Skip to main content

The Timeless Lord!

And he is before all things
COLOSSIANS 1:17a

The BBC television programme, Dr Who, centres around a fictional extraterrestrial race of humanoids called "time lords", of which the series’ main character, the Doctor, is a member. The Doctor, like all other "time lords" is able to have a non-linear perception of time, which allows him to see everything that was, is, or could be at the same time. He is able to travel to different time period with his technologically advanced phone box which allows him to manipulate time lines.


The popularity of this fictional television series points to a deep yearning in all of us for someone who can see all of time and be inside of it. We want someone who not merely works for his selfish ends but  ultimately for our benefit. Someone who can defeat the evil enemies that lurks inside this temporal universe. In Dr Who, these enemies take the form of the fictional extra-terrestrial mutants known as the Daleks.

The good news is that we don't need to wish for that. The Bible says in Jesus we do indeed have a real Time Lord, far more superior than the one we meet in the BBC series. In the verse above, the Apostle Paul reminds the young church  at Colossae, that Jesus is before all things. The word before here means "prior to a point in time". So what exactly is Paul saying to us when he says Jesus is "before all things"?

The first truth he wants us know plainly is that Jesus, the Eternal Son of God is older than everyone! That baby born in Bethlehem is in fact ancient! Jesus is the oldest person in all of existence because as the Eternal Son of God, who lived in Nazareth, he was in fact there at the very birth of time! Jesus is not like Doctor Who claims to be a "time lord" and yet is in fact himself a prisoner of time. As the Eternal Son of God, Jesus exists outside our temporal universe, and yet interacts within it to the point that He has lived as man inside it!

Notice the Bible says Jesus "is". It does not say Jesus was! It speaks in the present tense to remind us that  the oldest man whoever lived continues to live and will never be outlived. Jesus has been, he is and will always live before all ages. We worship a living God not dead idols or even fictional characters. Our great Saviour Jesus is the ultimate cosmic constant! This truth is wonderfully expressed by Jesus who said, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last (Revelation. 22:13). 

The second truth we need to remember is that Jesus is before all things not just some things. The Eternal Son of God is not part of any creation in time. Jesus is the uncreated Creator on which all that is in time depends. Jesus is ontologically prior. There is nothing that I can think of that is not created by Jesus!  If we started listing all the things  the Eternal Son of God has created starting with the letter A, we would be here all day. Jesus created the air, animals of every kind, airplanes, ante and ant eaters, angels, apes, apples, aprons, artists, astronauts, athletes, avocado and all other fruits. The list is endless!

The final truth which Paul wants us to remember t follows from the first two : Jesus is before all things put together. There are only two categories - Jesus and everything else. The Eternal Son of God is in the category all by himself. He is not some sort of extension of everything else, his quality is fundamentally different from all that  is. Dr Who is a product of all that exists.

So we see that in those few words by the Apostle Paul we have a declaration of Jesus' three dimensional supremacy : time, quantity and quality.Why do we need to know all this?  Perseverance! Unless we have a good handle on the supremacy of Jesus over time we will grow weary and give up in our walk with him. We will doubt whether Jesus knows what has happened to us in the past or will happen to us tomorrow. Unless we have a good handle on the supremacy of Jesus over space, then will easily give up when evil forces press in. We will wonder how we can withstand the trials of life.

So we must thank God for the letter of Paul to the church at Colossae because we, like them, need to be constantly reminded that Jesus is indeed our Ultimate Time Lord!

Series Posts :
Lessons from Colossae : Jesus is our God (1:15a) 
Lessons from Colossae : Jesus is our Head (1:15b)  
Lessons from Colossae : Jesus is our Creator (1:16)

Copyright © Chola Mukanga 2016

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Humility of Newton

Thou hast honoured me. Thou hast given me a tongue and a pen, many friends; (Thou] hast made me extensively known among thy people and I have reason to hope, useful to many by my preaching and writings... It is of thine own that I can serve thee. And if others speak well of me, I have no cause to speak or think well of myself. They see only my outward walk; to thee I appear as I am. In thy sight I am a poor, unworthy, unfaithful inconsistent creature. And I may well wonder that Thou hast not long ago taken thy word utterly out of my mouth and forbidden me to make mention of thy Name any more! JOHN NEWTON ( Source : Wise Counsel) Newton wrote these words addressed to God in his diary in 1789. In that year, Newton’s fame had grown significantly because of his publishing ‘ Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade’ and his appearance before Her Majesty’s Privy Council appointed to investigate the slave trade.  I find Newton’s words quite challenging. The words reveal a heart truly shaped by t

Pride vs Humility

Spiritual pride tends to speak of other persons’ sins with bitterness or with laughter and an air of contempt. But pure Christian humility rather tends either to be silent about these problems or to speak of them with grief and pity. Spiritual pride is very apt to suspect others, but a humble Christian is most guarded about himself. He is as suspicious of nothing in the world as he is of his own heart. The proud person is apt to find fault with other believers, that they are low in grace, and to be quick to note their deficiencies. But the humble Christian has so much to do at home and sees so much evil in his own heart and is so concerned about it that he is not apt to be very busy with other hearts. He is apt to esteem others better than himself. JONATHAN EDWARDS  (Source: The Works of Jonathan Edward’s, Volume 1)

Inconsistency of Moral Progress

If morality, if our ideas of right and wrong, are purely subjective, we should have to abandon any idea of moral progress (or regress), not only in the history of nations, but in the lifetime of each individual. The very concept of moral progress implies an external moral standard by which not only to measure that a present moral state is different from an earlier one but also to pronounce that it is "better" than the earlier one.  Without such a standard, how could one say that the moral state of a culture in which cannibalism is regarded as an abhorrent crime is any "better" than a society in which it is an acceptable culinary practice? Naturalism denies this. For instance, Yuval Harari asserts: "Hammurabi and the American Founding Fathers alike imagined a reality governed by universal and immutable principles of justice, such as equality or hierarchy. Yet the only place where such universal principles exist is in the fertile imagination of Sapiens, and in th