Main Text — Colossians 1:15–20
Christian faith does not present Jesus Christ as one important part of an otherwise independent story.
Scripture places Him at the center.
Christ stands in relation to creation, redemption, history, the church, the kingdom, and the future. The biblical story finds its coherence in Him.
Christ is not an accessory to the story. He is its center. Our lives find their deepest coherence, direction, and hope when everything is brought under His lordship.
Christ Is Before All Things
The New Testament does not introduce Jesus merely as a teacher who appeared at one moment in history.
John speaks of the eternal Word through whom all things came into being. Hebrews speaks of the Son through whom God made the ages. Colossians declares that Christ is before all things.
Before our circumstances existed, Christ was. Before our problems appeared, Christ was. Before the kingdoms and systems of this world arose, Christ was.
Our faith therefore begins with Someone greater than the moment in which we happen to be living.
In Him All Things Hold Together
Colossians gives us an extraordinary declaration: in Christ all things hold together.
Christ is not merely standing at the beginning of creation. He is its sustaining coherence.
Identity fragments. Priorities compete. Fear becomes dominant. Temporary things begin carrying weight they were never created to bear.
This also becomes deeply personal.
We often ask God for peace while attempting to organize our lives around everything except Christ. We ask for stability while building our identity upon circumstances, approval, possessions, achievement, relationships, or control.
But lasting coherence is not found by placing Christ somewhere within our lives. It is found by allowing Christ to become the center around which our lives are ordered.
Christ Entered History
The eternal Son did not remain distant from the human story.
At the fullness of time, He entered history. He took flesh. He entered covenant history, human suffering, temptation, rejection, death, and the realities of our fallen world.
Christianity therefore does not offer us an abstract Savior detached from human experience.
The One through whom all things were made entered the very history He came to redeem.
The Cross Stands at the Redemptive Center
At the cross, Christ does not merely provide an inspiring example of sacrifice. He performs the decisive redemptive act.
Scripture presents His sacrifice as once for all. The believer is not being asked to complete a work that Christ failed to finish.
The sacrifice has been offered. The Mediator has acted. Our confidence rests in what Christ has accomplished, not in our ability to manufacture redemption for ourselves.
This gives rest to the conscience.
We do not approach God by pretending that we are sufficient. We approach through Christ because He is sufficient.
All Things Move Toward Christ
Ephesians widens the horizon even further by presenting God's purpose to bring all things together in Christ.
Jesus is therefore not only connected with the beginning of the story and its present coherence. He also stands at its goal.
History is not moving toward meaninglessness. Creation is not abandoned. God's redemptive purpose moves toward consummation under the lordship of Christ.
- John 1 — all things come into being through the Word.
- Hebrews 1 — God makes the ages through the Son.
- Colossians 1 — Christ is before all things, and all things hold together in Him.
- Ephesians 1 — God's purpose moves toward the summing up of all things in Christ.
- Hebrews 9 — the sacrifice of Christ stands as a decisive once-for-all redemptive act.
- Daniel 7 — everlasting dominion belongs to the Son of Man.
- Revelation — the biblical story moves toward the public manifestation of Christ's kingdom and glory.
The Kingdom Belongs to the Son
Human kingdoms can appear permanent while we are living inside them.
Governments rise. Empires expand. Systems gain influence. Cultures change. Human authorities sometimes appear to possess the final word.
Scripture refuses to grant them that status.
Daniel sees the Son of Man receiving everlasting dominion. Revelation looks toward the public triumph of God's kingdom.
The kingdom belongs to Jesus Christ.
That truth protects the church from two opposite errors: panic before earthly power and worship of earthly power.
Temporary kingdoms matter, but they are not ultimate. Christ is.
History Is Not Ownerless
Sometimes the world appears chaotic.
Wars, injustice, suffering, political upheaval, cultural change, personal tragedy, and uncertainty can make history appear directionless.
Christian hope does not require us to deny those realities.
Instead, Scripture gives us a larger frame within which to understand them.
We live inside a story whose center is Christ and whose final future belongs to Him.
Pain is real, but it is not ultimate. Evil is real, but it will not reign forever. Death is real, but resurrection has already entered the story.
Creation Will Not Be Abandoned
The scope of biblical redemption is larger than the rescue of isolated souls.
Romans speaks of creation groaning and awaiting liberation. Scripture looks toward bodily resurrection, the defeat of death, judgment, restoration, and new creation.
God does not save His people merely to abandon everything else to corruption.
The redemptive horizon reaches toward the renewal and consummation of God's creation under Christ.
What Happens When Christ Becomes the Center?
This theology must become more than information.
If Christ truly stands at the center, then it changes the way we live.
We can pray like people who know the throne is occupied.
We can worship like people who know the center holds.
We can face temptation from the ground of Christ's finished work rather than attempting to manufacture spiritual victory through human strength.
We can endure suffering knowing that pain may be present without becoming ultimate.
We can face uncertainty without surrendering our interpretation of reality to fear.
Christ Must Also Become the Center of Me
It is possible to affirm the centrality of Christ theologically while allowing something else to govern us practically.
Fear can become the center. Approval can become the center. Money can become the center. Ministry itself can become the center. Political power, personal ambition, pain, disappointment, or even religious activity can occupy the place that belongs to Christ.
So this teaching eventually becomes personal.
What determines my identity? What governs my decisions? What controls my peace? What do I fear losing most? Where do I look for ultimate security?
Christ does not ask merely to be included. He calls us to abide in Him and to bring the whole life under His lordship.
Conclusion
Christ is before all things.
In Him all things hold together.
Through His cross redemption has been decisively accomplished.
Toward Him God's redemptive purpose moves.
His kingdom will outlast every temporary dominion.
And our lives find their deepest coherence when He stands where He belongs: at the center.
The cross is final.
History is not abandoned.
The kingdom belongs to the Son.
And our hope is secure in Him.