Christ has the first place in God’s economy; Christ is preeminent in God’s economy, for everything God wants to do is related to Christ and is focused on Christ. Oh, what a Christ we have!
Do we see such a Christ? Do we enjoy such a Christ?
The all-inclusive, extensive Christ has the preeminence in all things; God exalts Him, the Spirit speaks of Him and makes Him know, and both in the old and in the new creation Christ has the first place.
Christ is not only the first in position; He also has the dignity and the status associated with His position.
Christ is superior, eminent, prestigious, supreme, and transcendent.
If we read the book of Colossians and we open to the Lord in prayer so that He may shine on us, we will see a vision of the all-inclusive, extensive Christ, and we will realize that this One has the first place in all things!
Even more, God arranges all things according to His desire, His economy, with the effect that Christ would have preeminence in all things.
God loves Christ so much that all He gives us is Christ, and all He wants from us is Christ; He wants His Christ to be preeminent in His administration and in His economy.
The entire world situation is under God’s rule; the heavens rule, and God rules so that He would arrange all things to match His intention and economy, of which Christ is the center.
If we look around us we may not realize that Christ has the preeminence, but actually God rules over all things to make Christ the preeminent One!
We may look around and see wars, rumours of wars, earthquakes, conflicts, and protests, and we may want to “stand on the right side”, but we only need to stand for Christ, give Him the preeminence, and take Him as our portion.
If we don’t give Christ the preeminence in our experience, we may understand what this mean and we may even see that Christ has preeminence in God’s economy and in His administration, but this may not mean too much for us. Oh Lord Jesus!
May we be those who realize that God rules and arranges the environment to make Christ the centrality and the universality to us.
May we see that God uses the environment with all the situations and the people around us for His purpose, which is to make Christ first in our being so that He may be the preeminent One.
Christ is the Preeminent One in the Triune Godhead – He has the First Place in all Things
In God’s economy Christ has the first place; He has the preeminence (see Col. 1:18; Eph. 1:10).
He is the preeminent One, the One who has the first place in everything. Christ is preeminent in the triune Godhead; the Father exalts the Son, and the Spirit always testifies concerning the Son (see 2 Cor. 13:14; Phil. 2:9; John 15:26).
This is God’s way in His economy; He dispenses Himself as the Triune God into His chosen and redeemed people. In the triune Godhead, Christ is preeminent.
This is a thought that is very much missed among the Bible readers today, for many think of the Triune God as three persons – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, so they think that since the Father is the father, He must have the preeminence.
But this is not what the Bible says; it is what traditional theology says, but the Bible speaks of how the Father exalts the Son, and how the Spirit always testifies concerning the Son.
The Father doesn’t exalt the Father but the Son, and the Spirit doesn’t speak of Himself but He testifies concerning the Son. So the focus and the center of the Triune God is the Son!
And the Son doesn’t refer merely to one third of the Triune God; rather, according to Col. 2:9, in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
In this Man, Jesus Christ, all the fullness was pleased to dwell. In this Man, Jesus Christ, we have not only the Son of God but the entire Triune God – the Father, the Son, and the Spirit!
The entire Godhead is in Christ, the Son.
This is the greatest difference between Christ as the first God-man and us as the many God-men – He is the embodiment of the Godhead and has the Godhead in Him, while we have only the divine life and the divine nature, and we can never have the Godhead.
Furthermore, the Father is never called the Son, neither is the Spirit called the Father; but Christ is called the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. This is what the Bible says.
This is directly opposed to the tritheistic concept of the Christology taught today, but this is what the Bible says concerning Christ.
Our God is Triune; He is one yet three, three but still one. In the triune Godhead, the preeminence always goes to the second, the Son.
Hallelujah for such a wonderful One, the One whom the Father exalts and of whom the Spirit testifies!
In this One all the fullness is pleased to dwell, and He is both man and God – He is both human and divine, and all the Godhead dwells in Him! Wow! This One, Jesus Christ, is the preeminent One in the Triune Godhead.
And He should be the preeminent One in us.
We praise You Lord Jesus for being the preeminent One in the triune Godhead! Hallelujah, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ, and in Him the fullness was pleased to dwell! Praise You Lord for being the One who is exalted by the Father and spoken of by the Spirit. You are the most wonderful One; You are both man and God, both human and divine, and in You the fullness of the Godhead dwells! We praise You Lord Jesus as our Triune God-man, and we give You the first place in all things by faith!
