Colossians 1:15-20 (NIV): He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 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. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 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. 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.
Those who doubt that Jesus is in fact God, that He and God the Father are One, have never read or understood what God has clearly caused to be written all through the Bible. Jesus is the very image of God the Father – when we look at Him, it is God that we are seeing. If we want to know what God is like, from His thoughts, to His emotions, to His expectations, to His actions, just look at Jesus. This is what He was saying to Philip at the last supper: “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9b)
Jesus is the firstborn over all creation. That does not mean that He was born or created at some point. As God He is as eternal as the Father. It is a figure of speech meaning that He is the source of all created things. As John puts it, “Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made.” (John 1:3) No matter what it is that exists, from tangibles like the earth and the stars, to spiritual things like angels, to intangibles like power and authority, He is the agency through which they were created.
And, even more, He is the one who holds all things together. Some scoff at this, wondering how things held together for the 3 days that Jesus was dead. But they must remember that only Jesus’ BODY died! Like us, His spirit was never dead, or even unconscious. (Besides, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all one, and uphold each other in every task.) When Jesus voluntarily experienced separation from God to bear the sins of all mankind, nature did, in fact, manifest it, through the darkened sun, the earthquakes. We can extrapolate that to see what will happen to the material universe when He releases His grip and lets chaos loose on it!
Jesus is also the reconciler of all humanity to God. Through His death on the cross, through the blood of His sacrifice poured out, He made it possible for sinful people to be washed clean, to have a fresh start, to be completely reconciled to God, so that we can serve Him forever, both here and throughout eternity.
Those who believe that Jesus was only a good man and a great teacher are seeing only with the eyes of the flesh, and are blind spiritually. Only those who receive Jesus for Who He really is, Who He clearly claimed and conclusively proved Himself to be, only those can really know Jesus as He truly is. Only those can receive all that He came to make real in them.
Father, this is all so clear, and so clearly presented in Your word, that it is hard to see how anyone could doubt it. Help me to share all of this amazing stuff clearly, passionately, to everyone I meet today. Amen.