Day 23 - First Place
- Pastor b.Side
- May 22
- 3 min read
And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. - Colossians 1:18
God’s transcendence means that He is beyond the scope of all human ability and imagination. He surpasses everything in heaven and earth. The testimony of Colossians 1:18 attributes this same characteristic to Jesus, stating that He has preeminence. According to the Father, Jesus is distinguished above every created thing in every way. Why? He is God. He is always in the first place.
“He is the head of the body…”
We know a body cannot survive without its head. Jesus is how His body of people is unified with life, purpose, and function. As the head, Jesus connects “the body” with the Father. He is the “face” of God, through whom the Father perceives the hearts of His people to know and understand our needs. Jesus is the means by which the Father hears us and the source from which the Father speaks to us. He is how the Father smells the sweet aroma of praise and worship. Remember that Melchizedek served these roles for Abraham. Now, Melchizedek has a different name as our Mediator and Connector – Jesus. No one else can serve this role, which is what makes Jesus so good. This is why He should hold “first place.”
“The church…”
Benefiting from the blessings Jesus offers requires us to be part of His body, described as “the church.” This means that not everyone is God’s child. Why? Not everyone is part of His church and, by extension, disconnected from “the head.” Colossians Chapter 1 teaches that “the church” includes any person who has heard and believes in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The true church consists of those who believe in their hearts that Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah of Israel and, by extension, have been born again by the Holy Spirit through God’s grace. This group believes that Jesus is God in the flesh and that faith inspires repentance, leading to death to self, so that the works of faith exalt Jesus to “first place.”
“Who is the beginning…”
The true church of Jesus Christ doesn’t dispute His transcendence or preeminence. The body of Christ doesn’t fight against the head and the purposes that it directs, figuring it can live on its own. The true followers of Jesus are those who confess the truth of who He is from the heart. Jesus is the absolute source and origin of all things as God in the flesh. He is the First, the Alpha, the Author of our faith. Those who are connected to Him understand this, submit to this, and are blessed by praising Him.
“The firstborn from the dead…”
Jesus is the source of eternal life. As the “firstborn” from the dead, Jesus is the “prototype.” He is the first of His kind, from whom all others like Him will be modeled. While He did die to Himself for our spiritual benefit and suffered greatly in the process, He rose from the dead in glory and was received by the Father in heaven. Those who are connected to Him will follow Him in the same manner. We will suffer to varying degrees in this life and eventually die. However, we will be bodily raised in glory, received into heaven with the Father’s approval because of the One who connects us to Him. No one else can do that. We can’t do that for ourselves. This is what makes Jesus so good, far beyond all others. This is why the true church strives to die to selfish ambitions, keeping Jesus in “first place.”
Prayer for today
Our heavenly Father, thank You for giving Yourself as our Mediator. Thank You for exercising Your transcendence to save us. Thank You for using Your preeminence to deliver us from death and from the fear of it. Help us express our gratitude by submitting to Your eternal and spiritually centered purposes as part of Your body, glorifying You as the head, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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