The Preeminence of Christ as Our Creator, Redeemer, and Reconciler

Thinking about message and preparing my heart to preach, it dawned on me that, although my wife and I are not frequently here on Sundays because of the nature of our ministry, we still feel a close connection to you, our dear brothers and sisters in Christ. But we don't always know what's happening in one another's lives because we don't see one another so often. Even in the age of texting and emails and phones, cell phones, don't keep up with everybody the way I guess some people do. But it's always a comfort and encouragement to me to know that God knows exactly what's going on in the lives of each one of you and in my life, my wife's life. And he does care about what's happening.

So before we begin this message this morning, I would like to just take a few minutes to pray and ask God to meet those needs that are in our hearts. Perhaps only we in the very recesses, depths of our heart know what that concern is, what that burden is, what that problem is. Let's ask God right now to meet those needs. Lord Jesus, we come to you as needy individuals. We sometimes fall into the trap of thinking that we can take care of ourselves and that there's no situation that we face that we can't handle.

But the reality is we are weak. We are helpless. We do not have the wisdom that we frequently are called upon to have. And we are in desperate need of your help. Lord, you know exactly what each individual who's present here today is facing.

You know to what extent they have been struggling for how long. You know the burdens that they're carrying. You know best how to meet the needs of these dear friends, dear brothers and sisters in Christ. We call upon you to do that because you are God and you're the only one who can know our hearts and not only that but be able to meet our needs as individuals. Truly, nobody else cares for us like you do, Lord Jesus.

Nobody else has the ability or the power or the desire to meet our needs. So, we just lay those things out before you this morning, Lord and ask that you would be pleased to help us. Lord, as I open the word of God this morning, I pray that you would please fill me with your holy spirit. I ask that you would give me power that comes from on high to lift up and exalt the name of Jesus Christ and that you would guide my choice of words help me to rightly divide the word of truth. We desire this that you would be glorified.

In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. When pastor asked me to help by filling the pulpit for him while he was gone these two weeks, I started pondering and thinking, what am I going to preach on? I'm I'm out of habit of preparing weekly services, weekly Sunday worship messages for one time on Sunday, let alone twice a Sunday, let alone two Sundays in a row. So I thought, oh, okay, maybe a series of four messages from the same book of the Bible.

What book of the Bible has four chapters? Because I'm gonna be preaching four times. And so I thought of Colossians. And I've not preached that much from Colossians in my career as a preacher, and I've always wanted to. So, okay, that's what I'll do.

Then I started trying to do the preparation. Know what? I can't possibly cover all the material in the book of Colossians in just four sermons. So let me just sort of ask God to guide me to the key passages that he would like for us to look at and for me to emphasize. And so that's what we're going to be doing here.

This morning, we're going to look at Colossians chapter one verses 12 through 22. Colossians one twelve through 22. And the title of this message today is the preeminence of Christ as our creator, our Redeemer, and our reconciler. So, we're gonna be looking at the preeminence of Jesus Christ as Creator, Redeemer, Reconciler. Colossians chapter one verses 12 through 22.

Would you please stand as I read the Word of God, in honor and respect for His Word? Colossians chapter one verses 12 through 22. Giving thanks unto the father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by him and for him.

And he is before all things, and by 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 might have the preeminence. For it pleased the father that in him should all fullness dwell. And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself. By him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.

And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Alright, thank you. Please be seated. Our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished for us what no one else could ever have done. It took what Jesus Christ himself was capable of doing to meet our needs.

Now, letter to the church at Colossae is a gem of Christological doctrine that can be mined inexhaustibly. Christological means it has to do with the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Okay? So we're gonna be looking at, basically, the doctrine of Jesus Christ. In it, that is in the book of Colossians, God highlights the preeminence of the preeminent one.

And he declares the glories of the glorious one, Jesus Christ, almighty God come in the flesh. Colossians is the most Christocentric book in the entire Bible. Christocentric refers to the fact that Christ is the central focus and theme of this book, perhaps more than any other individual book in the Bible. The greatest passage of the preexistent, omnipotent, exalted, and eternal Son of God is found in this little book of Colossians that we're going to be looking at these two Sundays. Colossians is one of a group of Paul's letters that were written while he was a prisoner in Rome.

