Now And Forevermore

Karl Barth, one of the theological giants of the 20th Century was asked, late in life, to sum up all he had learned in his years of theological study and exploration. This great scholar replied,

Jesus loves me, this I know
for the Bible tells me so.

It is as simple as that, on one level. But on another level we need to ask ourselves, “What does that really mean when we say, ‘Jesus loves us’?”

The Apostle Paul, in his letter to the ‘Colossians, picks up on one of the essential Christian beliefs about Jesus Christ. It is the idea that The Christ is actually preexistent. “Christ is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation,” Paul writes. “In Him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible … He is before all things.” John, in his Gospel, talks about the “Word” who was “from the beginning … and became flesh.”