The Truth About God’s Supreme Authority and Where We Stand

Reverend Leo H. McCrary II

Since God is the supreme authority over His creation, and knows all things, shouldn’t we follow His lead?

Introduction

God is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.  What that means is that God is the sovereign–  the supreme authority over all of creation.  Who are we to question God’s supreme authority?  In this week’s lesson commentary, the focus will be on why we ought to follow Christ’s lead.  This week’s Sunday School commentary will cover scripture from Colossians 1:15-23. 

Our Place in God’s Creation

As we saw in my commentary – The Astonishing Truth About God’s Creation – God is sovereign.  The Lord is like a painter who painted a picture on a canvas.  Painters can tell you every single detail about their painting because they know it inside and out.  

God can, and has, told us everything we need to know about His creation. The Lord does not have to guess about what He did.  What can we do in comparison?  Sure, we have our theories, yet, with all of our research, and with all of our theories, our wisdom will always fall short of the Lord.  

This simple fact immediately tells us our place in this Creation.  We are a part of the painting, trying our best to understand it though we cannot see the full picture in detail.  So, when God tells us about His creation, and tells us how to succeed, this puts us in a position of having to make a choice:  Believe Him or not.

Paul wrote this passage of scripture to help one understand why they should follow Christ’s lead.   Yes, we have our wisdom, but our wisdom will always fall short of the Lord.  For us to question the Lord is a reminder of the question posed in Isaiah 45:9 –   Can the clay say to the potter who is molding it, ‘What are you doing?

The Deity of Christ

To help encourage one to follow the Lord, Paul spoke of the divinity of Christ.  (Divinity: the quality or state of being divine.)

In Colossians 1:15, Paul spoke of Christ as being the image of the invisible God. Now, we must remember that though Christ was born through Mary, His birth was not like our birth.  All of us were conceived from the coming together of man’s seed and woman’s seed.  Christ, on the other hand, was conceived in the womb of Mary through the Spirit (Luke 1:35).

Therefore, what came from the womb of Mary was of the Spirit and the woman’s seed.  This is why we often see Christ refer to Himself as the Son of Man. As John 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God.”  John then added, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).” 

God, we should remember, is three persons in one – the Holy Triumvirate (Holy Trinity).  God is the Father, the Son (Christ/Messiah), and the Holy Spirit.  All three persons are God, and they work together in unity as one. All three persons, being distinct, are all coequal in their nature and power.  

Let’s understand that God the Son was born into this world as Christ, but He was still God – He was holy and divine.  Christ was the image of God for man to see.  This is not to say that Christ looked like God because God is spirit.  However, how Christ moved was in the image of how God moves.  How Christ spoke, sharing the truth, was in the image of how God speaks – He speaks truth. 

So, just like John, Paul spoke of the sovereignty of Christ saying, “All things were created through Him and for Him (Col. 1:16).”  Christ was there when the Lord said, “Let there be”.  Christ was there to hear the morning stars sing out, rejoicing at the laying down of the foundation of the creation. 

It is incredibly important to note that Christ was there in the beginning because this means that He knows this creation inside and out.  Again, the Creation belongs to Christ as much as it belongs to the Father and Spirit.  So, because Christ knows this creation inside and out, this speaks to why we ought to heed Him.

The Head of the Church

This thought led Paul to state, “He is before all things, and in Him all things consist … He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence (Col. 1:17-18).”  

Let’s pay close attention to Paul saying Christ is “before” all things and is “the head” and has “preeminence”.  Preeminence speaks of one’s rank and authority.  So, to be clear, Paul is speaking about Jesus’ authority – His position – in comparison to all of us who believe.  

Christ is the leader and is at the front of the line, standing at a place for all of us to be able to see and follow Him.  This harkens back to when Jesus spoke of Himself as the Good Shepherd.  

Jesus said of the good shepherd, “But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice (John 10:2-4).”

To understand the importance of the rank of “the head”, let’s take this into consideration: the body goes where the head goes, right?  Without the head, what can the body do?  The body cannot function without the head.  Sure, it may still have a pulse, but what good is that pulse if the body can’t move?

Jesus warned that those who aren’t good shepherds will abandon their flocks in the face of danger.  He warned that wolves would come and scatter the flock so that they may capture and consume them (John 10:12).  

What good can come our way if we who should be following Christ choose not to follow Him and go our own way?  When Jesus sent the disciples on their first journey, He did warn, “I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves.  Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves (Matt. 10:16).”

All of us are sheep in the midst of wolves.  Should we follow Christ, who is at the head, everything will be alright.  However, if we wander away from our shepherd – our protector – we leave ourselves vulnerable to the wolves.  Should we remain with our shepherd, we shall graze safe and secure in His pasture, receiving His blessings.

The Firstborn from the Dead

Personally, I desire to dwell with our shepherd beyond the physical creation.  We know that everlasting life with the Lord is possible to us.  Firstly, we know that it is possible to us because Christ promised that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but will have everlasting life (John 3:16).

Even more than that, we know that everlasting life is possible to us because Christ gave His life for us.  This is what we see Paul touch on when He speaks of Christ being the “firstborn from the dead” (Col. 1:18).

When Paul speaks of Christ being the firstborn over all creation, it reminds me of the thought of a firstborn child.  You see, the oldest child is supposed to be the example for their younger siblings to follow.  As the firstborn over all creation, Christ set the example of how we ought to live.  

As the firstborn from the dead, Christ is the first to die and to rise again – to be resurrected after death.  Now, some of you may think to yourself, how can that be, considering those whom Christ brought back from the dead?  Those like Lazarus and Jairus’ daughter were brought back from the dead to live again, but they eventually had to die the physical death again.  

Jesus’ resurrection was not to physically live and then die again.  No, Jesus rose unto life everlasting.  If we desire to rise unto life everlasting, then we must follow the example set by Christ.  This means that you and I must choose to live obediently to the word of God.

Resurrection Because of Reconciliation

If we live in obedience, following the one who is at the head, and knows the way to the kingdom, we will enter into God’s heavenly kingdom (John 14:6).

Some of us may think to ourselves, ‘My sins are too great, God wouldn’t want me.”  Sin can no longer block you from entering the kingdom of God if you have believed in His only begotten Son.

As Paul points out, Jesus reconciled all things to Himself through the shedding of His blood (Col. 1:19-20).  To reconcile means to restore or to bring to harmony.  Prior to His sacrifice, there was no harmony between man and the Lord.  Even the children of Israel, once a year, had to offer up the blood of bulls and goats to atone for their sins.

Christ is our propitiation – the atonement offering for all sins.  Through faith in Him, Christ will wash away every sin, forgiving you of your crimes against God.  The only sin that will never be pardoned is that of working against the Lord (Matt. 12:31-32).

All of us can receive God’s greatest reward, if we let go of our pride and our ego.  All of us can receive God’s greatest reward if, as Paul said, we choose to continue in faith and obedience.