Daily Meditations from John N N Ng'ang'a: 30 august- 5th sept 2010 .....Who is Christ to You ?
Day 1
Col 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.NIV
As we continue to ask who Jesus is, Paul says he is the first born of all creation.
This has caused a lot of people to start saying, then He is part of creation. Firstborn is a very important term in Africa. when Paul calls him firstborn he means He is the first of a kind. In other words my first daughter is the first daughter. I never had a daughter before then. I had no child, before then. If I get my 4th child as a son he will be called the first son. There is something about the firstborn. Of course he may be a son like any other. But there is something about the excitement of the first son or daughter you got. And that's what we are saying when we talk about Jesus being special, we are not suggesting He was creation but we are saying He is the first of the kind. The word here has the meaning of somebody very important. You know Christ is seen as the chief. He is not a man exactly like any other. He is really chief among men when He became man .But Christ is actually beyond a human being. He is the first born of God become man. In fact among the Kikuyus, when you are dividing your wealth and you have five sons, you divided your wealth not to five but six, so the first born got two and the other ones got one piece each. Why? Not because he was a better boy, he was simply a first born.
That's the image you need to get of Christ as man . That even when you see him walking on the shores of Galilee, He is a man yes, but He is like a firstborn treated very specially. In early times, the firstborn son was like a priest, like the owner of a home. And it was assumed that in the absence of the father, it is not the mother who took over but The firstborn son. That is traditionally, I am not saying that's the way it is now. But traditionally the first born son took over from the father after the father actually died. He does not become the father but he leds the family as the father had done.
We do not say that in all respects He is human. He created all things on earth. So He cannot be part of creation. We have to remind ourselves that Jesus is not part of creation. A little later Paul says that He is actually God. In fact the same thing comes in Romans 8:29.
Rom 8:29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.NIV
That means when you are thinking of him as a human being you need to call him something special… him firstborn but in this way you must still keep reminding your self that He is not really part of creation. He is not a firstborn in that human sense. The meaning then is that Christ sustains the most exalted rank in the universe. He is preeminent above all things. That's what Paul is talking about when he says he is the firstborn.
Day 2
Col 1:16 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. NIV
Christ is the head of all things.
The expression does not mean that he is begotten before creation. He was never begotten but He is ahead of all. He is the son of God. He is the bearer of all things. All other creatures are also offsprings of God but He is exalted above all offspring's.
So we have seen that He is the image, first point, but also He is the firstborn. Now Paul goes on to say, he is a creator… for by him all things were created.
This is one of the reasons why He is called the image of God. Why? God is a creator and Christ is also a creator. He makes God known to us by his creative power and by the same power in creation show that He is exalted above all things as the son of God. There could not possibly be a more explicit declaration in the universe that Christ is God.
You know Jehovah Witnesses keep telling us that Christ cannot be God. He is not a witness of Christ so that's why he calls himself a witness of Jehovah. They don't believe that Christ is Jehovah. They believe that, for reasons only them understand, that God did not become human in Christ. He was like an angel not like God.
But here Paul is categorical , for by him all things are created, things in heaven and on earth.
When you say that by him all things are created, what else can it mean but that Christ is a creator. Isn't it? So how would you then say that Jesus Christ is not God? Because you cannot be created if you are a creator. you are allocating to yourself only what God can do if you call yourself a creator. The Bible is clear that Christ created all things. By him all things, not some things, but all things were created.
Then he says that this includes things in heaven and things on… as if the simple declaration that He was a creator is not enough. Somebody might say, yes He is a creator of some things… so Paul comes out clear. He is not a creator of some things but anything in heaven and on earth…
The assertion is that He has creative power. That Christ is divine. He is the image of the invisible God and through him everything is made.
Day 3
Col 1:16 ….all things were created by him and for him.
Do you realize then you only exist for God and when you don't do what God created you for, do you realize you are a contradiction of your own creation?
You will never really enjoy life, until you do what you were created for. that's why the people of the world never get real contentment . Sometimes somebody thinks that if only I get a promotion, if only I get more money, if only…. and you keep getting more and more and more, and you become less and less satisfied.
This is exemplified by a farmer and a cow. I give this story in my book the Secret of Contentment. A farmer buys a cow, very expensively in order to milk it. But the cow , after being milked for about six months, decides, 'surely this farmer is exploitative. Surely how can he milk me? He doesn't eat the grass, he doesn't produce the milk, yet he takes my milk everyday?
