Day 2: Christ is all

God used a certain text on my journey of discovering Christ in all his glory. This text is Colossians 3:11. Reading a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon confronted me with this text. Spurgeon gave his sermon the title: “Christ is All” with a reference to this text in Colossians. I was surprised by this reference because I had actually never heard the statement “Christ is all” in this way before. Actually, I could not remember having read something like this anywhere in the Bible.

So I turned to Colossians 3:11 to see if it really was there. And it was! You can easily miss it because the sentence in which it occurs is a typically long Pauline sentence. He is telling the Colossians about the new life in Christ and some of the characteristics of this new life. He writes about being renewed in knowledge in the image of the Creator. When this renewal occurs, it no longer matters whether you are a Greek or Jew, slave or free, male or female, French or American, employer or employee, old or young, and so forth. But, says, Paul, then “Christ is all, and is in all.” So, there it is: “Christ is all.”

This is a very strong statement that needs register. It communicates some of the intense passion Paul feels for his Lord. In his letter to the Philippians, he communicates this passion when he writes, “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” (Philippians 3:8).

Maybe you can call this statement Paul’s declaration of love for Christ. Perhaps, even a love song. Maybe you are familiar with the sentence that recurs in the refrain of a contemporary love song: “You are everything and everything is you!” Well, Paul is also singing a love song about Christ, the One he loves so intensely: “You are everything and everything is you!”

But that Paul feels this way about Christ is not the most important thing. What ultimately counts is that the Bible says this. Perhaps Christ being all sounds like an overstatement to you. This could be the case, but that does not make it any less true. Paul is able to say this because Jesus Himself said: “All things have been committed to me by my Father” (Matthew 11:27). All things. This means that we have to go to Jesus for everything we desire to receive from God, because the Father has committed all things to Him. These all things include such things as love, acceptance, forgiveness, holiness, rest, energy, wisdom, and righteousness. All these things and more you can find with Jesus.

You cannot, however, receive these things detached from Christ. You only receive them when you go to Him and live in fellowship with Him. That’s why Jesus says: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Ultimately, it’s about receiving Jesus Himself. Jesus Himself is all we need, as Paul says so beautifully in those well known words: “Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30 ESV). Paul does not say Christ gives us these things, but that He is all of them for us.

Indeed, Christ is all. You could consider this to be one of his many names. Just as He said: “I am the true vine” (John 15:1), “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6) and “I am the gate for the sheep” (John 10:7), so He also could have said: “Truly, truly, I say to you: ‘I am all.’”

I increasingly want to make these words of Jesus my own. I want to continue to spell the Name Jesus because there are so many things in my life that can become everything to me, such as my work, my hobbies, my house and garden, my vacation, my family, my sorrow or wounds others have inflicted upon me. Christ, however, wants to be all in my life.

Led by the Holy Spirit, I will continually discover that I really do have everything when I have Christ. What more could someone want? If I want wisdom, and I have Christ, I have all wisdom and knowledge for they are hidden in Him (Colossians 2:3). If I want perfection, and I have Christ, in God’s eyes I am the most beautiful and perfect creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). If I want righteousness, and I have Christ, I have my righteousness in Him (1 Corinthians 1:30. If I am searching for rest, and I have Christ, I find my rest in Him (Matthew 11:28). If I am looking for love, and I have Christ, I may know I am the most loved person in the world because Christ loves me (John 15:9). If I have Christ, I have everything for Christ is All!

Doing
Check and see if what you just read is also your experience. Perhaps, this is a bit confrontational, but put a check mark in the circle beside the statement that applies to you.

Jesus Christ is for me:
o nothing
o something
o much
o everything

Learning
Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all (Colossians 3:9-11).

Praying
Jesus Christ, You are All. This is what your Word teaches me. Help me to increasingly believe, see and experience this. Without You, I am the poorest of all people. With You, I am so incredibly rich. You are my Treasure. You are my Energy. You are my Righteousness and Holiness. You are my all. Amen.