One of the great confessional statements of the early church, and echoed down through the centuries is “Jesus is Lord!”  In Colossians chapter 1, Paul gave one of the greatest defenses of this truth in the Scriptures.  The doctrine of Christ presented here is perhaps the highest Christology in the New Testament.  Jesus is the image of the invisible God (God manifested in the flesh, 1:15); by Christ all things were created (1:16); He is before all things and in Him all the universe is held together (1:17); He is the head of the body, the church; in His death Christ provided redemption, forgiveness of sins, and reconciliation (1:14, 21).  Indeed, Jesus is Lord, and when we receive Him as our Lord and Savior (2:6-7) we are forgiven, and have the hope, that is the certain expectation that we will spend eternity with Him in glory (1:27; 3:4).

There is an inseparable connection between one’s confession, “Jesus is Lord,” and one’s commitment to live under His lordship.  This is clear from a question Jesus asked, “But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46).  Paul urged the Colossians believers, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” (2:6).  Since we have received Jesus as Lord we must not only submit to His lordship, but grow stronger in Christian character and faith.  Paul goes on to write in verse 7, “rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.”