Wednesday: The “Beginning” (and Initiator)
Daily Lesson for Wednesday 18th of February 2026
Read Colossians 1:18. What is the connection between the idea of Christ as the head and Him as the “beginning”?
In Hebrew the words for head (roʾš) and beginning (rēʾšît) are related. The first instance of the latter word in Scripture is in Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning [rēʾšît] God created the heaven and the earth.” Jesus is head of humanity and of the church, not only because of the Incarnation but also because He is the Creator.
Image © John Baker at Goodsalt.com
In Greek, the word for beginning (archē) has a broad meaning. Here, “beginning” refers to Jesus as the source or initiator of the church (Colossians 1:18), and therefore its Head, just as He is the “beginning” or initiator of Creation.
Jesus is not only the initiator in terms of Creation and the church, He is also—through His resurrection from the dead (Romans 6:3-4)—the initiator of the new creation. Because the wages of sin is death, His victory over death also shows His victory over sin and His power to re-create us in His image. All this demonstrates why He is “the firstborn from the dead” (on the meaning of “firstborn,” see Monday’s study). His is the preeminent resurrection, even though not the first (Moses was the first, which is why the dispute with the devil ensued over his body [Jude 1:9]). Without Christ’s resurrection, no one else could be raised from the dead.
It’s helpful at this point to review briefly all the reasons Paul has given for Jesus having preeminence:
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He is the perfect manifestation of the invisible God.
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He is the agent by whom all things were created.
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He existed before all things, and all things are brought together in Him.
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He is the head of the church, which is His body.
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He is the initiator of Creation and the re-creation.
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He has conquered sin and death and thus earned the right to resurrect all who put their trust in Him as Savior.
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Jesus has always existed, but now, by virtue of all this, He has come to have the preeminence as Head of humanity and Head of the church.
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What must you change so that you can better experience Christ’s preeminence in your own life? |
The lesson author asks “What must you change so that you can better experience Christ’s preeminence in your own life?”
There is a certain rationale behind Christianity, which suggests that if we present the argument correctly, we can prove Christianity to be right. If you go to almost any Christian website, ours included. You will hear arguments that this and that is right, and that the other thing is heresy. If we are to have any chance of sharing the Gospel in this modern world, the very first evidence we must show is that we love and care for one another. Evangelistic zeal is not a substitute for pastoral care.
Christ’s ministry was preeminently one of pastoral care, and when you read his great sermon, you realise that it’s theme was one of service and love to others.
I Corinthians 13:3 NKJV
[3] And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
Maurice, thanks for your comment this morning, but how does 1 Corinthians 13:3 relate to it.
I think that the notion that if you die a martyr you are going to be saved is partly the reasoning behind cultic suicides such as Jonestown , and the Branch Davidians. They skipped over the love bit to get to the “burnt body” bit, and missed the idea that it’s how you live that’s important; not how you die.
Agreed.
However, the text also speaks about how we live. It says that we could be engaged in giving all that we have to the poor. This is a loving action, and there are many people and groups of people who do such things. For example, doctors without boarders, Mother Theresa, people who volunteer on the Mercy Ship, many missionaries, etc. I have also (without financial gain) done this for years, and I am currently do it as I am writing. So, something seems to be missing, somewhere.
I understand your concern, however I am mindful too that I am not the judge of the motivation of others who do good works. I am reminded that all true goodness comes from God.
Thanks much. True goodness can only come from God.
Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
We must change how we used to see him ,he’s the creator the head of the church he existed before the foundation of the earth,he chose before the foundation of the us he loves this will help us see his prominence
Christ’s ability to make new things did not end at creation neither did it end at His resurrection. Even today, He still create new things out of worst life situations and conditions.
What are the worst life situations that we are going through today?
A new beginning is possible with Christ don’t give up yet.
Is anyone thinking it’s not possible to begin a new having sank too deep into sin?
Truth is, a new beginning is possible with Christ only get recommitted to Him, sincerely ask for His mercy and pardon and He will regenerate your heart and clothe you with His righteousness.
