Presentation on theology of Christ by Todd Linn, PhD; Christology; adapted outline by Danny Akin, PhD on Colossians 1 and 2

1. CHRISTOLOGY
(The Study of Jesus Christ)

2. CHRISTOLOGY
(The Study of Jesus Christ)
His Person
(The ontological dimension)
(Who He is)
His Work
(The functional dimension
(What He does)

3. The Person
of Christ
Full Deity Full Humanity
(Two Natures / One Personality)

4. The Work of Christ
Sinless Life Vicarious Death
(substitutionary)
Bodily Resurrection

5. Four Great Christological Passages:
1. John 1:1-18; 8:58; 14:6
2. Philippians 2:5-11
3. Colossians 1:13-20; 2:9-10
4. Hebrews 1:1-3; 5-14; 2:5-18

6. “The Lordship of Jesus Christ”
(Colossians 1:13-23)
(outline adapted from Dr. Danny Akin, SEBTS)
I. Jesus is Lord of the CROSS (13-14)
1. God has delivered us from the power of
Satan (13)
“He has delivered us from the power of
darkness . . .
. . . and conveyed us into the kingdom of the
Son of His love.”

7. I. Jesus is Lord of the CROSS (13-14)
1. God has delivered us from the power of
Satan (13)
2. God has delivered us through the payment
of His Son (14)
“in whom we have redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of sins.”

8. “in whom we have redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of sins.”
• “redeemed” means “to release a prisoner
through the payment of a ransom.”
• It was understood in Paul’s day in the context
of slavery. A slave could be “purchased” at the
slave market and thus set free from the slave
market. And while free from the bondage of
slavery, he belonged to the one who redeemed
him.

9. • We were on the slave market because of sin.
The price to pay in order to purchase our
freedom was taking the punishment of our sins.
• The holy demands of God’s law meant that our
sin had to be punished.
• Jesus took our sins upon Himself and thus
“paid the price” in order to redeem us, or “set
us free.”
• Now, we belong to our Redeemer . . .

10. Redeemed how I love to proclaim it!
Redeemed by the blood of the lamb;
Redeemed through His infinite mercy,
His child and forever I am.

11. The necessity of both human and divine
natures in the God-Man:
Humanity:
• If Christ must act as the representative of man, He
himself had to be a man.
• Since it is man that sinned, it must be a man who
pays the penalty of sin.
• If He is the mediator (1 Tim. 2:5) who brings men
to God, He must have a foot in both camps; He
must become man in order to bring man to God.

12. The necessity of both human and divine
natures in the God-Man:
Deity:
• To save us, Christ underwent the wrath of God for
us, survived, brought us to share in His
resurrection and life, and is raising us to glory. If
He had not been God, He would not have survived.
• A mediator between God and man must Himself be
God if He is going to bring men to God.
Something less than God could not do it. A 20-foot
gulf cannot be bridged with an 18-foot ladder.

13. I. Jesus is Lord of the CROSS (13-14)
II. Jesus is Lord of COMMUNICATION (15)
“He is the image of God,”
• “image” is “icon.”
• Here, the word means that Christ is a “precise
and absolute correspondence, the perfect
visible manifestation of an invisible God.”

14. I. Jesus is Lord of the CROSS (13-14)
II. Jesus is Lord of COMMUNICATION (15)
1. He is the representation of God
“reflection”
2. He is the manifestation of God
“revelation”
• Christ is “essentially and absolutely the perfect
expression and representation of God.”
• Christ IS the image of God. Adam may have been
created in God’s image, but Christ IS God’s image.

15. The Point . . .
• JESUS CHRIST IS GOD!
• As Jesus Himself said in John 14:9,
“He who has seen me has seen the Father.”

16. I. Jesus is Lord of the CROSS (13-14)
II. Jesus is Lord of COMMUNICATION (15)
III. Jesus is Lord of CREATION (15-17)
• In verses 15-20, the word “all” occurs eight
times.
• He is Lord over everything!
1. He is Lord because of His sovereignty (15)
“the firstborn over all creation.”

