Resolved 2010 / Jesus

Steve Lawson

“Who is Jesus Christ?”

Colossians 1:15- 23
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities –all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach – if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven.”

Who is Jesus Christ and do you know Him?

1. Jesus is God

“He is the image of the invisible God...” Jesus is the perfect image and the exact likeness of God. It is a statement of His own deity. None of us have ever seen God because He is invisible; He is Spirit. Jesus wrapped human flesh around Himself and became a man, yet remained God. He came as the God-Man. He was not 50% God and 50% man. He was 100% God and 100% man. He came to be the image of the invisible God. Philip said to Jesus, “Show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” And Jesus said, “Have I been with you so long and you have not come to know Me? He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” Either Jesus Christ was a liar, or He was a lunatic, or He was Lord. Either He was deceived, or He was a deceiver, or He was Deity. There are no other options. Jesus Christ is fully God. Everything is built upon this foundation: He is eternal God who has existed in eternity past, Who is co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father. There is no deity in any angel. There is no deity that resides in any man. Verse 19 of Colossians 1 goes on to say, “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.” There you have it: Jesus Christ is God! This is the point of departure between Biblical Christianity and every heresy, every false religion, every cult and every religious movement that is outside of the Kingdom of God. This is the point of departure every time it is the person and work of Christ and it begins with the departure from the deity of Jesus Christ. This is not incidental, this is fundamental. Unless we say that Jesus Christ is God, there can be no true saving faith in Christ.
Why do we believe that Jesus Christ is God? We need to be equipped with answers. Proof that He is God:

a. Divine attributes: Jesus posses the attributes that only God possesses. Jesus is omnipotent: all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Me.” Jesus is omniscient. He knows all men. Jesus is Omnipresent: “lo, I am with you always.” Jesus is truth. Jesus is immutable: the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus is Sovereign. Again and again, we see the attributes that belong to God alone are in Jesus Christ.

b. Divine works: Jesus performs the works that only God can perform. Jesus creates out of nothing. Jesus sustains and maintains the universe. Jesus forgives sin. Jesus raises the dead. Jesus is the Judge of all men. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit. Jesus does what only God can do.
c. Divine names: Jesus is called the names that only God is called. Jesus is called God in Hebrews 1:8. He is called Lord umpteenth times in the Scripture. He is called King of kings and Lord of lords. He takes the name “I AM who I AM” and takes it to Himself and says “I AM the Bread of Life”, “I AM the Light of the world,” “I AM the Resurrection and the Life,” “I AM the Way, and the Truth, and the Life,” “I AM the True Vine.” Only God could make that plain.

d. Jesus receives the worship that only God can receive: Hebrews 1:6 shows us that Jesus is worshiped by the angels. There is never any interruption. There is never any statement to those angels “Don’t do that.” Jesus is worshiped by men. Jesus will be worshiped at the end of time. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

e. Divine equality: There are multiple passages where Jesus is assigned equality with the Father. There is no question that the Bible speaks with one voice in declaring the full deity of Jesus Christ. John 1:1 “The Word was God.” John 20:28, Thomas cried out, “My Lord and my God!” Romans 9:5, Paul writes, “Christ, God blessed forever.” Titus 2:13, Paul writes, “Our great God and Savior Christ Jesus.” 2 Peter 1:1, we read, “Our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” 1 John 5:20, “Jesus Christ, this is the true God.” This is where Biblical Christianity begins: with the strongest affirmation of the absolute full, eternal, infinite deity of Jesus Christ. All the fullness of deity dwells in Him. Everything else we say is built upon this. He cannot be our Savoir if He is not God. He cannot be head of the Church if He is not God. He cannot be the Creator of all that there is, except He be God. If not, He is just another created being. When you look at Jesus, you are seeing undiminished Deity.
Paul goes on to say in Colossians 1:15 that Jesus is “the firstborn of all creation.” The cults love to jump on this. They say, “See, Jesus is a created being. He was the first created being by God and He is over creation as the head of creation.” That is absolutely impossible! In the very next verse we read that “by Him all things were created. If Christ was a created being then He would have created Himself. No one can create themself. Jesus is not a created being. Jesus is the Creator of all that there is. So what does this mean, “the firstborn of all creation”? This is a Messianic term speaking about the throne rights of the One who would come and the promise of the Father: the Lord Jesus Christ. When we read “firstborn of all creation” it means that Jesus has all of the prerogatives and all of the authority that belongs to a firstborn son. Psalm 89:27, “I also shall make him My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.”That’s what it means to be the firstborn. It means to be the highest of all kings. (King of kings and Lord of lords) It is an astonishing statement of the unrivalled, unrestricted supreme authority of Jesus Christ that all authority in Heaven and earth belongs to Him. This makes some very serious demands upon us. That when He speaks He speaks as with the sound of many waters. He drowns out every other human voice and every other opinion. There is but one voice that we hear in life that has all authority. It is the voice of Christ speaking to us through pages of Scripture. If Jesus Christ is God, then every one of us must worship Him. We must adore Him. We must bow before Him. We must reverence Him. We must give to Him allegiance and loyalty every moment of every day. We must recognize that He’s not making suggestions for our lives. He’s not giving us helpful hints on how we can get ahead in the world. He speaks. He roars as a lion from His throne above with unrivalled authority. He is God! He has every right to make demands upon our lives. And any departure from this point is heresy, cults, false religion, hell, and damnation. This is the high ground of Christianity.

