Sunday entries are taken from the classic devotional series In Christ by E. Stanley Jones.
CONSIDER THIS
We saw yesterday that the revelation was reciprocal. Jesus reveals God, and God reveals Jesus. Jesus is growing upon the human race. He is proving to be so much greater than we thought. In that revelation “which God gave him” are the words saying that Jesus is the first and the last—“the Alpha and the Omega.” How first is that first, and how last is that last? Is He the “Alpha,” the Christ of the beginning, and the “Omega,” the Christ of the final word?
We see that that “beginning” stretches back further than we had thought—back beyond the historical account of two thousand years ago, back to creation, and beyond. Some strange passages like these take our breath: “all things were made through him [Christ], and without him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3). And this: “but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world” (Heb. 1:2). And this: “He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible . . . all things were created through him and for him” (Col. 1:15–16).
What do these strange passages, in which it is said unequivocally that God created the world through Christ, mean? The usual idea is that God created the world, and that Jesus appeared two thousand years ago to reveal God and to redeem us. Here it says that God created the world through Christ—without Him was nothing made that was made. Do they mean that the touch of Christ is upon all creation? That everything is made in its inner structure to work in His way? That if it works in His way it works well and harmoniously, and if it works some other way it works its own ruin? Is everything destined by its very nature to be in Him?
THE PRAYER
O Christ, we begin to see the revelation that God is making of Thee. We begin to see Thy footprints everywhere—in the Scriptures, in nature, in us. We are afire to see more, for what we see transforms. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY
I am destined to be in Him, then I shall accept that destiny and work it out.
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