Series: Colossians (part 3)
John MacArthur writes, “The Church today desperately needs to embrace the message [of the sufficiency of Christ]. Christians today are consumed with the trials and troubles of life. They are caught up with difficulties and sorrows and anguish. And they are desperately looking for some great new secret, some higher spiritual level, some more effective relief than they think they have in Christ…There is no need for that. His grace is sufficient. Christianity is an all-sufficient relationship with an all-sufficient Christ”(Our Sufficiency in Christ, 263, 19).
One of the main themes of Paul’s letter to the Colossians is the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ:
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. (Colossians 1:15-20)
Ancient hymn, ancient heresy.
In Colossians 1:15-20, Paul pens this ancient hymn as one of the strongest statements of who Jesus is. It asserts the deity and Lordship of Christ in response to heresies circulating in the first century Colossian Church. These ancient heresies still abound in subtle forms today, both outside and inside the church, especially in the age of false teachings coming through internet ministries. It suits Satan’s agenda to characterise Jesus as a mere man, one of many gods, or one of many intermediaries between man and God. Paul refutes these false views of Jesus in no uncertain terms.
Let’s look at some of these ancient heresies and see how Paul keeps the focus on Christ’s supremacy throughout his letter:
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Heresy one: One must follow ceremonies, rituals, and restrictions to be saved or perfected.
Paul’s answer: Salvation comes through a person, not a system. Christ is all you need to be saved and sustained through life. Christ is sufficient for salvation (Col 2:13,) as well as for daily living (Col 2:6, 10).
Paul reasons, “Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules?”
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Heresy two: One must venerate angels and spiritual beings.
Paul’s answer: Christ alone is worthy of worship. Christ already has victory and authority over all earthly, spiritual, and demonic powers. He is the head over all rule and authority, including unseen forces of darkness (Col 2:10, 15).
“Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
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Heresy three: Jesus could not be both human and divine at the same time.
Paul’s answer: Christ is God in the flesh, the perfect God-man. He not only reflects God, but also reveals God to us. He is not merely a prophet, good teacher or miracle worker for us to imitate. He is fully God and fully man at the same time (Col 1:15,19).
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Heresy four: One must find ‘secret knowledge’ to live a successful Christian life. Only some have access to this special revelation.
Paul’s answer: God’s secret is Christ, and He is an open secret! Christ has been revealed to everyone in the pages of Scripture. Paul warns the ordinary Christians in Colossae not to be deceived or deluded by those who claim ‘secret knowledge” or special powers from God. Instead, Paul offers Christians “full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments” (Col 2:2-4).
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Heresy five: One must combine human wisdom and philosophies with Christian doctrine.
Paul’s answer: Christ is our sole source of wisdom and authority. Every word Christ speaks is fully truthful and reliable (Col 2:3, 8). Therefore, every word of worldly wisdom must be tested against the Bible and rejected if it does not line up. Christ’s Word is sufficient and authoritative for our lives and our local churches. If we build on anything other than Christ and His Word, we will be building on sinking sand.
“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ” (Col 2:8). “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs…(Col 3:16).
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Heresy six: One should combine aspects of several religions and Christianity. After all, surely we can gain helpful insights from other religions?
Paul’s answer: Only Christ deserves our worship. Christ is the sole source of wisdom and knowledge. He is not just one in a pantheon of gods. He is God Himself.
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Heresy seven: There are many intermediaries between God and people.
Paul’s answer: Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man who accurately represents them both. He has reconciled us to God and other Christians through his work on the cross. Peace and reconciliation has been achieved by the blood of Christ (Col 1:20).
Supremacy and syncretism.
Like the Colossians, we too, live in a culture of syncretism, which is the mixing of incompatible religious ideas and philosophies. Like a Trojan horse, shallow, deceptive ideas have always wheedled their way into the church and practices of professing Christians. Paul is warning us of syncretism throughout the letter of Colossians.
For example, I know professing Christians who are heavily influenced by New Age religion. They know that their lives are broken, but instead of trusting Christ in a fallen world, they run after mystical experiences and self-help to ease their suffering. They put more faith in modern psychology than in God and His Word.
Some in the New Apostolic or Word-of-Faith movements are obsessed with supernatural power, “words of knowledge”, and dramatic manifestations of the Spirit. Others hold onto rituals and ceremonies, like lighting candles and mindlessly reciting prayers and incantations. Others try to twist God’s Word and smuggle unbiblical ideologies into the Church, undermining Christ’s authority over His body, of which He is the head.
