FIRST QUARTER 2026
SABBATH SCHOOL INSIGHT #8
FEBRUARY 21, 2026
"THE PREEMINENCE OF CHRIST".

 

When Everything Falls Apart

Every generation has a moment when the world feels like it’s slipping through its fingers. For some, it was the Great Depression. For others, it was 9/11. For many today, it’s the quiet dread that comes from scrolling headlines that feel like tremors beneath our feet. In those moments, a single question rises: 

What holds everything together?

Paul answers with a sentence so stark, so sweeping, so stabilizing that it cuts through the noise like a bell in the fog: “In Him all things hold together.”

Not in governments.
Not in markets.
Not in institutions.
Not in human strength.

In Him. He is the great “I AM.” This is the preeminence of Christ — the truth that steadies the trembling world, and especially the trembling believer. “I AM” means He is eternally present. He is “God Almighty!”

Moses was introduced to Christ as the “I AM” at the burning bush. (Exodus 3:1-14). “I AM” is Who is and What He is. Later, on Mount Sinai, while Moses prayed to Him, he asked to see His glory. God replied that He will place Moses in a cleft of the rock; then He will pass before him (Exodus 33:13-23). 

Next the great “I AM” declared His name. It is recorded in Exodus 34:6,7. His name encompasses what He is and what we need. Do you need mercy and grace? Christ Jesus says “I AM…merciful and gracious.” Are you in need of “longsuffering”? That’s His name. Do you need His “goodness and truth”? He answers, “I AM…abounding in goodness and truth.” Do you need mercy? He promises “I AM…keeping mercy for thousands.” What about my sins? He states explicitly “I AM…forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” Whatsoever we need, that is what He is for us. But doesn’t He say He will “by no means clear the guilty? Yes He does. However, He will remove the guilt when we accept Christ by faith alone as our righteousness and our justification. 

Whatever our need, He supplies with Who and What He is.

When Jesus came to earth, The Invisible God was Made Visible

Paul begins with a claim that would have startled the ancient world: “He is the image of the invisible God.”

In a world of idols carved from stone and gods imagined in human likeness, Paul declares that the true God has made Himself visible — not in marble, not in myth, but in a Man.

This is stark simplicity: If you want to know what the Father  is like, look at Jesus. He is the “I AM.” His compassion is God’s compassion. His tears are God’s tears. His forgiveness is God’s forgiveness. His cross is God’s heart laid bare. Christ is not a window into God. He is the face of God.

The Firstborn Over All Creation — A Title of Authority

Paul calls Christ “the firstborn over all creation.” Not first created — but first in rank, first in authority, first in purpose. In the ancient world, the firstborn son was the heir, the one who carried the family’s name, authority, and inheritance. The firstborn could be the last of eight siblings such as David. He was the last child in the family, but he was the “firstborn” in authority, even the kingship because God gave him that authority. Paul uses that cultural image to say: Christ is the rightful ruler of everything that exists. This is not poetry. It is a claim of cosmic authority.

Through Him, For Him, Held Together by Him

Paul’s next words read like a journalist’s rapid-fire summary of a breaking story:

·       By Him all things were created

·       Through Him all things exist

·       For Him all things were made

·       In Him all things hold together

Creation is not a random explosion of matter. It is a Christ- centered reality.

Every law of physics, every star in the sky, every breath in your lungs is held together by the ongoing will of Christ. If He withdrew His sustaining hand, the universe would collapse into silence. This is the calm beneath the chaos: Christ is not merely part of the story — He is the structure of the story.

The Head of the Body — Christ and His Church

Paul shifts from the cosmos to the church with a transition so smooth it feels inevitable:

“He is the head of the body, the church.”

The One who holds galaxies together also holds the church together.

Not tradition.
Not culture.
Not leadership.
Not programs.
Not personalities.

Christ.

When the church forgets this, it fractures. When the church remembers this, it flourishes. The preeminence of Christ is not only a cosmic truth — it is a congregational necessity.

The Firstborn From the Dead — The New Creation Begins

Paul then moves from creation to resurrection: “He is the firstborn from the dead.” Not in time, because others were raised from death long before He was, Moses being the first in time. But Christ is the “firstborn” in purpose. This is not a metaphor. It is a declaration that the new creation has already begun — in Him. Christ’s resurrection is not just proof of life after death. It is the inauguration of a new world, a new humanity, a new future. The empty tomb is the hinge of history.

