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Scripture Reading: John 1:14; Rom. 6:6; 8:17-23, 29-30; Eph. 1:3, 5; 2:6; Phil. 3:20-21; Col. 1:14, 18-20; 3:11; Heb. 2:9-10, 14-15; 1 Pet. 1:18-20
God in His plan wants all things to be filled with Christ and to express Christ’s glory, and He also wants a group of people to have Christ’s life and glory so that they may be Christ’s many brothers. God created all things through Christ (Heb. 2:10). Even though creation expresses the beauty, glory, and might of Christ (Rom. 1:20), it does not fully express Christ or His glory. God created man through Christ and according to Christ; hence, man is higher than all the other creatures. As the head of creation, man has Christ’s image to represent Christ, and man can exercise dominion over all creation on Christ’s behalf (Gen. 1:26). Nevertheless, created man has only the human life, not Christ’s uncreated divine life and glory. Although man represents Christ in image and position, he cannot express Christ in life and glory. Created man has Christ’s image and likeness but not Christ’s life and nature. Apart from the divine life, man cannot fully express Christ inwardly, fully represent Him outwardly, or be His brothers. Hence, God’s plan was not accomplished with creation alone. God needed redemption to complete His plan.
In order to hinder God’s desire that Christ would be expressed, Satan came in to corrupt the man whom God had created. Satan knew that God’s plan involved man, that man was the center of all things, and that all creation was focused on man. In his corruption of man, Satan tried to ruin God’s central purpose in man as well as ruin all created things. As a result of Satan’s corruption, man was filled with sin and death, and all things were made subject to vanity and brought under the slavery of corruption (Rom. 8:20-21). According to God’s righteousness and holiness, corrupted man and all things should have been destroyed. However, because of His love for man and all creation, Christ came to redeem man and to free creation from the slavery of corruption so that God’s plan could be accomplished. Hence, God’s plan is completed by Christ in His redemption (v. 23).
God’s redemption was according to His eternal plan. God’s redemption was not an afterthought, as merely a remedy to solve a problem; it was determined from the beginning. Christ was prepared by God before the foundation of the world to accomplish redemption (1 Pet. 1:18-20). When God made His plan in eternity, He determined that Christ would accomplish redemption. Therefore, in God’s view Christ was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8).
God’s plan was made in Christ and is carried out through Christ. God created all things in Christ and through Christ, and God’s redemption was accomplished in Christ and through Christ. Nothing was created apart from Christ, and God cannot accomplish redemption apart from Christ. Every aspect and detail of God’s redemption are in Christ and through Christ. God accomplished redemption in Christ and through Christ, and God enables man to partake of His redemption in Christ and through Christ. All the blessings of His redemption — including the forgiveness of sins, sanctification, justification, regeneration, eternal life, sonship, the redemption of our body, and entering into glory — are given to man in Christ and through Christ (Eph. 1:3, 5; 2:6; Phil. 3:20-21; Col. 1:14). A person is redeemed in Christ and through Christ. There is not one aspect of God’s redemption that is not in Christ and through Christ, because God delights in Christ having the first place in all things (vv. 18-20).
God’s redemption is not only in Christ and through Christ; it is accomplished for Christ. God accomplished redemption through Christ in order to gain men for Christ, that is, to gain men who would be partners with Christ in His life and glory. Furthermore, God accomplished redemption through Christ in order to restore all things for the expression of His glory so that Christ might have the first place in all things. On the one hand, the purpose of God’s redemption in Christ is to rescue fallen man so that the man created according to Christ’s image might have Christ’s life and enter into Christ’s glory to be the same as Christ. On the other hand, the purpose of God’s redemption is for Christ to fill all things (Eph. 4:10). When all things are renewed, the glory of Christ will be expressed through all things, and He will gain a group of redeemed people as His partners in His divine life and glory. This is what God wants to accomplish for Christ through His redemption.
According to God’s plan, Christ did not accomplish an objective redemption that is apart from man and apart from the things redeemed by Christ. Rather, Christ entered into humanity in order to be joined to man so that He might accomplish a subjective salvation in man from within man.
The first step of Christ’s accomplished redemption was incarnation (John 1:14). By becoming flesh, Christ was joined to man and thereby joined to all creation. He was conceived in Mary and born in Bethlehem, but His conception was not merely an individual matter. His conception represented God entering into mankind, into creation. Bethlehem is not just a place; Bethlehem represents the universe. Christ’s conception in Mary was His entering into creation, and His being born in Bethlehem was His being born in the universe. Christ’s incarnation was His coming into man and into creation in order to be joined as one with man and with creation.