2. Jesus is Creator

If He is God, He is Creator, because only God can create everything out of nothing. Verse 16 of Colossians 1 shows us three prepositional phrases: a. “By Him all things were created,” b. “through Him,” and c. “and for Him.” “By Him” speaks of the sphere of creation. “Through Him” speaks of the means or the agency of creation. And “for Him” speaks of the purpose or goal of creation. Everything about creation is from Christ, through Christ, and for Christ. We have been made by Him and for Him. The purpose of every one of our lives is to know Him, to worship Him, because it is He who has created us. Everything He has created: the devil, the demons, the angels, the universe, the human race, the world upon which we stand. We are literally breathing His air and drinking His water. “For by Him all things were created,” and He created it all out of nothing. There is no such thing as an evolution. That is a total distraction and departure and denial of this great truth that Jesus on six days of creation said, “Let there be light” and there was light. Everything has this stamp on it: “Made by Christ.” He created things visible and invisible. That contains it all. John 1:10 says, “He (Jesus) was in the world, and the world was made through Him.” Everything has come into being in, by, and through Christ. Could we possibly have a higher estimate, a more enlarged exaltation of Christ than this affirmation? Jesus created everything for His own purposes and His own glory, for the radiance of His own attributes. He is the reason that we are here. He is the reason He has made you, and for you to live your life disconnected from Christ, to live your life and not know Him personally is for you to miss the entire aim of why you are on this planet. He has made you for Himself. J. Burnham McGee used to say, “Now friends, this is God’s universe, and so you have to do things God’s way. You may think you have a better way, but you don’t. Go created your own universe if you want to do things your way!” The fact of the matter is that we are created beings, and we have been created by our Creator for the purpose of glorifying Him and honoring Him and magnifying Him. That is why we are here. There is a grand design for your life. There is a master purpose. There is a chief aim. You have been created by Christ for Himself. And this really becomes the number one interpretive key for you to know what God’s will is for your life. Where should you go to school? What should you major in? What should you study? Who should your friends be? Whom should you marry? Where will you live? The number one way to understand these questions is what will most honor and glorify Jesus Christ? That’s why He made you. And the entire Bible gives us the specifics on the path that we are to take. Jesus is Creator and He has made you for Himself.

3. Jesus is Sustainer

Vs 17 says, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” Jesus upholds every moment of every day; all that He has created. There is nothing random. Everything is under the direction and the government of the Lord Jesus Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father, and He is ordering and orchestrating the entirety of all there is. Every moment of every day He is upholding the laws of thermodynamics, the laws of gravity, and the laws of inertia. All of the physical laws are being upheld by Christ. And He is upholding all moral laws as well. And He is upholding your life. He doesn’t even have to take your life, He can just stop giving it. “He is before all things.” Jesus Christ is previous to everything. He is pre-existent before all time and before all created matter. He is without beginning. He is the uncreated Creator. He is before all things. He is the first cause of which everything else is the subsequent effect. Isaiah 9:6, “His name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Eternal Father.” Micah 5:2 says, “His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.” That is to say that Jesus came stepping out of eternity into time when He came here. John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word.” This is to say for your life: Jesus Christ goes before you. He has prepared all things. He has predestined good works for you to walk in. He has already scripted tomorrow. He has gone ahead of us into the future . He has already laid His plans, and He will never amend or alter His plans. He is before all things! He will never follow us. We will always be the ones who follow Him. “In Him all things hold together.”All that He has created He holds together. Hebrews 1:10. He is the One upholding your life. He is the One upholding your faith. He is the One upholding your marriage, your ministry, your church. Hebrews 12:2 calls Him “the author and perfector of our faith.” He is the One who created saving faith in you, and He is the One who is upholding saving faith in you. That is why no true believer will ever become an unbeliever. It is absolutely impossible because Christ is the One who is upholding all things! Whatever is God’s will for your life, He will uphold you, He will empower you, He will enable you to do what will glorify Himself. You put your weak life into His strong hands and He will uphold you even if you walk through the valley of the shadow of death.