Is there marital crisis? Before you consider signing the divorce papers ask God through Christ to intervene, and He will help you to rediscover the love upon which He instituted the marriage and help you to begin a new.
Is anyone having academic challenges? Christ is able to make something new and beautiful out of the ugly situation.
For Christ to make new things out of whatever situations that we don’t feel happy about, we must let go of self and let Him have preeminence over our lives.
Yes, “The warfare against self is the greatest battle that was ever fought.” STC The question I have is, did Christ also fight this battle..? He resisted the temptation to summon “10,000 angels” to fight His battle. Christ fought the battle against self just as we must, as a man, resisting the devil and submitting to His Father, overcoming as we must overcome. Revelation 3:21
In most vaginal births (known as cephalic presentation), the baby’s head comes out first. The top or crown of the head typically appears first, followed by the shoulders and the rest of the body.
The world cannot exist without Christ.
Christ is the one through which all things came to existence.
Take away Christ and the world is doomed.
All our dependence should be on him because he susbstains all things.
The statement “In the beginning” in the Bible is a profound declaration that speaks to some of life’s greatest questions: Where do we come from? Where are we going? How should we live? How did God create the world? Why did He give life to humanity? In essence, the beginning provides both a historical and theological account of God’s work. In His love, He created a world that was beautiful, rich, and matchless, and above all, He created man in His own image. This demonstrates why the beginning cannot fit neatly into a purely scientific publication. Science seeks primarily to answer the question “How?” whereas the Bible seeks to answer the deeper question, “Why?”
The Bible teaches of an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God who made the earth—a terrestrial body whose solid surface, abundant waters, and oxygen-rich atmosphere combine to create conditions suitable for life.
The earth, nearly spherical in appearance, has an equatorial radius of more than 6,378 kilometers (3,963 miles). It possesses a strong magnetic field that shields it from the dangerous direct effects of ionized solar radiation, without which human existence would not be possible. No wonder the Epistle to the Colossians tells us that the Son of God holds all things together: “For by Him all things were created… and in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:16–17). God’s creation was ex nihilo—out of nothing. Without God, we would be left in chaos, where human life would be impossible. In the words of Ray Stedman, “God is absolutely necessary for the completeness of life.” Without Him, we cannot fully understand the world around us. We cannot understand ourselves, our neighbors, or even God Himself.
The beginning explains that excluding God from the equation of our existence leads to misery, heartache, darkness, and futility—at best, emptiness and boredom. The beginning is therefore an invitation to return to the principle of faith in God, where we find help, spiritual health, and true happiness in life. His creation reveals His mighty power at work, His wondrous order, and His loving kindness toward humanity.
What can I keep on with to continue to experience the Preeminence of Christ?
Daily relationship with Christ.
I won’t be a fool despising wisdom and instruction, rather I will fear(reverence) the Lord my God, understanding that it is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 1:7.
Abide in Him. 1 John 2:28.
Be in Christ. Or of Christ is you prefer, even with Christ. Galatians 2:20.
Be born again of the water and the Spirit. John 3:5
Also keep our thoughts on a superior God. I certainly like a superior God. It sets Him above all, which is important to me. Colossians 2:10. God is my Redeemer, Saviour, Friend, and my Heavenly Father. We are sons and daughters of God. 2 Corinthians 6:14. All this is putting God as superior to all. I love it, praise the Lord (PTL). Psalm 150:2.
Christ is the beginning and initiator of a new life in you. It is possible that you have been going through a lot of challenges but today’s lesson is challenging us to welcome Him in our lives so that He may initiate a better life in us. He is able to begin a quality life in us. Let us call upon Him to initiate the desired changes in us.
This week we have studied in greater detail about the preeminence of Jesus Christ. It is equally important to remind ourselves of what we can do to better experience the supremacy of Christ in our lives. What can we possibly do to make Jesus Christ the Lord of our lives? The Lordship of Christ in our lives should not simply be a slogan but actualised.
1. We need to surrender our lives daily to the control of the Holy Spirit. We should allow the Holy Spirit to take charge of our lives. We must yield to the prompting of the inner voice (Luke 9:23).