Prisoner because he was a preacher of the Gospel and the Roman government didn't like what he had to say. The others in that group of letters, they're known as the prison epistles, are the Ephesians, book to the Ephesians, the Philippians, letter to the Philippians, and the letter to Philemon, and of course, Colossians. Now, in Ephesians, Paul expounded on the body of Christ, the church. In Colossians, he writes about the head of that body, Jesus Christ himself. Okay?

So that's what we're gonna be focusing on here. Because these two books deal with similar matters, it's interesting to note that 78 out of the 95 verses in Colossians are nearly identical to those in Ephesians. Excuse me. Well, if 78 out 95 verses are very similar, does that mean God is repeating Himself? No, not at all.

What it does mean is that God is giving us a clearer picture of truth. This is called progressive revelation. And that is a very important principle to understand for interpreting God's Word. So, in other words, you don't go to the Bible the way you might go to an encyclopedia. You have a topic in your mind and you want to learn something about it, and you look it up in an encyclopedia, and everything about that article, everything about that topic is right there in that one location.

That's not how it works with the Bible. You will find as you read from the beginning of the Bible to the end of the Bible, that it will sort of apparently jump around from one theme to another theme, and then it will come back to that theme again later on in another book. And it's like, how is this book organized? What's going on here? Have you ever had that experience?

What's happening there is God is introducing one doctrine or one theme. He's not telling you everything there is to know about that thing, but he's introducing it in one place. You move along, and sooner or later, that theme may pop up again and you'll find there's something else, new information. Excuse me. That is how God progressively reveals spiritual understanding and truth to us.

That's a very helpful thing to know as you read the Bible. Don't get discouraged if you think, oh, I wouldn't know more about this, but it's this little tidbit here. There's more coming. Just keep reading the Bible. Now, the main purpose for which the Apostle Paul wrote this brief letter to the church in Colossae was to deal with incipient Gnosticism.

This was a heresy that quickly infected the early church and sadly became entrenched in many local congregations. Perhaps thirty years later after Paul wrote this letter, the apostle John in his epistles also dealt with this same erroneous teaching. It's apparent, as you read John's letters, that it had become even more of a problem by then. And it was causing much confusion for the believers in many locations. So, to combat this false teaching, the best antidote for the disease was a healthy dose of truth.

The very outset of his letter, Paul emphasized the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Once the believers had a clearer understanding of him, then Paul would deal with some of the practical matters that naturally flowed from correct teaching. Such as how do we live our lives now in relationship to Christ in consideration of these truths that we have come to understand better. So, we're going to look at some of those things in another message next Sunday morning. But for now, let's just remember that correct doctrine leads to correct behavior.

So, first, let us make sure that we understand to the best of our ability as the Holy Spirit enables us to do so, the truth about Jesus Christ. First of all, who is He? You might think, everybody knows who Jesus Christ is. That's a simple question. Why even bother asking that?

Well, me let tell you. I was a missionary for twenty eight years in Japan, and I met many, many, many people there who had not a clue who Jesus Christ is. They have no idea. And that is perhaps more true for the vast majority of people in this world than you and I would like to acknowledge. There are many folks who do not know who He is.

So, we're going to spend some time as we look at the Word of God, here in particular, this little passage from Colossians. We're going to see better who Jesus Christ is. First of all, look at verse 13 of chapter one again. Now, it's talking about the Father, God, who has done something. Verse 13, it starts off, who has delivered us?

Well, who was that? Well, that was the Father, God. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. So the very first thing we see about Jesus Christ, and it's obvious as you read through here, it's referring to Jesus Christ. He is God's dear son.

There's a particular, special, unique relationship that Jesus Christ has with God in heaven. Literally, this could be translated the son of his love. Right? Instead of God's dear son, you could say, the son of God's love. So the son's mission, when he came into the earth, right, Jesus came into this earth.

He was born of a virgin. We don't read about that here in Colossians. We read about that in Matthew and in Luke. Okay? That's the nature of progressive revelation.

