Do you find yourself taking on the responsibility of saving planet Earth? Do you have a hard time considering Jesus as God? Even if you believe He is God, do you let cultural “issues” distract you from devotion to Christ as Lord? If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, you are dethroning Christ as Lord over all of life. This is post #5 in our Healthy Living series from Colossians. In this article, we will see how you can stop the “Jesus Is Not Lord over All” infection and stay spiritually healthy in an unhealthy world.
Listen to this post as a similar podcast from our Healthy Living Bible Study of Colossians and Philemon:
Diagnosing the infection
In this series of articles, we are examining spiritual infections that attack us, leaving us weak and empty. The way to fight or avoid infection is to be satisfied by the truth of God we have in Jesus Christ. That gives us a strong immune system to fight and prevent infection in our hearts and minds.
Like a doctor, Paul listened to what was being said by the Colossians and about them. He made a diagnosis—there were infections in Colosse! One was worse than all the others, with the most damaging effects because it was not just error. It was anti-truth! I’m talking about the “Jesus Is Not Lord over All” infection.
In the New Testament, Jesus is called the Lord Jesus Christ. You see that throughout Colossians.
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, (Colossians 1:3)
Christ is His title. It comes from the Greek word christos, which translates the Hebrew term “Messiah” meaning “anointed one.” According to Psalm 110 verse 1, the Messiah would sit at the right hand of God and be called Lord. Jesus not only claimed this for Himself but also demonstrated that He was the Son of God who sits at God’s right hand. Jesus is the Christ. He is also the Lord. Lord means master.
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, (Colossians 2:6)
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:17)
In fact, Jesus is referred to as “Lord” fifteen times in this letter, 8 in chapter 3 alone! The “Jesus Is Not Lord over All” infection was very bad. Paul wanted to make sure to stop its spread among the believers there in central Turkey and everywhere else.
The ”Jesus Is Not Lord over All” infection
What were the symptoms of this very dangerous infection? The false teachers were not denying that Jesus came and that He was the Christ, the promised one of God. But they dethroned Him!
The error being taught took Jesus off the throne of the universe and made Him something else. The false teachers denied His deity, saying that Jesus was only a man. Or, at best, that the divine spirit of God came upon the man Jesus at His baptism and left Him at the cross so that only the man Jesus died. This view held that Jesus could not be fully human and fully God at the same time. Therefore, He was not the absolute Lord over all as the gospel claimed.
This “Jesus Is Not Lord over All” infection was making the Colossians deathly ill. It will do the same to us!
Any teaching that attacks the supremacy and deity of Christ is like meningitis because it attacks the protective covering of the brain, and therefore of the mind, causing our minds to not work properly. Thankfully, we have truth found in the New Testament that stops and prevents this most dangerous infection.
Truth fights and prevents the “Jesus Is Not Lord over All” infection.
In Colossians chapter 1, Paul wrote the strongest statement of the supremacy and deity of Jesus as the Christ and the Lord found anywhere in the New Testament! Remember that the New Testament was originally written in Greek, the common language to all areas of the Roman Empire. The Greek words Paul used were specific for this infection, just like a doctor’s prescription to treat a specific disease. There was no way those reading or listening to this letter could reasonably misunderstand anything that Paul was telling them.
The prescribed treatment for this “Jesus Is Not Lord over All” infection is the truth about Christ in three areas—1) His relationship to God, 2) His relationship to Creation, and 3) His relationship to the Church.
First, let’s look at the truth about Christ in His relationship to God.
Jesus’ relationship to God confirms He is Lord over all.
Paul began with an intense injection of truth serum:
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. (Colossians 1:15)
Jesus is described as the Son who is the image of the invisible God. He is the exact representation of God’s likeness.
The writer of Hebrews confirmed this statement.
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. (Hebrews 1:3)
Jesus said this about Himself,
He who has seen Me has seen the Father. (John 14:9)
This is plainly stated in several places in the Bible. We are not talking about His face but His character and His identity. He spent His life showing us who the Father is. All of the gospels teach who Jesus is and, therefore, who God is. You and I should read the gospel stories every year. We should know the stories about Jesus because through Him we can know who God is. Our study of Mark is a great place to start.
And Jesus was not just part God.
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, (Colossians 1:19)
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, (Colossians 2:9)
Paul used one of the very words that the false teachers were using—the word “fullness.” The false teachers were claiming that if you went through special rites and ceremonies, you could get to the deeper knowledge of God. You could get a fuller understanding of God. This heresy said that Jesus was good but not enough. You needed more. The false teachers distributed all the divine powers among spiritual beings between the holy God and the man Jesus. A lot of divine power was divided between all of these invisible beings, which is why they started worshiping them. But Paul gathered them all up in Christ in this word “fullness.” It is a full and flat statement of the deity of Christ.
