Introduction
Jesus, who are you? Is there a more important question? The answer we embrace determines not only how we live our lives here on earth, but also where we spend eternity! As John Newton wrote:

Ah, but there are many opinions.

Is Jesus the meek and mild Galilean, so gentle little children may sit on his lap? Is Jesus the revolutionary, or Huk, who upset the Jewish and Roman authorities? Is Jesus the businessman, or the CEO? Is he the Great Moral Teacher, admired by Gandhi, particularly for his teaching on non-violence? Is Jesus the man - extraordinary, Savior and Lord - but in his essential nature, man not God as the Iglesia Ni Kristo teaches? Is he the Sto. Nino of Cebu or the Black Nazarene of Quiapo? Is he Jesus Christ the Rock Superstar? Is he a prophet but lesser than Mohammad, the prophet? Perhaps, as C.S. Lewis says in Mere Christianity, there are only three main choices: Liar? Lunatic? Or, Lord? Like C.S. Lewis we choose Lord because this is what the earliest Christians said and they knew Jesus better than anyone else. How they came to such a conclusion regarding the crucified Nazarene as Lord of all can only be explained by his resurrection from the dead! Many of the first Christians were still alive when Paul wrote his letter to the Colossians in 60 A.D. That was only 30 years after the crucifixion and resurrection. Thirty years ago, in 1976, DCBC began and we still have some of the original members with us today! Colossians 1:15-20, our passage for today, is one of the great Christological texts in the New Testament. In these few verses Christ is described with such a wealth of divine attributes in words that are intolerably weighty (C.F.D. Moule). The scholars tell us the paragraph is a hymn in two stanzas. This was a hymn that the early believers sang of Christ, Lord of the cosmos, and Lord of the church. If so, the hymn must have been composed earlier than when Paul wrote his letter.

When we examine the hymn more closely, there is a third relationship described in it which is even more fundamental than the two we have seen. It is the relationship of Christ and God. When we understand this relationship - between Christ and God - then we understand better how Christ is related to the cosmos and to the church.

Christ and God
1. Christ is the image of the invisible God (v.15). Image (eikon) means both representation and manifestation; it is more than resemblance and likeness. No graven image, says the Second Commandment - not even an attempt at a likeness of Yahweh himself, because Yahweh in his essential nature is invisible. Yet Jesus is the eikon, the visible expression of the invisible God! In his one, perfect human life God has made himself visible so we can know what he is like. "No one has ever seen God," wrote John, "the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known" (John 1:18). Jesus himself said, "He who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9).

You and I are made in the image of God. Jesus is the image of God, the perfect representation of the invisible God, the exact imprint of God's nature (Hebrews 1:3). If the image of Rizal imprinted on our one-Peso coin is a perfect portrait, that comes close to illustrating eikon. How about this. God is invisible and may be likened to undeveloped film. Jesus is the developed film, in living color! The Word that existed before the universe began, became a human being and lived among us (John 1:14). The invisible God became visible. His name is Jesus!

2. In Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell (v. 19). Fullness (pleroma) was a key word in the vocabulary of the false teachers in Colossae. They taught a form of Judaistic Gnosticism which boasted of philosophical knowledge, or gnosis as the key to salvation. They also gave an important place to spiritual beings which mediated between God and the material universe. They worshipped angels. The totality of these spiritual beings and angels they called the pleroma, or fullness. Paul counters the intellectual pride in gnosis by presenting Christ as the one in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3). Paul counters the false teaching on pleroma by declaring that Christ is the Creator and Lord of all things - not just of the material universe but of all spiritual beings. In Christ all the fullness (pleroma) of God was pleased to dwell (v. 19). If there is some dispute in translating verse 19, Colossians 2:9 makes the truth more explicit: For in Christ the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. Here is a small illustration of pleroma. The full complement of a company of soldiers is 100 men. The sergeant reports to his captain: "Sir, all present, all accounted for." He means all 100 men are here, including Beetle Bailey! 100 of 100. Jesus is not only 99 percent God. He is God of very God. The pleroma of the Godhead in him dwells. 100 of 100.

