The Preeminence of Christ in New Creation

Colossians The Preeminence of Jesus Christ in New Creation

Prayer from the new Anglican Prayer Book Last week

• 1: 2-14, Thanksgiving and Prayers

• To the Christian family (adelphoi) in Colossae:

• Remember your spiritual roots, “the word of truth, the gospel” delivered to you by Epaphras.

• You are already “ﬁlled” by God with right knowledge, so “walk” in it, with joy.

• Undercurrent: You know the truth, it is not the “gospel of supplements”. You are already ﬁlled; nothing else is needed. Last week

• 1:15-17, Christological “Big Bang”

• Paul “wants to stun the Colossians” so he “pitches them into the deep end of Christology” (JIP)

• Cosmological Christ rules over “cosmological speculations” (Lightfoot).

• Christ is preeminent in creation

• “ALL THINGS …created through … and for …him

• God’s goal in creation: the glory of Jesus Christ which is God’s glory.

J.I. Packer: Paul “wants to stun the Colossians” so he “pitches them into the deep end of Christology.” J.B. Lightfoot: in response to the “cosmological speculations” of the false teachers, Paul speaks of the cosmological Christ.

Heaven, earth, visible, invisible;

“Heaven and earth”, the created order, all that ﬂowed from the big bang = universe.

“Visible and invisible” as a pairing appears only here in Scripture • v. 17, “he is before all things” and “in him all things hold together“

• Christ preexisted all that was created through him and is supreme over it, e.g., v. 15, “ﬁrstborn”

• “all things” = the totality

• “In him all things hold together” (cohere), synestiken, perfect tense

• The universe is continuously held together by Jesus Christ

• JIP: “cannot conceive of what that means in its effect”

Left oﬀ here last week just getting our feet wet. This is where Paul is concluding the explosion of Christ “in him all things were created” transitioning to Jesus preeminence in the New Creation. What has been brought into being through him is maintained in being by him.

17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

For me the second half of v. 17 is the most fascinating part of the universality of Jesus Christ.

J. B. Lightfoot writes that Christ "is the principle of cohesion in the Universe. He impresses upon creation that unity and solidarity which makes it a cosmos instead of a chaos.

Perfect tense: everything has held together in him and continues to do so.

The physical, the spiritual, the visible, the invisible, all are held together by Jesus Christ. The invisible: Strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, the visible: electromagnetic force and gravity all in search of a grand uniﬁed theory (GUT).

The whole created order, in time and space, owes its existence to Christ. He is its origin. He sustains it. Without him, meaning does not exist.

Genesis 1 And God said….uttered 8 times John 1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. Packer cannot conceive of what that means in its eﬀect. “In him all things were created”…“hold together”

• Sir Roger Penrose, Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Math, Oxford University, an atheist: “Extraordinarily precise tuning was inherent in the Big Bang.” • Not really a “bang”, an “absurdly low entropy” universe at its beginning • The “Creator’s aim”: accurate to 10 to the 10th to the power of 123 to achieve the universe’s beginning entropy!

The mysteries of the universe’s creation: from a specific point in pre space and only from that point, a singularity, a controlled rapid expansion begins that is flat, spherical and with a very low entropy. There was a unification of forces before Planck time but after that what is it that underlies all these different forces and unifies them? The deeper science “sees” the more it becomes apparent that faith is the bridge to seeing any deeper.

1 followed by 10 to the 123 zeroes. Odds of 1 in 10 to the 50th is zero probability. Therefore the coincidental or accidental creation of our universe is impossible. Roger Penrose, The requirement of infinite precision: “The Creator’s pin has to find a tiny box just 10 to the 10th to the 123rd of the entire phase-space volume in order to create a universe withers special a Big Bang as that we actually find.”

–William Henry Bragg British physicist won 1915 Nobel Prize for use of X-rays to discover crystalline features in structures “Sometimes people ask if religion and science are not opposed to one another. They are: in the sense that the thumb and the ﬁngers of my hand are opposed to one another. It is an opposition by means of which anything can be grasped.” Christ is Preeminent in New Creation 1:18-20

• v. 18, “he is also head of the body, the church”

• Church is the body, Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12-27, Eph. 1:22

• Acts 9:4-5, “Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me?”

• “the beginning, the ﬁrstborn from the dead”

• “beginning”, arche, ﬁrst cause, source

• “Firstborn from the dead”

• Jewish theology: resurrection signals the coming of God in ﬁnal kingdom power.