The Bible clearly states that all of God’s fullness dwelled in Jesus. The totality of God’s powers and attributes are dwelling in Jesus. To “dwell” means to be permanently at home. It cannot mean “to leave” or “to come and go.” The fullness of God permanently dwells in Jesus. There is nothing missing. There is nothing more of God that they could get apart from Jesus. There is nothing more of God that we can get apart from Jesus.
The wonderful thing is that God was pleased to put His fullness in Jesus and pleased to put Jesus in us. So He is pleased to put the fullness of God in us. Christ in us! It was God’s pleasure to do so.
About Himself, Jesus said,
And now, Father, glorify Me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began. (John 17:5)
That phrase, “I had with you,” means completeness. Jesus the Son and God the Father had completeness together before the foundation of the world. Jesus was not any less God before the foundation of the world. He had everything that God the Father had. Jesus is God and, as God, He is Lord over all.
The second relationship Paul discussed was Jesus’ relationship to Creation.
Jesus’ relationship to the Creation confirms He is Lord over all.
Jesus is the Firstborn over all creation.
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. (Colossians 1:15)
Paul wrote that Jesus as the Son of God is the firstborn over all creation. The word “firstborn” refers to the one who has priority to and superiority over everything that the father owns. Paul and the people of that time understood what it meant. We have a hard time with it. We think of firstborn as being my first child who has part of me but not all of me.
But Jesus being called “firstborn” refers to Him being the one who had priority and supremacy over everything that God the Father owned. He inherited it all. That’s what it means.
Jesus created all things.
For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. (Colossians 1:16)
Paul did not use that phrase “all things” just one time. He used it several times. “All things” was a specific, well-known Greek phrase understood to mean “everything in the entire universe.” Paul clarified his meaning for us by saying things in heaven, things on earth, the visible, and the invisible. That is all there is! Jesus created the invisible beings. He was not created by them. This again refutes the false teachers’ levels of spirit beings. Jesus is the Creator. He was not created.
When God created the heavens and the earth, John chapter 1 says that Jesus was there with God the Father.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. … The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-3, 14)
The Word was Christ. Through Christ, things are made. That is also confirmed by the writer of Hebrews.
but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. (Hebrews 1:2)
Creation was planned by the Father but done through the Son and for the Son. Jesus, the Son, was the “Master Workman” of Creation. It was done for His pleasure. He made all these things that we know and enjoy, including our own bodies, for His pleasure.
Jesus holds all things together.
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:17)
Not only is He firstborn, not only did He create all things, but Jesus holds all things together. This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. The phrase “holds together” means “to cohere” like glue holds things together. Jesus is why we are not floating or flying apart! He is why we continue to exist.
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. (Hebrews 1:3)
Christ is the controlling and unifying force in nature. He holds together the force of gravity and the nucleus of an atom. That is why I love science. It is a visible manifestation of God’s Creative work. You cannot study any aspect of science without gaining a greater appreciation of our great God. Scientists who dismiss God are blinding themselves to what they actually see because if they acknowledge God, they must be accountable to Him. It is easier to pretend that He doesn’t exist.
You see, the fact that there is a Creator means that He owns everything. He owns each person. He has total right over our lives and has a right to set the rules (and thus tell us what is right and wrong) because He is the Creator, the Absolute Authority. We can know what is good and bad because there is ONE who is good and who can, therefore, define right and wrong. We as humans need to submit ourselves totally to the One who owns us. It is not mere human opinion.
The Son of God is the “hands-on” Creator and sustainer of the universe. He is Lord of Planet Earth. He is the one who will sustain it, not us. We are to be good stewards. But thinking that you and I have to save the planet or even that we can do that is dethroning Christ as Lord over everything. It is succumbing to the “Jesus Is Not Lord over All” infection. Jesus is God and, as Creator, He is Lord over all.
Jesus’ relationship to the Church confirms He is Lord over all.
The third area of Jesus’ identity is His relationship to the Church. [Note: Church written with a capital “c” refers to the entire universal body of Christ existing over the past 2000 years, not to local churches.]
Jesus is head of the Church.
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. (Colossians 1:18)
Jesus is the head of the Church. He is sovereign over it. Jesus created the Church by combining Jews and Gentiles into one body of believers, and He appointed Himself head of that body. He is the head of the Church.
Jesus is the firstborn from among the dead.
We also see in Colossians 1:18 that Christ is the first one resurrected from the dead. Those whom Jesus healed and brought back from death received their life in the same earthly body only to die again. But when Jesus was raised from the dead, He was the first to receive a brand-new body, never to die again.