Christ and the Cosmos
1. Christ is the firstborn over all creation. Firstborn (prototokos) can mean first either in time or in rank, or both. The Arians of the 4th century understood firstborn to mean Christ was a creature of God, although he was "firstborn." However, as Athanasius countered, Paul's Greek does not require this meaning. In addition, this meaning directly contradicts the rest of what Paul has to say. Paul attributes to Christ the work of creation, as the one through whom all things were created. If the pre-incarnate Lord was the agent of creation, and pre-existed before everything (he is before all things, v.17), only God can satisfactorily account for Christ's being. As Athanasius (295-373) said: "But if all creatures were created in him, he is other than the creatures, and he is not a creature but the creator of the creatures." A high Arian view could regard Christ as a subordinate deity who created the material universe. In other words, God created Christ as a demiurge, and he in turn created everything else. This is high Arian but still contradicts the rest of what Paul says. Even then, to worship such a Christ is to worship a creature. And to worship a creature - no matter how exalted - is idolatry!

2. In (by) Christ all things were created (v.16). This clearly excludes the possibility of his being part of creation, and also explains his supremacy over creation. He was himself the agent of creation - all creation.

Including all the angels and spiritual beings that the false teachers included in their pleroma. Including Satan and all his demons, all evil spirits, "lahat ng asuwang, tikbalang, duwende, atbp." All made by Christ.

3. All things were created for him. What a powerful preposition! For him. They exist for his sake, for his pleasure, for his glory. Cp Rev. 4:11. Christ is the goal of creation. Simply as Creator he is worthy of all glory and honor.

4. All things hold together in him. Cp. Heb. 1:3. The Son sustains all things by his powerful word. Here in Col. 1:17 Christ is said to supply the glue that keeps the universe together, orderly and predictable (cosmos means the ordered universe). What would happen if Jesus withdrew his sustaining and cohesive power? The lights will go out, the roof will collapse, and our limbs will fly in all directions! Jesus is upholder and sustainer of the cosmos.

5. All things have been reconciled to the Father through the Son. We are reminded that we live in a fallen world. Christ made peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Reconciliation has been accomplished but redemption still awaits completion. Even now the universe groans, awaiting its freedom from bondage to decay (Romans 8:19-22). It staggers my mind to contemplate the cosmic proportions of what Christ did on the cross! How can he do that and be mere man?

How the cosmos is bound up with Christ may be shown by a time-line. In the past, in the beginning Christ created the universe. In the present he upholds the universe and has reconciled it to the Father. In the future, he is the goal of the universe because everything exists for him. Past, present, and future - everything belongs to him, to Jesus Christ who is the same yesterday, today, and forever! (Hebrews 13:4)

Christ and the Church
1. Christ is the head of the body, the church. While Christ is also head of the cosmos, the cosmos is not called his body. Only the church is his body. This calls attention to the special and vital relationship of Christ and his church. It is a living intimate relationship and tells us that the church is central to God's purposes. Wow!

2 He is the firstborn (prototokos) from the dead. Christ is the pioneer, the first to be resurrected and the source of resurrection life for all his followers. Because Jesus lives, we live also. As he now has a resurrection body we too will receive the eternal, indestructible, heavenly body (2 Corinthians 5:1).

3 He is the reconciler to God. The universe has been reconciled but at the center of his work of reconciliation is the church. We used to be God's enemies because of our sin and rebellion but Christ's death has reconciled us to the Father. Reconciled so that he may present us holy, blameless, and above reproach before God. But we must remain firm in our faith, stable and steadfast. We must not abandon the gospel that we heard and responded to. This gospel is the good news of who Jesus is, and what he came to do. If we abandon Jesus, then we are not truly his.

Conclusion
Do we really believe that Jesus is supreme? Numero Uno in everything? Is he really number one in my life? Lord Jesus, enable me to say that, and to mean it! For the glory of your great name. Amen.