Even though all things came out of Christ and were created by Christ and even though man was created according to the image of Christ, Christ’s life and nature did not enter into man or into creation until the incarnation. In the garden of Eden Adam had Christ’s image and likeness, but Adam did not have Christ’s life and nature, because God had not yet entered into man to be joined with him. Even though man now lives in a wicked world, is ruined by sin, and has lost God’s image and glory, man can receive God because God entered into man through Christ’s incarnation for the accomplishment of redemption. Although Adam’s perfect created humanity was defiled, Christ still came to be joined with man. This is the first step that Christ took in accomplishing God’s redemption.
When Christ entered into man, He entered into creation, because man represents creation. By being joined with man, Christ was joined with creation. In the future, in the new heaven and new earth, Christ will be in man and will fill all things, and the glory of His radiance will be manifested by man, through man, and in all things. However, Christ Himself is not waiting for that day. In His incarnation He was mingled with man and joined to His creation. He was the Creator entering into creation to be mingled with man, as seen in the thirty-three and a half years that He lived on the earth. When Christ changed water into wine and fed five thousand with five loaves and two fish (John 2:1-11; Matt. 14:14-21), He was the Creator in creation and who was joined with creation.
The second step of Christ’s accomplished redemption was crucifixion. On the cross Christ was crucified in the humanity of His creation. Being joined to man and, hence, to all things, He tasted death on behalf of man and all things in order to deliver them from God’s judgment (Heb. 2:9). Furthermore, He terminated the old creation and delivered man and all creation from Satan’s corruption (Rom. 6:6). Christ died on our behalf, and in His union with us He took us to the cross to die with Him.
The third step of Christ’s accomplished redemption was His resurrection from the dead. In this step Christ brought all things that were part of Him through incarnation and that had died with Him through crucifixion into His divine life. In incarnation Christ entered into humanity in order for Him to be joined with man, and in His resurrection from the dead He brought man into Himself in order for man to be joined with Him. Through incarnation God became a man with the human life and nature, and in resurrection His redeemed ones received God’s divine life and nature in order to become one with Him.
The fourth step of Christ’s accomplished redemption is His second coming. In His second coming He will redeem the bodies of those who are joined to Him in His life, bring them into His glory, and free all things from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of His glory (8:17-23; Phil. 3:20-21). Then Christ will be expressed and glorified not only in the people who are redeemed and joined to Him but also in all things. His people will possess His image, life, and glory to be fully joined to Him and to be the same as He is in image, life, and glory so that all things may be filled with Him and express His glory. The issue of God’s redemption in Christ is Christ’s being joined to His redeemed people as one and to all things so that He may be “all and in all” (Col. 3:11).
In creation Christ is “the Firstborn of all creation” (1:15), and in redemption He is “the Firstborn from the dead” (v. 18), that is, the first to resurrect from the dead. The Firstborn of all creation means that Christ is preeminent in creation; all creation was created in Him and came forth from Him. The Firstborn from the dead means that Christ is the first in resurrection; every person who resurrects from the dead will resurrect in Christ.
In creation Christ is the Firstborn in order to create all things, and in redemption Christ is the Firstborn in order to produce the church. All things were created through Him, and the church was brought forth through His resurrection. Christ is the first in creation in order to create all things, and He is the first in resurrection in order to produce the church. In relation to all things, He is the first in creation, and in relation to the church, He is the first in resurrection. Whether in relation to all created things or in relation to the church in resurrection, God has made Christ first so that He might have the first place in all things.
Christ is not only the Creator but also a creature, the Firstborn of all creation, so that He might have the first place in God’s creation. Furthermore, Christ is not only the Redeemer; He also resurrected as the Firstborn from the dead so that He might have the first place in God’s redemption. Hence, whether in God’s creation or in God’s redemption, Christ is everything and has the first place, because God delights that Christ would be all things, be above all things, and have the first place in all things (v. 18).
Christ is everything in creation, but creation does not have His life and nature and cannot become a part of Him. In contrast, Christ is everything in redemption, and He can enter into His redeemed people to be their life so that they become a part of Him. Through His redemption Christ not only enters into His redeemed people but also brings them into Himself to receive His life and nature so that they might be joined to Him as one in life and nature for His expression.
Christ is not only the means and power of God’s redemption, nor is He merely the beginning, the course, and the end of God’s redemption. Christ is God’s redemption. God’s redemption is not only out of Christ, through Christ, and for Christ; God’s redemption is Christ. Christ not only accomplished God’s redemption; He is God’s redemption. He is everything in God’s redemption. One day we will see that the Redeemer is Christ, and the redeemed are Christ as well. The content of God’s redemption is Christ, and the purpose of God’s redemption is Christ. Christ is everything in redemption, because God planned that redemption is for Christ to be all and in all.
