Who is this portion? Colossians first tells us that Christ our portion is the image, the expression, of the invisible God (1:15a). What God is, what God has, and what God has done and can do are all embodied in Christ and expressed in and through this Christ. Christ is the very expression of the very God. We may think that we need Christ only to be our Savior to save us from hell and take us to heaven. However, Christ being the image of the invisible God is much higher than this.
Within Christ as the image, the expression, of God dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (v. 19; 2:9). The fullness of God is in Him, and He is the very embodiment of God. Without Him, or outside of Him, we do not have God and we cannot find God.
This Christ is also the mystery of God (v. 2). As the mystery of God, Christ is also the history of God. The whole “story” of God is in Christ and is Christ. Whatever God has been, is, and shall be is in Him. Moreover, all that God planned and purposed to do is for Him, so that He might have the preeminence, the first place, in all things (1:18). This pertains to the relationship of Christ toward God. With God, everything is Christ and is in Christ.
Then concerning creation, Christ is the first item, the Firstborn of all creation (v. 15b). I do not have the human words to explain this. In a word, Christ is the Creator as well as the creature. He is the One who created, and He is also the One who was created.
All creation was made in Him, through Him, and unto Him (v. 16). In Him and through Him refer to the past, while unto Him refers to His inheritance in the future. What then of the present? At the present time, all things cohere in Him. He is the first of all the creatures, and all creatures were made through Him in the past, exist in Him in the present, and are unto Him in the future. How big is creation? Millions of solar systems comprise one galaxy, billions of galaxies form the universe, and no one has found what is at the center of it all. All this was created through Christ, has its existence in Christ, and is unto Christ. All the scientists realize that there is an unknown power in the universe. This power is Christ Himself. Praise Him!
Redemption is in Christ, and Christ accomplished redemption (v. 14). In this redemption He dealt with our sins and the world, He abolished the ordinances, and He dusted off the evil forces (2:14-15). The whole universe is full of “dirt.” When Christ put on the flesh, He took all this dirt upon Himself. Then He put this flesh with its dirt onto the cross, and by the death of the cross, He dusted away, stripped off, all the dirt. In particular, He dusted away the principalities, powers, dominions, and evil powers in the air. His redemption includes all of this. Moreover, Christ accomplished redemption to reconcile, to bring back, not only us the believers but also all things in the heavens and on earth, all the things that were created through Him, subsist in Him, and are unto Him (1:20).
In the new creation, Christ is the Head of the Body, the church, and the Firstborn from the dead. Christ is the Firstborn in two ways: the Firstborn of the old creation and the Firstborn of the new creation (vv. 15, 18).
Home | First | Prev | Next