The Person of Christ

KEY VERSE: “He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.” —Colossians 1:18

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Colossians 1:15-20; 2:8-10

ALTHOUGH Jehovah God, our Creator does not hold his position as creation’s supreme ruler through the consent of his creatures, yet all of his creatures who are in harmony with the principles of righteousness delight to hold him as their king and Lord whose every wish it is their pleasure to obey. As the King of all kings, God has appointed Jesus to be the head of the body, the church. But although we are not asked to vote as to whether or not Christ shall be the head of the church, God, nevertheless, respects our free moral agency to the extent that we are not compelled to accept his arrangement in this matter. But if we object, it means that we are not of the body, the church; for the Almighty proceeds with his own plans, and those who do not fall in with those plans merely fail to secure the proffered blessings.

Similarly, the Almighty did not inquire of the angels whether or not they would accept the glorified Jesus as their Lord. He autocratically elevated our Lord Jesus, because of his implicit obedience even unto death, even the death of the cross, as the Apostle declares, “Wherefore [on account of his obedience unto death] God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow … and every tongue confess … to the glory of God the Father.” Similarly, our context declares, that in his prehuman condition, our Lord Jesus was from the beginning the head, the chief of all his Father’s creatures, works, arrangements. “For by him were all things created, … and he is before all things.” (Col. 1:16,17) This also agrees with the statement in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with the God, and the Logos was a god: the same was in the beginning with the God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

It appears from this that the Heavenly Father has exercised his autocratic authority from the beginning; choosing his firstborn Son to be his representative in the entire work of creation. It appears, further, that it was to this firstborn Son that the privilege or opportunity of becoming man’s Redeemer was first offered—as a privilege—because the Almighty intended that this matter of man’s redemption should not only display his justice and love, his wisdom and his power, in respect to mankind, but it should additionally be a test, a manifestation, of the loyalty of his first-begotten. Such loyalty, being fully demonstrated, would properly become the occasion for the still further advancement of his Son to the divine nature—glory, honor, and immortality—demonstrating his worthiness in all things to be preeminent.

It is not, of course, the apostle’s thought that the Father made the Lord Jesus preeminent above himself, Jehovah. We are continually to remember the apostle’s suggestion of I Corinthians 15:27, where, after declaring that the Father hath put all things under the Son, he adds, “It is manifest [needing not to be stated] that he [Jehovah] is excepted, which did put all things under him [Jesus].” So, gathering the proper thought of our text, we are still to remember that God is first: and that our Lord Jesus is first to us, as the head of the church, because God has given him this preeminence. In recognizing Jesus’ full authority and headship of the church, we are honoring him who appointed him, and thus we keep God first: as our Lord declares, “All men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.”—John 5:23

Each individual member in the body of Christ is to say within his own heart, “God first,” and God’s appointment of Christ as a bishop or shepherd of his flock makes him and his will first in our thoughts, in our hearts, in our words, in our deeds. We must, so far as we can discern his will, follow the same; so far as we can understand his Word, we are to speak his Word.

It is of paramount importance that in seeking to have God first in life’s affairs, we shall see to it that he is first in our thoughts, and that Jesus there has the preeminence which God intends he should have. Christ is to be enthroned in our hearts, preeminent over all things.

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