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Context No. 3283 of 4322 · Colossians

Context · Reflection

Colossians 1:15-20: in context

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things are held together. 18He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. 19For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.

This is one of the mountain-peaks of Scripture's vision of Christ. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, the one by whom all things were created, in heaven and on earth, and in whom all things hold together. He is before all things, the head of the church, the firstborn from the dead, and through him God was pleased to reconcile all things, making peace by the blood of his cross.

The cosmic and the personal meet in a single person. The one through whom the entire universe was made, and in whom it is even now held together, is the same one who reconciled us by the blood of his cross. The Christ who holds the galaxies in their courses stooped to make peace with us at the cost of his own life. Nothing is outside his reach, and nothing is too small for his love. He upholds all things, and he holds together, in particular, the reconciled lives of those he has bought with his blood. The Lord of all creation is also, personally, our peace.

Do I know the Christ in whom all things hold together as also the one who made peace with me by his own blood, holding my life together in him?

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