Absorb....

Col. 1:15-20 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.

This is just one of those incredible passages about the personhood of Jesus. In him is the fullness of God. It is just incredibly hard to come to terms with this, that as Jesus walked the earth he was at once a man and at the same time God.

Theologians think that this isn’t just mind-blowing, but also necessary. Jesus’ mission to die on the cross was so that he could pay the cost of our redemption. He had to be a man to do this, because as a human he represented us as people who needed to be redeemed, because we all deserve to have to pay the penalty for those things that we did wrong. But at the same time only God himself is good enough to be able to pay the full cost of that redemption. So Jesus, our saviour, had to be fully man and fully God.

But Paul also wants to draw our attention to Jesus’ place in the cosmos. He is ruler of it, he sustains it, he created it. There is nothing that ever existed without Jesus having had some part in making it. As well as that when we look at Jesus we see who God is, because the character and nature of the son mirror that of the Father.

Sometimes you come across a passage which just takes your breath away – you have to stop thinking about it and just absorb it. This is one like that….