2. We have to study and meditate on the Word of God daily. We must deepen our knowledge on who is Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:15–18). We must reflect more and more on His divine power. We must have a clearer vision of Him.
3. We must commit ourselves to obedience. Christ cannot be the Lord of our lives while we are in disobedience. Let us seek the Holy Spirit to strengthen our resolve to be obedient no matter the cost.
4. We must set our priorities right. We must question our priorities whether they are in agreement with the will of God. We must do deep self-reflection to see who controls our lives.
5. We must have personal relationship with Christ. Through prayer, let invite Christ to dwell in our hearts by power of the Holy Spirit.
6. We must remove all the idols that rival Christ from our lives. We cannot acknowledge Christ verbally while we enthrone other gods in our lives.
7. We must endeavour to revitalise our worship experience. Who Christ is should take the centre stage of our worship experience.
8. We must give eternity a key focus in this life. Everything that we do must have a perspective of eternal life (Philippians 3:20).
9. We must guard of our hearts from the attractions of this world. Worldly attraction has strong attractions, but we can do all things through Chrit who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13).
10. We embrace Christ even in our suffering (Philippians 3:8–10). Suffering many times reveal who is first in our lives.
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” (Colossians 3:17)
The Ethiopian cannot change his skin nor the leopard his spots. The Holy Spirit is the power available for change. It calls for willingness, submission, confession, right attitude, recognizing your own helplessness, your dependence on faith which works,a lifetime where we understand sanctification doesn’t work overnight. So we trust everything into the One who has died for us and saved us believing what He has promised He will do. Hebrews 6:10
What must you change so that you can better experience Christ’s preeminence in your life?
Intentionally starting the day with God. I wake up at 5:00 am everyday to study the word of God. This is the only time I can read and study without any interruptions from my kids and life in general. I tried other times, night time, but that didn’t work for me. Studying His attributes, and praying to align my will with His has changed me. We have to surrender the control to Jesus so that he can work within us.
This involves removing your old habits and replacing them with prayer. I’m not saying it’s easy, but you have to start somewhere. Why not start today.
The verse “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and these things shall be added unto you” is relevant in to this topic. God’s kingdom proceeds everything we aspire to be and achieve. If we let God’s kingdom lead all other blessings will be added unto us.
I have a big brother, 8 years older than me, who has often been in a headship position in our family. So I was thinking this morning of how Jesus is also called our Big Brother, repeatedly. In fact, Jesus was thinking of His “brethren” immediately after His resurrection (John 20:17). A mini topical study on this subject has been meaningful to me so I wanted to share a bit here.
Hebrews 2:10-11, 17 and Rom. 8:17 talks about how Jesus shared in sufferings like we have. In fact, before He even created us, because He foreknew about the outcome of free choice turning into sin, we could say that Jesus was 1st in pain. He has suffered on account of sin longer than any of us and more than any of us. He empathizes with us, much as siblings can understand and feel in their innermost being dysfunctional family history and difficult family dynamics better than outsiders can.
Also, we are fellow heirs with Jesus, our Big Brother. The Father has given Him all things and He shares all this with us. We see this again in Rom. 8:17. 1 Pet. 1:4 says we have an inheritance unfading, kept for us …I’m picturing Jesus our Big Brother, smiling, handing us our inheritance when we arrive in heaven (see also Matt. 25:34; Col. 1:12; Gal. 4:5,7).
The most touching of all to me was remembering the story of Joseph and his big brother Judah. You can read it in Gen. 44:18-34. For one thing, if we have any thoughts that Jesus loves us more than our heavenly Father, this story drives home that losing us, His child, breaks the Father’s heart to the point of death. I was reading Today’s English Version of Gen. 44:20,22,29-31,34….and the wording “his life is wrapped up with the life of the boy”…”I cannot bear to see this disaster come upon my father”…., if I think of this as Jesus speaking about the relationship between the Father and us, it drives that home for me. God’s whole heart is with us. John 3:16 and 1 John 4:9 echoes that while Jesus came willingly, the Father gave/sent Him to get us back. Jesus calls Him “our Father”.
