This week on Facebook there was a roving camera from an unmanned craft that had landed on Mars. The camera was revolving and sweeping the area 360 degrees. The landscape reminded me of the area in Israel near the Dead Sea, referred to in the Bible as the wilderness. There is no plant life or water seen, just white looking rocks and terrain. The images are coming to us in high definition from 150 million miles away. To see something so far from the earth in such detail just like being there is amazing. What struck me about this is to think that God made every pebble and every rock on Mars, just as He did on the earth. He placed them all just as He wanted. It was all His plan and His purpose. The earth itself, and Mars are nothing compared to the vast universe that God has made. It is no wonder the Psalmist would say, “When I consider the heavens, the sun, moon, & stars, the works of Your fingers, what is man that You think of him, and a son of man that You are concerned about him? (Ps. 8:3-4).

There are many teachers, both false and superficial, that claim Jesus Christ is an important person who lived 2000 years ago. But, at the same time, these teachers have in common the desire to dethrone the Lord Jesus Christ. For our Lord is far more than merely an important person. It is one thing to agree He is important, and quite another to look carefully at Scripture and see and believe what it declares concerning Him. In Col. 1:15-18, Paul under inspiration writes, “He is the image of the invisible God. The first born of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, or rulers or authorities – all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church, and He is the beginning, the first born from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything” (Col. 1:15-18). This is the most powerful and comprehensive statement conceivable to be made about any person. This is Jesus Christ! If we can read this statement and not only agree with it, but mull it, and incorporate its reality into our understanding and ultimately our life of faith, we will be changed. To really see Christ as He is, and believe in what the Bible says of Him, changes everything.

Let me put it another way. If this brief description of Christ by Paul is true, and of course it is, all of our thinking and living must move from self to Jesus Christ!  This is the starting point of a changed person.  As this is true, all of the man-centered preaching and teaching must be removed from us. All of the concerns to parrot the world and look like and appease the world must be removed from us. Christ through John told us not to love the world, and that anyone who loves the world the love of the Father is not in him (1 John 2:15). Everything the church does must be measured by whether or not it exalts Jesus Christ. Only truth, only worship, that is obviously God honoring will do! We should notice the careful wording by Paul. After he exalts Christ as God the Creator and Sustainer, he says that everything is for Him. He then states that He is to have first place in everything! This can only mean that everything the church does in ministry and worship must be designed to honor and please Christ alone.

Heresy in all forms has always centered on dethroning Christ by denying Him as God, making Him a created being, an angel, or neglecting His status as Lord!  One of the chief ways Christianity is approached today is built on a person’s decision. All effort is made to move a person to mere acknowledgement, and then proclaiming such a person is now saved and on their way to glory. We read a similar text in John’s Gospel, “That apart from Him (Christ) nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3). That means our salvation, which is God’s greatest work, is by Jesus Christ, not by us or what we do. Yes, we repent and receive it, but it must be real in us because we are His creation (Eph. 2:10). The emphasis is on who Christ is and what He did! It is not centered on the importance of man, but upon Christ and His glorious, merciful, infinite quality of love despite who man is by nature in his rebellion. I hope we see that to deny Christ His right is to make Him less than God. It is to dethrone Him!  Now, dear ones, this Word is truth! It defines the glory of Jesus Christ. Paul’s purpose was to stop heresy in its tracks. Heresy will always take the side of man and will always discount and dethrone Christ.  May we cling to our Lord Jesus in all things, loving Him, waiting upon Him, and doing His will!