READ: 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the ﬁrstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Rom. 12: 5 so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 1 Cor. 12: 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

Christ not referenced as head in Romans and Corinthians as he is in Colossians and Ephesians. There is the stress is Christians being fellow members of the body of Christ and our interdependencies.

Ephesians 1:22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who ﬁlls all in all.

The church is the body of Christ, but he is its head. Acts 9:4-5, Damascus road: And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” There is an organic relationship between Christ and his church that is diﬀerent than the creation. It is a new creation. God is beginning to make all things new again that beginning of the new creation is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the ﬁrstborn from the dead.

Christ is held up as the true and only source of life and direction for the church, as its head, as opposed to the false teaching which ﬁnds its direction in things that are extra to Christ.

Jesus is the ﬁrstborn from the dead. The resurrection of the dead has begun, already/not yet Mt of Olives covered with 70,000 graves. Jews will pay upwards of $100,000 for a grave site here. Why?

The Mount of Olives is mentioned in the visions of the prophet Ezekiel and the prophecies of Zechariah, and has a special sanctity and qualities attributed to it that exempts those buried there on the day of the resurrection of the dead from the “separation of the soul at the grave” and “migration via underground passages.”

Jewish tradition relates that the beginning of the resurrection process will take place on the mount at the end of days, as prophesied by the Jewish prophets. Many Jews believe that those buried on the mount will be the ﬁrst to arise for everlasting life. The Jews of Jerusalem customarily sent soil from the Mount of Olives in bags to Jewish communities in the diaspora, and Jews outside of Israel would spread this soil on the graves of their beloved.

Saul was taught about the resurrection of the dead when Messiah comes at the end of the age. Here he impresses that with Christian truth. Messiah has come and he is the ﬁrst to be resurrected. The Eighth Day

• New Creation: The Eighth Day

• “Firstborn from the dead”: Christ initiates the eschatological resurrection

• Midnight: Jesus’ resurrection, on the ﬁrst day of the week, begins the 8th day: recreation, restoration, rebirth

• Church is conceived; begins growing at Pentecost; we live in Church’s “gestation” period; birth pains, Matt. 24:8

• Dawn of the 8th day: Second Coming of Christ, Birth of the Church, fully formed.

• New Creation realized: Church is complete, earth is restored, “heaven on earth”, Marriage of the Lamb to the Bride, the Church, “all things” now reconciled and reuniﬁed, physical and spiritual.

• Eighth Day never ends as time gives way to eternity.

Paul: in Jesus, ﬁrstborn from the dead, it has already begun. The spiritual big bang, the growth and expansion of the church culminating in the dawn of the 8th day with eternal life and eternal unity.

Genesis 1: 31- 2:3 And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were ﬁnished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God ﬁnished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. 3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

- God’s/the “Word’s” rest on the 7th day ceased when He (Jesus-God-Man) died on the cross making new life available through God’s new covenant which was conceived at Jesus’ death/resurrection. - Jesus’ resurrection was on the 8th day and it began the “8th day.” The 8th day and the ﬁrst month of the year, Nisan, is a time of recreation, restoration, rebirth to the Jews. Heh, the divine act of creation, is the “word” through which Nisan was created and the earth, tribe associated with this month is Judah. Nisan corresponds to the head. Nisan marked the beginning of the formation of the Jewish nation when they left Egypt. - On that day the Church was conceived. It began to grow at Pentecost. It will continue to grow until its birth. - The millenium is the period of the Church’s “gestation” near the end of which will be the birth pains Jesus referenced in Matthew 24:8: “All these are but the beginning of birth pains.” - These birth pains will occur in earnest when Satan is released “for a little while” from his imprisonment which began at Jesus’ death. - The Church will be “born” when it is fully formed. - The Second Coming will be the “dawn” of the 8th day and the birth of the Church. - A new heaven will join with a new earth (“heaven on earth”), the Church will join with its Savior (Marriage of the Lamb) and the eternal age will begin.

The full realization of Jesus high priestly prayer, John 17:22-23 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Christ is Preeminent in New Creation

• 19 “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,”

• “fullness of God”, not the “fullness” advocated by false teachers;

• The totality of divine essence and power is resident in Christ

• So only in Christ can “fullness” be found.

Note on the idea of God’s “fullness” in Jesus and Philippians where it says he “emptied himself”. He stepped down from his dignity (equality with God), not his divinity. Christ is Preeminent in New Creation

• 20 “and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

• “Reconcile to himself all things”

• Cosmic restoration: bringing back order from disorder.

• Universalism?

