What Did Jesus Do?

Jesus Got Things Started, and Keeps Them Going

And God said…

Genesis 1:3

You’ve seen the bumper stickers and t-shirts: “Know Jesus=Know Peace.  No Jesus=No Peace.”  True as this is, it doesn’t say it all, because the fact is: No Jesus=No nuthin’ (If you will please excuse the causal but familiar idiom).  Simply put, as the apostle Paul was wont to do, “For by him all things were created…all things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16; see also John 1:3).

You see, in the beginning God did not to go his workshop, put on his tool belt, and start making things.  Genesis 1 tells us that God began to speak, and his Word caused things to come into being, as in, “‘Let there BE light,’ and there was light.” So God just kept on speaking, and his Word just kept on causing all that God spoke to come into being.  No Word=No Creation.  But the Word does more than simply create, it sustains, it supports, it keeps everything from flying to pieces, for it is in the Word that all things hold together (Colossians 1:17).

I can’t speak for you, but I sure believe that we owe everything to the Word.  Nothing, including you and me, would have ever existed without the Word.  Or, if the Word had stepped back from all it created and left things to themselves, everything would have fallen apart long ago.  Yep, it’s the Word that got things started, and it’s the Word that keeps things going.

Now, here’s why I said No Jesus=No nuthin’—Jesus is the Word.  Budweiser might be the last word in beer, but, with no disrespect to Anheuser-Busch, the truth is when you say Jesus, you’ve said it all!  Jesus is, if you will, the Alpha-Omega  (see Revelation 1:8).

Regardless of how much people ignore him, no matter how much science denies him, no matter how much the world rejects him, the fact is everything is in the hands of Jesus, and this is so according to the will of the Father (see John 3:35).  Jesus is the “Alpha,” in whom all things have their beginning.  He is also the “- ” who holds everything together and keeps things going.  And, as all the world will one day find out, he is the “Omega,” who will bring all things to the end ordained for them according to Father. 

Here’s the thing about the end—without the Word, without Jesus, the richest of the rich, the wisest of the wise, the strongest of the strong will have nothing, and will endure and suffer with nothing for eternity.  But the poorest of the poor, the simplest of the simple, the weakest of the weak who have the Word, who have Jesus, will have everything, and enjoy him and all good things forever.

S.D.G.

Jim

www.jimwilkenministries.org

Marion, NC

PS 37.4