So one day this cow that was very cooperative, becomes rebellious. At three o'clock in afternoon when it used to be milked, the farmer bang the hands as he used to do and the cow would come on its own. Now, when he banged his hands the cow went opposite direction. And he wondered , 'what has happened to my cow?'.But the cow felt ' enough is enough. I will not be exploited'.
Like the old Rhodesia, it had declared a UDI….Unilateral Declaration of Independence.. It went opposite. Then that farmer said, do I really need to struggle with this cow? The farmer was clever. He says no. So he disappeared. Two hours later, he came again, banged. The cow still went the opposite direction. The farmer said to himself ,' I am not coming for you again.' He went to his house and did nothing.
You know something, if a cow is normally milked at three o'clock, (those of us who are from framing background will remember) at five it may still be okay. Two hours later at seven, the milk, was coming out on its own. The cow was in so much pain it started running towards the place of the milk but there was nobody to milk it. You remember the guy had decided not to bother. It then came to the window of the bedroom, moooo.
Now, it seemed to be saying, I now agree I am not exploited. I was created to be milked. Come and relieve me of the pain. So the guy now came out. The cow ran towards the milking shed and he started milking. As soon as it was milked it felt relived… aaah. You need to understand you were created not just by God but for God.
Day 4
Col 1:17-18 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. NIV
When you don't do what God crated you for, it is not God who suffers. Who suffers? Yourself.for things to hold together you need to do what God create you for.
So when you serve the Lord there is nothing more exciting than standing in the will of God. Nothing you will ever do is as exciting as feeling like what I am doing is God's purpose for my life . I was created for it.
By the way when I talk of doing God's will I don't mean preaching. It can be teaching, it can be engineering, it can be whatever it is. It can be driving. If you do what you feel God has called you to do, there is nothing more satisfying. The salary may be small or big but the joy is there. The salary is not the excitement but you just have a witness from within, what I am doing is what I was created to do.
Thus Paul is saying that Christ s not just the creator. We are also created for him. So even for selfish reasons, please start cooperating with God for your own good. when you try to do something different from what God has called you to do you short change yourself ….and I keep repeating God does not require all to preach. It means whatever you do, whether it is buying a house, whatever it is you are doing, Colossians says whatever you do, do it as unto the Lord.
It means that please consult God because there is nothing that will be more exciting than to be what God created you to be. To be the kind of father, to be the kind of engineer, to be the kind of… whatever it is God has called you to do, will bring you contentment.
You know a lot of people feel like ;if I love the Lord I must become a preacher. No wonder there is so much confusion in church because there are pastors who are not meant to be here. That's not what God created him to be you. He never called you to pastor, He wanted you to be an engineer then you ran into pastoring. You will never be satisfied and you will cause confusion in church. It's like a car losing its own lane and is causing confusion all over the dual carriage way. There will be an accident. There are so many accidents in church because there are some pastors who are never meant to be pastors. It is critical to understand everyone of us has to hear the call of God.
Day 5
Col 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church.NIV
The only church we should belong to is a church where you are all visitors since it is God's church. The pastor is a visitor with one task, the messenger is a visitor with another task. All of us are in God's church a not the pastor's. You know in some of the small cultic groups, the pastor is in total control. He says it is his church and he is not joking. If you displease with him he will get you out. He will excommunicate you.
Anytime you hear a pastor say 'my church' please keep off that church because the only church you should belong to is the church where Christ is the head. Isn't that what verse eighteen is saying? He is the head of the body, the church. Because the church is not you. The church is the body of Christ. And who is the head? Christ himself. So whenever you feel like because you are the pastor, because you are the bishop, because you are the archbishop, you own the church, then you have gotten it totally wrong. We are a visitors. You have one duty and I have another duty. All of us have duties.
Of course the duty of a pastor is important but it is still a duty. You are serving with somebody else. It is like you can have many workers in your house, some are in the kitchen, some are in the garden, some are…elsewhere. They can't start saying 'this is my house'. Surely it would be very foolish for the gardener to talk of ' my garden'. Is it his garden? You can even be transfered to the kitchen at owners pleasure. Isn't it?
You need to understand in the same way, this church is not everybody's church. It is Christ's church. We come to join Christ's church. That's what verse eighteen is saying….He is the head of the body the church.
The term head is the same as the one He used earlier, firstborn, showing the express preeminence that Christ has. it is important to understand what he means He is the chief, Christ is the chief, He is the origin of the church. There is no church without Christ. It is the body of Christ, not the body of Christians.
The church is not merely a society, but it is defined in terms that are organic… is the body of Christ. I think it is very important for us to understand that. That Christ is the head. Remember the emphasis is on who Christ is, He is the beginning, He is the head of this church. He is the first born from among the dead.
