“And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence” (Colossians
,18).
The two greatest miracles in all history were the Creation of the World and the Resurrection of its Creator. In the devotional studies for the past week, we have noted the remarkable parallels between the Week of Creation and the Week of Redemption, with both these incomparable work weeks completed with a day of divine rest.
But then, that One who was “before all things” became also “the firstborn from the dead.” Only the Creator could redeem His lost creation, cursed and dying because of sin, by Himself taking the Curse and dying for sin. God, however, cannot die (in the sense of ceasing to exist), for He is Life itself. His mortal body could sleep in the grave, and His holy Spirit suffer the anguish of hell, but it was inevitable that He must conquer sin and death. The omnipotent Creator cannot possibly fail in His purpose in creation. In all things, He must have the preeminence, for it is only by Him that things exist at all!
Therefore, as Creation is the foundation of all true science, so the Resurrection is the centrality of all true history. All real facts of science support the primeval Creation, and the best-proved fact of history is the Resurrection. As the great Apostle preached long ago in the very center of all human wisdom and culture, in Athens, “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth . . . hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead” (Acts 17:24,31). HMM
