(Section 4) Created Angels Series

D. God created the material universe to be inhabited with intelligent, free moral agents, to whom He could reveal Himself, and who could enjoy all the rich blessings of life and the goodness of the Creator forever. Then too, God created plant and animal life as well as all other things necessary for sustaining life. (Dake)

III. THE CREATION

The Father willed it. The Son planned, programmed and was the architect of it. He was the agent and purpose of it. The Spirit is the executor. The Spirit carried it out. He made it appear. (Ray Stedman)

A. Created by Christ Col. 1:13-19; (Remember John 1:1-3)

Col 1:13 “Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated [us]

into the kingdom of his dear Son:”

Col 1:14 “In whom we have redemption through his blood, [even] the forgiveness of sins:”

Col 1:15 “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:”

David Guzik --Image (eikon) expresses two ideas: likeness, as in the image on a coin or the reflection in a mirror; and manifestation, with the sense that God is fully revealed in Jesus.

(1) If Paul meant that Jesus was merely similar to the Father, he would have used homoioma, which speaks of similar appearance

(2) "God is invisible, which does not merely mean that He cannot be seen by our bodily eye, but that He is unknowable. In the exalted Christ the unknowable God becomes known." (Peake)

(3) Philo equated the eikon of God with the Logos

David Guzik -- Firstborn (prototokos) can either denote priority in time, or supremacy in rank; this probably has both ideas in mind, with Christ being before all created things, and of a supremely different order than all created things

(1) Firstborn is also used of Jesus in Colossians 1:18; Romans 8:29, Hebrews 1:6

and Revelation 1:15

(2) The ancient Rabbis called Yawhew Himself "Firstborn of the World"

(Rabbi Bechai in Lightfoot)

(3) Rabbis used firstborn as a Messianic title: "God said, As I made Jacob a first-born (Exodus 4:22), so also will I make king Messiah a first-born (Psalm 89:28)"

(R. Nathan in Shemoth Rabba, cited by Lightfoot)

(4) "The use of this word does not show what Arius argued that Paul regarded Christ

as a creature like 'all creation' . . . It is rather the comparative (superlative) force

of protos that is used" (Robertson)

The word "image" comes from the Greek word eikon, a document that described a person in photographic detail. Jesus was the "image" or manifestation of God. The word "firstborn" comes from the Greek word prototokos and signifies "preeminence" rather than first

in order of birth. "The Creator, First, Beginning of every creation" would be a

correct translation. Chuck Smith

Col 1:16 “For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all

things were created by him, and for him:”

The "Colossian Heresy" seemed taken with an elaborate angelology, which effectively placed angels as mediators between God and man; Paul emphasizes that whatever ranks of spirit beings there may be, they are all created by Christ and they all ultimately answer to Him.

There is no doubt that Jesus is the author of all creation; He Himself is not a created being.

David Guzik

Col 1:17 “And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”

Arius and his modern disciples teach that there was a time when Christ was not; this is explicitly refuted by He is before all things and who is the beginning. David Guzik

Col 1:18 “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all [things] he might have the preeminence.”

Col 1:19 “For it pleased [the Father] that in him should all fulness dwell;”

B. Created by the word of God Heb 11:3 atoms -- not seen?

“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”

1. Through faith we understand

3539 noeo {no-eh'-o} from 3563; TDNT - 4:948,636; v

AV - understand 10, perceive 2, consider 1, think 1; 14

1) to perceive with the mind, to understand, to have understanding

2) to think upon, heed, ponder, consider

Faith demonstrates to the eye of the mind the reality of those things that cannot be discerned by the eye of the body. Matthew Henry

we understand--We perceive with our spiritual intelligence the fact of the world's creation by God, though we see neither Him nor the act of creation as described in Gen 1:1-31 . The natural world could not, without revelation, teach us this truth, though it confirms the truth when apprehended by faith ( Rom 1:20 ). [Bolded portions from Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown]