HE IS PART 1 COLOSSIANS 1:15-16

From Paul’s petition that the Colossians be enlightened about God’s redemptive working in their lives, he moved naturally into his epistle’s main emphasis—the exaltation and preeminence of Christ. In this paragraph (vv. 15–20) Paul mentioned seven unique characteristics of Christ, which fittingly qualify Him to have “the supremacy” (v. 18). Christ is: (1) the image of God, (2) the Firstborn over Creation, (3) Creator of the universe, (4) Head of the church, (5) Firstborn from the dead, (6) the fullness of God, and (7) the Reconciler of all things. No comparable listing of so many characteristics of Christ and His deity are found in any other Scripture passage. Christ is the supreme Sovereign of the universe!^[1]

 

         Moving from describing what Christ has already done for us. To whom He is in His core. He hangs his thoughts, on the same two words. “He is.”

                      To the Pharisees of His day, Jesus affirmed His deity before them in John 8:58, with the words “I AM.” Now, what we have Paul doing to the Colossians of his day and to the church of our day. He’s building on what the Lord has revealed about Himself, when He said, “I AM”, by saying, “He is.”

 

To the church there at Colossae. This young church that was being threatened with this false and heretical picture of Christ. We’re going to get more into that, in Colossians 2. Paul here, in our text for today, describes Christ for who He is.

That’s the title of today’s message, “He Is.” Because in our time together, we’re going to work through these four magnificent and unequalled verses. Verses which one commentator says, “there never was a higher Christology.” What we’re going to do, is work through these verses, through the lens of those four “He is” statements.

 

1. Colossians 1:15 - “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”

So, right away we have to ask the question? Who is “He” referring to here? Who is the “He” of verse 15? Well, the “He” is the “beloved Son” mentioned back in verse 13. “He” is the One, as we saw back in verse 14, is the One in whom we have “redemption” and “forgiveness of sins.” That’s a reference, of course, to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus of Nazareth. The son of Joseph and Mary. The Galilean. The long-awaited and foretold Messiah of Israel. The One who died on a Roman cross. The One whose lifeless body was placed in a sealed tomb. The One who eventually rose from the grave. That man. Jesus. The God-Man. Is described by Spirit-lead Paul here, as the “image of the invisible God.”

                John 4:24 says, God is spirit and He cannot be seen

Though it is grammatically possible to translate this as “Firstborn in Creation,” the context makes this impossible for five reasons:

(1) The whole point of the passage (and the book) is to show Christ’s superiority over all things.

(2) Other statements about Christ in this passage (such as Creator of all [1:16], upholder of Creation [v. 17], etc.) clearly indicate His priority and superiority over Creation.

(3) The “Firstborn” cannot be part of Creation if He created “all things.” One cannot create himself. (Jehovah’s Witnesses wrongly add the word “other” six times in this passage in their New World Translation. Thus they suggest that Christ created all other things after He was created! But the word “other” is not in the Gr.)

(4) The “Firstborn” received worship of all the angels (Heb. 1:6), but creatures should not be worshiped (Ex. 20:4–5).

(5) The Greek word for “Firstborn” is prōtotokos. If Christ were the “first-created,” the Greek word would have been prōtoktisis.^[i]

1 Timothy 1:17 says, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” Now, contrast the invisibility of the true God, with all the false gods of the world. Whether that be Brahma of the Hindu religion. Or Buddha, or the countless other deities whose likenesses have been carved into tree trunks or painted in caves over the centuries. For those so-called “gods” who are fabricated and made in the image of sinful humans; they are totally visible and creaturely and observable. They have mouths and eyes and noses, and hands and feet. It reminds us of Psalm 115:5-7 which says the following about false gods and idols. It says, “They have mouths, but they cannot speak; they have eyes, but they cannot see; they have ears, but they cannot hear, they have noses, but they cannot smell; they have hands, but they cannot feel; they have feet, but they cannot walk; they cannot make a sound with their throat.” Then that same psalmist concludes, “Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them.” We see this phenomenon, men bowing down to deaf and dumb and worthless idols, not just in the Old Testament, in Psalm 115, but in the New. Romans 1:22-23, again, speaking of the unbeliever, says, “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and of four-footed animals and crawling creatures.”

