Christ is the Head of the Body, having the First Place, and He’s our Hope of Glory!

It is a blessing that we believers in Christ can know and experience the all-inclusive Christ as revealed in Colossians, in particular, that Christ is the Head of the Body, the church, that He might have the first place in all things, and that the all-inclusive Christ is in us to be the hope of glory! Hallelujah!

This week in our morning revival we come to a new topic, Knowing the All-inclusive Christ and Growing with the Growth of God.

Today we need to know the all-inclusive Christ, enjoy Him, and grow with the growth of God.

We all have to admit that, even though we know of our need to enjoy Christ, we are still short of the enjoyment of Christ.

We want to advance in the enjoyment of Christ, not by being introspective to see how much we enjoy the Lord but by beholding the Lord to be infused with Him and enjoy Him.

Introspection only holds us back, causing us to get caught up in ourselves and in our condition; but when we look away from ourselves and our condition unto Jesus, we simply enjoy Him and subjectively know Him.

The more we behold the Lord, the more we enjoy Him.

On one hand, we enjoy the Lord, and on the other hand, we grow in life unto maturity.

As believers in Christ who have the life of God, we need to grow in life unto maturity day by day.

We should never be content with where we are and what we have; rather, we need to give the Lord new ground in our heart so that He can really make His home in our heart so that we may be those who really live Christ for the building up of the Body.

Our Christ is all-inclusive, and He has been allotted to us to be our portion; we need to know the all-inclusive Christ and grow with the growth of God.

We may be quite familiar among us in the church life regarding the term, all-inclusive Christ, but we need to have a fresh appreciation of Christ being all-inclusive, and even take some time to consider what does it mean for Christ to be all-inclusive.

If we read the book of Colossians, for instance, we see that Paul was fighting a battle to help the Colossian believers be saved from anything that distracted them from the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ and be brought back to Christ.

Today the same battle is raging today; there are so many things like culture, philosophies, and concepts that distract us from the enjoyment and knowledge of the all-inclusive Christ.

We need to know this Christ, enjoy this Christ, and be focused on Christ and nothing else.

Our Christ is not just our Redeemer; thank the Lord that He is our Redeemer, the Lamb of God, but He is much more than that: He is the reality of the good land to be the all-inclusive Christ for our enjoyment.

We need to go to the Lord and ask Him that, by His mercy, He would bring us into the experience and enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ.

We need to ask Him to unveil us to see a little more of this Christ, to see what aspect of His all-inclusiveness is for us to enjoy today, and how can we grow in life with the growth of God.

May we be saved from any distracting things and be brought back to the all-inclusive Christ to enjoy Him, partake of Him, and grow with the growth of God for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.

Know and Experience Christ as the Head of the Body who has the First Place in All Things

Oh, what a blessing it is that we can know and experience the all-inclusive Christ!

The book of Colossians in particular reveals to us that Christ is all-inclusive, with so many aspects for us to know and enjoy.

We Christians are blessed people, for we have the blessing of knowing and experiencing the all-inclusive Christ to be our everything.

Col. 1:18 says that Christ is the Head of the Body, the church, that He Himself might have the first place in all things.

In both the old and the new creation, Christ is the first. God has two creations: the old creation (see Gen. 1-2) and the new creation in Christ.

In the old creation, Christ is the Firstborn, having the preeminence (Col. 1:15-17).

In the new creation, Christ is the Firstborn from the dead and the Head of the Body, the church, which is the new creation.

Christ is the One who is preeminent in both the old creation and in the new creation.

We believers in Christ are part of the old creation according to the flesh and we are the new creation in spirit; in the new creation and as the new creation, we are in Christ, through Christ, and unto Christ.

We take Christ as the preeminent One, the One who has the first place in all things, and we give Him the preeminence and the headship.

Christ is the Head of the Body, the church, and He has the first place in all things.

The main purpose for Christ being the Firstborn in the old and the new creation is for Him to express God.

Col. 1:19 says, For in Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell.

