The Prince Of Life

I think sometimes we forget the centrality of Jesus Christ to life, itself. I mean, His person and His work on the Cross are the standout elements of His incarnation. But, we are remiss when our conception of Him ends there. He is so much more than just our Lord and Savior (not to belittle His supreme offices one iota, of course). I think we forget that He is both eternal life and the originator of it. He originates, persists in, and gives eternal life. These are transcendent qualities far beyond our own finite beginnings.

Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.”
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
This is a perspective that we’d all do well in remembering, always. For if we forget that Jesus Christ is eternal life, we may unintentionally bring Him down to us, to our finite realm of thought and existence. If we rob Him of His eternal glory, we rob ourselves of perspective. In doing so, we affect our own sanctification because we are short-changing ourselves of knowing the true God of the Universe.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ. For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.
The righteous way to think of Jesus Christ is as He is aptly described in Holy Scripture, as the “Prince of life”. The Greek word for “Prince” means “originator, ruler, founder, or beginning of something.” It’s in this very description of Jesus Christ that we find our proper perspective. He isn’t just our Lord and Savior, He is much, much more.

But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. And on the basis of faith in His name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know; and the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.
The last thing we ever want to do is diminish the fullness of Christ. We should never confine Him to His work on earth alone, or even His work in us through salvation. That’s like trying to fit the ocean into a mason jar. While, in a human sense, it provides a certain convenience to our finite minds, it nonetheless would result in a gross underestimation of all that He is. While offensive to God, it’s tragic for us.

We can never perceive Christ’s essence as less than it is without damaging ourselves in the process.

Our dependence on Christ stretches far beyond human comprehension. It is by faith alone that we accept and abide in these truths. If we were to detract from and/or diminish Him in any way, what would happen to the necessary faith we cling to as the basis of our hope? In other words, if we begin to view Christ as merely a peer, though a perfect one, we have injured our own faith. “For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees” (Romans 8:24)? ”Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

Learn to reflect on Jesus Christ as both eternal life and the Author of the faith required to receive it. Your sanctification is tied to it. “Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). In doing so, watch the glory of God rise to new heights in your soul.

For with You is the fountain of life;
In Your light we see light.
For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.
And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
Love in Christ,

Ed Collins