Lesson 17: The Deity of Christ
Christ is the image of the unseen God; He is the first born over all creation. In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All things were created by Christ, for Christ; all things are held together by his power. He is before all things; he is the leader of the church and the first born among those to be resurrected. It pleased God for all of his fullness to dwell in Christ so that by Christ’s death God might reconcile all things to himself. He is unable, however, to reconcile everyone to himself; there is still an eternal punishment for those who refuse to receive God’s provision for salvation. When Adam and Eve sinned the harmony between God and Man was broken and disorder came into the world. But through Christ’s sacrifice peace was again made possible between God and man, and at Christ’s second coming order will be restored to the world.
The supreme kingship of God, as displayed in his transcendent goodness and greatness, is a pervasive theme throughout the Book of Psalms and the Old Testament. It provides us the perspective we need in order to view ourselves, creation, history and the future. All of creation is God’s kingdom, and every creature born into the world is under God’s rule. Every human born into the world is ultimately accountable for everything he has thought, said, or done. Everyone must take stock of the measure of his years so doesn’t play the fool without regard to his mortality or his accountability to God.
God’s election of the righteous and the giving of his word represent the renewed in-breaking of God’s righteous kingdom into this world of wickedness and rebellion. Ultimately God’s plan will come to pass, and the establishment of his kingdom on this earth will be fully realized; at that time all wrongs will be redressed, the prideful will be humbled, and the humble will inherit the earth.
The righteous are those who seek to glorify God in all that they do. In all things they order their lives in accordance with God’s will. In every human relationship they faithfully fulfill all the obligations that each particular relationship entails, of the sort that includes social, domestic, economic, physical and intellectual, realizing that power and authority are to be used to bless rather than exploit.
The following prayer contains elements that we would do well to keep in mind daily. “I lay myself down to sleep knowing that I will awake because the Lord sustains me. I surrender my own watchfulness to sleep because the watchful Lord preserves me. If I have done evil to someone who is at peace with me, or made someone the innocent victim of an unmotivated attack, then let my enemies pursue me and trample my life into the ground. In the Lord’s righteous kingdom, those who wickedly attack others, bring destruction on themselves; their end will be the grave. Do not take away my soul with sinners; do not bring on me the end that awaits the wicked; do not drag me off with the wicked, with those who have done evil, but hear my plea for mercy. The wicked are those who from birth go astray, even in the womb they are wayward. They stumble about all their lives in the dark not knowing what it is that makes them stumble.