Exalting Christ
Exalting Christ Above All: What It Means to Truly Make Jesus Lord
There is a question that cuts through every distraction of modern life and lands squarely at the center of what it means to follow Jesus: What does it actually look like to make Christ preeminent in everything? Not just in the quiet moments of a Sunday morning, but in the flat tire on the way to an important meeting, in the detour caused by unexpected construction, in the fogged-up glasses when you open the oven door and suddenly cannot see a thing?
The book of Colossians, all four chapters of it, offers a remarkably clear and practical answer. It is a letter written to a church that needed to be reminded of something we still need to hear today: Jesus Christ is not simply a helpful addition to a well-managed life. He is the center, the authority, the provision, and the very life of every person who names Him as Lord.
Exalting Christ in Our Faith
The foundation of everything begins with who Jesus actually is. Colossians 1:15-16 describes Christ as the image of the invisible God, the one through whom and for whom all things were created. This is not poetry meant to be admired from a distance. It is a declaration of reality. Colossians 2:9 reinforces this by affirming that in Christ, the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God became visible. John 1:14 captures this moment by describing the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among humanity, full of grace and truth. The invisible became touchable. The eternal entered time. And if the fullness of God dwells in Christ, and Christ dwells in those who believe, then there is no circumstance too chaotic, no storm too fierce, and no tomb too sealed for His authority to reach.
Consider the moments in the Gospels that we tend to treat as spectacular anomalies. Jesus walking on water in the middle of the night. Jesus commanding the winds and waves to be still. Jesus calling Lazarus out of the grave, bound in burial cloths. These were not moments where Jesus stretched to the edge of His ability. These were simply the God of the universe speaking to His own creation, and creation having no choice but to obey. Death could not hold Lazarus because the Author of life commanded otherwise.
This is the Christ we are invited to exalt. Not a religious figure to be admired, but a living Lord to be trusted. Colossians 1:19-20 tells us that God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Christ, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, making peace through the blood shed on the cross. His work alone is worthy of our exaltation.
Exalting Christ in Our Focus
Knowing who Christ is changes what we set our attention on. Colossians 3:1-3 calls believers to set their hearts and minds on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, because their lives are now hidden with Christ in God. This is not a call to be so heavenly minded that we become no earthly good. It is a call to see earthly things through a heavenly lens.
The honest challenge is that our focus drifts. It gets pulled toward money, possessions, status, and the hundred small irritations that crowd out what matters most. A late bus. A road closure. A phone ringing at exactly the wrong moment. None of these things are evil in themselves, but when they become the dominant reality of our inner life, we lose the peace that Christ promises.
Colossians 3:11 offers a striking corrective. It declares that in Christ there is no Greek or Jew, no slave or free, no division of culture or background that ultimately defines us, because Christ is all and in all. When He becomes the center of our focus, the things that once divided or distracted us lose their grip.
Philippians 1:21 captures this focus in one of the most compressed and powerful statements in all of Scripture. The apostle Paul, writing from prison, declared that for him to live was Christ and to die was gain. This was not resignation. It was a man so captivated by the reality of Christ that everything else had been properly ordered beneath that singular devotion.
The Practical Shape of an Exalted Life
So what does this actually look like on a Tuesday afternoon? Colossians 3:16 gives us two practical anchors. The first is letting the Word of God dwell in us richly. The word translated "dwell" carries the idea of making oneself at home, not sitting politely in the living room but moving freely through every room of the house. When we allow Scripture to move freely through every room of our inner life, including the private spaces we would rather keep closed, it transforms our thinking, our attitudes, our desires, and our responses to the world around us.
The second anchor is gratitude expressed through song, through psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness to God. There is something about a grateful heart that reorients the soul. It is difficult to be consumed by anxiety and genuinely thankful at the same time. Gratitude is not denial of difficulty. It is the declaration that God is greater than the difficulty.
Philippians 4:6-7 promises that when we bring everything to God in prayer and thanksgiving, the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. That word "guard" carries a military image. It is not a passive calm. It is an active, protective force standing watch over the interior life of the believer.
Colossians 3:17 draws everything together with a sweeping statement: whatever you do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. To act in His name is to act in both identification and authority. It is to say, I am His, and I move through this world in the power He has given, not in my own.
The invitation is not complicated, though it is costly. It is simply this: give Christ the center. Every room. Every focus. Every word and deed. And watch what He does with a life fully surrendered to His lordship.
