Colossians 1:15-20
I have a favorite commercial jingle. It accompanies a skin medicine commercial, and the key line is "Nothing is everything." Catchy and interesting.
It reminds me of a book by Tullian Tchividjian entitled, "Jesus + Nothing = Everything." The reason faithful Christians can claim that equation is based on Colossians 1:15-20 (NIV), Paul's eloquent statement of the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ:
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers 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. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
"All things" - in other words, everything - is in Jesus, through Jesus, and for Jesus. This is why Jesus + Nothing = Everything.
But an equation restatement serves as a warning. Because of infidelity that cost him his marriage and his pastorship, Tchividjian writes that he discovered Everything - Jesus = Nothing. When his life crumbled, Tchividjian ran the opposite direction from God, trying the equation Me + Nothing = Everything. But the equation didn't compute. It took years for him to return to Jesus and be restored to the original equation.
When we realize and accept the sufficiency of Jesus, our lives can be transformed to the abundance of everything: not material abundance, but the spiritual abundance that Jesus proclaims in the Gospels.
Please check out my May podcast just posted today. The overall podcast has been renamed the Practical Faith Academy Podcast. My May guest is Season Bowers, a radio host, pastor, podcaster, speaker, and author of "The Joy Bringer Challenge." The topic is how joy is integral to a seven-day practical faith. The easiest way to find the updated podcast (which has new links on some platforms, by the way) is to visit https://www.CecilTaylorMinistries.com/free-content and access links to jump to each platform's hosting of the podcast.
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