Turning Point Community Church
BFG Lesson
5/23/2010
Colossians 1:15-20
“The Preeminence of Christ”
Verse 15
In this incredible section of Scripture, Paul set forth the absolute supremacy and Lordship of the Second Person of the Trinity. Previously (vv. 13-14) the apostle had announced that, through this One (Jesus), God the Father had rescued believers from the “domain of darkness” and fully redeemed and forgiven them according to His great mercy. Here in these verses the nature and identity of this Savior and Lord are more fully revealed. Paul employed two major claims regarding Jesus:
First that Jesus is the “Image of the invisible God.” And second that He is the “first born of all creation.”
• First, Jesus is “the image of the invisible God”—The use of the word “image” conveys the truth that Jesus is the only perfect representation and revelation of God to men. This is the same idea that is expressed in other passages such as Hebrews 1:3—“He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature.” To say such a thing about Jesus was to claim nothing less than His full divinity and unique role as the visible expression of God. The words of the Nicene Creed (A.D. 325) are especially clear on this same point, declaring Jesus to be “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.”
• Secondly, Paul stated that Jesus is the “first-born of all creation”—This phrase is speaking of the preeminence of Jesus over all of creation. The use of the term “first-born” expresses the special place of priority occupied by Jesus, somewhat like the status enjoyed by the first-born sons in Jewish families. However, the difference here is that the Son, being co-eternal with the Father, had no beginning and, therefore, His status and place of privilege is infinitely greater. Scripture teaches us that Christ was eternally begotten of the Father and not created. That He is the “first-born” manifests the truth that He is the Lord and King of “all creation.”
Now, some false teachers, as you can imagine, will take this verse completely out of context and suggest that the Lord Jesus is Himself a created being and therefore in no way could He be God.
Although, false teachers use verse 15, (especially in the KJV) to teach that Jesus was a created being, error can usually be refuted from the very passage of Scripture which the cultists use. That is certainly the case here.
Verse 16
Verse 16 clearly states that the Lord Jesus is not a creature, but the very Creator.
This passage teaches us that Christ created all things.
Pastor Roy at Riverbend Community Chruch, preaching on this very passage states, “That the word “created” comes from a Greek term, and the Greek term that is used here speaks of Direct Creation, producing something out of nothing. The Latin uses this word Xlahlo to speak of this as well.
Christ did not invent something that had already existed in its parts. He created something that was not in existence. And He did this by the word of His mouth. This is the mighty power of Christ.
In fact the whole Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit were engaged in creation. We know this because the book of Genesis says, ‘let Us make man in our image.’ So we see the whole Godhead involved in this creation. So the word ‘created’ here means to create out of nothing, to make something that did not previously exist.
This is unlike scientists today who run around saying, “I created this,” or “we created that.” The truth is they created nothing. Because, they started with something, a material element of some kind. Its like the story of God and the scientist.
‘There was a group of scientists, and they were all sitting around discussing which one of them was going to go to God and tell him that they didn’t need him anymore.
‘One of the scientists volunteered and went to tell God he was no longer needed. The scientist says to God: “God, you know, a bunch of us have been talking, and we’ve come to realize that we don’t need you anymore.
I mean, we’ve been coming up with great theories and ideas, we’ve cloned sheep, and we’re on the verge of cloning humans. So as you can see, we really don’t need you.”
‘God nods understandingly and says, “I see. Well ok, but
before you go, let’s have a contest. What do you think?”
‘The scientist says, “Sure. What kind of contest?”
‘God replies, “A human-making contest where we make a human being.” ‘The scientist quickly agrees, “Sure! No problem.”
‘The scientist bends down and picks up a handful of dirt and says, “Okay, I’m ready!” ‘God shakes His divine head and says, “No, no, no…you go get your own dirt.”’ (Rev. Henry Stone)
You see, everything we have, from our bodies, to our clothes, to the food we eat – comes from God. Homes to hobbies, cars to kids, everything we have, every breath we take, comes from God. The truth is, we never had our own dirt.
We hear it at the beginning of Psalm 24.1-2: “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.” Hard to miss that phrase, isn’t it: “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof – meaning, “everything in it.” God owns it all.
In verse 16, we learn that all things – the whole universe – was created not only by Him but through Him and for Him. Each of these prepositions conveys a different thought.
First of all we read that “by Him all things were created.” Here the thought is that the power to create is in His being. He was the Architect. Later in the verse we learn that all things were created through Him. This speaks of Him as the Agent in creation. He is the Person of the Godhead through whom the creative act was performed.
