Here’s a song from Dr. Dolittle in which the good Doctor, convinced from a conversation with his parrot, Polly, that intelligently communicating with animals is an acquirable human skill, resolves to master animals with as many species as possible and starts the song as he contemplates the possibilities. The song is reprised outdoors when the Doctor finds he has mastered the skill and joyfully celebrates, surrounded by animals.

I don’t know for sure about the credibility of Dr. Dolittle, but I do know that I’ve experienced living with animals that seemed to have this almost innate capacity to understand human conversation and actions. If, for example, anyone mentions the word “bed” to my grand-dog, Lady, she bounds up the stairs and makes herself comfortable in the bedroom where my daughter sleeps. Just one word, “bed,” and Lady is gone.

Paul has another thought that captures my attention when he writes, “If you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant” (Colossians 1:23).

Sometimes people, even Christians, will ask, “Why get all worked up over creation? Why don’t you preachers just preach the gospel?” That question reveals a faulty understanding of what “the gospel” really is. The gospel consists not only of the redemptive work of Christ, but His entire person and work as well. The message of the “everlasting gospel” is to “worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters” (Rev. 14:6–7). Elsewhere, the gospel includes Christ’s coming Kingdom. Matthew remembers that Jesus “went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people” (Matt. 4:23). From creation to redemption to ultimate restoration, all is “good news” and all the work and person of Christ.

Paul says that the gospel “has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven.” Did you hear that? Every creature! A better translation of the Greek text might be “in all creation.” What was this gospel message for which Paul was so jealous? The answer is found in the preceding verses where Paul says—no, shouts—that Christ, “the image of the invisible God,” is preeminent, literally “the firstborn of all creation. 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” (Col. 1:15–17).

In case we don’t get it, Paul goes on to say that “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Him” (v. 19). Three verses earlier, Paul describes how Jesus is the Creator of all things, both physical and spiritual (v. 16). Moreover, in Christ, “all things hold together” (v. 17). Notice that present tense verb! That means today! We say that Colossians is a church letter, and it is in two ways, at least, for Paul writes to the church at Colossae about the church throughout the world for all time: “He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent” (v. 18).

Finally, Paul declares that this Jesus whom we are called to preach is the reconciling Redeemer, the absolutely perfect sacrifice for our sins, who provides us with complete reconciliation (vv. 20–22). One day soon, maybe sooner than you think, Jesus will finally and forever restore all creation to its original created intent (v. 20).

Preacher, it does not get any better than that! I’m going to tell Lady. Maybe, in some way that I do not understand, she already knows. And tell your people this Sunday that only in recognizing, believing, and preaching this word about the entirety of God’s good news in Christ Jesus—from creation to consummation—can we hope to victoriously “continue in the faith established and firm… of which (you and I) have become a servant” (Col. 1:23).

Soli Deo Gloria!

A Contributing Editor to Preaching magazine and a 40-plus-year pastor, Leslie Holmes now teaches a new generation of preachers at Erskine Theological Seminary, where he is the Provost and John H. Leith Chair of Theology and Ministry.

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