The Fullness of God in Him — The Gospel in One Sentence

Paul then delivers one of the most astonishing claims in Scripture: “In Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” Not part of God. Not a reflection of God. Not an echo of God. All the fullness of God!

This is the gospel in one sentence: God has given Himself to us fully in Christ so that we may be reconciled fully to Him through Christ.

Reconciliation Through His Blood — The Cross as Cosmic Peace

Paul ends with reconciliation at the cross: “Through Him to reconcile all things… making peace through the blood of His cross.” The cross is not a tragic end to a good life. It is the cosmic center of God’s plan. At the cross:

·       creation is reclaimed

·       rebellion is confronted

·       sin is condemned

·       justice is satisfied

·       mercy is unleashed

·       peace is purchased

·       the attributes of God are reconciled

The One who created all things is the One who reconciles all things. This is the narrative calm at the heart of the universe:
Christ has made peace.

Paul is explicit in this: one of the great purposes of Christ crucified was to reconcile things in heaven (Colossians 1:20). What could this possibly be? 

The following are the most vivid and theologically rich portrayals of the cross in all of Ellen White’s writings. They dramatize the cosmic tension between justice and mercy, brought about by Satan, and reveal how Christ’s death resolved that tension not by compromise, but by reconciliation without dilution. 

The Conflict: When Justice and Mercy Stand Apart

“Justice and Mercy stood apart, in opposition to each other, separated by a wide gulf…. He planted His cross midway between heaven and earth, and made it the object of attraction which reached both ways, drawing both Justice and Mercy across the gulf. Justice moved from its exalted throne, and with all the armies of heaven approached the cross. There it saw One equal with God bearing the penalty for all injustice and sin. With perfect satisfaction Justice bowed in reverence at the cross, saying, It is enough.”—General Conference Bulletin, Fourth Quarter, 1899, vol. 3, p. 102. 

“His [Christ's] object was to reconcile the prerogatives of justice and mercy, and let each stand separate in its dignity, yet united. His mercy was not weakness, but a terrible power to punish sin because it is sin; yet a power to draw to it the love of humanity. Through Christ Justice is enabled to forgive without sacrificing one jot of its exalted holiness.” —General Conference Bulletin, Fourth Quarter, 1899, vol. 3, p. 102.

“Justice demands that sin be not merely pardoned, but the death penalty must be executed. God, in the gift of His only begotten Son, met both these requirements. By dying in man's stead, Christ exhausted the penalty and provided a pardon.”— 1 Selected Messages, p. 340, Manuscript 50, 1900.

“God bowed His head satisfied. Now justice and mercy could blend. Now He could be just, and yet the Justifier of all who should believe on Christ. He [God] looked upon the victim expiring on the cross, and said, ‘It is finished. The human race shall have another trial.’ The redemption price was paid, and Satan fell like lightning from heaven. —Youth’s Instructor, June 21, 1900. 

“The only-begotten Son of God took upon Him the nature of man, and established His cross between earth and heaven. Through the cross, man was drawn to God, and God to man. Justice moved from its high and awful position, and the heavenly hosts, the armies of holiness, drew near to the cross, bowing with reverence; for at the cross justice was satisfied. Through the cross the sinner was drawn from the stronghold of sin, from the confederacy of evil, and at every approach to the cross his heart relents and in penitence he cries, ‘It was my sins that crucified the Son of God.' At the cross he leaves his sins, and through the grace of Christ His character is transformed. The Redeemer raises the sinner from the dust, and places him under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.”—The Signs of the Times, June 5, 1893.

“Satan's charge in regard to the conflicting attributes of justice and mercy was forever settled beyond question.”—Manuscript 128, 1897.

At the cross justice and mercy; truth and peace were drawn together—reconciled—never more to be separated (Psalm 85:10).

So there we have it. This week’s lesson. The preeminence of Christ. In the end, every path we walk, every truth we teach, and every hope we cling to leads us back to one radiant center — Christ Himself. He is the image of the invisible God, the Creator who spoke galaxies into being, the Sustainer who holds every breath in place, the Redeemer who bore our sin, the volunteer Sacrifice who reconciled God’s attributes, and the risen Lord who guarantees our future. When the world shakes, He remains. When our strength fails, His does not. When every earthly glory fades, His preeminence stands untouched. And so the call of Colossians is not merely to admire Him, but to enthrone Him — in our thinking, our living, our worship, and our witness. For Christ is not simply first in the universe; He must be first in us. And when He is, everything else finally finds its place.

 

~Jerry Finneman