The description in Colossians 1 should leave us in awe of Jesus Christ. When we read passages like this, we see that there is no middle ground: We must either believe that Jesus is the supreme God or believe that He was a crazy, dis­illusioned teacher who thought He was God. You can’t land in between. The claims Jesus made about Himself and the claims His followers made about Him leave no room to think He was just a regular man, a good teacher, or a political revolutionary.

Paul describes Jesus’ identity in Colossians 1:15-20, and reading it, we are left with a picture of Jesus as the one who is supreme over all things and worthy of being worshiped and loved. This passage describes Him as the one who existed before anything else, the one who holds all creation together, the head of His family of faith, the Lord over death, and the ultimate source of peace for humankind. He is supreme. No one else is even comparable.