Also, all things were created for Him. He is the One for whom all things were created, the very goal of creation. So Paul stresses here that the creation exists for the glory and sovereign purposes of Christ. Meaning, Jesus is the very goal of creation. “Everything exists with a view to His glory, and so is subservient to His eternal purpose”. A similar point is made by Paul in Romans 11:36—“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.”
The Gnostics taught that there were various ranks and classes of spirit beings between God and matter, and that Christ belonged to one of these classes. In our day the Spiritists claim that Jesus Christ is an advanced spirit of the sixth sphere. Jehovah’s Witnesses teach that before our Lord came into the world, He was a created angels and none other than the Archangel Michael!
Here Paul vigorously refutes such absurd notions by stating in the clearest possible terms that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Creator of angels – in fact of all beings whether visible or invisible.
John MacArthur states: “He is the precise copy, reproduction, and replica of God, He is the very substance and essence of God, He is the radiance of God's shining glory in human form. That's why He could say in John 14:9, "If you've seen Me you've seen the Father."
This means that Jesus was the originator, designer, and agent of creation. This verse stresses the fact that “Jesus conceived of creation and its complexities. Creation was His idea”. Paul made it clear for his readers that the creation in its totality, including the “heavens”—the invisible world of spiritual beings—and the “earth”—the visible, physical world—were brought into existence by Christ, through Christ and for Christ.
Verse 17
In verse 17 Paul tells us that Christ is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” An interesting thing to note here is that Paul states, He is before all things,” not He was before all things.”
The present tense is often used in the Bible to describe the timelessness of Deity. The Lord Jesus said for instance: “Before Abraham was, I AM.” This of course is speaking in the present tense – He still IS. He didn’t say, “before Abraham was, I was.”
Not only did the Lord Jesus exist before there was any creation, but also “in Him all things consist.” Or “hold together.” This means, not only did He create the universe and everything in it but He is also the Sustainer of the universe. He controls the stars, the sun and the moon.
The Universe
The whole universe, the whole kosmos, was made by Jesus Christ. I mean, just think about that for a minute. Its mind boggling. The sun is inconceivably massive. The sun is 93 million miles away. If you could bore a hole in the sun and start dumping a bunch of earths into it, you could put 1,200,000 earths in it and still have room for 4,300,000 moons. And, get this, the nearest star, Alpha Centuri, is five times bigger than our sun.
Beetljuice, no not the movie. Betelgeuse (alpha Orionis) is the second-brightest star in the constellation Orion and one of the brightest stars in the sky. It is a supergiant star, reddish in color, and over 600 million miles in diameter (almost 1,000 times bigger than the sun). If Betelgeuse were at the center of our Solar System, it would extend beyond the orbit of Jupiter. It is 520 light-years from Earth. Its actually a distance that is measured in quad-drillions miles away. I have no idea how far that is but I’m guessing its pretty far. Its further than California. Now that is a big star!
Now consider this. Even while Jesus was here on earth, in human form, He was still holding the universe together in the palm of His hand. He was still the one who was controlling the laws by which our universe functions in an orderly manner. That is just a mind blowing thought.
Verse 18
Paul now changes focus a little bit here in verse 18. He goes from Christ the Creator of all things to Christ the Head of the body the church.
As we know, the head is the part of the body that controls all things. Its where our thoughts and knowledge and wisdom lie. The church is like a body and Christ is its head.
Certainly all the thought processes are contained in our heads, in our minds and those thought processes are what give us direction to all that we think, say and do. And that simply illustrates the fact that Christ is the source of all truth, all knowledge, all wisdom, all growth and all guidance in His church. He is the head of the church.
Secondly, he says He is the beginning. He is the beginning of the church. The church is the creation of Christ. He is the source of its existence.
In addition to being head of the body, Paul declared that Jesus is “the beginning, the first-born from the dead.” Having been raised from the dead never to die again, Christ enjoys the supreme position as Lord over life and death itself. With this announcement, Paul made it clear that “Jesus entered the world of sinners, endured their punishment, and rose victorious. Thus, in Christ, there is a new order of existence. It is a resurrection existence.”
Now, we must be careful here to emphasize that this does not mean that the Lord Jesus was the first to rise from the dead. There were cases of resurrection in the OT as well as in the NT. But the Lord Jesus was the first to rise from the dead with a glorified body. And he rose as the Head of a new creation – the church.
The purpose of the resurrection—“that in everything he might be preeminent.”—was to make it explicitly clear that Jesus was and is exactly whom He claimed to be. As Paul wrote in Romans 1:4, the resurrection was the mechanism by which Jesus was declared “with power” to be the eternal “Son of God” and King of the universe.
All this to show that the Lord Jesus has a double preeminence – first in creation, and then in the church. God has decreed that in all things HE may have the preeminence. What an answer this is to those who, in Paul’s day, and in ours as well, would seek to rob Christ of his deity, and to make of Him only a created being.