• Sin is vanquished not varnished over.

• “Making peace by the blood of his cross”

• The shalom of harmonious relationship accomplished by the cross.

Jesus Christ is prominent not only in creation but also in new creation. [Romans 8:22: For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.] Through his death and resurrection he is restoring everything, sin is defeated and the creation that has been groaning will be restored and the church of which he is head will be born fully formed to live in an eternity of shalom. Universalism: verse used to argue that all will be saved, a notion very congenial to our age. It cannot be reconciled with Jesus teaching on the reality and eternality of hell. See paper on top of red folder if want more details about Jesus words on hell and the struggle with forms of universalism.

“[T]here has been a perceptible loss of interest in the idea of hell in both popular and more academic Christian circles,” Alistair McGrath writes in his page and a half on hell in Christian Theology: An Introduction. An expression of this loss of interest can be found in doctrines holding that there is no eternal (“never-ending”) punishment for the impenitent: annihilationism, universalism, and conditionalism. Some evangelical theologians recognize the common reluctance to believe an eternity of punishment awaits the finally impenitent. N.T. Wright notes that “many…have chipped away at the traditional picture…not because it doesn’t square with the Bible but because they find it incredible, distasteful, or both.” Others express profound emotional distress over it. Still others warn of the “immense natural appeal” to find a way to evade “the idea of everlasting sin and suffering” by the “unconscious rationalizing” of “quite plain statements of Scripture.” 2:15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. “Stable and Steadfast” 1:21-23

• New creation in Colossae: “Once you…he has reconciled [you]…if you continue”.

• v. 21, What you once were: “alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds”

• Hostile, echthrous, hates another and wishes him injury

• Mind, dianoia, mind-set, disposition

• Antagonistic, not apathetic:“Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of ﬂesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Paul shifts focus from there third person of vs. 15-20 to the second person

What you once were, hostile in the outworking of your mind

We deceive ourselves if we believe it is simply human apathy and that we are all good at heart. Deep down it is an enmity that resists the claims of God

“In other words, fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms.” “Stable and Steadfast”

• v. 22, Where you now stand: “reconciled in his body of ﬂesh by death”

• Jesus, Messiah, fully identiﬁed with with his people, in the ﬂesh

• Jesus also fully identiﬁed with God, (v. 19, “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell”)

• The cross is the outworking of this explosive meeting between the holy God and human sin.

• Therefore, you are sacriﬁcially pure: “holy”, “blameless and above reproach before him”.

• v. 23, How you must go on: “if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard”

• “continue…stable and steadfast” (established and ﬁrm, like a foundation)

• Perfect tense, constantly live in a state of being ﬁrmly founded.

• “Not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard” (alluding to the false teaching)

• You have joined a universally proclaimed gospel.

“If indeed you continue”. Continuance is the test of reality. This is not contingent salvation. This is the outworking of genuine vs counterfeit faith: patient steadfast day-to- day Christian living that does not wither and die. The gospel teaches the ﬁnal perseverance of the saints. It teaches at the same time it is the saints who ﬁnally persevere.

Shifting from hope of the gospel. This is a certain hope not the tentative hope we express when we use this words. Hope like faith, unseen but certain . Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance (legal deed) of things hoped for, the conviction (convicting evidence) of things not seen.

“Proclaimed in all creation under heaven”: You have joined a universally proclaimed gospel. • “Everything holds together, everything, From stars that pierce the dark like living sparks, To secret seeds that open every spring, From spanning galaxies to spinning quarks, Everything holds together and coheres, Unfolding from the centre whence it came. And now that hidden heart of things appears, The firstborn of creation takes a name. And shall I see the one through whom I am? Shall I behold the one for whom I’m made, The light in light, the flame within the flame, Eikon tou theou, image of my God? He comes, a little child, to bless my sight, That I might come to him for life and light.”

• Malcolm Guite. Parable and Paradox (Canterbury Press Norwich, 2016).

I kon too thee o

Ayodeji Malcolm Guite (pronounced(IPA)) is an English poet, singer-songwriter, Anglican priest, and academic. Born in Nigeria to British expatriate parents, Guite earned degrees from Cambridge and Durham universities. His research interests include the intersection of religion and the arts, and the examination of the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Owen Barﬁeld, and British poets such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He is currently a Bye-Fellow and chaplain of Girton College, Cambridge and associate chaplain of St Edward King and Martyr in Cambridge. On several occasions, he has taught as visiting faculty at several colleges and universities in England and North America.