So the son's mission for coming into the world was the revelation of the father's love. Right? So Jesus Christ is God's dear son or the son of his love and this emphasizes the fact that he is here, or he came here to reveal to us the father's love. It also makes it clear that he is God Himself come in the flesh. So who is Jesus Christ?

That's what we're talking about. He is God's near Son and He is God Himself come in the flesh. Now, this is something that has puzzled theologians and those who are not quite as intense in their study of the Bible. How is it possible that Jesus Christ is God's son and at the same time he is God himself? How is this possible?

I don't have the answer to that question. If I had the answer to that question, I would be God myself, I think. Right? We don't know the answer to that question. How is it possible?

I don't know. But with God, nothing is impossible. All things are possible to God. Right? So, let's look at Colossians chapter one verse 15.

The first part of that verse says about Jesus Christ, He is the image of the invisible God. So Jesus is the very image of God himself. Now, if you'd like to look at another passage related to this, turn over to Hebrews chapter one and look at verse three. Just the first part of it there. Alright.

Hebrews chapter one verse three. I'll give you a few minutes to find that. The book of Hebrews, it's in the New Testament, chapter one verse three. Okay. Everybody find it?

I'll give you a few more seconds. Hebrews chapter one, it's near the end of the New Testament, and we're gonna look at verse three there. Just look at verse two there. It's referring to his son. Okay?

So we're talking about the same person. In verse two, his son. Verse three, who being the brightness of his glory, that's a reference to God, verse one up there. Alright? So he is the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person.

So the Son is the express image of the person of God, the Father. So Christ's likeness to God is so perfect that it provides mankind a final, complete revelation of who God is. Again, talking about progressive revelation. As you begin to read the Bible in the book of Genesis, we learn a lot of things about God just in that first chapter. And as you move on through the Bible, learn more and more things about God.

But there's a lot of things that we still have questions about. As you come to the beginning of the New Testament era, which began about February ago, we find that God determined that he was going to make a final, complete, perfect revelation of himself to mankind. And he did that by sending his only begotten son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was born of the Virgin Mary so that he does not have a sin nature. He came into this world. He left his throne in heaven.

He was born as a human being just as everyone seated here or standing here today came into this world by having your body formed in the womb of your mother, Jesus Christ received His body in the same way. Now, it was a miraculous thing how He was conceived. There's no doubt about that. But He became a man. However, He never stopped being God.

He always, from eternity past to eternity future, He is God. He always was God. He always will be God. For a period of time, he left the glories of heaven. He took upon himself human flesh, a body just like us, and now forever he exists as the God man.

Right? So in the person of Jesus Christ incarnate, that means as a human being, having flesh, a body like ours, we see a manifestation of the in visible God. This morning, in Sunday School, Brother Jeremy was talking about there are some things that you cannot see. And he made reference to the fact that God is a spirit. He does not have a body such as we do.

He does not have a physical body. I'm talking now about God the Father. God the Son obviously, in order to reveal God the Father to us, He took upon Himself that flesh. He became a human being with a body such as we have so that he could live and walk and move amongst us for a certain defined period of time. And during that time, anybody who looked at, rubbed shoulders with, interacted with Jesus Christ in his fleshly body, they were interacting with, touching, seeing, handling God in the flesh.

Truly, a miraculous and amazing thing to even comprehend it. It's beyond comprehension. But it's the truth. It's what God has revealed to us and it is the truth. As God says, He does not lie.

He always tells the truth. If you can't believe God, there's nobody you can believe. So, this is one of the strongest statements about the divine nature of Christ found anywhere in the Bible. I'm referring there to verse 15, who is the image of the invisible God. Jesus is not only equal to God, he is God As the visible image of the invisible God, he is the exact representation of God.

You wonder what God is like? How will he react to me? What is His attitude towards me or towards situations that we face in this world? Look at Jesus Christ. You understand God better the more you understand and know Jesus Christ personally.

Now, it says here he's the image of the invisible God. Image is more than likeness. You need to think about what I'm saying here. This is a quotation. Image is more than likeness, which may be superficial and incidental.

In other words, my daughter and I have a superficial likeness. There's some similarities in appearance. It's obvious that, oh, yeah, she's my daughter, I'm her father. When I was in The Philippines recently, the wife of the missionary pastor that I work with had the privilege of meeting her mother for the first time. We went to the village where her mom lives.

