by Scotty Smith
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Colossians 1:17

The older I’ve grown in this gospel, the more I’ve come to realize that the gospel has enormous implications. Calvin College professor Nathan Bierma put it like this in a great little book he wrote called Bringing Heaven Down to Earth: “The Gospel stands on three legs, not one; Christ’s redeeming work was done to restore nature, culture, and human beings. Now, that’s good news.” When we live in the hope of the big gospel, we see Jesus Christ, not just as a serial intruder on people’s souls, but the One in whom “all things hold together,” in the words of Colossians 1:17.
Bierma continues, “All things—not just people’s hearts but the infrastructure of nature, culture, and relationships. So the hope of the big gospel is not just going to heaven to be with God, but a vision of the new earth and the heavenly city as the place where God’s authority over all of life is made complete. Living in the hope of heaven means seeing glimpses of such a place already, and wanting more.” And not only wanting more, but living and loving missionally, because this is the good news of the gospel. It’s not merely that we go to heaven when we die; it’s that we actually live before we die, and we live with a view to the city whose builder and maker is God (Heb. 11:10).
Not one hair falls from our heads apart from the sovereign decree of the true King, who happens to be the bridegroom who gave Himself for a whore to make her His queen, that we might live together in this very world, this very “hood” to His glory. This world will be made new. As we see this gospel, as we are alive to the love of God, not only for us but also for one another, we are redemptively “careless” about the rest of our days.
God has left nothing to chance, but everything to Christ. And every one of us matters, but none of us is the point. Or as Francis Schaeffer said, “There are no little people and no little places.” It means that you don’t have to think, Maybe this will be the day when I really get serious about God and move to Sudan. I pray some of you will know a calling to move to Sudan, but some of us just need to move across the aisle, move across the street to begin to see Jesus is not making all new things, but making all things new.

Thought to Remember for Today

In the gospel, we’re characters in the story, because we’re the broken rebels and fools Jesus came for. We were triumphed over by the gospel. We are in the train of the true King, who’s currently reigning and making all things new, including us.

Fitzpatrick, E. (2016). Grace untamed: a 60-day devotional. Colorado Springs, CO: David C Cook.