Day 6
Christ is also the first born from among the dead. Of course you will ask, 'surely Jesus is not the first born. Lazarus rose before Jesus?. Paul don't confuse us. Jesus was not the first born from the dead because others had risen earlier.
But let me tell you something, it is true. Jesus is not the only one who has risen from the dead. Before Jesus some people rose, after Jesus people have risen but every other person whoever rose still ended in the grave. The only one who rose never to die is Jesus Christ. Do you agree then He is in this way the first born?
And what that implies is that He is waiting for others to copy him and others are you and me. that's why you should not be worried about death. when you die, since Christ rose, you also will rise. The same power that brought up Jesus is the same power that will bring you up. And that's why when somebody says, 'I will shoot you', okay, you will, you will be afraid of the pain but you can't be afraid of death. Why? Death is only translating you from one location to another. After you die you will rise again.
You know sometimes even the way we deal with our graves just tells you people we don't understand about Jesus being the first born from the grave .
Have you heard people saying that we are taking SO AND SO to his resting place? Now, when Christians use those words I say, haven't they read this passage ? The day, you know the Bible says ….to be absent in the body is to be present with God….death will no longer frighten you.
2 Cor 5:6 Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. 7 We live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.NIV
In other words the day John Ng'ang'a will stop breathing, I will not be nowhere. the Bible has already told me where I will be. To be absent in the body is to be present with the lord… there is no in between. There is no purgatory. As soon as I am out of this body, I will b with the Lord. Remember Lazarus saw Abraham, isn't it? So you need to understand that death is not something you should fear if you are in the lord.
To the non-Christians death t is a mystery but for us who are Christians, we know as soon as you are dead you are present with the lord on the other side. One of my daughters was rather worried, with mothers talk about death. My mother got cancer when she was in her eighties, she was an old woman. But she continued being very active in church in her village at home. Then when the cancer, got pretty bad…in the final months she came to stay with us here in Nairobi. my adult daughter would come from work, then she says, 'cucu(grandma) how have you been?'Her cucu would say ,' I have pain. If the Lord knows I have finished the work he gave me , I would be happy He calls me home.
My daughter would complain , 'cucu don't talk like tha'. But mum would reply …' my granddaughter, why not talk like that. The place we are going is the place I want to go and the earlier the better.' Do you know she went talking like that until she stopped talking? she had no difficulty with death but rather with pain. She knoew the future place was place to look forward to. This was a good lesson my children learnt.
Death is not something you fear. You can fear pain but not death and I saw it in my own mother. She was never openly frightened about death. of course cancer, not many people heal and she therefore suspected death was near. of course she was getting worse and worse. We took her through radiotherapy but things were getting worse. She getting weaker with very session.. but She never at any time was worried about dying. All she wanted is, 'if I am through with work let me go home'.
Christ being the firstborn from among the dead, tells you that 'for me to live is Christ, but to die would be my gain' . But Paul is said, 'I don't know which one to choose. For me to live is Christ, but to die is gain.' Because Christ rose we shall also rise. He defeated death , in fact in first Corinthians He is saying, 'death where is your sting? '. It is like a bee. You know bee can sting. You say, bee, come, come, come, even if you sting me you cannot hurt, you have really lost your power. For those who are in Christ death is like a bee without the stinging power. Are we together? So the bee can be flying everywhere but it has lost its power. No need to fear it.
That's what death is. When you are a Christian death is still real but it has lost its sting. Because the sting of death is fear. Isn't it? When you now start realizing that on the other side of death is Christ ,you no longer fear death. So death has lost its sting. It is important for you to understand that.
Day 7
Col 1:19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him.NIV
If God is pleased it means that He chose, the meaning is that He chose to confer on his son such a rank nobody else has… his fullness dwelling in Him. In other words when you see Christ you see God because He was fully God. the Anglican prayer book says, He was fully man and fully God. That's what we are learning. There is nothing necessary to be done in our salvation which Christ has not done. He was so God there was nothing left He could not do in getting us saved. There is nothing which we need to enable us to perform our duties of the call of God on our life except what God is able to do in Christ.
In all situations or troubles or dangers,l the church find that there was no deficiency in what God was able to do through Christ. In no enterprise to which He can put her hands to do what God has called the church to do is she going to feel He cannot accomplish through them. We may go to him in all our troubles, in all your weakness, in all your temptations, for solutions. in all your needs, we go to Christ because the fullness of God is in Him.
That is why we should identify our call and put all our efforts into it assured of Gods help