Do you ever feel like your world is spinning out of control? And as attracted as you are to the idea of giving your life to Jesus, you feel like you have to get it together before He’d accept it? Does it feel like you can only get your life in order for small periods before it all falls apart again?
What if you could trust Jesus not only to accept you but to use His creative power to help put your life back together-and keep it together?
Jesus, the Creator
The writer of Hebrews opens his letter by telling us that God used to speak through prophets, but “in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe” (Hebrews 1:2, emphasis added).
This coincides perfectly with the way John opens his Gospel:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made (John 1:1-3, emphasis added).
Jesus was much more than a great-or even sinless-man who preached meaningful sermons and died on a cross. To the writers of the New Testament, Jesus played an essential role in creating the world He came to redeem.
The remarkable supremacy of Christ
Paul unpacks the power and majesty of Jesus in his letter to the church in Colossae.
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him (Colossians 1:15,16, emphasis added).
Paul echoes John’s words when he tells us that through Jesus everything was created. In fact, it was all created through Him and for Him.
But more than that, Paul wants us to understand that in Jesus, we get a better understanding of the Father. He is the image of the invisible God. The writer of Hebrews explains it this way, “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Hebrews 1:3). In Jesus, we see the goodness and mercy of God.
If you’ve ever wondered about God’s posture towards you, all you have to do is look at the way Jesus responded to the hurting around Him. The love and gentleness we see in Jesus is an exact representation of the kindness present in God the Father.
Holding it all together
He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together (Colossians 1:17).
The incarnation wasn’t Jesus’s beginning. He set the foundations of the world in place, and He holds everything together. Hebrews tells us that Jesus is “sustaining all things by his powerful word” (Hebrews 1:3).
We tend to think of the world as a bunch of systems set into place and operating automatically, but that might not be true. All the repetitive things we take for granted like seasons and sunsets are likely the byproducts of an attentive God.
In his book, “Orthodoxy,” G. K. Chesterton says it like this, “It is possible that God says every morning, ‘Do it again’ to the sun; and every evening, ‘Do it again’ to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.”
The image of Jesus holding all things together in such an intimate, hands-on fashion is beautiful. And the idea that He delights in doing so, should be empowering. God didn’t simply create you and leave you to fend for yourself. He’s intimately involved in your day-to-day life.
Putting our hope in Christ
We should take comfort in the fact that the hands which were pierced for our transgressions are the same hands that fashioned the universe and hold all things together. You can actually watch the depiction of that crucifixion on the Jesus Film Project® app. We don’t have to merely trust Jesus to save us when we die, but if we trust and submit to Him, we can trust He’ll help us maintain and sustain our lives today.
It might seem like your world is coming apart, but don’t be afraid to put yourself in His hands. Not only is He capable of putting your life back in order, but He can be trusted to keep it together. Learn more about Christ’s power.
All Scripture references quote the New International Version unless otherwise noted.
