The Supremacy of Christ

A topic of thought and many conversations in my life over the past two weeks has been the supremacy of Christ, in all things, all the time, in every way.

In between these two paragraphs, I did a Google search for "The Supremacy of Christ," and I found these words:

"The Apostle Paul wrote to show the superiority of Christ over all–over all human philosophies, traditions, personalities, and accomplishments. He wrote to remind Christians of what they already possess in Christ. He wants us to understand that everything we need, in Christ, we have—everything! All the freedom, security, acceptance, affection, approval, validation, protection, cleansing, righteousness and rescue we crave, in Christ, we already own. This frees us to live a life of radical generosity, risk, sacrifice, courage and loss. Because our identity, worth, and value doesn’t depend on our success, but Christ’s success for us, we can live life going to the back not getting to the front. We’re free, in other words, to become small.

Paul’s goal is to help us see the infinite supremacy and beauty of Jesus so we would be able to resist looking to anything smaller for the freedom and fullness we long for."

This is an excerpt from a blog written by Tullian Tchividjian in a blog put forth by The Gospel Coalition, which is, by design, the most fitting name to give to a team of ministers who forthrightly and unconditionally proclaim words like those written above in hopes of transforming the consumeristic, politicized, relativistic, individualistic, post-modernistic and ultimately self-serving idolatrous mindsets and practices that are running unchecked through rising generations of "Christians."

For those of you who may have gotten lost in the multi-syllabic adjectives I just used, the bottom line is this: It's really, truly, entirely, seriously, ultimately, once-and-for-all, one-hundred percent not about you. Nor me. Nor my church, your church, their church, this church, that church, or that obnoxious know-it-all blogging about all these churches. It's simply about Christ, in all things, in all ways, always.

Human philosophies and traditions—all Christ's! Human hobbies, interests, pastimes—all Christ's! Human relationships—Christ's! Human rights—we have none because we are Christ's!

What the Apostle Paul, Tchividjian, Idleman, Chan, my father, and so many other extraordinary men, leaders, and pastors are and have championed throughout all time, since Christ ascended into heaven and sent his Spirit to this earth on Pentecost, is that our lives, our fortunes, our jobs, our affections are his and and his alone.

But this man can show me in Scripture where it says it's okay for him to do this, that and the other thing.

That's fine, as long as those areas, along with every other facet of our lives, are subjected wholly to the supremacy of Christ, And this, we can only ensure, slowly, over time, through rigorous, diligent reading of his Word, which is able to see through our own lies through which we often refuse to see, ourselves, and search out from within us our true motives and intentions, our attitudes and mindsets, revealing every shortcoming, flaw, weakness, and area of our lives that we have yet to surrender to Christ.

*http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tullian/2010/06/28/the-supremacy-of-christ/