All Creation is Christ's--Where Can You and I Cry Out, "His!"

There’s a quote I hear and read almost every day these days because of the podcasts I am listening to and the books I am reading.  They are the famous words of Abraham Kuyper, a Dutch Theologian, academician, journalist, and Prime Minister who lived in the second half of the 1800s and passed away in 1920. 

His oft repeated words are, “there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’” 

In these words we hear Colossians 1:16-17, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.  And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”  Colossians goes on to say that Christ is preeminent over everything and that he will “reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20).  

Kuyper, like Paul, proclaims that every single thing in this world was made by and for Jesus Christ.  We know, though, that after creation, was the fall.  We indeed live in a fallen world, but one that Christ entered for the purpose of redemption, by his blood.  And so, we look forward to restoration.  

As Paul says in Colossians 1:20, all things will be reconciled to God through the cross.  We now live in what theologians call “the already, but not yet.”  Jesus has already finished the work of reconciliation on the cross, but creation has not yet been restored.  With joy and anticipation, we know that the New Heaven and the New Earth are coming. 

In this “already, but not yet,” you and I are called to be ambassadors for Christ, with “God making his appeal through us (2 Corinthians 5:20), as we have been given the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18).  As Jesus cries out that all of creation is “Mine!” you and I must view all of creation as “His!”  

• Politics?  His!  
• Art?  His!  
• Education?  His! 
• Community?  His! 
• Law?  His! 
• Friendships?  His! 
• Money?  His!
• Family?  His! 
• Your neighbors?  His! 
• Your day?  His! 
• Your goals, hobbies, ideas, career?  His! 

So I ask you and me, where have we been set (Acts 17:26) and, therefore, to what or whom have we been called to be ministers of reconciliation?  Where is God asking you and me to cry out, “His!”?  In what relationships and institutions and fields can you and I be serving as his ambassadors?  

Creation was by him and for him.  And all things have been reconciled to him by his blood on the cross.  In this “already but not yet” you and I live in spheres in which we have influence—and this is no accident.  May we join our brothers in Christ, the Apostle Paul and Abraham Kuyper, in reconciling creation to Jesus.