5/7/18
Tom Lowe
Lesson IIA2: THE FIRST-BORN OVER ALL CREATION (Colossians 1:15b-17)
• Numbers in brackets [a], correspond to “Special Notes” following each verse.
• NIV Bible is used throughout unless noted otherwise.
Colossians 1:15b-17 (NIV)
(Text)
15b the firstborn over all creation.
16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.
17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Introduction:
The chief religions of Paul’s time included Gnosticism, an obscure system of mystical religious and philosophical doctrines, stressing gnosis as essential to salvation, viewing matter as evil, and combining ideas derived from mythology, ancient Greek philosophy, ancient religions, and, eventually, Christianity; and the advocates of this false religion alleged that Christ was only one of the heavenly powers. Such beliefs would be opposed to Paul’s Christian beliefs and teaching; they occasionally caused trouble for the apostle.
According to the Gnostics the work of creation was carried out by an inferior god, ignorant of and hostile to the true God. It is Paul’s teaching that God’s agent in creation is the Son and in this section He has six things to say about the Son in regard to creation. These marks of identification make Him different from and superior to any other person who has ever lived. We cannot say too much about Him and we will never in this life be able to comprehend Him in all of His wonder and in all of His Glory.
COMMENTARY
15b the firstborn over all creation.
Verse 15 began with the statement, “The Son is the image of the invisible God” (See previous lesson IIA1). God the Father is invisible: “No man hath seen God at any time.” Jesus said, “God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” The sovereign God—omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent—is invisible, but the universe was not left without a God who could be seen: Jesus wrapped God up in flesh, brought Him down to man, and presented Him to man in a body—the very image of the invisible God. Paul’s desire was to show that Jesus is the Creator—not just of lower life and things upon the earth (the things visible), but that He is also the Creator of higher beings—even in regions invisible to the human eye. No man is too minute, no creature too gigantic, for His creative power.
Paul has six things to say about Jesus Christ in regard to creation.
“The Son is the image of the invisible God” is the first thing he said, but he said it in the beginning of verse 15 (see previous paragraph). How could He be “the image of the invisible God?” You cannot take a photograph or an “image” of that which is “invisible.” How could He be that? John makes this clear in the prologue to his gospel: “In the beginning was the Word.” That is a beginning that has no beginning—Christ has no beginning. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). And then John says, “And the Word was made [born] flesh . . .” This is the way that He became “the image of the invisible God.” How could He be that? Because He is God. If He were not God, He could not have been “the image of the invisible God.”
Verse 15 closes with the statement, “the firstborn over all creation.” That is the second thing He has to say about Jesus Christ in regard to creation. We must be very careful to attach the right meaning to this phrase. As it stands in English it might well mean “the Son was the first person to be created.” There are two things we must know:
1. “Firstborn” is a very common title of honor. Israel, for instance, as a nation is the firstborn son of God (Exodus 4:22). The meaning is that the nation of Israel is the most favored child of God.
2. “Firstborn” is a title of the Messiah. In Psalm 89:27[15.2], as the Jews themselves interpret it, the promise regarding the Messiah is “I will make him my firstborn, higher than the Kings of the earth.” Clearly “firstborn” is not used in a time sense at all but in the sense of special honor. So when Paul says of the Son that He is “the firstborn over all creation,” he means that the highest honor which creation holds belongs to Him. If we wish to keep the time sense and the honor sense combined, we may translate the phrase: “He was begotten[15.1] before all creation.”
Jesus WAS “the firstborn over all creation.” Truly He existed before all creatures, even before the mansions in the Father’s house and before the foundations of the world was laid. Jesus was with the Father in the beginning.
Jesus IS “the firstborn over all creation.” God’s love for Him has given Him this glorious pre-eminence, this double portion: “THOU ART MY SON, THIS DAY HAVE I BE GOTTEN THEE!” Here it is plainly implied that Christ existed before all creatures, for He has never stood in any other (secondary) relation to the universe.