And when she was about to introduce her mom to me, I looked up from her and I looked at her mother and I thought to myself, she doesn't need to introduce this lady at all. It's obvious, this is her mother. They look so much alike. Right? But that's likeness.

Image goes a little bit deeper than that. Let me continue the quotation here. Image is more than likeness. It implies a prototype and it embodies the essential verity of its prototype. You might wonder why did he pick that quotation?

I'm not sure I understand that. I'm not sure I understand it clearly myself, I'm gonna try to work my way through this here. Alright? So what this commentator was saying is that Jesus Christ is not just some superficial, oh, yeah, he's sort of like God in this way, but he's not like God in this way. No.

No. Something goes deeper than that. There's a very identity of substance that Jesus manifests in a visible manner that is not possible for us to see otherwise because God is invisible. Does that help? I hope that helps explain things a little bit there.

All right. So, now we're referring to the fact that Jesus is God Himself, come in the flesh. So, as God, He has all power. He's omnipotent. Look at verse 15 again.

He is the image of the invisible God. He is the firstborn of every creature. In Hebrews chapter one verse three, I don't know if you kept your finger there or not, I'm gonna read the rest of that verse. He upholds all things by the word of his power. Woah.

So Jesus sustains the universe. How's that for a big responsibility? None of us can handle that job. I can barely get my act together for my own life. I won't be concerned about sustaining the universe.

But because he's God, not only did he have the power to create the universe, we're going look at that in a few minutes, but he has the ongoing power to keep it all together. If you've ever studied science, and I imagine most folks here have studied to some extent, the atom. Supposedly, it's comprised of a positively charged proton and a negatively charged electron, and they spin around one another at incredible speeds, and it's so small you can't even see it. But what keeps this thing from spinning around and flying apart? Or positive and negative joining together and just everything clumping up?

What causes that to maintain its balance? That's what Jesus Christ is doing. He's sustaining the universe. Only God can do this. So, it's very clear.

There's not a smidgen of doubt in the mind of the Apostle Paul that Jesus Christ is God Himself, common flesh. He's got all power. Look at verse 19, For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. And also, turn over to chapter two and look at verse nine, the same book of Colossians chapter two verse nine. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

What we see here is that the full essence, all the powers, all the attributes, all the characteristics of deity dwell in Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ, deity, the divine attributes and the nature of God dwelled in his earthly physical body. This is a strong statement of the deity and the simultaneous humanity of the God man, Jesus Christ. So he is the one in whom God in all his fullness lives. So as I said before, when you look at the presentation of Jesus Christ as he's revealed in the word of God, as we read the eyewitness testimonies of his apostles, those who actually lived with him, slept in the same place with him, ate with him, walked alongside the road with him, they observed his life, they saw him perform absolutely incredible miracles that only God could do, we see that he is God come in the flesh, the God man.

Not something that is explained, it is a matter to be accepted by faith. Well, look at Colossians one fourteen. In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Still talking about Jesus Christ here, and so we see that he is our redeemer. Now, the word redemption carries the idea of liberation at a great cost to the one who liberates.

It suggests the idea of a philanthropist who releases a slave by paying a ransom price for that slave's freedom. Redemption is linked with the price paid, and that price is paid with the death of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. So he is our redeemer. That means by virtue of his death on the cross, he has made it possible for all of humanity, every single human being who has ever lived from Adam and Eve down to whoever's born this next instant. He has made it possible for all of us to be delivered from bondage, slavery to our sin nature, and to the consequent punishment and judgment that will come because of our sinfulness.

That's redemption. It cost the one who provided it. God is the one who sent His Son to be the Redeemer. What did it cost God? Well, it cost God in allowing His Son to leave His side in heaven.

It cost Jesus because he left the side of the father and he was rubbing shoulders with sinful human beings and he himself was not sinful. He was totally sinless. It cost Jesus Christ physically when He was tortured, when He was brutally mistreated, when He was nailed to the cross, when he was whipped mercilessly, skin on his back just falling off in shreds. It costs. Liberation from sin has been provided by the redeemer, that's Jesus Christ, but it cost him his life.

