Christ is our Lord, and even more He is the Lord of all. He is not only the Lord but also the Head. Ephesians 1:21-23 says that He is “far above all rule and authority and power and lordship and every name that is named not only in this age but also in that which is to come” and that God “subjected all things under His feet and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.” Jesus Christ is the Head of all and the One who fills all in all. He is not only above all as the Head, He is also in all as the One who fills all. He fills the heavens, the earth, and all things. He is truly marvelous and surpassing. He is far above all rule and authority and power and lordship. According to the original language of the Bible, this passage refers to Satan’s administrative personnel and helpers in the air. Christ is far above all these and everything that is not only in this age but also in the coming age. Furthermore, God subjected all things under Christ’s feet and gave Christ to be Head over all things to the church. Christ was given to be Head over all things for the sake of the church. The church is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all.
Without Christ, man is vanity. The wise King Solomon said, “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity” (Eccl. 1:2). Without Christ, your house is vanity, your car is vanity, and your Ph.D. is vanity; being a parent is vanity, being a son or daughter is vanity, and being a husband or wife is vanity. Everything is vanity. Without Christ, all persons, matters, and things are vanity; only Christ is the reality. Christ should fill all people, matters, and things. Only Christ is superior; everything before our eyes is inferior. Only Christ is true and real; He is the surpassing One.
Today Christ is the Head of the church. Colossians 1:18a says, “He is the Head of the Body, the church.”
Fifth, Christ has the preeminence in all things. Colossians 1:18b says, “He is the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, that He Himself might have the first place in all things.” If we would allow Him to have the preeminence in all things and in everything, then we will be blessed. We should let Him have the preeminence in everything: in our married life, in our family life, in our parent-child relationships, in our buying and selling of property, in our bank accounts, in our education, and in all our business affairs. Christ should have the first place in all things.
Philippians 2:9 says, “Therefore also God highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name.” God not only exalted Christ to the highest position, but He also bestowed on Him the name which is above every name. In the universe today the name Jesus Christ surpasses all other names; it is above every name.
Revelation 19:16 says, “And He has on His garment and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” Christ is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. I truly believe this word. I often give the following illustration. Today even the atheistic Communist countries use the Western calendar. Do you know whose calendar this is? It is the calendar of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Chinese people all know that when a country uses a certain person’s calendar, the country belongs to that person. This year is the one thousand nine hundred eighty-third year of the Lord Jesus, and the entire world today uses this calendar. This clearly shows that the earth is our Lord Christ’s. There have been many great men throughout the ages, but all of them died, and no one remembers most of them. However, the Lord Jesus Christ is different; the more people oppose Him, the more transcendent He is; the more people oppose Him, the more people believe in Him; the more people oppress Him, the more He multiplies.
In 1949 before I left Shanghai, I calculated that there were no more than three million Christians, including the Catholics, in China at that time. A couple of years ago, a report in a Hong Kong newspaper said that there are thirty to forty million Christians in mainland China. In one county of a certain province alone, there are one hundred fifty thousand Christians who are there calling on the Lord’s name, pray-reading His word, and enjoying Christ. If you read history carefully, you will see that the clever kings would not persecute the Christians because they knew that whoever persecutes the Christians will never have a good end. Hitler, who was the worst persecutor of God’s people in modern times, had a very pitiful end, dying without a proper place for burial. History also tells us that any government that persecuted Jesus Christ has fallen very quickly. The Manchu dynasty in China was ended because it instigated the Boxers to kill the Christians. This is known as the Boxer Rebellion in modern Chinese history. Christ is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. No one else is lord, neither the Roman Caesars nor Napoleon nor Hitler; only Jesus Christ is the Lord. He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
Home | First | Prev | Next