Jesus is Everything.
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation”
- Colossians 1:15
Colossians 1:15-23 is perhaps one of the most magnificent passages in all of Scripture as it depicts the person and work of Jesus Christ from beginning to end. In Christ, Paul says, we were created and in Christ we were reconciled back to God through the cross. In Christ everything was made and in Christ everything, which through sin had become hostile to God, is brought back to God.
In Christ is creation. In Christ is redemption. In Christ is resurrection.
To sum it up: Jesus is everything.
That’s the message that Paul is emphatically communicating to the Christians in Colossae. This church, which is being infiltrated by teachings that say Jesus isn’t enough, had started to buy into the notion that there needs to be more. They need to know more. They need to do more. They need more.
But the message of the Gospel is simple. Jesus is everything. The Gospel message is complete. Christ, through whom we were created, has reconciled us, sinners though we are, back to God through his death and resurrection.
That’s it. Jesus is everything.
To this simple yet profound message nothing else needs to be added. There is nothing more we need to do to gain our salvation. There are no other religious observances that need to be added. No special program we ought to participate in. Jesus is everything.
Jesus is everything so that we might now live as reconciled people. Reconciled to God and reconciled to one another.
Jesus is everything. He is our peace, our shalom. Not just the absence of conflict but the presence of wholeness in all aspects of our lives.
Jesus is everything so now our sins no longer count against us.
Jesus is everything so now we await a new future, a new creation, where all things are perfectly restored and made right in Him.
Jesus is everything.
Download the entire Colossians Adult Bible Study - PDF version HERE and join us each Sunday at 8:45am in Room 5 for study and conversation!