Following on from last week’s introductory post, we begin our look at Mark Greene and Antony Billington’s brilliant little book with the idea of a ‘whole-life gospel’ – the subject of their first study. The starting-point here is Colossians 1:15–23, which paints a breathtaking picture of Jesus as supreme above all, the source, sustainer and Lord of all creation and the centre of our existence as Christians. The multiple views of Jesus we are given here (following a suggestion in the book, I’ve tried to summarise these in the image for this post) highlight his central role in every aspect of the universe, from creation, through redemption, and into the eternal future. It’s through and for Jesus that everything, visible and invisible, is created; it’s through him that all things are reconciled to God, through his blood; it’s because of this reconciliation that we have the hope of appearing before God pure and holy, as part of his body, the church.
Greene and Billington highlight verses 19–20 as a summary of God’s saving work through Jesus:
For God was pleased to have all his fulness 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.
NIV
As they rightly point out, this passage presents quite a challenge to anyone who views the truth of the gospel purely in terms of forgiveness from our sins and access to heaven when we die. In fact, there’s much more than this at stake. Paul presents here an act of total reconciliation that involves the whole of the universe, and starts now, not just in the hope of heaven ahead (in verse 22 he says ‘now he has reconciled you’). This affects every aspect of our lives, then – we benefit from this total forgiveness and reconciliation, and in Christ we are called as servants of this process. As Paul says, ’This is the gospel that you heard’ (v23).
What might this mean for those of us who work in academia? A few ideas:
- Jesus is still Lord over all. I was particularly struck by Paul’s comment that both ‘visible’ and ‘invisible’ things were created in Jesus. Ideas, streams of thought, academic trends and cross-currents – these are often vague and intangible, yet Jesus asserts his right to lordship over them as much as anything else in creation. Even if our daily work involves ‘invisible’ things, we are just as capable of offering them to Jesus as someone who deals in ‘visible’ objects or actions.
- All things are to be reconciled. Our call is not just to maintain the status quo in our environment whilst inwardly acknowledging our Lord. We are agents of the reconciliation God is working through Jesus. What might it mean for you to bring Christ’s reconciliation within your own field? Within your university or department? Or between your academic work and the other dimensions of your life?
- In him all things hold together. With the above in mind, I find it a real encouragement that it is Jesus, not us, who has taken on the responsibility of sustaining everything. If we forget this, our glorious calling to serve him becomes a crushing burden, just another way in which we can feel inadequate. We are called to follow him in our lives, wherever they might lead. If he’s called us into academia, we can be assured that he is going ahead of us, and our sole responsibility is to keep close to him and act in vigilant responsiveness to what we see him doing.
- God with us - December 19, 2023
- Art in times of crisis - October 3, 2022
- Flourishing trees - July 11, 2022
