What Can We Say About Christ?
This Sunday I’ll finish a 2-part series on “A Christian Vision Statement.” In a world where mankind sees no further than its own self-interest, a Christian world-view should begin with Christ Who is all in all. What can we say about Christ? He is He is the door to God. Any light we possess concerning God and a relationship to Him comes through the light shed on/in/through Jesus’ face as He turned His face from God and toward mankind (John 1:1 & 14) in the incarnation.
No one can know God apart from Jesus Christ. Eternal life is in Jesus Christ (John 17:3). The unknowable is made visible in Jesus. John wrote, “No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known” (1:18) and then repeats, “No one has ever seen God” (4:12). So, any study of God must begin with Jesus Christ.
Further, apart from Him, we are in darkness, not simply about salvation but everything. If life is not interpreted through the lens of Christ, then all of life is misinterpreted for, “all things were made by, through and for Him” (Col 1:16). The study of Christ (Christology) is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, not simply of Christian thought, but of all thought. Nothing makes sense apart from Christ. God shone light into our hearts for the express purose of giving “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (2 Cor 4:6). This is why we were created. This is why we are saved. Jesus Christ is certainly the subject of theology but He is also the foundation of all knowledge. Any knowledge that denies His existence or deviates from His supremacy will ultimately lead people first to foolishnes and then to destruction. But…the knowledge of Him is abundant and eternal life.
Human beings make religion all about themselves. They begin with their own need (salvation) and from that point forward, religion is turned toward satisfying thier lives, their needs, their desires, etc. Christianity however, is all about Christ. This is because Christ is our truest need. For this reason, God the Father has made all creation through and for Christ. He has centered salvation in Christ. All human history pivots on the person of Christ. ”Christ”ianity is truly nothing less, more or else than, “Christ.”
As Christians contemplate creating a vision statement for an individual life, a couple, a family, a business, a church; it must, to appropriately reflect godliness, center upon Christ. All of this leads Heritage to Revelation 1:12-16 this Sunday and the vision of Christ that God presents to the church.