like home. It was the Father's good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him.
In John 17:21-23, Christ prays these words, which deserve careful attention.
Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one...in Us...that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me. The glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given them that they may be one--even as We are one. I in them and Thou in Me.
Ephesians instructs us to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge--to KNOW that which surpasses KNOWLEDGE--that WE may be filled up to all the fullness of God, having comprehended the length and breadth and height and depth.
So, you see, having gained knowledge that surpasses knowledge in all dimensions, Christ alone is still the result. Nothing need be added.
FOR THE FULNESS OF DEITY FELT PERFECTLY AT HOME IN HIM
12. HE IS the reconciliation mediator
It was fitting that we should have such a High Priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separate from sinners and exalted above the heavens, who does not need daily to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.
The old account is settled. The error has been rectified and the word of reconciliation is given to us.
"God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses."(II Cor 5:19)
"While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, through whom we have now received the reconciliation." (Romans 5:10-11)
Now let me make some of those declarations I mentioned.
The Lord Jesus Christ is 100% God and 100% man.
Here we go-Jesus was God become a man. [In one way that makes Christmas even more remarkable than Easter, although the former is the foundation for the latter.]
Jesus Christ, as we saw, possessed attributes of deity. He exercised prerogatives of deity and made His claim as deity. Yet he was fully a man. This was no phantom. The two natures in one personality, mystically united, neither nature diminished. Christ did forego divine prerogatives while on earth, but now HE IS STILL 100% man and 100% God exercising all His glory as Deity.
That is mind-blowing. His body is glorified, but He still has it.
There was no transformation of the two natures. Neither had to be changed from full genuineness for the Union.
The union is not an alloy. An alloy is something that is part one thing and part another that becomes a third thing. The two natures did not combine to form a third thing nor was He 85.5% one and 14.5% other or some such thing.
An early church writer, in
the 4th century captured it:
I do not think of Christ as God alone or man alone but both together.
For I know that he was hungry and
I know that with five loaves He fed five thousand.
I know that He was thirsty and
I know that He turned the Water into wine.
I know that He was carried in a ship and
I know that He walked on the sea.
I know that He died and
I know that He raised the dead.
I know that He was set before Pilate and
I know that He sits with His Father on the throne.
I know that He was worshipped by the Angels and
I know that He was stoned by the Jews.
This was necessary for our salvation. This is not a side doctrine for the blackboard, something to keep theological hobbyists happy. Our sacrifice had to be us in order to represent us. He had to be God for the blood to have the necessary value and merit. The virgin birth comes into focus here as well.
The three offices are next in importance. Jesus is the prophet, the priest and the King.
The prophet is the man with the word. Your authority. Your source of authoritative data and direction. All other prophets and Apostles are, according to direct scripture, the foundation but Christ is the cornerstone. Your thinking, your imagination even what you call your subjective moves and feelings will be directed by sin or by Christ.
Christ is the priest. He is our intercessor. We do not go to God directly as we are unworthy. Let me say that differently. We who are adopted children of God, inherently unworthy to approach God, now have access and can, as it were, barge right in where angels fear to tread. BUT--The Bible says, through Him we have confident access by faith in Him.
If there were an announcer at the doors of the throne room and I needed to visit. He would not say, Announcing John, the radio preacher.
He would say: Entering and approaching by faith in the lamb, a blood bought son, John.
Christ the priest offers Christ the lamb as sacrifice. He is the priest and the sacrifice. So, we have a worthy priest who offers a meritorious sacrifice.
This is how our sins can be forgiven by the events that transpired on a hill 2000 years ago. You are not saved by calling an 800 number on your screen. You are saved by a transaction between God the Father and God the Son. This man, this God-man, lived a life of perfect righteousness, pleasing the Father. He then died the death that was due us for living a life condemned by the holiness and purity of God. His life is ours. His death is ours. We are in Him. It is safe to say that salvation comes from being in union with. So much evangelism shows us a watered down version of our need, then tells us in vague terms that Christ can enter our lives and make things better somehow. But the obedient suffering of the Great High Priest GodMan in covenant with His Father is the real answer.
Thirdly, he is the king. The message of the Bible is not How to Live. It is not how to die. It is not “choose this religion”. It is not Geopolitics in the Middle East. It is:
Someone is coming, someone has come, someone is coming again. The one coming is king. When He came it was in much humiliation. His final act of death burial, resurrection and ascension stamps him as who He is. And this guarantees that when He comes again it will be for coronation, victory and celebration. I hate to descend to the negative but I've got to say it. Jesus Christ is prophet, priest and King. When you receive Him, you have an authority, an intercessor, a sacrifice and a boss. This whole idea of being saved by a priest who is not also your Lord, your monarch, your whole new way of thinking and believing is UTTER nonsense.
The Bible is about Jesus Christ. It's about the most important subject that there is. It is not about us. Yes, everything about us is in the Bible. What's crucially important about THAT is that we are not about us.
All things were created for Him--Jesus Christ. You may have been a Christian for decades and have never gotten to these basics as THE basics. I hope you count this series as the happening when your mind was opened to the things which caused your Christian life to be transformed.
It is also my honest conviction and fear that many in Bible believing churches are deluded about the condition of their own soul. There really isn't any hard outward evidence but an emasculated gospel is popular and the full-orbed truth is not. Let God's truth point you to Jesus Christ.