ALL THINGS IN CHRIST
by Chip Brogden
"For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to Whom be glory for ever. Amen. (Romans 11:36)."
We ought to meditate on this daily and ask the Lord to open our eyes to see the height, depth, width, length, and breadth of this JESUS Whom we say we serve. May God deliver us from our own idea, concept, perception, and illusion of a small Christ and give us revelation into the preeminence of His Son.
When we see Christ as All in All then it will be impossible for us to ever again be reduced to the small, the trivial, the petty things which occupy us and waste so much of our time. Our only hope is seeing a Christ that fills us, a Christ that is greater than us, a Christ that is larger than we can fathom, an indescribable Christ that overshadows, overwhelms, and consumes us through and through!
by Chip Brogden
"For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to Whom be glory for ever. Amen. (Romans 11:36)."
We ought to meditate on this daily and ask the Lord to open our eyes to see the height, depth, width, length, and breadth of this JESUS Whom we say we serve. May God deliver us from our own idea, concept, perception, and illusion of a small Christ and give us revelation into the preeminence of His Son.
When we see Christ as All in All then it will be impossible for us to ever again be reduced to the small, the trivial, the petty things which occupy us and waste so much of our time. Our only hope is seeing a Christ that fills us, a Christ that is greater than us, a Christ that is larger than we can fathom, an indescribable Christ that overshadows, overwhelms, and consumes us through and through!
In Romans 11:36 Paul sums up the preeminence of Christ into three expressions: "Of Him... through Him... to Him... are ALL THINGS." "OF HIM" says that everything which exists - things in heaven, things in earth, everything that was created, everything that has come into being, everything that will come into being - is created by, and because of, CHRIST. "THROUGH HIM" says that everything which lives, moves, breathes, operates, exists, or functions in this universe, whether animate or inanimate, whether biological, chemical, spiritual, natural, or cosmotological - does so THROUGH CHRIST, Who sovereignly upholds all these things, determines their place, and keeps them in order. "TO HIM" says that everything, no matter how far from God's Thought it may be, no matter how chaotic things may appear, is being directed, summed up, and gathered together INTO CHRIST. As the Alpha, all things flow FROM Him; as the Omega, all things flow TO Him.
That is quite a paragraph. A paragraph like that cannot be grasped in one reading. But that paragraph is, in essence, what Paul means, and what we mean, by Christ having the preeminence in all things. We are talking about Jesus as Lord over us individually, over the Church corporately, and over all creation collectively. We are talking about a preeminent Christ Who is exalted above every principality and power, rule and dominion; things visible, things invisible; things past, things present, things future; things in heaven, things in earth, things under the earth: all things are OF Him, all things are THROUGH Him, and all things are TO Him. That is preeminence.
That is quite a paragraph. A paragraph like that cannot be grasped in one reading. But that paragraph is, in essence, what Paul means, and what we mean, by Christ having the preeminence in all things. We are talking about Jesus as Lord over us individually, over the Church corporately, and over all creation collectively. We are talking about a preeminent Christ Who is exalted above every principality and power, rule and dominion; things visible, things invisible; things past, things present, things future; things in heaven, things in earth, things under the earth: all things are OF Him, all things are THROUGH Him, and all things are TO Him. That is preeminence.
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