The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Colossians 3:11,
"Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all."
As Paul speaks of the ability believers have to "put to death" what it is that belongs to our sinful nature and to "put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator", he makes the observation that Christ is all and is in all. What does it mean that "Christ is all and is in all"?
These are the thoughts that strike me this morning:
God sent his one and only Son to earth to die for sinners. Jesus Christ died to take the punishment due us upon himself that we might have the opportunity of eternal life. All who have eternal life have obtained it only through Jesus Christ and so he is in all who are saved.
Paul's point is that God only sent one Son, his only Son. He is the only means by which we may find an ability to take off that old sinful nature and put on the new nature he has for us, the very likeness of Jesus Christ himself. The only path, the only way, the only One, the only prospect or possibility is Jesus Christ. As he said himself, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6. Jesus Christ is all there is. There is none other. Christ is all. He is simply all there is.
Paul also says Christ is in all. From the context, we know he is speaking of believers. All believers have one and the same Jesus Christ dwelling within them through the Holy Spirit. Jesus himself is in heaven, but he has sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within all believers and thereby dwells within all of us. Not some of us. I have heard all kinds of groups taking for themselves some notion of superior standing with God because they have the inside scoop. You and I don't have it because we are not in their group - but they have it. Whether it is the "I'm special because I got the Holy Ghost baptism" group, or the 144,000 big-boy witnesses, those with Vatican imprimatur for the priesthood or whatever, it is always the same thing: they have something the rest of us don't.
It kind of mystifies me why people need a special status. I have Jesus Christ. What need is there for attempting to embellish that with something else? Paul says "Christ is in all". All believers have one and the same Son of God, Jesus Christ dwelling within them. What do I need of anyone else's "I've got something special you don't"? In Paul's day he looked at the demographics people loved to use to distinguish themselves: are you Jew or Gentile? Are you circumcised or uncircumcised? Are you barbarian or maybe Scythian? Are you slave or free? It is my persuasion that the notion of being a "completed Jew" or anything along those lines is misguided and reflects a poor understanding of what it means to be a child of God.
Unlike our federal government that has an obsession with demographics: gender, age group, race, ethnicity (yes, race isn't enough), income group, marital status, sexual orientation - when it comes to being a child of God and all it brings, none of that stuff counts. "Christ is all and is in all."
No, we don't need to look to see what demographic saved folks are to know whether they have an ability to take off that old nature and put on that new one made in the image of the Lord. "Christ is all, and is in all."
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
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