"Christ Is All!"             

Colossians 3:11

 

     No one understands Holy Scripture who does not know the meaning of these three words - "Christ is all!" In all the eternal purposes of God, "Christ is all" (Rom. 8:29-20; Eph. 1:3; II Tim. 1:9). In all the Volume of Inspiration, "Christ is all" (Lk. 24:27, 44-47; John 1:45). In all the works of God, "Christ is all!" In creation (John 1:1-3), in providence (Rom. 8:28), in redemption, grace and salvation (I Cor. 1:30; Eph. 1:3-14), even in judgment (Acts 17:31) "Christ is all!" In an absolute, unlimited, universal sense, "Christ is all!"

     However, in the context in which this statement is found (Col. 3), Paul is talking about the new creation, the church and kingdom of God. He is telling us that among God's elect, in the hearts and lives of God's saints, in the estimation of all true faith, "Christ is all!"

     Is that statement an exaggeration of the truth? Is it an overstatement of the facts? Not at all. I know that in the lives of God's saints upon the earth there is always a struggle between the flesh and the Spirit, between sin and righteousness, between the old man and the new man, between self and Christ. I know that so long as we live in this world we cannot attain that which we seek. We cannot, in this body of flesh, attain perfect conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ, but that is what we seek! Now that which a person seeks above all else and to the ever increasing exclusion of all else is his all. That for which a person is willing to sacrifice, and in his heart has sacrificed everything, is his all.

     For every true believer that one object of desire, that one Pearl of great price, that one glorious Prize, compared with which nothing else is of any value, is Christ! Job said, "The root of the matter is found in me" (Job 19:28); and Christ is the root of the matter! He is the "one thing needful" (Lk. 10:42), without which we cannot live! Christ alone is sufficient, in and of himself, without any other, to save us, to sanctify us and to satisfy us, both now and forever. Without the least exaggeration, or overstatement, Paul tells us that so far as the believer is concerned, "Christ is all!" He is not the best thing. He is everything! "Christ is all!"

 

 

Don Fortner