Isaiah 44:14 He cuts down cedars for himself, And takes the cypress and the oak; He [a]secures it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a pine, and the rain nourishes it. 15 Then it shall be for a man to burn,For he will take some of it and warm himself; Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread;Indeed he makes a god and worships it; He makes it a carved image, and falls down to it.16 He burns half of it in the fire;With this half he eats meat; He roasts a roast, and is satisfied.He even warms himself and says,“Ah! I am warm,I have seen the fire.”17 And the rest of it he makes into a god,His carved image.He falls down before it and worships it, Prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”

 

• 1:15 He is The Image of the Invisible God: Christ was the perfect image, an exact likeness and in the very form of GOD

John 14:9 – “He who has seen Me has seen the Father.” Those words, bringing it back to Colossians 1, testify to the fact that Jesus is a visible representation of God. Now we have Paul here in Colossians 1:15, referring to Christ as “the image of God.” That word for “image” is eikon. It’s a word, a Greek term, which we get our English word, “icon”. It means “copy” or “likeness.” Which fits perfectly here. Because what Paul is saying here in Colossians 1:15, is that Jesus is the perfect image – the exact likeness – of God Himself. Jesus is essentially and absolutely the perfect expression and representation of God the Father. As it’s put by the author of Hebrews in Hebrews 1:3 – “He is the radiance of His glory and the exact imprint of His nature.”

 

2 Corinthians 4:3 says, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

                Back in Colossians , as Paul is writing this Colossian church, you’ll recall was staring down the threat of this new heretical teaching. This “Christ-plus” form of theology. This “Christ-plus” form of worship. “Christ-plus-angels.” Or “Christ-plus-philosophy.” Or “Christ-plus-ascetism.” Paul redirects them here, with this supreme truth: Which is that the Christ that they worshiped. The Christ that they’d been taught about by Epaphras, was all the Christ they needed. A Christ who was more than a good man. More than a great teacher. More than a compelling miracle worker. Rather, He is the image of the invisible God. An exact, visible representation of God, and in fact, God Himself.

 

• The Firstborn over all creation:

That term – “firstborn” is used in at least three different senses in scripture.

 

• First – you’ll see it used in a very literal sense. Like in the description of the birth of Jesus. Luke 2:7 it says that Mary “gave birth to her firstborn son.”
• In other settings – the word “firstborn” is used in a figurative sense. Like Exodus 4:22, that’s that scene where God is speaking to Moses about the coming exodus out of Egypt. God says to Moses, “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Israel is My son, My firstborn”’.” Now there, there’s no sense of any actual birth taking place, as with Mary giving birth to Jesus. Instead, the Lord uses the word “firstborn” there, to describe the special plans and purposes and role that He has for Israel.
• Then there’s this third way that the term “firstborn” is used in scripture. That’s to designate one’s place of superiority, or supremacy, or uniqueness. In Psalm 89, we’re going to see “firstborn” used in that sense, of supremacy.

 

Psalm 89:20. It says, “I have found David, My servant; with My holy oil I have anointed him.” 27 “I also shall make him My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.” Now, we know that David was not the “firstborn” of Jesse. He in fact was the last born. But here, the word “firstborn” is being used to indicate supremacy, primacy, sovereignty. To make David, the king, “the highest of the kings of the earth.” That’s the meaning of “firstborn” here. Going back to Colossians, it is in that sense, that third sense, that Paul is using that term.

              Christ has pre-eminence which means he has the highest rank or position and inherits the Kingdom as the firstborn did in the OT

They always received all the inheritance or at least double the portion of the others in the family

                 This passage actually highlights and emphasizes the absolute sovereignty and supremacy of Jesus Christ. He is totally and absolutely sovereign over the skies that He formed. Over the land masses He molded. Over the species He developed.  As Hebrews 1:2 says, He is the “heir of all things.” He outranks everything. All people, everyone in the entire world He has made.

                 There have been, over the centuries, many false teachers and many false religions, who have taken this verse and run with it, to suggest that Christ is a created being, and that Christ is not God. They’ll point to this very verse, Colossians 1:15, as backup for their lies. They’ll say things like, “look, its right there in the word.” “Firstborn”. “Christ was born; therefore, He is created.” Now, they’ll try to be nice, and play nice. They’ll say, He’s still, of the highest rank in order of created things, and created beings.” Meaning, He’s entitled to our honor and special respect and reverence. But they will still insist that He was born. He was born as a created being. Just like you and I are born as created beings, but He’s not God.

          Let’s go through some of the reasons why “firstborn”, that term “firstborn” in verse 15, does not, and cannot mean “created.”

