“He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything” (Colossians 1:17-18).
It was the 1925 World Series. The Washington Senators were playing the Pittsburgh Pirates. The game was close. Finally, Goose Gosling of the Washington Senators came to the plate. The ball was pitched. Strike one! The catcher threw the ball back to the pitcher. Goose readied himself again. The pitcher let a screaming ball loose toward the plate. Strike two! Goose stepped out the batter’s box. He took a step or two. He stepped back into the box and readied himself. The pitcher wound up and flung another pitch. Goose caught the ball with the sweet part of the bat. It was a long drive into centerfield. Goose took off running. He rounded first as the ball passed the centerfielder. He ran toward second. He rounded third as the fielder threw the ball toward home plate. Goose made a running dive for home as the catcher caught the ball and spun to tag him. It was a photo finish. The crowd jumped to their feet. Some screaming “He’s out.” Others screaming, “He’s safe!” The umpire didn’t say a word or make a call for a minute. Finally, he signaled for a megaphone and motioned for silence. An eerie hush fell on the field. The umpire spoke. He said, “We have seen some great playing today. Both teams have been good sports and have shown why they deserve to be in this series. Now, Goose touched home plate before the catcher tagged him.” The stands erupted! After a moment, the umpire called for silence again. “Goose beat the play at home, the umpire said, “the problem is, he never touched first.” People began shouting. “But this is Goose! This is the World Series!” After the noise died down, the umpire continued, “I know this is Goose, and I know this is the World Series, but you can’t go home, unless you touch first” (https://sermoncentral.com/sermon-illustrations/62495/it-was-the-1925-world-series-the-washington-by-gene-gregory).
The same is true in our lives, my friends. You may get to second by being a good friend and having a trail of good deeds a hundred miles long in your life. You may get to third and be baptized and join a church. You may have attended church since you were a child, taught Sunday School, been a deacon in your church, or given a million dollars in offerings through the years. You might even preach or serve as a missionary in some foreign land, and believe you’re heading for home. Yet, it doesn’t matter at all, if you haven’t touched first. Nothing in the world you do matters in the end, if you haven’t first been born again through faith and entered into an all-consuming, life-transforming relationship with Jesus Christ.
It is just true. Jesus will not take second place or some place in our lives. He must occupy the supreme place. He is to be preeminent, before anything and everyone else. From Isaiah 42:8, hear what God says: “I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another.” This means, unfortunately, for the selfish nature in all of us, that God will not share His glory with us. If we desire to put ourselves first, to have what we want, and to do what we please, God will allow us these choices. However, He will not have us as His saved, redeemed children until we surrender all rights to govern our lives ourselves, and take Him to be Lord with all rights to our lives. This is the strict essence of Romans 10:9-10, where the Bible instructs us, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
Listen with your heart to Colossians 1:15-20: “He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”
Back to the baseball metaphor for a moment. Even though the player made a powerful hit to deep centerfield, ran the bases, and slid safely into home plate, he was disqualified for home, because he failed to make firm contact with first base. Imagine a baseball diamond where first base represents Jesus Christ, second base represents the sinner’s prayer, third base represents baptism, and home plate represents church membership. Many people, because they have not listened with their hearts to truly understand the Gospel have, on their way around the spiritual bases to make it home with the assurance of salvation, stepped over first base, verbalized a sinner’s prayer, followed it with baptism and church membership and believe they have done what is required to obtain the guarantee of Heaven. Yet, the evidence that they missed the first priority, Jesus, is that there is no real, Godly sorrow over their sins, fear of their just damnation, and recognition of the awesome holiness of God. There is no genuine desire to give up control of their lives to Jesus as Lord. In effect, they are trusting in the three religious acts they did at second, third, and home plate to save them. Sadly, on Judgment Day, they will be just like the baseball player who rounded the bases and slid safely across home plate. They will be disqualified for a home in Heaven, because they never touched first—they never touched Jesus.
Jesus mentioned people just like this in Matthew 7:21-23: “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’” Over and over, the Bible make clear that there is no outward religious act and no humanly perceived goodness that God will substitute for the full inward renunciation of self in its entirety in favor of the full wholehearted acceptance of Jesus as the One to whom we offer willingly the right to remove from us what He pleases, add to us what He pleases, and make of us what He created us to be. Mark it down: no. outward. religious. act. and no. perceived. goodness.
Paul explains further in Galatians 2:16: “A man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.” So, you see, doing what we perceive is right and keeping rules, doing the best we can—none of it—can save us. Only when we give up completely trying to be saved in these ways and receive Jesus as Lord trusting in Him and His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead as our means to eternal life may we be saved. Jesus is fully God from all eternity past to all eternity future.
Satan is so thoroughly deceptive that He can fool people into believing they have taken Jesus to be Lord by faith, while, in fact, they are really living as they please and trusting in religious acts such as a sinner’s prayer, baptism, church membership, Sunday School attendance, church duties, missions work, donating to the church, and any number of deeds as their righteousness. Friends, we have no righteousness in and of ourselves. Only the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, when we have surrender all to Him is that which proves salvation.
Jesus chastised the self-righteous, very religious Pharisees for this very thing. They not only believed they were saved and right with God because of their Jewish heritage, but they trusted in their religiosity. The religious act they were trusting in for salvation was the study of scripture. Yes, they needed to study Scripture, but studying Scripture was not their way into salvation. Jesus said to them in John 5:39-40, 42: “You study the Scripture diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. … I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts.” Jesus pronounced them to be hypocrites, and said in Matthew 23:33: “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?” Any religious act could be substituted for studying scripture in order to capture the essence of Jesus’ admonishment. Every religious act and deed that God credits as right on our account follows genuine salvation, because only then do we truly do them for Christ’s glory rather than our own. The real question pertains to which love really consumes us. Do we really only have consuming love for ourselves in our hearts, or do we have consuming love for Jesus Christ in our hearts?
So, beloved friends, touching first is the only way home. As Creator, Jesus made all things, is before all things, and holds all things together. Jesus is the Head of the church and is to have the supreme place in everything and in every one’s life. He, indeed, is truly King of kings and Lord of lords, and He is to be truly your King and your Lord. So, think reflectively and honestly. Have you run the spiritual bases and believed you made it home, but realize you really never touched first? Maybe you realize you have never even tried to make it home with Jesus? In either case, now is the time to get things right. Now is the time to run as fast as you can, and touch first. Touch Jesus.