May Jesus have the Preeminence

I’ve made a rather random observation on human behaviour which I’ve been thinking of recently. When a person is so engrossed in something, it becomes their all. All things begin to revolve around this one thing and almost all conversation boomerangs back to it. For example I was watching a BBC documentary the last week about the lives of India’s train drivers. There was one particular train driver who had been employed by the Eastern Indian Rail company for the best part of his adult life. He was so passionate about his job and everything he said revolved around the trains and his job. He even went as far as saying:

‘…life is about trains, on the trains you find family, fun, entertainment. Life is like a train. Everything a person could ever want is on the trains, why do we need to go anywhere else?…’

Almost all his conversation came back to the train life and the community which revolved around this. This may be stating the obvious but there is such a big lesson in this. You can read a person by what he/she constantly talks about. It doesn’t take too long to know a person until they get talking.

What got me thinking about this was how many times I have heard Christians say things such as: it’s all about love, it’s all about revival, it’s all about caring, it’s all about church history, it’s all about serving, it’s all about kindness, it’s all about humillity…or something along those lines. I hear it all the time when someone says ‘the heart of the Gospel is revival, or the heart of the Gospel is love, or the heart of the Gospel is service…’ That’s alot of hearts.

When someone gets passionate about something they lean so much towards this one thing  and they cause everything else to fit this mould. If they get passionate about worship, evangelism, teaching or something like this, then they shape the Gospel and Christ to fit this. This is wrong and we should be careful about doing this because we put our own ideas, understanding, thoughts and passions onto Christ.

But my observation leads me to correct this seemingly noble and innocent behaviour. ITS NOT ABOUT ANYTHING OTHER THAN THE ‘GLORY OF GOD IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST – HIS DEATH, HIS BURIAL, HIS RESURRECTION, HIS CROSS, HIS SUFFERING, HIS POWER.’

John Stott wrote in the ‘Cross of Christ’ (by the way, I would highly recommend this book):

…despite the great importance of His teaching, his example, and his works of compassion and power, none of these was central to His (Christ’s) mission. What dominated His mind was not the living, but the giving of His life (the cross)…

All things should revolve around Him and everything that pertains to Him. It’s not all about this or that, it’s all about Jesus, whom God the Father has set above everything that He may have the PREEMINENCE in everything. Revival is useless without Christ, love is useless without Christ, service, humility and all these good things are useless without Christ. God has done everything so that all creation and history sings the praise of the Son.

When the birds sing, their song boomerangs back to Christ;
When the sun rises, its rays boomerang back to the glory of Christ;
When dew falls on the early morning grass, it boomerangs back to Christ.

And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 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. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell…(Colossians 1:17-19)

Don’t you see, that the Father has bestowed EVERYTHING to and for Christ. Therefore He alone ought to be preeminent in absolutely everything. Don’t lean your Christianity on your intuitions. Lean your Christianity on Jesus Christ and the Word of God alone.

That I May Know Him

Vic Gill

Tags: Preeminence

Category: Re: Jesus