 

1.    First, it’s impossible for Christ to be both created, and the Creator of everything. If verse 15, as the Jehovah Witnesses and other groups would have it, is saying that Christ is created. A created thing cannot create itself. Creatures aren’t self-created. They are created, by instead, whatever created them.

2. Second, here’s another reason why “firstborn” cannot mean created. We’re told elsewhere in the scriptures that the “firstborn” Son of God received worship from the angels. Hebrews 1:6, speaking of God the Father says, “And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, ‘And let all the angels of God worship Him.’” Well, creatures, we know from going back to the ten commandments in Exodus 20, mere creatures are not to be worshiped. So, if Christ is a created being, the angels shouldn’t be worshiping Him. It would be a violation of the ten commandments. He’d be wrongly and idolatrously receiving worship from other created beings. The angels would be wrong to worship Him. We would be wrong to worship Him. Also if this were true under the Mosaic Law, the Jews were right to kill Him. For He blasphemed by holding Himself out to be God.

3.    A third reason why “firstborn” cannot mean created. Verse 15, and that word there for “firstborn”, it doesn’t stand in isolation with what’s being said in this section of scripture as a whole. The point of this passage, verses 15-18, as we’re going to see, in its entirety, is to demonstrate Christ’s preeminence over all things. Which includes the fact, as we’ll see in verse 16, that He is the Creator of all; and includes the fact, in verse 17, that He upholds and sustains all things. The context of this whole section very clearly is that Christ has priority and preeminence over His creation. Superiority over and supremacy over everything. Not that He’s a created being. If Paul were suddenly, in verse 15, to say He’s a created being, he’d actually be agreeing with the very heresy he’s trying to refute throughout this whole book. So, for those reasons, and for so many others, we affirm that what Paul here was saying, when he said that Christ is the “firstborn over all creation”, is not that Christ was created by God. Or that He is less in essence than God. Quite the contrary. The word “firstborn” here, instead is a statement about Christ’s position of supremacy over His creation. It’s a statement of His rank of rulership and dominion. It’s a statement of His deity and His preeminence.

In fact, the false teachers, who have twisted “firstborn” to mean what they want it to mean. Would do well to read the next verse. Look at verse 16, it says, “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.”

           So, here in verse 16, Christ’s supremacy is expressed in terms of His relationship to creation. His rulership over creation. You’ll note that the way that this is done is through these three different prepositions that are being used here. It is “by Him all things were created.” Then it says, “all things have been created through Him.” Last, it says all things have been created “for Him.” “By Him.” “Through Him.” “For Him.” Each of those prepositions expresses a different thought. We’re going to look at each of those prepositions and thoughts as we work our way through this verse.

           First, is the statement here, that: “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.” So, “By Him all things were created.” When it says here that all things were created “by Him.” The idea is they were created through the power that was essential to Him. Creative power that is sourced in Him. Creative power that is a part of His being. Note the scope of His creative power.

          The magnitude of His creative power is referenced in these three different areas that we see laid out in the rest of verse 16.

 

            First, His creative power reaches everywhere. First, he says, “All things in heaven and on earth.” So, Christ created all things in the heavens. Meaning, He created the stars, and the planets, and the galaxies, and the constellations, and all other planetary marvels. He created all things. Then it says He created things both living and non-living here on earth. It says, “both in the heavens and on earth.”

           Second, it says His creative power extends or reaches to all things “visible and invisible” there in verse 16. As we’re going to see when we get to Colossians 2, the false teachers there in Colossae were promoting these false dualistic beliefs. Under which material things, things you can touch and taste and smell. Things that are “visible”, to use the word here, were considered essentially evil. Whereas immaterial things, “things . . . invisible” were considered fundamentally good. Paul is collapsing these two ideas in together, and he’s saying that Christ created all of it. He created all the things we can see.  He created all the things we cannot see. He created the trees and flowers. But He also created that unmistakable scent that each one gives off. He created the person. But He also created the conscience that resides within that person. He created the planet we live on, materially. Just as much as He creates the seasons or has created the seasons of summer and winter. Seasons of cold and darkness and seasons of warmth and light. He’s created it all. Visible, invisible, all of it.

     Third, His creative power, it says, includes “thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities.”

 1:16 Paul gives us the ranks of angels and tells us that Christ created them and is superior to them to stop the heresy of angel worship being taught by false teachers.

         Ephesians 1:20-21, it says, “. . . when He raised Him from the dead [speaking of Christ] and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion . . .” Or

Ephesians 3:10 says “. . . the manifold wisdom of God [that] might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.”