This redemption is the deliverance affected us. Put it in modern day words here. And So, the the redemption redemption that Jesus Christ provides by becoming our Redeemer, it was accomplished by His death, and it delivered us from God's wrath, his anger at sin. Why is God angry at sin? Because he is absolutely holy.

He is without sin. So he hates sin. And so he will demonstrate his anger and his wrath by judging that sin. And the Bible teaches us that the penalty for sin is eternal death. Forever separation from the God who wants to save us.

Alright? So, the penalty of sin is what we deserve because of our nature as sinful human beings. Jeremy mentioned this this morning in the Sunday school lesson. You don't become a sinner when you sin. You sin because you are a sinner.

Does that make sense? So, in other words, a newborn baby, well, they're so precious. They look so innocent. Right? And indeed they are because they've not done a thing yet.

But the Word of God makes it very plain that we are born as sinful creatures. So that little baby will grow up and begin to do the things that we identify as sinful, disobedience to God's Law, to His nature, things like that. And so, that's the situation we're all in. We all are born with a sin nature. So, we all need the Redeemer.

Jesus Christ is boldly stated to be the Redeemer for mankind. Look at verse 16, For by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by him and for him. So, we see that Jesus Christ is also our creator and the creator of all things in the universe, Everything that exists other than God himself was created by God, and Jesus Christ is the one who did the act of creation. Notice there in verse 16 talks about things that are visible and things that are invisible.

So, are things that do exist, but we can't see them. Right? We need to acknowledge this as a fact. It's true. Plenty of things exist that we do not see.

Going back to verse 15, the second part of that verse, we read there that Jesus Christ is the firstborn of every creature. What that means is He is the one who holds the highest, most preeminent position in the entire universe. That phrase, firstborn, indicates that the historic Jesus was none other than the preexistent Christ who was co eternal with the Father. Terminology firstborn is a reference to priority of position. It's not the same thing as I am my mother's firstborn son.

I'm the first of two. That's not what it means. Doesn't mean there are others exactly like or similar to Jesus Christ and he was just the very first one that happened to be born. No, it's not at all what it means. Please put that idea out of your mind.

What it's referring to here is priority in position and authority. He is preeminent. He is the first. He is the one in charge of everything. He is Almighty God.

He is the preeminent one. Now, each man who is saved becomes a son of God. Nonetheless, because of the deity of Christ, the son has a priority of position over all others who are sons by adoption. We're talking about a lot of different doctrinal things here. Right?

So, when you trust Jesus as your savior, God gives you the privilege of becoming a part of his family. And so, the word there is used, adoption. You're adopted into God's family. Right? But Jesus Christ is different.

He's unique. He always was God. He was co eternal at the same time as God the Father was God, God the Son, Jesus Christ was God. We're not even mentioning God the Holy Spirit right now, three in one. Okay?

So Jesus, the Son of God, because He is God, is higher in authority and position over everything and everyone else, all the created order. Okay? We're getting a lot of information here about Jesus Christ in this one brief passage, vitally important information to know because we will relate to God, the one who is our ultimate judge, the one who will determine on the basis of whether or not we are rightly related to his son, Jesus Christ, whether we will go to heaven or whether we will go to hell. So this is very, very important stuff that we're talking about. Look at verse 18, the first part there.

It says about Jesus that He is the head of the body, the Church. So, he became the head of the church through his incarnation, when he became a human being and his passion. That's reference to the suffering that he endured on the cross and His death ultimately. So He became head of the church through His incarnation and passage as He is the head of the universe in virtue of His absolute and eternal being. So there's a relationship.

Jesus Christ is head of the universe because who he is. He's God. He existed before the universe. He created the universe. So, He's the Head of the Universe.

In a similar sense, the Church came into existence with Christ's death on the cross. So, He's the Head of the Church. By virtue of the fact that He became a man, He was able to and willingly suffered and endured the humiliation and the torture of the crucifixion, and was willing to do that to the point of death. By virtue of those things, He is the head of the Church. So, Jesus is first also in the spiritual realm, just as He is first in the natural realm.