The fullness here refers to the image in v. 15; Christ is the image of God and also the fullness of God so that He may express God.

We need to know and experience Christ as the Head of the Body who has the first place in all things.

He has the first place, the preeminence, in all things, for Him to express God.

In Him, all the fullness was pleased to dwell, for He expressed God in every possible way.

The fullness is the expression, and the expression is the image.

We need to ask the Lord to grant us a vision of Christ as the head of the Body, the One who has the first place in all things.

He is the image of the invisible God to express God; in both the old creation and in the new creation, Christ is the fullness of God to be His expression.

What a Christ! He’s the most preeminent One! He is the Firstborn of the old creation and He is the Firstborn from the dead to be the first in both the old and the new creation!

This One lives in us to be our life and our everything.

When we contact the Lord, we need to have the sensation that He is our Head; He is the authority, the supreme One, and we submit ourselves to Him.

On one hand, Christ is our life; on the other hand, when we contact Him and enjoy Him, when we experience and know Christ, we realize that He’s the First, the preeminent One, the One who expresses God and who has the first place in all things.

May we see that in the church Christ has the first place, and in all things in our personal universe Christ also must have the first place in all things. He is the preeminent One.

Lord Jesus, unveil us to see that Christ is the Head of the Body, the church, to have the preeminence in all things. Amen, Lord, may we see that Christ is the Firstborn of the old creation and of the new creation so that He may have the first place in all things. We give You the preeminence in all things. You are the first; You are the Head. You are our Head, and You are the Head of the Body, the church. Amen, Lord Jesus, occupy the first place in our daily life. You are the One who came to embody the fullness of the Godhead, and in You, the fullness was pleased to dwell. We love to come to You and enjoy You. May we be those who know and experience Christ as the head of the Body, the church, and may we give You the first place in all things. Amen, Lord, have the first place in our being, in our thinking, in our daily living, and in the church life.

Know and Experience Christ in us, the Hope of Glory, to Grow in Him unto Maturity

When we read Col. 1:15-19 and see how Christ is the Firstborn of the old creation and the new creation, and we see that He’s the preeminent One, the One who has the first place in all things, we may wonder what such a high revelation of Christ have to do with us.

Col. 1:26-27 continues speaking of this mystery; this mystery is the image, the fullness of God in the previous verses.

There is a mystery among the Gentiles today, which is Christ in us, the hope of glory.

The Christ who is the image of the invisible God, the fullness of God, the Firstborn of the old creation, and the Firstborn from the dead is in us to be our hope of glory.

Christ, who dwells in our spirit to be our life and person, is our hope of glory.

Not only did Christ come as the embodiment of God to express God two thousand years ago; He is now the Spirit coming into us to be our life and our everything, and He is in us as the hope of glory.

And when He returns, we will be glorified in Him.

This is our blessed hope today, that the Christ who lives in us will grow in us unto maturity until we will be glorified in Him at His coming.

Christ is in us as our hope of glory; today He is a mystery, but one day He will be manifested to be our glory, for He will glorify us at His return.

Paul struggled and labored to present every man full-grown in Christ (Col. 1:28-29).

We need to know and experience Christ in us as the hope of glory today, and we need to grow in Christ until we are full-grown in Him.

There are many things that hinder our growth in Christ, so we need to deal with the obstacles and frustrating things that hinder our growth in Him.

May we realize that our Christ is the all-inclusive One, the One who is the reality of all positive things and even the reality of all the items of creation.

May we drop our concept of the heavens, the earth, and the physical things, and be unveiled to see that Christ is the Firstborn of the old creation and the Firstborn of the new creation.

He is all-inclusive, and He is everything to us.

When we see that the all-inclusive Christ is in us to be our hope of glory, we will realize our need to grow in Him unto maturity.

As we grow in life unto maturity by enjoying and experiencing the all-inclusive Christ, we will arrive at maturity and express Christ fully in glory.

