Scripture References: John 1:1-8; Colossians 1:15-17
Christ’s Relationship to the Natural Order
John 1:3 reads, “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” What this is literally stating is that, “Every single thing in the universe came through him and was created [came into being], and apart or aside from Him there isn’t even one thing which was created [came into being].”
Christ is the intermediate agent in the creative work. He created the universe from those atoms (and whatever they consist of) to solar systems and the universe that contains them!
Christ is eternal. But through Him something that did not exist came into being. Thus, in essence, John denied the eternity of matter. Matter had a beginning; thus, “in the beginning.”
Turning again to Colossians, Paul said that Christ is “the firstborn over all creation” (Colossians 1:15). Contrast that with “Firstborn” in Luke 2:7 where Mary “brought forth her firstborn Son.” Later, she had other children by Joseph. But here in Colossians, that’s not what it means, no! Christ is not a created being. He was with the Father and the Father created all things through Him!
One day I decided to do an exhaustive study on what the word translated “firstborn” actually says in context. I read page after page of several commentaries and Bible dictionaries, much of it with highlighted references. Several times I was tempted to stop. But I am glad that I didn’t. Because at the very last I found that the word was sometimes used in the sense of prior being with the meaning of “lordship.” That was my aha moment, there it was! Paul said that Christ is “the Lord of all creation” (my translation).
But Paul was not through. In Colossians 1:17 what the Apostle wrote literally means, “And He alone is before every single thing in the universe, and the universe as a whole in Him holds together.” We speak of the law of gravity when we should be acknowledging and speaking of the law of Christ.
From earliest time, people spoke of a geocentric of earth-centered universe. The ancients thought that the sun moved about the earth. But Galileo proved that the earth moves about the sun. So we called it a heliocentric or sun-centered universe. However, we can no longer say that. Astronomers now tell us that what we once thought was the universe is only our solar system. We are told that there are innumerable solar systems, each with its own sun and billions of stars. One astronomer estimates that there are fourteen quadrillion such solar systems. That is fourteen followed by fifteen zeros. It stretches our minds even to think about it!
So, no longer can we say that we live in a heliocentric universe. If the sun is not the center of the universe, then who or what is? Writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul told us almost two thousand years ago. For, “the universe as a whole in Him holds together.”
Thus we live in a Christocentric universe—not a sun-centered but a Son-centered universe!
To Be Continued
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
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