But Paul keeps the focus on Christ, the head of the body, the Church (Col 1:18). It is to Christ alone that we owe homage and obedience. Christ supplies all we need for salvation and sanctification. In Paul’s ancient hymn, the living Jesus is the Lord, who reflects and reveals God to us.
Jesus is Lord.
In his letters, Paul’s characteristic name for Jesus Christ is “Lord”, the Greek word used for YHWH, the covenant name of God in the Old Testament (Col 1:3, 10). The Lordship of Christ was the core belief of the earliest Christians. It was not a contentious title. The apostle John talks about Jesus as “God” at the start of his Gospel (John 1:18) and Thomas confesses Him as “my Lord and my God” at the end (John 20:28). Jesus himself affirmed his deity to Phillip, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
Christ’s deity is the central foundation of Christianity. Jesus is not a mere man but Christ the Lord! Jesus, the incarnate Son, possesses the status of God and is also the express image of His being. As the “image of the invisible God”, Jesus reflects God, and reveals God to us. In using these words, Paul combines the Greek understanding of “image” with the Jewish understanding of YHWH.
Jesus reflects and reveals God.
Jewish people knew all about the invisible God, YHWH. They worshipped a God who was Lord of heaven and earth. The Gentiles, on the other hand, had images and statues of gods that they worshipped. But in Colossians 1:15-20, Paul declares that “Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God”.
In other words, Jesus is the invisible God, who appeared in the world as a human being, dying a human death, rising from the grave, and ascending to heaven where He pleads for the salvation of those who have submitted to Him as Lord.
Jesus Christ is equal to and identical with God the Father, performing works that only God can do. We were never supposed to do the miracles Jesus performed. He is fully God and fully man. He laid the foundations of the earth and continues to hold it together. Nothing can destroy our world apart from Christ’s own will.
Unless the Lordship of Christ is our sincere confession, we cannot be a true Christian (1 Cor 12:3). Christ alone is worthy of our worship. He is Lord over every room of our house, every corner of our life, every thought, word and deed. He will not share the space with any other idea, power or person. He is either Lord of all, or not at all.
Why our view of Christ matters.
For Christians in Africa, our Christology (view of Christ) has many crucial implications. In African traditional religions, the ancestors protect mankind and carry our prayers to the Creator God. The spirits of the dead and ancestors are venerated, appeased and served as mediators. When we underplay Christ’s role in creation and redemption, Jesus becomes just one of many gods. When we fail to believe His power to fully protect believers from the influences of unseen powers of darkness, Jesus becomes just one of the ancestors and spirits to whom we must pay homage.
This emasculated Jesus is part of creation, not Lord over it! He is not the Jesus of the Bible, who laid the foundation of the earth from the beginning and will roll it up like a garment (Heb 1:10-12). This weak Jesus is not the faithful protector of His people, the reconciler who brings peace and assures the ultimate overthrow of defeated powers of evil and darkness.
Like the Colossians, we need to be reminded that God’s secret is Christ, who has been revealed to all (Col 1:15; 2:2, 18). It is not a system or religion. We need to see Jesus as the eternal Creator, Redeemer, Judge, and Lord of the cosmos, not just the saviour of one particular race or nation. He alone is supreme. There are no other intermediaries or go-betweens to connect us to God or each other. Like the Colossians, we need to reject all false and pathetic portrayals of Christ:
For example, the casual hipster Jesus that Pastor Keven Zadai claims he saw playing the saxophone at the foot of his bed.
Or the Jesus who emptied himself of his deity to show us how to be a modern miracle worker. Jesus didn’t do miracles because he was God, but to show us how to do them too, if we just believe we can. This is the Jesus invented by Bill Johnson of Bethel in “When heaven invades earth.” Or the new Age ‘spiritual’ Jesus, a mere man who attains spiritual enlightenment and God-consciousness. Or the Jesus that we sing about at church on Sunday, while we follow worldly philosophies the rest of the week.
The Jesus of man’s invention is always a diminished Jesus. He is not the Christ of the Bible who saves and pardons us by His blood, the Lord of lords, before whom every knee will bow. He is not the risen King who disarmed and disgraced all authorities and powers, and is now “reconciling all things to himself, whether things on earth, or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Col 1:19-20, 2:15.)
In keeping with the ancient hymn, let us revere Jesus as Lord. Let us lift our eyes to the ascended Christ and magnify Him for His uniqueness and supremacy as King of the cosmos, who is reconciling all things to Himself. Let us worship Him as the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, who made the world and is directing it towards its intended goal. Let us view Him as He is: “the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth, King of kings and Lord of lords” (Rev 1:5). Our view of Christ matters.
