Dear Saints of Valley Church,
There is an old church joke about a Sunday School teacher who was using squirrels as an illustration for their children’s class. She asked, “What lives in trees, eats nuts, and has a long, bushy tail?” One of the children answered, “Well, it sounds like a squirrel, but the answer is probably Jesus.”
Where do we get the thought that the answer to every question is “Jesus?” In some ways, we get the idea from the book of Colossians. Whatever problem or challenge facing the Colossians and the Colossian church, Paul’s answer was “Jesus.” One theme of the book is that Jesus Christ is the all-sufficient Savior, meaning that to have Jesus is to have everything you need, and not to have Jesus is to have nothing. Colossians 2:10 says that believers have been “filled” (ESV) or “complete” (NASB) in him.
But the Jesus in Colossians is far more than a Sunday School answer. He is sufficient for our challenges because he is supreme over all things. He has no equal; he has no rival. “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.” (Colossians 1:17-18).
As we start our new series in Colossians this Sunday (beginning with Paul’s thanksgiving in Colossians 1:1-8), my prayer is that you will let your minds contemplate the supremacy of Christ in all things so that your hearts can rest in the sufficiency of Christ for all things.
By His strength and for His glory,
Craig Shigyo