There is a question that cuts through every distraction of modern life and lands squarely at the center of what it means to follow Jesus: What does it actually look like to make Christ preeminent in everything? Not just in the quiet moments of a Sunday morning, but in the flat tire on the way to an important meeting, in the detour caused by unexpected construction, in the fogged-up glasses when you open the oven door and suddenly cannot see a thing?
The book of Colossians, all four chapters of it, offers a remarkably clear and practical answer. It is a letter written to a church that needed to be reminded of something we still need to hear today: Jesus Christ is not simply a helpful addition to a well-managed life. He is the center, the authority, the provision, and the very life of every person who names Him as Lord.
Exalting Christ in Our Faith
The foundation of everything begins with who Jesus actually is. Colossians 1:15-16 describes Christ as the image of the invisible God, the one through whom and for whom all things were created. This is not poetry meant to be admired from a distance. It is a declaration of reality. Colossians 2:9 reinforces this by affirming that in Christ, the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, God became visible. John 1:14 captures this moment by describing the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among humanity, full of grace and truth. The invisible became touchable. The eternal entered time. And if the fullness of God dwells in Christ, and Christ dwells in those who believe, then there is no circumstance too chaotic, no storm too fierce, and no tomb too sealed for His authority to reach.
Consider the moments in the Gospels that we tend to treat as spectacular anomalies. Jesus walking on water in the middle of the night. Jesus commanding the winds and waves to be still. Jesus calling Lazarus out of the grave, bound in burial cloths. These were not moments where Jesus stretched to the edge of His ability. These were simply the God of the universe speaking to His own creation, and creation having no choice but to obey. Death could not hold Lazarus because the Author of life commanded otherwise.
This is the Christ we are invited to exalt. Not a religious figure to be admired, but a living Lord to be trusted. Colossians 1:19-20 tells us that God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Christ, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, making peace through the blood shed on the cross. His work alone is worthy of our exaltation.
Exalting Christ in Our Focus
Knowing who Christ is changes what we set our attention on. Colossians 3:1-3 calls believers to set their hearts and minds on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God, because their lives are now hidden with Christ in God. This is not a call to be so heavenly minded that we become no earthly good. It is a call to see earthly things through a heavenly lens.
The honest challenge is that our focus drifts. It gets pulled toward money, possessions, status, and the hundred small irritations that crowd out what matters most. A late bus. A road closure. A phone ringing at exactly the wrong moment. None of these things are evil in themselves, but when they become the dominant reality of our inner life, we lose the peace that Christ promises.
Colossians 3:11 offers a striking corrective. It declares that in Christ there is no Greek or Jew, no slave or free, no division of culture or background that ultimately defines us, because Christ is all and in all. When He becomes the center of our focus, the things that once divided or distracted us lose their grip.
Philippians 1:21 captures this focus in one of the most compressed and powerful statements in all of Scripture. The apostle Paul, writing from prison, declared that for him to live was Christ and to die was gain. This was not resignation. It was a man so captivated by the reality of Christ that everything else had been properly ordered beneath that singular devotion.
The Practical Shape of an Exalted Life
So what does this actually look like on a Tuesday afternoon? Colossians 3:16 gives us two practical anchors. The first is letting the Word of God dwell in us richly. The word translated "dwell" carries the idea of making oneself at home, not sitting politely in the living room but moving freely through every room of the house. When we allow Scripture to move freely through every room of our inner life, including the private spaces we would rather keep closed, it transforms our thinking, our attitudes, our desires, and our responses to the world around us.
The second anchor is gratitude expressed through song, through psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness to God. There is something about a grateful heart that reorients the soul. It is difficult to be consumed by anxiety and genuinely thankful at the same time. Gratitude is not denial of difficulty. It is the declaration that God is greater than the difficulty.
Philippians 4:6-7 promises that when we bring everything to God in prayer and thanksgiving, the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. That word "guard" carries a military image. It is not a passive calm. It is an active, protective force standing watch over the interior life of the believer.
Colossians 3:17 draws everything together with a sweeping statement: whatever you do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. To act in His name is to act in both identification and authority. It is to say, I am His, and I move through this world in the power He has given, not in my own.
The invitation is not complicated, though it is costly. It is simply this: give Christ the center. Every room. Every focus. Every word and deed. And watch what He does with a life fully surrendered to His lordship.
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