Jesus – More than a Man
The Bee Gees had a hit song during the disco craze of the 70’s called “More than a Woman.” I wonder if we should think of Jesus as more than a man.
In Colossians 1:15-20, there is a poem about Jesus. There is a verse, an interlude, and then a second verse that parallels the first. The first verse of the poem is verses 15 and 16 and gives us the idea that Christ is the focal point of all creation. But more than that, all things operate in something of a confusing term – “in him.” All things were created “in him.” They were created through him, and they were created to him. And in verse 17, Paul says all things in this created realm hold together “in him.” Christ is more than a party with God who was involved in creation – he is something in which the creation was made and in which it holds together and exists. Creation exists in Christ is what Paul is saying.
How can creation hold together and exist in a man? I think we can stipulate that Jesus was both God, and a man. So only in the one who is God and is man, can creation hold together. It could not hold together in any of the rest of us humans, but it can in the one human who is also God.
The second verse of the poem begins in the latter part of verse 18. The same prepositions in the Greek that were used to mark Christ out as the focal point of creation are also used to mark him out as the focal point of redemption. “In him” God’s fulness was pleased to dwell. And in that dwelling, it was through him that reconciliation occurs, and this reconciliation was made to him.
In him, through him and to him – Christ is the focal point of creation. He is the focal point of redemption. And he is the realm or area of operations in which these things take place.
This language of Jesus being the one through whom was created would bring to mind to the Jews of that day certain passages from Proverbs that they would be familiar with. Proverbs 8 talks of wisdom as a person. And attributes wisdom as God’s co-creator or God’s agent of creation. What Paul is doing by taking this language that Proverbs assigns to wisdom, and assigning it to Christ, is making Christ the new wisdom, the fulfillment of wisdom. He is telling people not to look for wisdom or not to look to wisdom, but to look to Christ.
In Colossians 1:4, Paul talks of the Colossians faith “in Christ Jesus.” Usually when we read that, we think of Jesus being the focal point or object of the faith that the Colossians had. But commentaries say that this could also mean that Christ is the realm in which the Colossians faith operates. It’s like if I said I would go for a swim “in the pool” or play basketball “in the gym.” Those would be the places or the realms where I did my swimming or basketball playing. In a like manner, it is in Jesus where the Colossians faith operates. Here Paul is saying that Christ is more than a man – he is an area, a space, a realm in which faith operates.
Many times, you’ll hear someone talk of Jesus being our example. He is certainly that. But if we limit our view of him to just that, we fall far short of what he actually is and does for us. Other times you’ll hear someone talk of how Jesus brought us a plan of salvation. Again, if we limit our view of him to just that, we will far short of what it is that Jesus does for us. God didn’t need to be incarnated as a man in order to bring us a plan. He’d already given a law, a plan through Moses. If a plan was all that God was giving us, he could have just sent another messenger, another prophet or even an angel. (Angels bringing messages – Acts 7:53, Galatians 3:19, Hebrews 2:2). If it was just a message, just an example, just words, that does not require anything more than what God had already done. Jesus didn’t come to be an example (although he was that) or to bring us a plan of salvation. Jesus IS salvation. He came to be salvation. It is as we are in Jesus, that we are saved.
Continuing in Colossians. Paul talks in chapter 2:7 of how the Colossians are to be “rooted” in Jesus, “built up” in Jesus. Jesus is their foundation, Jesus is where they are built up. This doesn’t mean the teaching of Jesus, even though that should be included. If that’s what Paul had meant, he could have easily told the Colossians to be rooted in the teachings of Jesus, and be built up in the teachings of Jesus. Instead he says to be “in Jesus.” As if Jesus is a realm where the Colossians area of operations takes place.
In 2:9-10, Paul talks of the fullness of God dwells in Jesus, and how the Colossians are made complete “in him.” In verse 12, the Colossians were buried with him and raised with him. Paul goes on to say we have died to our old way of doing things, the old world, but have been raised, been resurrected in Christ.
As we go through our lives now, we are not simply followers of Christ, or his example. We are not merely following his plan he left for us. But we are living out our lives “in Christ.” We have clothed ourselves in him as Paul says in Romans 13:14 or we have “put him on” as Paul says in Galatians 3:27. It is such an intertwinement, that Christ is actually living in us as Paul says in Galatians 2:20.
This is what we at Westside are doing. And striving for. We want to be more and more like Jesus every day. To help bring about the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. We want to be the people, that if Jesus were walking around us today in Searcy, we would be doing what he is doing. Through the Holy Spirit, we are being transformed into the image of Christ, as Paul tells the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 3:18.
And in all of this, we work towards the grand and glorious goal of it all. In Ephesians 1:10, Paul tells us that God’s goal is to bring all things together in Christ. Again, not just a man, but a realm where things operate. And the all things? Those are ALL things – in heaven and on earth – all of them are to be brought together in one place. That place? In Christ.
Christ is more than a man. He is the one in whom, as Christians, we live and move and have our being. We should do more than simply follow an example of Jesus. Our lives should be so wrapped up in him that we live in him, we exist in him. We live not to follow him, but to be in him. In that way he transforms us, instead of us trying to transform ourselves by our own efforts.
–Mike Hendricks