4. Jesus is Lord

He rules over all that He sustains. Vs 18 says, “He is also head of the body, the church.” Jesus is not in a supportive role. He is in the supreme role in the church. To say that Jesus is the head is to say that Jesus is directing all things, Jesus is governing all things, He is sending His impulses into the body to direct the body by His exclusive initiative. Jesus is our exalted head. He is Lord over us, and we are but His slaves. He is Master over us, and we are but His servants. He is Ruler over us, and we are but His subjects. The entirety of our Christian life is left to us to submit to Him, to serve Him, and to sacrifice for Him. Listen, we must be willing to go wherever He sends us, to do whatever He requires, and to give whatever He demands. There are no conditions in our following the Lord Jesus Christ because He is our exalted head. We give to Him our unconditional surrender. We follow wherever He directs. Let me tell you this about the Christian life, if you please Him, it does not matter whom you displease, and if you displease Him, it does not matter whom you please. The Christian life is very simple: please the Lord Jesus Christ! Follow the Lord Jesus Christ! Obey the Lord Jesus Christ! He is Lord!
Vs 18 goes on to say, “He is the beginning.” He is the source of the Christian life; the source for the life of the Church. He is the beginning. Everything is flowing out of Him. We were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. We were predestined in Him. We were purchased by Him. He is the life of the Church. He is the Source. He is the Origin, and so therefore, He gives to us all we need. This is a statement of the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ. You do not have a need but that He is the Source. “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.” He gives us power, wisdom, direction, guidance, instruction, forgiveness, gifts, patience, the Fruit of the Spirit, and everything we need that pertains to godliness.
“The firstborn from the dead.” He is raised from the dead. The grave could not hold Him. Of all those who have been raised from the dead and of all those who will ever be raised from the dead, Jesus is the greatest of them all. This is saying that Jesus is the greatest of all who have ever come out of the grave. “So that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.” If Jesus Christ is still in the tomb, then nothing matters, but if Jesus Christ has come out of that tomb, then nothing else matters! And because He has been raised from the dead, He must have first place in every aspect of our lives. First place in our families, marriage, profession, mission, ministry, time, money, conversation, pleasure, eating, playing, athletics, what we watch, in art, in music, in worship. Jesus Christ is jealous to have first place in every inch and every ounce of our lives! And He has the throne rights to make such a demand of us.
Vs. 19 says, “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.” Jesus was not 90% God, 75% God, or 50% God. He was 100% God. “All the fullness to dwell in Him.” Vs. 20, “And through Him to reconcile all things to Himself.” This is a universal reconciliation. “All things”: visible or invisible; everything. Philippians 2:9-11 says, “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” There will be no atheists in hell. There will be no unbelievers in that sense in hell. Everyone will confess and acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ and it is because He humbled Himself unto death, even death on a cross. God, therefore, highly exalted Him! This is saying that because of the Son’s obedience unto death, He has been so exalted by the Father that all things in the entire universe have been brought into submission under the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ: the universe, the human race, angels, Satan, demons, everything and everyone by His obedience at Calvary’s Cross. He has been so highly exalted that the entire created order which He Himself created is now in a position of submission under His feet. He is Lord!
Vs20, “Through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross.” That is the means by which those who believe upon Him will be reconciled to the Father. Have you bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you come to recognize His Lordship over your life? In the truest sense, none of us can make Him Lord, He is already Lord! All we can do is recognize and acknowledge and respond to His exalted Lordship. No one will ever be saved until they say “Jesus is Lord.” No one will ever enter the Kingdom of Heaven except by coming to this place of repentance and saving faith by which we yield and surrender our lives to His Lordship.
5. Jesus is Savior
Jesus is God. He is Creator. He is Sustainer. He is Lord. Jesus is Savior.
This designation for Christ, beginning in verse 21, is the result of the four previous titles in verses 15-20. Only One who is God, Creator, Sustainer, and Lord could be qualified to reconcile us to the Father. Vs. 21 talks about our past when we were outside of Christ. These were our BC days: before Christ. Paul says, “And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds.” None of us entered this world reconciled to God. None of us came into this world in a saved state. We were all alienated from God. We all were at enmity with God. Alienated means we were separated from Him and against Him. We were cut off from Him; without a relationship with Him. We did not know Him. We were distant from Him. We were detached from Him; strangers of Him. “And hostile in mind.” This was true of every one of us. We had hateful thoughts towards God. We resisted the demands that He was making upon our lives. We were “engaged in evil deeds.” This is the inevitable result of being “hostile in mind.” Our evil deeds flowed out of a hostile mind, and not only were we against God, but God was against us! God is a holy God, and God is a God of absolute purity, and God cannot be neutral towards sin. And as we were in a state of sin, it’s not that we were just alienated and hostile towards God, but God was hostile towards us. “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.”(Romans 1:18) But in vs. 22, “yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.” This speaks of His death upon the Cross. When Jesus Christ went to the Cross, He did many different things in that one death. In His death, He propitiated the anger of God towards us; He satisfied the righteous indignation of God towards us. He appeased God’s righteous anger towards us with His death. When He died upon the Cross, He redeemed us, and He bought us out of the slave market of sin. He purchased us and paid the debt of our sins. “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23) But not only did Jesus satisfy the Father and redeem us, He also reconciled us to the Father. That is to say that Jesus, upon the Cross, He was the mediator who take Holy God in one hand and unholy sinners in the other hand, and by His death on Calvary’s Cross, He has reconciled us and brought us to a Holy God. There is now no condemnation for them who are in Christ Jesus. He did this in His fleshly body. He did this as He bore our sins in His body. He did this as He suffered the wrath of God within Himself as He hung suspended upon that Cross “in order to present you before (God).” He died in order to present us before the Father. Jesus’ death has changed our relationship with God. Once we were foes, now we are friends. Once we were enemies, He has now made us sons and daughters and He has reconciled us so that He might present us to the Father “holy and blameless and beyond reproach.”He will present us free of all charges; free of all accusations that could be brought against us through the perfection of His atoning death upon the Cross. And we know that this is real in our lives by what Paul says in vs. 23. This is the assurance that we have been truly reconciled to God, for not everyone who says “Lord, Lord” shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven. He says, “If indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven.” The faith that fizzles before the finish had a flaw from the first. It is not real. And so Paul says that those who have been truly reconciled to God are those who continue in the faith.