In 1 Corinthians 15:20, Paul used the same phrase except he used “firstfruits” instead of “firstborn.” The firstfruits was the first part of a harvest brought by a farmer as a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. This was a down payment that declared the promise of more to come. The farmer was declaring that the rest of the harvest belonged to God as well.
Christ is the guarantee of the resurrection of all of God’s redeemed people. Jesus has supremacy in the resurrected life we will all receive one day. Jesus was first in this. We will follow Him.
Jesus is the one through whom believers are reconciled to God.
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 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. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— (Colossians 1:19-22)
That word “reconcile” in the Greek stands for complete reconciliation, not ever to be broken again. It does not leave room for breaking off that reconciliation. We are reconciled once and for all when we believe in Christ. It is a completeness. It is done.
Through Jesus, God reconciles to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through Jesus’ blood, shed on the cross. We are reconciled through Jesus’ physical death on the Cross. Paul left no room for any teaching that the Christ spirit came to the body at Jesus’ baptism and left His body on the cross before death. It was through the Christ who died on the cross that all believers are reconciled to God. There is only one way!
The things reconciled by Christ’s death on the cross are things on earth and things in heaven. Notice what is left out. Things under the earth, the invisible, and demons. Those in hell are not reconciled to God. They have lost the opportunity.
God does all this through Jesus, “So that in everything He might have the supremacy.” That’s verse 18. Jesus is God and, as God, He is Lord over all.
The treatment restores spiritual health—Jesus is the Lord over all.
We can firmly believe that Jesus is the Christ who is God and, therefore, the Lord over everything. God wanted Jesus to be the Lord over everything. Jesus is the Lord over creation, including all angels and demons. Jesus is the Lord over the Church. In everything, He is to be the Lord, not a Lord.
I love the worship song, What a Beautiful Name It Is. One chorus refers to Jesus as Lord, saying this,
You have no rival, you have no equal. Yours is the Kingdom. Yours is the glory. Yours is the name above all names. What a powerful name it is. The name of Jesus Christ my king. (What a Beautiful Name It is, Ben Fielding & Brooke Ligertwood)
Prevent the infection: Choose to submit to Jesus Christ as Lord.
Jesus Christ is the Lord over all. To prevent succumbing to the infection that says He is not Lord over all, you and I must choose to submit to Him as Lord. He deserves it!
When are we most susceptible to this “Jesus Is Not Lord over All” infection? I think we are most susceptible when we seek to be satisfied by our own view of God.
I met two women in the early 80s. Both of them had a hunger for God and spiritual things. But they couldn’t accept Jesus. That was a stumbling block to them. Their thinking was, “Why can’t I have God without Jesus? I believe in God. Isn’t that good enough?” It wasn’t until they understood that God made a certain plan. If you want the benefits of His plan, you are going to have to enter His plan His way. If you want your heart need for a relationship with God to be satisfied, you’re going to have to go through Jesus. Both women took that step of faith, and the Holy Spirit opened their minds to understand what God’s wonderful plan was. They embraced Jesus as Lord over all.
Remember what Paul wrote in Colossians,
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. (Colossians 2:8)
A spiritual infection takes you captive to something other than Christ. The “Jesus Is Not Lord over All” infection is not only bad, it is destructive to your faith. Knowing the truth of God that you have in Jesus Christ gives you an immune system that stops this deadly spiritual infection. Get rid of it in your thinking. Let Jesus satisfy your heart needs with His truth and His love so you can get well and stay well.
Learn more about staying spiritually healthy in an unhealthy world through our Healthy Living Bible Study of Colossians and Philemon (11 lessons).
Read other articles in this Healthy Living series. The next one is Reject the Self-Sufficiency Infection.
Related Resources:
- Healthy Living Bible Study on Amazon
- Graceful Living Bible Study on Amazon
- Satisfied Series 3 Podcasts (Colossians series)
- TRUTH Is the Prescription for Healthy Living
- Tame the “Look-Imagine-See” Dragon
- Escape the Cultural Captivity Infection
- Resist the “Tyranny of the Urgent” Infection
- Stop the “Jesus Is Not Lord over All” Infection
- Conquer the “Manipulation by Guilt” Infection
- Flee the Spiritual Substitutes Infection
- Delete the Karma Infection
- Wipe Out the Narcissism Infection
- Counter the “Work Is Secular” Infection
- Overcome the “Holy Huddle” Infection
- Defeat the Victim Infection
- Angels, feathers, and needing comfort for grief
Image credit: sourced from a template at canva.com.
Resist the “Tyranny of the Urgent” Infection