No Rival, No Equal: The Supremacy of Christ - Pastors Jon & Jenn
No Rival, No Equal — The Supremacy of Christ
Pastor Jon & Jenn Trout
June 14, 2026 | Colossians 1:15–20
There are moments in Scripture where the writing itself stops you. Where the words aren't just conveying information — they're doing something to you. Colossians 1:15–20 is one of those passages.
Biblical scholars believe this section was likely an early church hymn — one of the first songs Christians sang together to celebrate who Jesus is. And when you read it slowly, you understand why they put it to music. It's not a list of theological points. It's a declaration. A proclamation. An anthem.
And at the center of it is one unshakeable truth: Jesus Christ has no rival and no equal.
The Architecture of a Hymn
Before we unpack what this passage says, it helps to understand how it's written. Paul uses a literary structure called a chiasm — where ideas are laid out in a sequence and then repeated in reverse order, with the most important point sitting right at the center. Think of it like a mirror: A, B, C, B, A — where C is the main idea everything else points to.
In Colossians 1:15–20, the structure looks like this:
Verse 15 — Jesus as the image of the invisible God
Verse 16 — All things created through Him and for Him
Verse 17 — He holds all things together (the center)
Verse 18 — He is the head of the Church, firstborn from the dead
Verses 19–20 — The fullness of God dwelling in Him, reconciling all things
Everything in this hymn orbits around verse 17. And that's intentional.
Jesus Is God Revealed
The hymn opens with a stunning statement: Jesus is "the image of the invisible God." (v. 15)
God, by nature, is invisible — beyond what human eyes can perceive. But Jesus is His exact representation. Hebrews 1:3 puts it this way: "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being." When Jesus said to Philip, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9), He wasn't speaking in metaphor. He meant it literally.
The fullness of God's complete nature and attributes — everything God is — dwelt in Jesus. Not a portion of it. Not a reflection of it. All of it.
He is also described as the "firstborn of all creation" — not meaning He was the first thing created, but that He holds the preeminent position over all creation. He existed before it. John 1:1 says plainly: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."
And through the cross, He didn't just forgive individual sins — He made cosmic peace. Heaven and earth, reconciled. Everything fractured by the fall, brought back into wholeness through His blood.
All Things Created Through Him and For Him
Verse 16 expands the picture even further. Every created thing — visible and invisible, in heaven and on earth, every throne, every dominion, every authority and power — was created through Christ and for Christ.
This is not a small claim. Paul isn't saying Jesus was involved in creation. He's saying creation exists because of Him and for Him. He is both its origin and its purpose.
And then verse 18 connects that truth to something deeply personal: the same Christ through whom and for whom all things were created is the head of the Church. Creation and redemption are united in Him. You cannot separate them. The one who spoke the cosmos into existence is the same one who walked out of a tomb on the third day — "so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything."
He Holds All Things Together
This is the center of the hymn — the point everything else is pointing to.
"He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together." (v. 17)
Christ is not only the origin of creation. He is its sustainer. Right now, in this moment, every atom, every system, every living thing holds together because He upholds it. The universe does not run on its own. It runs on Him.
And His supremacy is not a matter of degree — as if He were simply better than everything else on a scale. There is no scale. He is preeminent in the absolute sense. He is not just superior — He is supreme. There are no others in His category. There is no rival. There is no equal. Anything that exalts itself above the knowledge of Christ is, by definition, false.
Our Response
So what do we do with a Jesus this big?
We believe and receive. Jesus said it simply in John 6:29: "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent." Through His blood, He entered the holy place once and for all, securing an eternal redemption — not by the blood of animals as the old covenant required, but by His own. He is the mediator of a new covenant, and through Him we receive an eternal inheritance. And because we are His, Romans 8:17 says we are coheirs with Christ — heirs of God Himself.
We walk in the fear of the Lord. This phrase can feel foreign to modern ears, but it is not about terror. It is about rightly ordered reverence — seeing Jesus for who He actually is and responding accordingly.
Isaiah describes the fear of the Lord resting on the Messiah himself, and says He would delight in it. That's our invitation too — not to be afraid of God, but to be awed by Him. The fear of the Lord produces joy ("Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling" — Psalm 2:11), reverence ("In your hearts revere Christ as Lord" — 1 Peter 3:15), obedience that flows from love ("If you love me, keep my commands" — John 14:15), and a sense of awe that anchors everything else.
Isaiah 8:13 says it plainly: "You are to regard only the Lord of Armies as holy. Only He should be feared; only He should be held in awe."
There is no awe apart from Him. And there is no rival.
A Closing Thought
The early church sang this. They gathered — many of them at great personal risk — and they lifted their voices around this truth: Jesus is supreme. Over creation. Over death. Over every power and authority. He holds all things together, and nothing is outside His domain.
That was true then. It's still true now.
He has no rival. He has no equal. And He is worthy of everything.
