Colossians 1:15-23 - The Centrality Of Christ
15 For Christ is the very incarnation of the invisible God-- First-born and Head of all creation; 16 For in him was created all that is in Heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible--Angels and Archangels and all the Powers of Heaven. 17 All has been created through him and for him. He was before all things, and all things unite in him; 18 And he is the Head of the Church, which is his Body. The First-born from the dead, he is to the Church the Source of its Life, that he, in all things, may stand first. 19 For it pleased the Father that in him the divine nature in all its fulness should dwell, 20 And through him to reconcile all things to himself (making peace by the shedding of Christ's blood offered upon the cross)-- whether on earth or in Heaven.
21 And it pleased God that you, once estranged from him and hostile towards him in your thoughts, intent only on wickedness-- 22 But now he has reconciled you to himself by the sacrifice of Christ's earthly body in death--it has pleased God that you should stand in his presence holy, pure, and blameless, 23 If only you remain true to your Faith, firm and immovable, never abandoning the hope held out in the Good News to which you listened, which has been proclaimed among all created things under Heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.