This story also helps us to understand the role of the Big Brother as caregiver, protector, being first in taking the fall when calamity strikes. Judah shows us Jesus who substitutes Himself for us when punishment is meted out, who redeems us by becoming a slave for us, going into captivity for us. Judah, you remember, stayed behind in prison so that his younger brother Benjamin could return home safely to his father. 1 Pet. 3:18 says Jesus died to return us to God. I think this is why Jesus came through the line of Judah. Perhaps no other Bible story shows as clearly what it means to be firstborn, first in rank….it means the ultimate protector and provider and sustainer of the family.
Esther, thank you so much for your comment. It brought a new light to Jesus’ love for us by comparing him to our older brother, and His father our Father in Heaven.
John 17:5-7
”And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the Glory I had with You before the world existed.
I have revealed Your NAME to those You have given me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your Word. Now they know that everything You have given Me comes from you. His and Jesus’ name are synonomous with actions.
I learned that ‘God’ is not a name, it is a title. God’s personal name is Yahweh. Jah or Yah is an abbreviation of Jahweh/Yahweh, and often sees usage by Christians in the interjection “Hallelujah” – meaning “Praise Yah”, which is used to give God Glory. [Wikipedia (names of God in Christianity].
I think it is important to know the difference between ‘title’ and ‘name’. Yahweh and Jesus have been given many titles based on actions. God, ‘Messiah’ or ‘Christ’ is a title. For example – ‘Messiah’ refers to ‘Chosen Leader’ or ‘Savior’; ‘Christ’ means ‘Anointed One’, chosen by Yaweh, to signify that Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecy. Among his peers, Jesus was known as Jesus of Nazareth, or Jesus, son of Joseph, or Jeshuah – the One who saves. [AI Overview]
I am not sure how to understand the lesson’s question about what I must change to better experience Christ’s preeminence. Since Faith is the foundation of our on Jesus Christ based religion, I want to say that increasing faithfulness – trust in God’s Word – would be what I want to improve. For all who still doubt, changing doubt to believe is what would help to experience Christ’s preeminence. .
This is rather an inconsequential response, but…..
About the title “Christ”… I had long thought it incorrect to call our
Lord, Jesus Christ, it seems more correct to call Him Jesus the Christ.
The biggest change we “must” make to better experience the pre-eminence of Christ is to draw close to Him, focus on Him, spend time with Him. Focusing on our sins is not the answer. It takes our focus away from Jesus and we can’t fix them on our own anyway. But if we come to Jesus, He has promised not to cast us out. (See John 6:37)
Dear Christina,
Thank you for lifting Jesus up! I agree that focusing on Him is the most important thing we do. Just want to add that I see this as compatible with becoming increasingly aware of our own general sinfulness and with recognizing specific sins in ourselves. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17) was the inaugural message of Jesus’ ministry while on Earth. Jesus commended the publican who prayed, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13). The more we look at Jesus in His Word, the more we long to turn away from self-sufficiency and toward faith in Him. Practically, I try to see Jesus handle situations I may feel weak in…”Jesus, I feel (angry, or jealous, or impatient, or critical, etc.) what would You do in this situation? Can You handle this for me? Jesus, please ‘take the wheel’ in this moment of temptation and trial.” We bring our sins to Jesus to overcome for/with us. Scripture also encourages us to pray for forgiveness for the sins of others and the sins of our nation, as Daniel did (Daniel 9:3-19).
I like your perspective and I fully agree. I do think there are often things in our life we need to deal with. But we should take them to Jesus and ask Him to help us. I think sometimes we think we need to clean ourselves up first.
Business trusting in Jesus , meaning that we have to be connected with Jesus daily ,is where we can get faith to conquer everything .we as human being , we are unable to do anything by ourselves for salvation cause our works are nothing and are not pure but they are triggered by our own motives by our inner persons, but through Jesus our works will be the results of salvation and not source of salvation . We are saved through three steps
1. Justification meaning that we are made rightous through Jesus
2.Sanctification , this is the stage we are in and we struggle with sin and changes are gradual throughout our lives
3. Glorification ,when Jesus returns the second time he will completely restore the image lost and we will be given a new flesh .