How Has The Father Given The Son The Pre-Eminence?

Colossians 1:18

As I have stated to you so many times, in his essential Deity as the second Person of the holy Trinity the Father gives nothing to the Son, because the Son is in every way one with and equal to the Father. But in his mediatorial character and office, as the Surety and Representative of his people, the Father has made the Son pre-eminent and has given him the pre-eminence in all things.

Christ our Mediator is pre-eminent in the affection of the Father’s heart (Pro. 8:30-31). Nothing is so dear to the Father’s heart as his only-begotten, well-beloved Son. The Father values, prizes, and cherishes the Son. He prefers his Son to all and chooses his Son above all. The Father loves his Son. If we could pry into the very heart of God, we would see nothing but his dear Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That is pre-eminence! The Father says of Christ, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased” Matt. 3:17). God the Father is pleased with and delights in the righteousness, sacrifice, an intercession of his Son. And he is pleased with and delights in his people as they are in his Son. He accepts us for the sake of his Son (Eph. 1:6).

As Christ is the pre-eminent object of the Father’s love, so too he is the pre-eminent object of the Father’s trust. God the Father has entrusted everything to the Son. He has put everything into the hands of his Son (John 3:35). In the covenant of grace the Father trusted his Son with his people, as our Surety (John 6:38-40; Eph. 1:12).) The Father trusted his Son with all his creation (Psa 2:7-8; John 17:2). The Father trusted the Son with his very glory (1 Cor. 15:28).

God the Father has made Christ pre-eminent over all things by giving him the place of highest honor, majesty, and dominion. The Father has placed everything and everyone under the rule of his dear Son, as the reward of his obedience and death as our Substitute (Rom. 14:9; Phil. 2:9-11; Heb. 1:3-9; 10:11-14).

God the Father will give his darling Son everything he asks of him. Because the Father has given him pre-eminence as the result of his obedience and death as our Substitute, we are assured that Jesus Christ shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. He shall have the joy set before him, for which he endured the cross, despising the shame. He shall see every soul for whom he died saved at last!

This matter of Christ’s pre-eminence is more much, much more than words of adulation, pretty phrases, and religious sentiment. The crown he wears is not a figure-head’s crown, but the crown of an absolute Monarch. Indeed, our Savior is the only absolute Monarch who ever existed. And he is a worthy Monarch. God himself has given his dear Son the pre-eminence by devoting himself, his heart, his creation, yes, his very Being to the glory and honor of his Son. We must, in our measure, to the best of our ability, do the same thing!

Don Fortner