And 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. 

Colossians 1:18 

Christ’s position is that He has the first place. This is, what it means for Him to ‘have the preeminence.’ All we have considered thus far in this summary has been a series of references which describe the positions Christ holds. The portion of the text we are considering today speaks of Him in the position of having first place. If we understand the implications of His having the preeminence we appreciate how integrally important He is to all else that is. He is first in the Kingdom of God. He is first as the image of the invisible God. He is first over all creation. He is first in being from eternity.  He is first in holding everything together. He is first in the Church. He is first as the chief representative of the resurrected dead. Christ deserves first place and has it. This includes the extent of His redemption. The people whom Christ redeems are, as Revelation describes them, ‘a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues.’ He told Abraham that his descendants would be as the stars of the sky and as the sand upon the seashore. This means Christ redeems many. This also figures into the discussion of His having the first place. Christ has accomplished a large redemption.  

High King of heaven, 
we rejoice that You are preeminent in everything. 
We praise You that, because You are, 
everything proceeds according to Your sovereign plan.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

And 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. 

Colossians 1:18 

Christ is our point of origin. He identifies Himself as such. If we consider some of His categorical statements we arrive at that conclusion easily. At the beginning of His revelation we read, ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, says the Lord, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.’  He repeats a similar phrase a few verses later. If, as the passage from which our text derives indicates, He is the Creator of all that is, then He is our Originator. If we are going to understand from whence we came, who we are, and why we exist, we must begin with Christ, ‘who is the beginning.’ Everything else makes more sense when we start with Him. Thus no one else is more important to our life and the living of it than Christ. Our understanding of Christ as the beginning provides the foundation for our understanding of ourselves, others, society, the course of the world, and the final scenario. What we know of how to live life on a daily basis arises from our understanding that Christ is the beginning. He is good and leads us to be good and to do good. Because all we  experience relates to Him in one way or another, we look to Him again and again as the One by Whom we have both begun and by Whom we continue. Therefore we do not fear the future because we know Him Who is our beginning.  

Our Great and Gracious God, 
we rejoice that You are our beginning. 
We praise You that all we are and have
flows from You. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

And 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. 

Colossians 1:18 

We have an indissoluble union with Christ. Whereas the Scripture uses various illustrations to show us the relationship, the one before us is particularly graphic. We have a body and a head. As we study the relationship between our body and our head we come to a greater understanding of the relationship which exists between us and Christ. Our text clearly states that Christ is the Head and that we, all His redeemed people of all ages, are His Body. It further identifies us as His Church. Thus, with us and Christ there is the same relationship existing as we observe in our own selves every day. Our head is the command center for our body. From the head flow commands that cause us to walk, talk, reach, act and react. We also understand how our body communicates to our head. Sensations of pain or pleasure as well as others make their way to the head where they serve as the foundation for action. Without the head the body ceases to function. The body is the practical vehicle for the head. As we understand this functioning relationship we arrive at a greater understanding of our experience of Christ. He is the Head of the Body and we are overwhelmingly glad that He is. We would be nothing without Him. 

Gracious Master and our God, 
we rejoice that You are our living Head. 
We praise You that You direct us as Your Body, 
in the way we should go.  

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning

And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 

Colossians 1:17 

Christ holds all things together. The word ‘consist’ as we see it carries with it the idea of standing together or as we might put it, hang together. Hebrews puts the idea similarly by saying that Christ, ‘upholds in all things by the word of His power.’ Thus what we observe in earth and in the universe exists and continues as it does because Christ holds it together by the power of His word. If we understand this, we begin to comprehend the importance of Christ. The passage before us has spoken of Him as having a kingdom, as having effected redemption, as being all there is to see of God, as being the sole inheritor of all that is God’s, as having created all things, and as being from eternity. Add to that the declaration of our text that in Him or by Him all things consist and we have a summary picture of the most important Person in heaven, earth, or hell. We cannot make too much of this One by Whom all things hang together. When we look to the stars we see the upholding power of Christ. When we see the world around us as it continues in its’ various cycles we behold the power of Christ. When we awaken every morning with a measure of health and strength we experience the upholding power of Christ. By Him all things consist.  

Our Glorious, Almighty God, 
we rejoice that You are all-powerful. 
We praise You that You cause all things to continue 
in their order. 

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning