The Glorious Name of Christ

When you hear a person’s name what comes into your mind about them?
ABE LINCOLN; WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE; ALBERT EINSTEIN; LEONARDO DA VINCI; THOMAS EDISON
WALT DISNEY; LOUIS PASTEUR; HENRY FORD; RONALD REGAN; MICHAEL JORDAN
ADOPH HITLER; ELVIS PRESLEY; BOB HOPE; MOTHER TERESA; SPONGE BOB
These names conjure up different feelings and emotions within us. Depending upon our age, our education and our cultural background, we envision these people in different ways.

Today I want to speak to about another name, Jesus Christ. When you hear this name what comes into your mind? The name Jesus Christ is often misunderstood. Its proper form is “Jesus the Christ”. Many do not know the meaning. Some think Jesus is His first name and Christ His last name. When you read scripture you realize Biblical characters usually had only one name; such as Moses, David, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Paul. During these times people did not use family or surnames as we do today. But their names may include a title or characteristic.

The name Jesus Christ is similar. Jesus is His given name and Christ is His title. Christ means Messiah, the Anointed One, the Holy One of God. So His proper name is Jesus the Christ, Jesus the Messiah. Having the title of Christ or Messiah connects Jesus directly to God. As Christians, we know Jesus as “God in the Flesh”, the “manifestation of God in human form”. So, who is this Jesus the Christ? Today’s scriptural text goes a long way in giving us insight into who He is. In Colossians 1:15-20, we have seven unique characteristics that qualify Him as the Supreme Sovereign over all creation. As God, He is the Supreme Being.

I want to share with you these seven unique characteristics of Jesus so that you may have a better understanding about Him and allow you to draw closer to Him and accept Him as your Lord and Savior.

1st ) Christ is the image of the Invisible God.
The church at Colossae was having a problem of who is this Jesus and there were people who were trying to import the false teaching of Gnosticism into the church. It was a philosophy of combining Christianity with Greek and Oriental philosophies. It believed that matter is evil and spirit is good. Since creation and mankind are matter, they believed these things were evil. So the question came up about Christ. The Gnostics could not accept the humanity of Jesus. They could not accept that anything earthly or human could also be filled with the divine nature. So was He man or God? If Jesus was from God – then He was not really flesh and blood, but a spiritual phantom in bodily likeness. Paul in his letter to the church was combating this heresy. In this first characteristic, Paul says, “Christ is the image of the invisible God.” The word “image” is more than a likeness, it implies a representation and manifestation. He was a reproduction with precise likeness. Jesus Himself told of His relationship to God when He said in John 14:9, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” Paul spoke of the invisible God, but Christ is the perfect, visible, flesh and blood representation of God. Here, Paul first shows Christ in His relationship with God, the Father. He is the image, the precise likeness, of God.

2nd) We see Christ’s supremacy with His relationship to creation.
In verse 15 we read, “He is the first born over all creation”. This term, first born, means “absolutely first” with respect to creation. Christ has always existed with God and Firstborn implies sovereignty. He has priority over all of creation. Gen 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”. Jesus was part of creation. He was there in the beginning with the Father. John 1:2-3 testifies to this. It says, “He (Christ) was with God in the beginning. Though Him all things were made.” Christ existed before creation.

3rd) This leads us to the 3rd characteristic: which is Jesus was the Creator.
Verse 16 of our text says: “For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.” Paul told the Colossians that Jesus, as part of the Godhead, made the “matter” that the Gnostics deemed evil. And it was God who pronounced all that was made “as being good”. Thereby, overcoming the Gnostic problem of creation and mankind as being evil. Jesus created the entire universe; the hierarchy of angelic beings, the thrones, powers, rulers and authorities of the spirit world in which Christ reigns Supreme. Jesus is the creator of all things.
4th Christ is the Head of the body, the Church
The reference here is to the invisible or universal church. The church originated with Christ. It is His doing not ours. The church depends on Christ as the source of energy and power. He is the head, not merely as being the most important member but rather in the sense that all forces of the body are brought together by him. Christ, as head, energizes the Body, giving the church life and power.

5th Christ is the Beginning and the Firstborn from among the dead.
Christ was the first to rise from the dead with an immortal body and as such is the firstborn of the resurrected. Christ’s resurrection marked His triumph over death. He became the firstfruits of those who die and He will never die again. He who became flesh and blood and humbled Himself at the cross is now exalted by the Father and given the name that is above every name. He is Christ, the Messiah. He is Jesus. This is documented for us in Phil 2:6-11.
6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Christ is the Beginning and the Firstborn from among the dead.

6th characteristic, All God’s fullness dwells in Him
For me, this 19th verse is the most powerful description of Christ’s deity. It says, “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him”. The key word is fullness – meaning completeness, nothing lacking. All of God’s being and grace is in Christ and is there to dwell permanently. All that is of God is in Jesus. This is why it is so important to love, honor, obey and worship Jesus Christ, for He is God. He lived amongst us and He loved us so much that He died for us. Jesus is God.

7th characteristic is that He is the Reconciler
In vs. 20, Through Christ, God will “reconcile to himself all things, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross”. It is important to note that people are reconciled to God, not God reconciled to the people. It is mankind that has sinned and left God and needs to be brought back to Him. This is the mission of Christ, to seek and to save those that are lost. He accomplished this by giving himself and allowing His body to be offered and His blood to be shed. Jesus came to seek you and me and to bring us back to God. By dying on the cross, he took our sin and paid the penalty for our sin and we are forgiven, cleansed and reconciled to God.

Paul has given us something to think about. For this passage of scripture is deep with the theology of Christ.

He is: The image of the invisible God
The firstborn over all creation
By Him all things were created
He is the Head of the body, the Church
He is the beginning and the Firstborn from among the dead
In Him all of God’s fullness dwells
Through Him, God reconciles to Himself all things

So how should we react when we hear the name Jesus? Phil 2:9-11 says; “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Scripture Lesson

Join me in pray. Gracious God, may each of us react to the name of Jesus by believing and accepting Him as Lord and Savior. Amen.

Colossians 1:15-20 (NIV1984) The Supremacy of Christ 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.