4. _The earth was created for Him._--The scene of His incarnation and
atoning death. His mediatorial kingdom.
5. _The human race was created for Him._--Man created, preserved,
redeemed. (1) How exalted should be our ideas of Christ! (2) How
carefully should we learn to view everything in connection with
Christ! 3. What ground for confidence, gratitude, and fear.--_Ibid._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 18.
_The Relation of Christ to the Moral Creation._
After showing that Christ holds the position of absolute priority and
sovereignty over the whole universe, the apostle now proceeds to
point out His relation to the principal part of that whole--the
Church, as the symbol and embodiment of the new, moral creation. From
this verse we learn that _Christ is the supreme Head, and primal
life-giving Source of the Church, and as such is invested with
universal pre-eminence._
+I. Christ is the supreme Head of the Church--the new moral
creation.+--1. _The Church is the body of Christ._ "The body, the
Church." Much controversy has prevailed as to what constitutes the
Church; and the more worldly the Church became, the more confused the
definition, the more bitter the controversy. The New Testament idea
of the Church is easily comprehended. It is the whole body of the
faithful in Christ Jesus, who are redeemed and regenerated by His
grace--the aggregate multitude of those in heaven and on earth who
love, adore, and serve the Son of God as their Redeemer and Lord. The
word ἐκκλησία constitutes two leading ideas: the ordained _unity,_
and the _calling_ or separating out from the world. Three grand
features ever distinguish the true Church--unbroken unity, essential
purity, and genuine catholicity. (Cf. Eph. i. 22, 23, iv. 15, 16;
1 Cor. xii. 12-27).
2. _Christ is the Head of the Church._--"And He is the Head of the
body, the Church." That the world might not be considered this body,
the word "Church" is added; and the materialistic conception of a
Church organism thus refuted. As the Head of the Church--(1) Christ
inspires it with spiritual life and activity. (2) He impresses and
moulds its character. (3) He prescribes and enforces its laws. (4) He
governs and controls its destinies. (5) He is the centre of its unity.
+II. Christ is the originating, fontal Source of the organic life of
the Church.+--In respect to the state of grace, _He is the
beginning_; in respect to the state of glory, He is _the firstborn
from the dead._ He gives to the Church its entity, form, history, and
glory; except in and through Him, the Church could have no existence.
1. _He is the Author of the moral creation._--"The beginning." Christ
has been before described as the Author of the old material creation.
Here He is announced as the beginning of the new spiritual creation.
The moral creation supplies the basis and constituent elements of the
Church. In the production, progress, and final triumph of the new
creation, He will redress all the wreck and ruin occasioned by the
wrong-doing of the old creation. Of this new moral creation Christ is
the source, the principle, the beginning; the fountain of life,
purity, goodness, and joy to the souls of men.
2. _He is the Author of the moral creation as the Conqueror of
Death._--"The firstborn from the dead." Sin introduced death into the
old creation, and the insatiable monster still revels and riots amid
the corruptions he perpetually generates. The Son of God, in
fulfilment of the Divine plan of redemption, became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. He descended into Hades and
placed Himself among the dead. On the third day He rose again, "the
firstfruits of them that slept." He was "the firstborn from the
dead"; the first who had risen by His own power; the first who had
risen to die no more. By dying He conquered death for Himself and all
His followers. He can therefore give life to all that constitute that
Church of which He is fittingly the Head, assure them of a
resurrection from the dead, of which His own was a pattern and
pledge, and of transcendent and unfading glory with Himself in the
endless future.
+III. The relation of Christ to the Church invests Him with absolute
pre-eminence.+--"That in all things He might have the pre-eminence."
1. _He is pre-eminent in His relation to the Father._--He is "the
image of the invisible God"; the Son of His love, joined by a bond to
us mysterious and ineffable, and related in a sense in which no other
can be. He is the first and the last; the only Divine Son.
2. _He is pre-eminent in the universe of created things._--He existed
_before_ any being was created, and was Himself the omnipotent Author
of all created things. The whole hierarchy of heaven obey and adore
Him. He is alone in His complex nature as our Emmanuel. Mystery of
mysteries; in Him Deity and humanity unite!
3. _He is pre-eminent in His rule over the realm of the dead._--He
entered the gloomy territory of the grave, wrestled with and
vanquished the King of Terrors, rose triumphantly from the dismal
battle-field, and is now Lord both of the dead and of the living. "I
am He that liveth and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore;
and have the keys of Hades and of death" (Rev. i. 18).
4. _He is pre-eminent in His relation to the Church._--The Church
from beginning to end is purely His own creation. He sketched its
first rough outline, projected its design, constructed its organism,
informed it with life, dowered it with spiritual riches; and He will
continue to watch over and direct its future until He shall "present
it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any
such thing"!
5. _He is pre-eminent in the estimation and homage of a ransomed
world._--He is the central figure of all history; around Him all
events group themselves, and by Him are stamped with their true
character, significance, and worth. The dream of the ages, the
teaching of figures and symbols, the shadows and forecastings of
coming events, are all dismissed in the effulgent presence of Him to
whom they all point, like so many quivering index-fingers. Christ has
to-day the strongest hold upon the heart of humanity. His perplexed
enemies admire while they reject Him; the ever-increasing multitude
of His friends reverence and adore Him; and the era is rapidly
advancing when to Him a universe of worshippers shall bow the knee
and acknowledge that "in all things He has the pre-eminence."
+Lessons.+--1. _The pre-eminence of Christ entitles Him to universal
obedience._ 2. _The highest blessedness is found in union with the
Church of Christ._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._