Jesus Christ is God. He is Creator. He is Sustainer. He is Lord. He is Savior.

We cannot be wrong about this and be right with God, and we must come to the place where we entrust our lives to this Christ and to recognize Him for who He truly is: the Son of God; the Son of Man.

At the end of his life, Napoleon Bonaparte, that little general of war, the dictator of France, was exiled in his latter days to St. Helen’s Island. Alone, he had only a Bible, and Bonaparte began to read that Bible carefully and slowly. And he became captivated with the central character of the Bible, Jesus Christ. And Bonaparte wrote these words:

“I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a mere man.
Superficial minds may see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires
and the gods of other religions.
That resemblance does not exist.
There is between Christianity and every other religion the distance of infinity.
We can say to the authors of every other religion, ‘You are neither gods nor the agents of deity. You are but missionaries of falsehood, moulded from the rest of mortals.’
But Jesus Christ stands alone!
And it is the uniqueness of Jesus Christ that sets apart Christianity from all the other religions of the world.”

Have you come to see and have you come to know that Jesus Christ is God, fully God? Do you see that He is the One who has created you for Himself? And do you understand that He is upholding and maintaining and sustaining your life? That He is Lord over your life? And that He died upon the Cross that all creation would be subjected under His feet? And that He has made peace with God through the blood of His Cross, if we will but believe upon Him, He will reconcile us to the Father, and He will present us to Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach. Have you come to commit your life to Him? Have you repented of your sins? Have you come to confess that Jesus is Lord? The Bible says that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. I beg you; I plead with you. If you have never surrendered your life to the King of kings and to the Lord of lords, march under no other banner. Follow no other imposter. There is only one Savior. There is only one Lord. He is Jesus Christ! May you give your life to Him, and if you do, He will lead you through this life, He will never lose you, and He will present you in Heaven to the Father to be His son or daughter forever and ever and ever. There is salvation in no other name, for there is no other name under Heaven given among men by where we must be saved.

This is Jesus, our Lord.