“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 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 1:16-18

We read here in Colossians 1 that in all things Jesus should have the preeminence, or in everyday terminology, “first place.” Why? Because by him and for him were all things created and by him all things “consist,” or in other words are “held together” by the glue that is Jesus! These should be reasons enough to put him at the head of the table, right?!

Brothers and sisters, in a world that is increasingly anti-Christ, we need to be increasingly pro-Jesus. In a generation in which the philosophers and scholars of this world want to scrub the existence of Jesus from human history by changing BC to BCE and AD to CE, we need to be proactively proclaiming what he’s done for humanity—past, present and future.

In a time when modern religion wants to water down the character and constitution of Jesus to make him out to be a milk-toast hippy, we need to declare the truth about Jesus as only revealed in the Gospels and Epistles written to the New Testament Church. Friends, Jesus is all the Bible says he is, and that’s a goodness that is beyond our finite imagination!

With that goal in mind, I want to share with you over the next couple of weeks a truth about Jesus that I hope will help all of us to see him more accurately and enable us to make much of him and what he has done for us in his death and resurrection. I don’t share this truth to upset the applecart or in an attempt to prove right or wrong one denomination or another, or to push anyone into a crisis of faith.

Why the disclaimer? Because some of what I’ll share with you is not believed on by many Christians today. Why? Is it because it’s not in the Bible? Or because what’s in the Scripture is debatable as to its interpretation historically? Nope! But rather, it’s not believed upon by many Christians today because they have exchanged a belief in the Biblical record of Jesus for modern ideologies and personal experiences.

So, with the disclaimer out of the way, let’s think about Romans 15:29 for a moment. There, Paul, writing to the Roman Christians, states, “And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.” Here Paul speaks of the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ. Two keywords stand out to me in that verse: firstly, “fulness,” and secondly, the “gospel.”

Now, by the nature of its definition “fulness” speaks of gradients or levels. It relays the idea of a maximum, but then by logical extension, a minimum and all the points in between. The concept of the “gospel” is pretty well defined in the rest of the Bible and can be summed up as the “good news” of what Jesus has accomplished for us on the cross and in the empty tomb.

Historically, on a doctrinal level, the “gospel” is both what Jesus taught and lived as he walked this planet close to 2000 years ago and what his disciples after him shared with the world up until this day. That said, the “gospel” Paul was speaking of is much of the same gospel you have always believed it to be—the good news about our salvation, our forgiveness from sin, and of our eternal life to come, but remember, Paul spoke of a hope that those Roman believers would enjoy the “fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ.”

What’s he speaking of here? What would this “full gospel blessing” be? That’s a question that needs answered if we are going to enjoy all that Jesus has provided for us in this life!

Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.