Christ is Preeminent in God’s Exaltation of Him – He is Head over All Things!
Christ is the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15); He is the first item of God’s creation.
On one hand Christ as God is the Creator, but as man sharing the created blood and flesh, He is part of the creation, and He has preeminence in all creation.
Furthermore, in God’s new creation Christ is the Firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:18). He is the first in resurrection as the Head of the Body, and He has the first place in the church!
There were some other people who were resurrected, but the divine life was not involved with them, and they didn’t continue to live forever but rather they all died eventually.
But this One, Jesus Christ, once He was resurrected, He will live forever and never die again! He has the preeminence!
Christ is the firstfruits of resurrection (1 Cor. 15:20 and the Firstborn from the dead to be the Firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29) and the Head of the Body (Col. 1:18; Eph. 1:20-23).
When Christ was exalted, He was given the preeminence by God; He was exalted to the right hand of God in the third heaven (Acts 2:33).
What a tremendous amount of power was needed to raise Christ from the dead and seat Him at the right hand of God (Eph. 1:19-20)!
Christ is preeminent in God’s exaltation of Him; He was exalted to the right hand of God in the third heaven, and He was given to be the Head over all things (Eph. 1:22).
Jesus Christ was ordained and appointed by God to be the Head of the entire universe, and God gave Him the name which is above every name (Phil. 2:9).
Now in this name, the name of Jesus Christ, every knee shall bow and every tongue will openly confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. There’s no other name like the name of Jesus; His name is above every name!
Even our own calendar shows us that Christ is preeminent, for our calendar is actually the calendar of Jesus.
According to the principle, the person whose calendar you use is the one to whom you subject; when a king issued a calendar, all his subjects would keep it.
Our calendar today is of Jesus Christ, and we are under the rule of Christ; He is the One whose name is above every name!
He is the Head over all things, and He constantly transmits all that He is, has, and has accomplished into the church, which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all and in all. Hallelujah!
This Christ, who has the preeminence in the church, is the Head of the Body; He is the unique Head, and all preeminence belongs to Him only.
May we exercise our spirit as we come to the word of God and may the Lord have mercy on us to shine on us and show us the preeminence of Christ. In God’s exaltation of Christ, He has been given to be the Head over all things.
God always exalts Christ. Christ is the first in everything; He’s the first in the Godhead, the first in the old creation, the first in the new creation, and the first in the church.
This means that Christ is really the first – He has the preeminence – in everything! This is God’s evaluation of Christ, His view of Christ.
What about our view of Christ? Do we see that He has the preeminence? Do we consider Him as being the preeminent One?
Lord, grant us to see Christ and appreciate the all-inclusive Christ the same way that You do. May we realize that God exalted Christ and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church. Hallelujah, Jesus Christ was exalted by God above all and was given the highest name! Praise the name of the Lord Jesus Christ! Hallelujah for Christ, the preeminent One in His exaltation, the One who has been exalted to the right hand of God in the third heaven!
Read this article in the Romanian language / citiți acest articol și în limba română la următorul link, Cristos este Cel Preeminent în Dumnezeirea Triunică și în înălțarea Sa de către Dumnezeu.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1990, vol. 2, “Messages to the Trainees in Fall 1990,” ch. 18, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Knowing and Experiencing the All-inclusive, Extensive Christ (2019 Thanksgiving Conference), week 3 on the topic of, The All-inclusive, Extensive Christ Having the Preeminence in All Things.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Christ is the centrality, the center of all things, / When we give Him preeminence our heart rejoicing sings; / Circumference of our living and universality, / Is Christ involved in everything in God’s economy. (Song on, The All-inclusive Christ)
– Lo! in heaven Jesus sitting, / Christ the Lord is there enthroned; / As the man by God exalted, / With God’s glory He is crowned. (Hymns #132)
– He’s th’ embodiment of God, / In Him all God’s fulness dwells; / His unique supremacy / And His Godhead none excels. / All God’s purpose is for Him, / That He might be all in all; / All the things in heav’n and earth / With Himself are made withal. (Hymns #495)
