In this message we will cover another crucial point in the practice of the Lord's recovery. This point that we want to cover is the truth concerning Christ. Christ is more crucial than any item.
First, I hope we can see the preeminence of Christ. In the Recovery Version, Colossians 1:18 says, "That He might have the first place in all things." Actually, the first place is the preeminence. The second thing we want to see is what Christ is to us, the believers. This is very subjective. Then we have to see what Christ is to the church. We also want to see the centrality and universality of Christ. Christ is the hub, the spokes, and the rim in the big universal wheel of God's economy. Ezekiel 1 refers to this wheel (v. 15). God's move in accomplishing His eternal economy is likened in the Bible to a great wheel. In order for man to move adequately, he cannot keep himself away from the wheel. Without the wheel, man would be limited to only walking or running. God uses the wheel to illustrate His move in His economy on the earth.
Our God is triune. He is one yet three, and He is three but still one. Triune means three-one. He is the three-one God. Among the Three in the Godhead, the preeminence always goes to the Second, the Son. The First, the Father, always exalts the Son (Phil. 2:9); and the Third, the Spirit, always testifies concerning the Son (John 15:26).
Christ has the first place in all things; for in Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell (Col. 1:18b-19). The fullness was pleased. This indicates that the fullness must be a person. He felt happy to dwell in Jesus the Nazarene. "All the fullness" refers to all the matters, all the things, and all the persons involved in and with the Godhead. The Godhead is not so simple. Acts 2:23, for example, indicates that before the foundation of the world there was a council held by the Three of the Godhead concerning the Lord's crucifixion (see note 1 of verse 23, Recovery Version). Our God is very wonderful. He is one God, yet His Godhead is in three. All the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in Christ (Col. 1:19; 2:9).
This fullness was involved with creation and with Christ's crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. Genesis 1:1 says that in the beginning God created. Then verse 2 says that the Spirit of God was brooding over the death waters. Furthermore, in verse 26 God used the pronouns us and our—"Let us make man in our image." Us and our are used to denote the divine person. First, the old creation came into existence. Then in God's resurrection, the new creation came into existence. In both the old creation and the new creation, God's fullness was involved. In His resurrection and ascension, Christ was made preeminent. He has the first place in the old creation and the new creation. This One in whom all the fullness was pleased to dwell has the preeminence. He has the first place in everything.
In Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Col. 2:9). Before His incarnation, the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him as the eternal Word, but not bodily. Since He became incarnate, clothed with a human body, the fullness of the Godhead began to dwell in a bodily way, and in His glorified body (Phil. 3:21) now and forever it dwells.