What if I told you that you could trust Jesus not only to accept and forgive you but also to use His omnipotent power to help put your life back together-and keep it together?
Let's start with some foundational theology . . .
In the gospel of John we read these words, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made." (John 1:1-3, emphasis added).
The writer of Hebrews opens his letter by telling us that God used to speak through prophets, but “in these last days He has spoken to us by his Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom also He made the universe” (Hebrews 1:2, emphasis added). The writer continues, "The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Father in heaven. (Hebrews 1:3, emphasis added).
In Paul's letter to the Colossians, he writes, "The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in Jim all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and for Him." (Colossians 1:15,16, emphasis added).
So we see throughout scripture that through Jesus everything was created. In fact, it was all created through Him and for Him. But more than that, Paul wants us to understand that in Jesus, we get a better understanding of the Father. He is the image of the invisible God.
Here is how some of our church leaders have interpreted these verses:
“Christ is called the image of God because He makes God, in a manner, visible to us.” - John Calvin
“There is not one maverick molecule in the universe outside of Christ’s control.” - R.C. Sproul
In his book, “Orthodoxy,” G. K. Chesterton says it like this, “It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”
The picture that Chesterton paints in his words is astounding, that Creator God, Jesus Christ, not only holds everything in the palm of His hand, but rejoices in creating anew, each day, the beauty that we glimpse in our fallen world. But the greatest comfort of all of these verses is this: God didn’t simply create you and then leave you to fend for yourself. He’s intimately involved in your day-to-day life.
Can we pause for a moment and consider that at the heart of the universe, at the center of all reality, is a relationship. The scientific community’s elusive search for a “theory of everything” will not be found looking through a microscope or a telescope, but through gazing at the face of Jesus! As further proof of this truth, Paul's extensive use of the word "all". Heaven and earth—the Jewish way of talking about everything that exists—it’s all created by him, for him, through him. Things visible and invisible—it’s all created by him, for him, through him. As C.S. Lewis observed, “There is no neutral ground in the universe: every square inch, every split second, is claimed by God and counter-claimed by Satan.”
Whether they acknowledge it or not, these invisible spiritual forces—and the human systems which they influence—owe their very existence to the creative work of the Son. I recognize that this is an impossible truth for us to grasp, the mystery of sin, free will, and God's authority over all.
But we know from scripture that evil itself is not outside the Son’s creative sphere; the fallen angels once belonged to Him and were brought into existence for Him—to reflect His character and carry out His purposes. Having failed to do so, by their rebellion against the Son’s lordship, they became hostile forces arrayed in enmity against the Son and against his church. Paul goes on to say in Colossians 2:15 that these hostile and corrupting rulers and authorities have been disgraced, disarmed, and defeated through the cross of Christ. As N.T. Wright puts it, “Though the powers are now in rebellion, He remains their true Lord.”
The cross is at the center of it all. For the forces of evil, the cross marks their defeat and ultimate downfall. For those who are sinners, the cross represents God's ultimate effort to reconcile all creation to Himself. To reconcile means to bring back into right relationship that which was separated by conflict. In His own body, the Son took sin—the conflict and the barrier that had kept human beings separated from God—and through His own blood, he made a way for peace and restoration between humanity and God.
But lets bring all this into our contemporary timeline, why does it matter who the Son is and what God has done through him? What do the promises of Scripture, written thousands of years ago, have to do with our modern lives? It matters because at the cross, we were invited into the relationship at the heart of the universe! A bridge appeared solving the chasm between man and God! A way was forged, once and for all, for man to regain the intimacy and relationship we once shared with Him in the beginning of our world. You see, we have been reconciled to God (that’s a done deal!), set into right relationship with him, and we are being sanctified in him—made holy, blameless, and irreproachable. That’s a present reality! That is the ongoing work of the Spirit in us.
Christ’s work on the cross was not just to “get you saved,” a change in status that will have impact only at the moment of your death. We already live in the kingdom of God’s beloved Son. But having been given new life, we are being equipped to live in accordance with it. That process is a topic for another time, but the wonderful about this whole redemptive stage is that God equips us, strengthens us, protects us, and gives us all the tools we need to take on our respective days!
There is no challenge that He has not already gone through Himself, no temptation, no pain, no loneliness, that He has also has experienced during His time walking this earth. “For it was fitting that He, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering” (Hebrews 2:10), and, “For because He himself has suffered when tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:18), and, “Although he was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). Which is why Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey me." (John 14:15) Clearly stated, the litmus test for whether or not we are Christ followers, is our pattern of obedience to His commandments. Not that we won't fall, not that we won't sin, but Christ is talking about the pattern of our decisions, the state of our heart revealed in our choices.
