In this short book, we want to fellowship about the centrality and universality of Christ—Christ as the center and Christ as everything. Christ is the center, and Christ is the circumference. The whole universe—including the old and new creations, including everything in the heavens and on the earth, in the present and in the future—is like a great wheel (cf. Ezek. 1:15). Christ is the hub, the center; Christ is the rim, the circumference; and Christ is the spokes of this wheel. Christ is everything.
The centrality and universality of Christ is an all-inclusive subject. Of course, we will not go into the details, but we will see this matter in a very subjective way. We will spend one chapter for the objective aspect of this subject and three chapters for the subjective aspect. In this chapter we would like to read a number of important verses from the Scripture which reveal that Christ is everything.
Colossians 1:15a says that Christ, the Son of God, is "the image of the invisible God." This tells us the position which Christ occupies in the Godhead. In the Godhead, Christ is the image of the invisible God. Verse 15b says that He is "the Firstborn of all creation." This tells us His position in the old creation. In the old creation He is the first; He is the beginning; He takes the preeminence, the first place, in God's creation.
Verse 16 says, "Because in Him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or lordships or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and unto Him." Christ is not only the first One of all creation, but He is everything in the creation. All things were created in Him, in the power of His person, through Him as the active instrument, and unto Him for His possession.
Verse 17 says, "And He is before all things, and all things cohere in Him." To cohere in Him means to subsist together in Him. All things are united and compacted together in Christ because Christ is the center and Christ is the circumference. Christ is the hub and Christ is the rim. If you take the rim and hub away from a wheel, the entire wheel will collapse. Christ is the center and the circumference of the universe. The scientists do not know this. But the best scientists tell us that there is a wonderful power holding the universe together. This wonderful power is Christ Himself as the center and the circumference. Christ is the very One in whom the whole universe, including all things, is compacted and subsists together.
Verse 18 says, "And He is the Head of the Body, the church; He is the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, that He Himself might have the first place in all things." Verse 17 tells us the position of Christ in creation. Verse 18 tells us the position of Christ in the new creation, in the Body, in the church. It says that He is the Head of the Body, the church. In the old creation, in the universe, He is the first. In the new creation, in the church, He is also the first. He is the Head and the Firstborn from the dead that He might have the preeminence, the first place, in all things. He must be the first.
Verse 19 says, "For in Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell." The fullness here refers to the fullness of the Godhead. Colossians 2:9 says, "For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." This fullness was pleased to dwell in Christ.