Okay? Makes sense? He's first. Now, the second part of verse 18, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead. You see that phrase there, firstborn again.

Right? So Christ is supreme over all who rise from the dead. Jesus' resurrection proves his lordship over the material world. He had a physical body. He died physically.

He was buried in a tomb. And three days later, He rose again from the dead. So, He is supreme. Everybody else that rises from the dead, they don't do it in their own power. One day, we will rise from the dead.

We have God's promise about that. We're not gonna do that in our own power. That's for sure. When we're dead, we're dead. When we come back to life, it's gonna be through the power of Jesus Christ giving us life.

All right? So, He is supreme over all those who will rise from the dead. Now, once again, the firstborn from the dead, He has priority in time and in power. Now, there is a parallel relationship between the firstborn of the creation, which we saw earlier, where was that? Verse 15.

And the firstborn from the dead, which is what we're looking at here in verse 18. Now, that parallel relationship is not complete, it's not total. So listen to what I'm about to read here. Okay? I'm gonna read another quotation.

Jesus is the firstborn from the dead as having been himself one of the dead. Right? So Jesus was dead. Jesus came back to life. He was the first one who did that.

He did it in his own power. And by virtue of that, he has priority. He has power. He's first over everybody else who will ever come back to life and be resurrected. Okay?

But although he's firstborn from the dead in that sense because he was dead, he is not the firstborn of all creation as being himself created. Does that make sense? What what this author is trying to say here, his commentaries, in one sense, Jesus is highest in priority because he was one of the dead, and he was the first to come back to life. But in another sense, he was not created as the universe was created. He always existed as God.

So what he's saying here is it's an incomplete comparison. It's an incomplete parallelism. Right? Jesus was not created, but Jesus did die. Jesus is the first of all creation in authority and preeminence and priority and in power because He is God.

But He's also the firstborn from the dead because he was the very first one who rose from the dead and he did it in his own power. Again, who can do that but God, only God. Okay, one last thing here to look at, Jesus is the one who made peace between sinful mankind and a wholly offended God. That's in Colossians chapter one verse 20. Having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself.

By Him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven. Now, we looked predominantly at who He is. Now we're gonna look at what He has done and there's gonna be some overlap here. I'm gonna go a little bit faster here because we have talked a little bit about some of these things already. For what has he done?

First of all, he has enabled us to share in his inheritance. In second Corinthians chapter five verse 21, we read, for he that is God hath made him, that is Jesus Christ, to be sin for us who knew no sin, that's Jesus Christ, knew no sin, that we sinners might be made the righteousness of God in him, Jesus Christ. So we are able to share, rather, in His inheritance, this righteous kingdom that He has. We have a part in that. Number two, He has rescued us from Satan's kingdom and made us His children.

Verse 13 a, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness. Also, look at chapter two verse 15. Chapter two verse 15, and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. So he has rescued those who have put their trust in him as their redeemer, as their savior. He's rescued us from Satan's kingdom.

The power of darkness is the way it's described there in verse 13 of chapter one. In the latter part of verse 13, it says, he has translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. So he has brought us into his eternal kingdom. We have a place, a position in God's eternal kingdom by faith in what Jesus Christ has done. He has purchased our freedom from sin and judgment with his blood.

Verse 14, in whom we have redemption through his blood. We don't have time for you to turn there, but please listen to Hebrews chapter nine verse 12. Neither by the blood of goats and calves, sacrificial animals, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. He purchased our freedom from sin and judgment with His own blood. He has forgiven all our sins.

Verse 15, again. Verse 14, I'm sorry. The forgiveness of sins. And in Ephesians one:seven, don't turn there, there's that time, but in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Well, let's move on to the third point here.

How did he do these incredible things that he's done? Well, preeminently, Jesus Christ did what he did by the shedding of his own precious blood on the cross of Calvary. Verse 20 says, having made peace through the blood of his cross. Verse 14, in whom we have redemption through his blood. The mention of blood carries with it the idea of a violent shedding of blood.

There's also the connotation of a sacrificial death being involved here. So it's not just, oh, I nicked my finger and there's a little bit of blood coming out of the end of it here. No, no, no. This was a major, violent shedding of the blood of the Son of God because he was being put to death as a sacrificial substitute for your sins and my sins. He was taking your place and my place.