The indwelling Christ is slowly but surely saturating our being from our spirit to our soul and even our physical body until we are transfigured and conformed to the body of His glory.

Phil. 3:21 says that Christ will transfigure the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of His glory, according to His operation by which He is able even to subject all things to Himself.

Today we are in a process by which the Lord Jesus is saturating our being with Himself as our life and everything.

Day by day, week by week, month by month, and year by year we need to enjoy and experience the all-inclusive Christ so that He may saturate our being little by little until we arrive in glory.

We are destined for glory, and Christ is in us as the hope of glory.

We are destined to be those who magnify Christ.

We are in the process right now, enjoying and experiencing Christ in His all-inclusiveness, and we will one day arrive in glory!

Praise the Lord! What a blessed people we are! We have the all-inclusive Christ with His complete salvation for us to enjoy, participate in, and experience day by day.

As we enjoy and experience Christ as the Head of the Body, the church, we give Him the first place in all things, for He is in us as the hope of glory.

Day by day the Lord is spreading into our being by means of His organic salvation until He will fully saturate our being with Himself.

Hallelujah, Christ is in us as the hope of glory! Wow, Lord Jesus, thank You for being in us as our hope that one day we will be glorified to match You in every possible way in glory! We open to You today. We want to enjoy and experience Christ as the hope of glory until we are fully glorified. Saturate us with Yourself more today. Keep us in the process of being saturated with God in every part of our being until we are transfigured even in our body! Amen, Lord, our hope of glory is Christ who lives in us! We hope and believe that one day Christ will also transfigure the body of our humiliation to conform it to the body of His glory! Amen, Lord, operate in us today and saturate us with Yourself day by day! Keep us enjoying Your organic salvation until we are with You in glory! Praise the Lord, Christ is in us as the hope of glory!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ray Mulligan in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Colossians, msgs. 6, 24, 34, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Enjoyment of Christ and our Growth in Life unto Maturity (2023 Thanksgiving Blending Conference), week 4, entitled, Knowing the All-inclusive Christ and Growing with the Growth of God.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – “Christ in you, the hope of glory” – the believers’ union with Christ as revealed in Colossians, article by David Yoon in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – The Head of the Universe is Jesus! Read more via, Living to Him.
  – Christ as the Head of the church, the Body, as the beginning, and as the Firstborn from the dead, a portion from, Five Great Mysteries in the Bible, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
  – 70 Aspects of Christ as Everything for Your Enjoyment, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – Who Represents the Head and the Body? Read more via, a faithful word.
  – 8 Verses that Show Jesus Christ Lives in You, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – Christ being the Head, a portion from, Lesson Book, Level 5: The Church—The Vision and Building Up of the Church, Chapter 4, by Witness Lee.
  – The Building Up of the Body of Christ, Message 1: Through the Gifts, Perfecting of the Saints, video via LSM youtube.
  – Enjoying Christ as My Portion, via, Church in Anaheim.
  – Concerning the Person of Christ, comprehensive article via, Contending for the Faith.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – The Church the image has of Christ, / She is His increase and His spread; / Christ’s very self is found in her / The Body, she, to Christ the Head. / Thus, in the Son the Father is, / And now the Spirit is the Son; / The Spirit of the triune God / Is in the Church and with her one. (Hymns #818 stanzas 6-7)
  – Thou art before all creatures, / In Thee all things consist; / Of all Thou art the center, / By Thee all things subsist. / Thou art the sole beginning, / The Firstborn from the dead; / And for the Church, Thy Body, / Thou art the glorious Head. (Hymns #189 stanza 2)
  – Christ is the hope of glory, my very life is He, / He has regenerated and saturated me; / He comes to change my body by His subduing might / Like to His glorious body in glory bright! / He comes, He comes, Christ comes to glorify me! / My body He’ll transfigure, like His own it then will be. / He comes, He comes, redemption to apply! / As Hope of glory He will come, His saints to glorify. (Hymns #949 stanza 1 and chorus)