Colossians 2:15 says, “When he had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”

Then here in Colossians 1:16, Paul refers to “thrones and dominions and rulers and authorities.”  Those are referring to angels. We know from Colossians 2, that the false teachers that had started to infiltrate Colossae there, they were promoting the worship of angels, as a part of their heretical teaching.  Paul is outright rejecting those beliefs and practices here.

            Paul is making it clear here in verse 16, that angels, whatever their rank, whether holy or fallen, whether “thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities.” They are all mere creatures. Their Creator and Ruler is none other than the preeminent One, the Lord Jesus Christ.

           Again, he’s getting out in front of this heresy. He’s saying to the Colossians here, essentially “Why would you be worshiping angels?” “When the One you ought to worship, is the One who created those angels.” Christ Himself.

              At the end of verse 16, it also says, “all things have been created through Him.” That speaks of Christ being the divine agent in creation. In other words, Christ is the Person of the Godhead through whom God’s creative acts were performed. Of course, God the Father is the Creator.

Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Or Psalm 33:6, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made. But the three Persons of the Trinity participated actively together in the works of creation.

John 1:3 says, “All things came into being through Him, [Jesus Christ, that’s a reference to Christ] and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”

Hebrews 1:2 says, “. . . in these last days [He] [meaning God the Father] has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.”

            In other words, in the act of creation, God did not act apart from Christ. Rather, it was through Christ, that God performed His various creative acts. The Son was the “master Workman” in Creation. Christ was the agent through whom God accomplished His creative acts. The point is, you cannot say that although Christ created some things. That He Himself was created originally. The One who is “firstborn” over all creation, is most certainly not a creature. Instead, as we see here, He is the very Creator.

           At the end of verse 16, we’re told that all things were created “for Him.” He’s the One “for” whom all things were created. Meaning, the purpose and the goal of all things in creation, lies in their relation to Him – to Christ. They are literally for Him, “unto Him”, it could be translated. We need to think of the profoundness of that statement that’s being made there. That all things are “for Him.”

            People today, should be praising Jesus Christ when they see anything in creation. Whether it be six feet in front of us. Or the minute complexities of life as seen through a microscope. Or when it’s looking out into the galaxies through a telescope. Glory should be attributed to Him. Not to the angels. Not to Mother Nature. Not to some atheistic principle of evolution.

            No! It’s all, as this text says: “By Him.” And “Through Him.” And “For Him.”

Our natural tendency, even as believers. Which is to label Christ. We think of Christ as Christmas Jesus. The One who was in the manger in Bethlehem. We think of Him as carpenter Jesus. The son of Joseph and Mary. Building furniture. Never talking back to his parents. The One who grew in wisdom and stature and favor both with God and with man. We think of Him as crucified Jesus. The One who bore the punishment for our sins and the stripes that were laid across His back and took the crown of thorns upon His head. Fulfilled the Father’s perfect plan by offering salvation for those who would believe in Him. Or then we put Him in the category of the comforting Jesus. The One whose promises we look to for hope and support. The One we look to in prayer.  The One we cry out to. The One through whom we find kinship with others who have believed in His name. That’s good to do all of that. Because He is each of those things. But behind it all, is this great truth. That the Jesus of the bible. The Jesus of Nazareth. Is the eternal Son of God. The second Person of the Trinity. The “image of the invisible God.” The “firstborn of all creation.” The Creator. All things were created by Him. All things were created through Him. All things were created for Him.

 

 

 

 

^[1] Geisler, N. L. (1985). Colossians. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 672). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

 

^[i] Geisler, N. L. (1985). Colossians. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, pp. 672–673). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

 

Mark 8:36 "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

             John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. Have you trusted Him as your Savior? He can Save you if You ask Him based on His death, burial, and resurrection for your sins. Believe in Him for forgiveness of your sins today.

              “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”  -John 8:32

 

          Our mission is to spread the gospel and to go to the least of these with the life-changing message of Jesus Christ; We reach out to those the World has forgotten. 

            hisloveministries.podbean.com #HLMSocial hisloveministries.net https://www.instagram.com/hisloveministries1/?hl=en His Love Ministries on Itunes Don’t go for all the gusto you can get, go for all the God (Jesus Christ) you can get. The gusto will get you, Jesus can save you. https://www.facebook.com/His-Love-Ministries-246606668725869/?tn-str=k*F

            The world is trying to solve earthly problems that can only be solved with heavenly solutions