please.d the Father that in Him [the second Per son of the Godhead] should all fulness dwell.” The words the Father are not in the earliest manuscripts. We could supply in their stead, the Godhead, but per haps it is best to render it this way: “In Him all fulness was pleased to dwell.” We shall consider this ex pression more fully when we read it again in chapter 2, verse 9. Here, it is sufficient to say that the totality of Deity resides in the Lord Jesus Christ. All that God is, Christ is. God has been fully manifested in Him. We know God because we know Christ, who said: “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). He is the fulness of God, the Pre-eminent One in eternity, in crea tion, in regeneration, and He is pre eminent in Prophecy. In the passage just considered we saw the pre-eminence of our Lord Jesus Christ in all things, and that in two particular realms He is the Firstborn—one, as the Firstborn of all creation, He was the Creator of all; and two, as the Firstborn from among the dead He is the Head of the church, which is His body. In the verses now before us, we shall see another twofold aspect of the work of Christ, that is, in reconcilia tion — first, the reconciling of all things to God; and second, the re conciliation of individual believers to God. In verse twenty, we read: “And, having made peace through the blood of His Cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether things in earth, or things in Heaven.” The reconciliation that is spoken of here is effected through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the reconciliation of all things unto Him self, both of things in Heaven, and things in earth. It is important to observe where these “all things” are —in Heaven and in earth. Not for one moment does this passage teach (or any other passage in the Word 31
unjust, that He might bring us to God (I Peter 3:18). But having been delivered for our offences, He was raised again for our justification— thus He became the Firstborn in quite another sense, the Firstborn THE STINGY OLD W OM A N A stingy Grandma was hatching geese, And prayed again and again, "Lord, I promise to give You one goose. If you will give me the ten." Well, sure enough He answered her prayer, And ere her praying did cease, She looked one morning and there in joy She found her ten little geese But one was crippled she sadly saw, And gave her head a quick nod, " I promised one to our Father above— That's the one I'll give to God." Nine lively geese all thrived and grew, But the tenth, it's sad to say, Grew weaker, yes weaker, that until It finally passed away. The stingy Grandma did not mind (You'd think that she really would;) But in her heart— that selfish old heart— She felt she'd done all she should. She talked to God: here's what she said, "I'm sorry. Lord, but I tried— The goose that I gave You— well you know That goose, I'm sorry, it died!" How many of us, I wonder sometimes, Give God "crippled geese" every day? The gifts which no one else would want, Things we'd just throw away? He wants the love that prompts our best, He's worthy of”all we can give; Don't be like the stingy Grandma— Give a "goose" that's going to live' from among the dead. And so His is the pre-eminence in all thingsc—in the Godhead, in creation, and in the church.” This pre-eminence is His because, as we read in verse nineteen, “It
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