Finding Jesus in the Bible…So We Can Follow Him in Life
Bible Reading Plans
- Plan One: New Testament Only
- Plan Two: New Testament + Psalms
- Plan Three: New Testament + History
- Plan Four: The Entire Bible – Year 1 of 3, Year 2 of 3, Year 3 of 3
Don’t know which plan? Go to A Christ-Centered Bible Reading Plan: Quick Start.
Extras
Verse of the Day, Audio Capsule, and Video Minute
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Christ Is God
Chapter 11 – God Sustains All Through Christ
Not only did the Son create the world on behalf of the Father, the Son also sustains and maintains the world on behalf of the Father.
You are becoming familiar with the key New Testament passages that describe the pre-creation period to us. Here’s one of them again, but with a different portion put in bold print this time.
Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Colossians 1:16 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.
Colossians 1:17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
The bold part indicates that the Son did not just create the world to fulfill the Father’s will. The Son also was responsible for holding it all together. “He’s got the whole world in His hands.” Anyone who has ever started a family or a business knows that maintaining what is created takes more time and energy than creating it in the first place.
Here’s another familiar pre-creation passage with a new part in bold.
Hebrews 1:1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,
Hebrews 1:2 in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.
Hebrews 1:3 And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power...
This phrase shows us how Jesus sustained the world while He was living as one of us on earth. He holds the creation together by His word. His army of servants in heaven had their assignments. He came to earth like an “Undercover Boss.” After all, it’s not McDonalds’ CEO who’s making those billions of burgers.
By sustaining and maintaining creation, as well as producing it to start with, wouldn’t you say the Son was being God’s right-hand man? And doesn’t that imagery provide the perfect match to Jesus sitting at the right hand of God after the resurrection?
I said in the previous chapter that the Father was in charge, and the Son’s only ambition was to please His Father. There is a clear and fundamental reason for this. John the Baptist spells it out for us.
John 1:15 John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’”
God had a higher rank than Christ because God existed before Christ. And Christ has a higher rank than anyone else in heaven or on earth because He existed before anyone else in heaven or on earth. Christ had done, and was doing, all that anyone could ask of God – but He did it all as an obedient Son.
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