Christ Is All

by F. McCormick | Category: The Glories And Excellencies Of Christ | Jun 1958

Across the vast panorama of the fulfilment of the divine purposes relative to creation, redemption, and the glories of the eternal future we may write clearly and boldly the truth that " CHRIST IS ALL."

All things find their origin and completion in and through Him.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end" (Revelation 22.13).

Co-equal and co-eternal with the Father, He is the eternal Son, " The effulgence of His glory, and the very image of His substance (Hebrews 1.3), originally in the form of God, Himself the object of eternal love, "the Son of His love," and the object too of the adoration and worship of the innumerable heavenly hosts in the realm of eternal light. We fitly sing

"Of the vast universe of bliss

The Centre He and Sun;

The eternal theme of praise is this

God's Well-beloved One."

"For in Him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth

all things have been created through Him, and unto Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist (hold together, R. V. M.) (Colossians 1.16, 17).

He upholds all things by the word of His power. The whole universe has its existence " in Him " who created it, and apart from the existence of Christ in His almighty creative and sustaining power the whole would collapse in chaotic confusion. How true, that even in creation, CHRIST IS ALL! He is the great Originator, Upholder, and Sustainer of all.

Men may endeavour to explain the origin of the universe by the existence and operation of certain laws, but laws do not exist without a law-maker, nor can there be designs without a designer. "The world through its wisdom knew not God," but the testimony of Scripture is clear, and may be summed up in the words of John 1. 3:

"All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that hath been made." Of Him also it is written, " In whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden" (Colossians 2.8). Christ, who is the power and wisdom of God in creation, is also the power and wisdom of God in redemption. He is the Cause or "Author of eternal salvation to all that obey Him " (Hebrews 5.9). Apart from Christ the redemption of mankind is an impossibility, our Kinsman-Redeemer must be both divine and human, able to satisfy the claims of heaven's holy throne in perfect righteousness (and only One who is divine could do that), and also to reach down to the depths of human need in liberating power and grace to release the slaves of sin and Satan.

In this matter of eternal salvation " Christ is all," or nothing.

He is the focal point of all promise and revelation.

To Him bear all the prophets witness " (Acts 10.48). "And in none other is there salvation "(Acts 4.12). If it were possible to take Christ out of the Bible as Creator and Redeemer it would become meaningless, and man would be left to grope in the darkness of night, without a glimmer of light to point him to eternal rest at last. All God's purposes of grace revolve around the glorious Person and work of Christ, and as we think of the unique position which believers occupy in the Body of Christ into which they are baptized in One Spirit, we are bound to exclaim with thankful hearts " Christ is all, and in all" (Colossians 3. 11). There cannot attach to any member of the Body of Christ the slightest degree of merit for his being there, his standing there is by reason of the merit of Christ and His work of grace alone.

In contrast to the Body of Christ, which is unconditional in character, there is presented in Scripture a conditional unity of obedient disciples of the Lord Jesus, spoken of as" the house of God."

"But Christ as a Son, over His (God's) house; whose house are we if we hold fast our boldness and the glorying of our hope firm unto the end" (Hebrews 3.6).

It is a strange thing that many, who revel in the truth of eternal salvation, and of the heavenly oneness of every believer in "the Church which is His Body," fail to grasp the truth of the one thing designed by God for corporate testimony on the earth - His house.

In considering the truth of the House of God as found in Scripture we find it requires not only faith in Christ as Saviour, but obedience (1 Peter 1.2, 22 ; 2.1-5), separation (2 Corinthians 6.14-17), conduct and behaviour (1 Timothy 3.15), and all this in subjection to "ONE LORD" (Ephesians 4.5).

This is no human conception, it is found in the word of God, in "the faith which was once for all delivered unto the saints " (Jude 3). It is designed by God to be the place where His will may be done on earth, and those who find a place therein must be obedient to the words of Acts 2.41, 42, which show the conditional character of a "church of God." Of the churches of God together we read, "In whom every building fitly framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord" (Ephesians 2.21, R.V.M.).

Over the house of God Christ as Son is seen in supreme authority in His Lordship. "God hath made Him both Lord and Christ" and we are to be obedient from the heart to that form (pattern) of teaching whereunto we were delivered (Romans 6.17).

This is no cold formal dogma, it is a matter of the heart's attitude toward Christ in His Lordship over God's house.

"Blessed is the man ... in whose heart are the high ways to Zion" (Psalm 84.5).

If Christ is your all-in-all as Saviour, let us kindly ask, is He your all-in-all as Lord? Has the One who saved you been given the throne of your heart to rule and reign without a rival there? The exhortation is, " But sanctify (set apart) in your hearts Christ as Lord "(1 Peter 3.15). The supreme Lordship of Christ over God's house demands subjection and obedience, apart from which the house of God could not exist. "Christ is all" upon the cross, there can be no other Saviour, "Christ is all" upon the throne, there can be no other Lord. If we give Him His rightful place now as Lord, and go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach, He will acknowledge our obedience in a day to come, for "If we endure, we shall also reign with Him" (2 Timothy 2.12).

Whatever may be comprehended in the vast realms of heavenly or earthly things or beings, the truth abides that " in all things" He must " have the preeminence.

"For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in Him should all the fulness dwell" (Colossians 1.19).

It is God's purpose "to sum up all things in Christ" (Ephesians 1.10). All things will ultimately find their true centre in Christ, and untold blessings will flow in" the times of the restoration of all things, whereof God spake by the mouth of His holy prophets which have been since the world began" (Acts 3.21), both in creation and toward man.

His supreme Lordship and authority must then be universally acknowledged, as in public manifestation He is revealed as "King of kings and Lord of lords." All things will be subjected unto Him, yet, wondrous thought, Christ, who is the sum and substance of all things in the outworking of redemption's plan, will Himself, in the moment of His mighty triumph then subject himself to Him who subjected all things unto Him, "that GOD MAY BE ALL IN ALL" (1 Corinthians 15.28).

F. McCormick | Jun 1958
The Glories And Excellencies Of Christ