17. • “firstborn” conveys the idea of “primacy, priority, and
supremacy.”
• NOT that Christ is the first of a long succession of
creatures.
• The term originally had the idea that the first son of
the family inherited the rights of the family name,
property, etc.
• Paul has in mind that Christ is God the Father’s first—
and only—Son. Not that Christ was ever somehow
“born” to God, but rather that in His relationship to
the Father in the Trinity, Christ enjoys all of the rights
and privileges which the Father bestows upon Him.

18. • “firstborn” refers here to “status,” not “time.”
• It means, “of first rank, of first importance.”
• This includes the right to oversee the creation
of all things, a creation that was created by
Him, through Him, and for Him. This is seen
in the very next verse where we see . . .

19. 2. He is Lord because of His agency (16)
“for by Him all things were created that are in
heaven and that are on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or dominions or
principalities or powers. All things were
created through Him and for Him.”
• Question: Who created the heavens and the
earth?
• Answer: God—by Christ, through Christ, for
Christ.

20. 3. He is Lord because of His priority (17)
“And He is before all things,”
• John 8:58

21. 4. He is Lord because of His consistency (17)
“and in Him all things consist”
• Jesus Christ keeps everything together. He
provides the necessary glue to hold all creation
together.

22. I. Jesus is Lord of the CROSS (13-14)
II. Jesus is Lord of COMMUNICATION (15)
III. Jesus is Lord of CREATION (15-17)
IV. Jesus is Lord of the CHURCH (18-20)
1. He is first (in position and resurrection)
(18)
“And He is the head of the body, the church,
who is the beginning, the firstborn from the
dead, that in all things He may have the
preeminence.”

23. IV. Jesus is Lord of the CHURCH (18-20)
1. He is first (in position and resurrection)
(18)
2. He has fullness (19)
“For it pleased the Father that in Him all the
fullness should dwell.”
• “all the fullness” means that Christ lacks
nothing of what it means to be God. He
possesses all the attributes of God.
• “dwell” means “to be at home permanently.”
Christ is always God.

24. IV. Jesus is Lord of the CHURCH (18-20)
1. He is first (in position and resurrection)
(18)
2. He has fullness (19)
3. He provides forgiveness (20)
“and by Him to reconcile all things to
Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or
things in heaven, having made peace through
the blood of His cross.”

25. • God wants to reconcile sinful man to Himself.
• To reconcile means to bring back into harmony.
• Illustration: accounting department.
• God can only bring about reconciliation by
punishing our sin completely.
• Jesus takes our punishment for us. He takes the
complete penalty of our sins and we are
reconciled.

26. I. Jesus is Lord of the CROSS (13-14)
II. Jesus is Lord of COMMUNICATION (15)
III. Jesus is Lord of CREATION (15-17)
IV. Jesus is Lord of the CHURCH (18-20)
V. Jesus is Lord of the CHRISTIAN (21-23)

27. Verses 21-23:
“And you, who were alienated and enemies in
your mind by wicked works, yet now He has
reconciled in the body of His flesh through
death, to present you holy, and blameless, and
above reproach in His sight—
--If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded
and steadfast, and are not moved away from the
hope of the gospel which you heard, which was
preached to every creature under heaven, of
which I, Paul, became a minister.”

28. • Reconciliation transforms us.
• Reconciliation appeases God’s wrath and
comes only through Christ, the sinless
substitute.
• If we are truly saved and have been reconciled,
then our lives will give evidence of this and we
will continue in the faith (v.23).

29. CONCLUSION
• Jesus Christ is Lord of all . . .
• Lord of the Cross
• Lord of Communication
• Lord of Creation
• Lord of the Church
• Lord of the Christian

30. • So, IS HE:
• Lord of your family?
• Lord of your finances?
• Lord of your time?
• Lord of your stuff?
• Lord of your life?
“If Christ is not Lord of all, He’s not Lord at
all.”