And this is what was required by God in order for him to be satisfied. Sin is so horrible, so vile, so heinous that it requires this kind of a bloody, tortured death of an innocent victim. Jesus was the one who did that for us. So implied in these verses is the vicarious atonement for the sins of mankind. This means Christ's death was a substitution by which he took the punishment for our sins and made it possible for all who put their trust in him alone to be reconciled just to have peace with God.

Alright? Point number four, why did he do this? Well, because he was the only one who could do what he did. Nobody else could do what he did, and he knew that unless he did this, there would be no hope for us. But he did this also in fulfillment of prophecy way back in the very beginning in Genesis, right after Adam and Eve sinned, God promised that he would send a deliverer, somebody who would be capable of rescuing them from the power of eternal death, which was their just punishment for their sins, and which just punishment has come upon every one of Adam and his descendants, us.

Romans chapter five verse six, for when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Verse eight, Romans chapter five. But God commended his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Verse 10, for if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Verse 11, by whom we have now received the atonement.

See, Jesus is the only one who could do these things for us. If he had not agreed in the eternal counsels of God even before the universe was created, even before Adam and Eve were created, God knew there was going to be a need for a Redeemer. And Jesus willingly volunteered to be that redeemer. Why did he do it? Because such an amazing demonstration of grace brings great glory to God.

Hebrews two nine says, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. Jesus' death on the cross was taking your place so that you would not have to die, not physically, but forever, spiritually. Okay? Why else did he do this? Because he planned an eternity past to bring many sons to glory.

Hebrews two ten, for it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. God planned all along to save people from the consequences of sin and death. And he did that through his son, Jesus Christ. Folks, it is not possible to live a life of spiritual victory, one that glorifies God, one that enables you to gain the upper hand over the sinful impulses in our flesh if we do not have a clear understanding of just who our savior really is? Hopefully, message has helped focus our attention on Jesus so that we can better appreciate who he is and what he has done and how he did it and why he did what he did.

My desire is that we all have a greater love and admiration, indeed adoration for our great God and savior Jesus Christ. Perhaps today's Bible study has sharpened your comprehension of this most important doctrine. The very least, it should be apparent that unless and until you are rightly related to God through the blood that Jesus shed on the cross of Calvary for you nearly two thousand years ago, there's no way you can ever be accepted by God. This is a truth that often sticks in the crawl of proud and arrogant men and women such as us who always like to think they're good enough for God to accept them. If this describes you, I beg you to please do not let this keep you from humbly repenting of your sins and begging God for mercy.

He will forgive your every sin if you trust him and do what he says must be done for you to be saved from everlasting punishment for your sins. Now, if you already know Jesus as your savior, I hope this message has given you a greater appreciation for all the blessings God has showered upon you simply because of your childlike trust in his son. Let us all determine that by God's grace, we will live more Christ like lives and seek to honor him in our daily walk with him. Let's pray. Lord, we have perhaps seen more clearly today through the enabling of your Holy Spirit, through the power of your living word to see Jesus Christ, how he is exalted, how he is preeminent, how he is the redeemer.

Oh Lord, we thank you that you have revealed these precious truths to us because we would not have known about them if you had not had your apostles and your prophets write down these things in the Bible so many years ago. We're grateful that many people devoted much of their lives, some of even giving their lives to translate the Bible into our own language so that we could read about what you have done for us. We just humbly bow before you and praise you. Lord, I don't know the spiritual condition of the people who are seated before me. I don't know whether or not they have a personal relationship with you through your son.

I do not know, but you do. And you know exactly what is going on in the heart of each individual at this very moment. You know, whether they're just brushing off what they have heard, saying, This really doesn't apply to me. It's irrelevant. This is ancient history.

It doesn't matter. Or maybe they're thinking, Nah, it's too good to be true. God wouldn't forgive my sins. I've done too many evil things. There's no hope for me.

I don't know what they're thinking, Lord, but you do. I pray for each person here today that you will speak to their heart, speak to my heart, minister to us in ways that we need you to minister because we're helpless. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.