It was the tradition of early civilizations for the “firstborn” to serve as his father’s representative in all things and to act in his father’s name. Christ stands as “the Firstborn” of God the Father and all transactions between God the Father and man must be transacted with Christ. The only way we can approach our sovereign God is through the Son, the Lord Jesus.
Nowhere does Scripture teach that Jesus Christ had His beginning at Bethlehem. We are told in the great prophecy of Micah 5:2 that He would be born in Bethlehem, but that He came forth from everlasting. Isaiah 9:6 tells us, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given . . .” The child is born, but the Son is given. He came out of eternity and took upon Himself our humanity.
Now Paul says that Jesus Christ is the “firstborn of all creation,” He is back of all creation. The Greek word used here means “before all creation.” He was not born in creation. He is the One who came down over 2000 years ago and became flesh. He existed before any creation: (John 1:1-3). God the Father is the everlasting Father. God the Son is the everlasting Son. There never was a time when Christ was begotten.
When Jesus Christ is called the “firstborn of all creation,” it is not referring to His birth at Bethlehem. This is no Christmas verse. It means that He has top priority of position. It has nothing to do with his origin at all.
[15.1] It does not say that He was the first formed or first created of every creature, but the firstborn?the first begotten. It is plainly intimated that Christ, the Son of God’s love, was begotten before any created thing existed. In an ineffably mysterious sense He was begotten; they were created. The expression “first begotten” was frequently used among the Jews as a term of precedence and dignity. As applied to the Son of God it implies priority in rank in relation to all created things. He is “Heir of all things.” He is creations supreme and absolute Lord. All created beings gather their significance, dignity and glory by their connection with Him.
[15.2] “Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth” (Psalm 89:27). Firstborn is a term which in its strictest application belongs to Christ alone?“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:14; also see Romans 8:29). This is one of the few places in the Old Testament where God is referred to as a Father. It was a name for God often on the lips of Jesus. His first recorded utterance shows us how, from the very beginning, he claimed God as His Father: “Wist ye not I must be about My Father’s business?” His Father’s business was not the craft of a carpenter; it was the dark and dreadful business of the cross. He went into death with the same name upon His lips: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” And after the terrible hours of darkness He called upon God as His Father once more: “Father, into thy hands I commend My spirit.” It was on His lips again after the resurrection; it was His characteristic name for God; he was uniquely God’s Son.
16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.
The third thing he has to say about Jesus Christ in regard to creation is, “IT WAS BY THE SON THAT ALL THINGS WERE CREATED.” This verse makes that very clear: “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities.”
If Christ created all things, He Himself is uncreated. The word “for” that introduces this verse could be translated “because.” Jesus Christ is the Firstborn of all because He created all things. It is no wonder that the winds and waves obeyed Him, and diseases and death fled from Him, for He is Master over all. “All things were made by Him” (John 1:3). This includes all things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible. All things are under His command.
“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1). All things were created by Jesus, He arranged all things, He supervises all things, and all things belong to Him. All creation was created by Him and for Him. He is creations firstborn. He is the Chief and the Governor, the Ruler and Controller of all creation. This is true of things in heaven and things in earth, of things seen and unseen. Paul taught that the agent of God in creation is no inferior, ignorant and hostile secondary god, but the Son Himself.
When Jesus was baptized, God the Father said in an audible voice, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17). Again on the Mount of Transfiguration, when Peter, James and John witnessed the transfigured Christ, a bright cloud overshadowed them and God’s voice out of the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matthew 17:5).
Just before Jesus went to the cross, He cried out in agony of soul and spirit, “What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
Verse 16 closes with the words, ?“all things have been created through him and for him.” That is the fourth thing he has to say about Jesus Christ in regard to creation or we might put it this way: “IT WAS FOR THE SON THAT ALL THINGS WERE CREATED. The Son is not only the agent of creation, He is also the goal of creation. That is to say, creation was created to be His and in His worship and love, man might find his honor and his joy.