As we read, “that in all things He may have the preeminence,” it is only proper that we ask ourselves, “Does He have the preeminence in my life??”
Verse 19
“For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell”
Here Paul continues to declare the identity of Jesus and, in particular, His work of redemption and reconciliation. Before speaking of His ministry to those alienated from God by sin, the apostle once more expresses Christ’s deity as the Son of God. Here Paul spoke of Jesus as the One in whom “all the fullness” of deity resides.
And, that this was due to the “Father’s good pleasure,” meaning that in eternity past, the Triune God determined that “the human Jesus would be God, sharing all the properties, characteristics, and prerogatives of God himself.” Thus, the One who, according to Philippians 2:8 was “found in appearance as a man,” was not one “merely endued in a special way with the Holy Spirit, but is rather the dwelling place of the very essence of God”
These ridiculous Gnostics were pumping out this stuff that God kept reproducing these emanations out of Himself one after another in an infinite long line. They were teaching that Christ was a kind of halfway point to God, a necessary link in the chain. But there were other, better links on ahead.
Paul says, NO! Christ is Himself the complete fullness of deity and at the Father’s good pleasure. In Him all the fullness of deity was pleased to dwell.
All the powers of deity, all the attributes of deity, verse 3 of chapter 2 says, "All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," verse 9 says, "All the fullness of deity." He is the fullness of God's essence, God's glory. And it's in Him and Him alone. And that is to say if somebody comes along after this and says, "I'm God," don't believe it. He needs no supplement. He has no rivals. There are no more revelations. It's in Him and Him alone that God has put all the fullness of His own deity because it pleased Him to do that.
Verse 20
In verse 20 we see that the One who took on human flesh is the One who came to “reconcile all things to Himself” by means of His very “blood” which was spilled on “His cross.” This highlights the fact that human sin has resulted in cosmic effects, not only alienating men from their creator, but also bringing the created order under the divine curse (cf. Rom. 8:20-22). Yet, the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross decisively put an end to the power and destructive effects of human rebellion. By means of His violent death and bodily resurrection, Jesus “made peace” between God and men.
But why? Why did Christ come into the world? - To save sinners. To go to a cross, to shed His blood through death, to pay the price for sin in order that He might present you to God holy and blameless and beyond reproach. He came to gather a redeemed humanity to take back to God. He came to reconcile men and the whole universe to make peace where there was animosity between man and God. He came into the world to save sinners.
That's why He was to be called Jesus. He came to bring reconciliation between sinners and a holy God. He came to remove the curse of the universe and to reconcile the universe to its original intended created purpose. He came so that He might gather together men and women like you and like me and present them to God holy and blameless and beyond reproach. He came to save us from sin and bring us to God, to reconcile the lost. He took our flesh in Him that we might become holy as He is holy.
Although Christ’s reconciling work is sufficient for all mankind, it is only effective for those who avail themselves of it. Eventually all things will be reconciled, whether things on earth or things in heaven.
This refers to the animal creation, and to inanimate things that have been defiled by sin. However, it does not refer to Satan, to other fallen angels, or to unbelieving humans. Their eternal doom is clearly pronounced in the Scriptures.
Reconciliation is not said to extend to “things under the earth.” There is a difference between reconciliation and subjugation. The latter is described in Philippians 2:10, “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth.”
All created beings, even fallen angels will eventually be compelled to bow to the Lord Jesus, but this does not mean they will be reconciled.
Unfortunately there is a false teaching out there that teaches a Universal salvation. Namely, that Satan himself, fallen angels, and unbelieving men will all be reconciled to God eventually. Verse 20 here in Colossians limits the extent of reconciliation by the phrase, “things on earth or things in heaven.” Things under the earth are not included.
Conclusion
Every one of those statements that is made from verse 15 through verse 20 is absolutely exclusive. They are true of Him (Christ) and nobody else. And the sum of them all is at the end of verse 18 where it says that He is to have the first-place in everything. No one else is the image of the invisible God, No one else can be the first-born of all creation. No one else can be the creator of things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible. No one else sits over the thrones and dominions and rulers and authorities. No one else is before all things and holds all things together. No one else is the head of the body, the church, the beginning, the first born. No one else has all the fullness of deity dwelling in Him to the pleasure of the Father. Those are all absolutely exclusive statements. And what they tell us is that Jesus Christ is utterly unique. There is no one like Him. He is beyond everyone else. He is infinitely beyond everyone else.”
So as we go about our daily lives this week lets remember to ponder the question: “Is Christ preeminent in my life today??”
God bless
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