December 31
are all things, to Whom be glory forever. Amen.”
ROMANS 11:36
In Romans 11:36 Paul sums up the preeminence of Christ into three expressions: “Of Him… through Him… to Him… are all things.”
“Of Him” says that everything which exists – things in heaven, things in earth, everything that was created, everything that has come into being, everything that will come into being – is created by, and because of, Christ. “Through Him” says that everything which lives, moves, breathes, operates, exists, or functions in this universe, whether animate or inanimate, whether biological, chemical, spiritual, natural, or cosmotological – does so through Christ, Who sovereignly upholds all these things, determines their place, and keeps them in order. “To Him” says that everything, no matter how far from God’s Thought it may be, no matter how chaotic things may appear, is being directed, summed up, and gathered together into Christ. As the Alpha, all things flow from Him; as the Omega, all things flow to Him.
That is quite a paragraph. A paragraph like that cannot be grasped in one reading. But that paragraph is, in essence, what Paul means, and what we mean, by Christ having the preeminence in all things. We are talking about Jesus as Lord over us individually, over the Ekklesia corporately, and over all creation collectively. We are talking about a preeminent Christ Who is exalted above every principality and power, rule and dominion; things visible, things invisible; things past, things present, things future; things in heaven, things in earth, things under the earth: all things are of Him, all things are through Him, and all things are to Him. That is preeminence.