Without Him there could have been no creation. The very impulse to create came upon Him from within—by His own power . . . Power of which He was the originator. All things were created IN Him and BY Him. Source, motive, desire, energy. . . ALL were in Jesus. He was not a contractor working out the plans drawn up by an architect. He designed His own creation and executed His own endeavor. Regardless of what has happened to this earth and to all creation in the past, regardless of what will happen in the future, the fact remains that all things were created “BY Him and FOR Him.” Those words make known His FINAL PURPOSE in all creation.
Certainly creation is here in this verse, and in the fullest and most definite sense, ascribed to the Lord Jesus Christ. No matter in what sphere life or atoms may be found, nor in what quantities or qualities, in heaven[16.2] or in earth, all was created, all had its origin, in Christ. The creative action of the Lord Jesus Christ had no limited bounds. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). For by Him were all things created—and when God says “all things,” He means ALL THINGS . . . All things in heaven, all things in earth, all things visible or invisible[16.1]. ALL CREATION owes its origin to the Son of God!
Jesus was the Architect when the mansions were built in the Father’s house: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” (John 14:1-3).
Since the Scriptures teach us that all things were created “for Him,” we know that what has been created is still being preserved. All things were brought together by Him and are being held together in him. (I am speaking of the God in the first chapter of Genesis—and the God who spoke, and the world was . . . the same God whom we find as a baby in a manger in the first chapter of Matthew.) I am speaking of the God whom Isaiah calls the Lord God—Creator of the ends of the earth, “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?” (Isaiah 14:12a).
[16.1] “Invisible” as used here by Paul refers to the unseen rulers, call them what you will—thrones, dominions, principalities, or powers; and whom our heretical friends in Colossae are so keen to include along with Christ in their hierarchy of mediators. Yet all these invisible beings, so illustrious as to be seated on thrones, so great as to be styled dominions, so elevated as to be considered principalities, so mighty as to merit the designation of powers, were created by the Son of God; and they all acknowledge His supremacy and glory. The highest position in creation is infinitely below Him, and there is neither majesty nor renown that equals His.
This should sum-up what we have learned so far: When it comes to creation, Jesus Christ is the cause (He planned it), the instrumental cause (He produced it), and the final cause (He did it for his own pleasure).
[16.2] “Heaven” was created for Him to be the place of His special residence and the home of His people.
17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
“He is before all things” is the fifth statement by the apostle.“He is” is probably a declaration of Christ’s absolute pre-existence, like the “I am’s” of the Fourth Gospel (John 8:58). Christ exists, as God exists, prior in time and honor to all things. He was before all things. He is the preincarnate Christ. Because He is before all things, He can hold all things together. Again, this is another affirmation that Jesus Christ is God. Only God exists before all creation, and only God can make creation cohere (stick together). To make Christ less than God is to dethrone Him.
Paul uses a strange phrase: “and in him all things hold together[17.1].” This is Paul’s sixth statement and it means that not only is the Son the agent of creation in the beginning and the goal of creation in the end, but between the beginning and the end, during time as we know it, it is He who holds the world together. That is to say, all the laws by which this world is order and not chaos are an expression of the mind of the Son. The law of gravity and the rest, the laws by which the universe hangs together, are not only scientific laws but also divine. So, then, the Son is the beginning of creation, and the end of creation, and the power who hold creation together, the Creator, the Sustainer, and the Final goal of the world.
“In the beginning, God . . .”—God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Had God remained alone, His glory would have remained unseen and his praises would have been unsung. God longed to impart His happiness and His glory to creatures made fit to enjoy and possess that happiness and glory. Therefore, Christ created all things for Himself in order that He, according to His eternal blueprint, might exhibit His Glory in creatures fashioned by the grace of God—creatures spotless, without blame, holy and presentable to God. It is in this Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ, that “we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Certainly redemption is the noblest and most sublime of all HIS works.
[17.1] “Hold together” (cohere) means to become united in principles, relationships, or interests
In the next lesson, Paul will make three additional assertions (#7, #8, #9):
#7? “He is the head of the body; the church.”
#8? “That in all things He might have the preeminence.”
#9? “It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell.
