Why do we worship Jesus? It’s easy for us to focus on what He has done for us. Verse 20 recalls the marvelous truth that He has made peace between God and man by offering the perfect sacrifice for us on the cross. Moreover, because He shed His blood for all who would trust in Him, He has made peace between all His people, making us all one family of faith, part of His very body (v. 18).

But how was Jesus able to do all this? Because of what the rest of this passage says about Him. For He is not only the Son of Man Who lived a sinless life, and thus has offered up a perfect sacrifice. No, He is also the Son of God. He has always existed (v. 17), and everything was created for Him (v. 16). In fact, it is Jesus, not gravity, that holds the entire universe together (v. 17).

In fact, John’s gospel calls Him the Word of God (John 1:1), and since Genesis 1 tells us that God spoke the universe into existence, that means He was somehow the agent, the conduit through which God’s creative power flowed (verse 16).

So, what does all this mean? In His divine power, Jesus had to know everything that was going to happen to Him from the very dawn of time. Even as the creative forces flowed through Him, bringing the hills and trees into existence, breathing the breath into Adam, He knew that Adam would sin, and that his sin would eventually require Jesus to be nailed to one of those trees He had designed, propped up on a hill He had fashioned.

But in spite of the pain and the death He knew His creation would cause Him, He spoke the world into being anyway. He, the perfect image of God, allowed us to bear that same image, even though He knew we would twist it all up, killing Him in the process. And because He is the Son of God, His sacrifice was worth enough to redeem all the sinners throughout space and time who would put their trust in Him.

Can we imagine a love any greater? Compared to Jesus, could there be anyone or anything else worthy of our emulation, of our adoration?

Colossians 1:15-20 (ESV)

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things were created through him and for him.
17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
18 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.
19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.