He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.
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Colossians 1:15-17 sits inside this longer paragraph.
For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things are held together. He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him, and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
Parallel Translations
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He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him.
He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.
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which is the ymage of the invisible god fyrst begotten of all creatures.
For by him were all thynges created thynges that are in heven and thynges that are in erth: thynges visible and thynges invisible: whether they be maieste or lordshippe ether rule or power. All thinges are creatyd by hym and in him
and he is before all thinges and in him all thynges have their beynge.
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Who is the image of the inuisible God, the first begotten of euery creature.
For by him were all things created, which are in heauen, and which are in earth, thinges visible and inuisible: whether they be Thrones or Dominions, or Principalities, or Powers, all things were created by him, and for him,
And hee is before all things, and in him all things consist.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
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Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (68)
- Hebrews 1:3 (vv15, 17) His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, who, when he had…
- Romans 11:36 (v16) For of him, and through him, and to him are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.
- John 1:3 (v16) All things were made through him. Without him, nothing was made that has been made.
- John 14:9 (v15) Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you such a long time, and do you not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do…
- 1 Corinthians 8:6 (vv16–17) yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things,…
Show all 65 cross-references
- John 1:1 (v15) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
- 2 Corinthians 4:4 (v15) in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the…
- Hebrews 2:10 (v16) For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many children to glory, to make the author of…
- 1 Chronicles 29:11 (v16) Yours, Yahweh, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty! For all that is in the heavens and in the earth is…
- John 1:18 (v15) No one has seen God at any time. The one and only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared him.
- John 1:14 (v15) The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
- Hebrews 1:2 (v16) has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.
- Ephesians 1:10 (v16) to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth,…
- Proverbs 16:4 (v16) Yahweh has made everything for its own end— yes, even the wicked for the day of evil.
- Isaiah 44:24 (v16) Yahweh, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb says: “I am Yahweh, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens;…
- Psalms 89:27 (v15) I will also appoint him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.
- 2 Corinthians 4:6 (v15) seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory…
- Hebrews 1:10-12 (v16) And, “You, Lord, in the beginning, laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish, but you…
- Philippians 2:6 (v15) who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,
- Colossians 1:15 (vv16–17) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
- John 1:1-3 (v17) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were…
- John 8:58 (v17) Jesus said to them, “Most certainly, I tell you, before Abraham came into existence, I AM.”
- John 17:5 (v17) Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed.
- Acts 17:28 (v17) ‘For in him we live, move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’
- 1 Timothy 1:17 (v15) Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
- Ephesians 1:20-21 (v16) which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all…
- Colossians 2:10 (v16) and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power.
- Romans 8:29 (v15) For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
- Isaiah 43:21 (v16) the people which I formed for myself, that they might declare my praise.
- Psalms 75:3 (v17) The earth and all its inhabitants quake. I firmly hold its pillars.
- Psalms 102:25-27 (v16) Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will endure. Yes, all of…
- John 3:16 (v15) For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
- Colossians 1:16-17 (v15) For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or…
- Hebrews 1:6 (v15) When he again brings in the firstborn into the world he says, “Let all the angels of God worship him.”
- Hebrews 3:3-4 (v16) For he has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, because he who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is…
- Revelation 1:8 (v17) “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
- Revelation 3:14 (v15) “To the angel of the assembly in Laodicea write: “The Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of God’s creation, says these…
- Deuteronomy 4:39 (v16) Know therefore today, and take it to heart, that Yahweh himself is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no one else.
- Proverbs 8:22-23 (v17) “Yahweh possessed me in the beginning of his work, before his deeds of old. I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, before the…
- Isaiah 44:6 (v17) This is what Yahweh, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies, says: “I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there…
- Ezekiel 1:26-28 (v15) Above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone. On the likeness of the…
- Ephesians 3:9-10 (v16) and to make all men see what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through…
- 1 Timothy 6:16 (v15) He alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and eternal power. Amen.
- Proverbs 8:29-31 (v15) when he gave to the sea its boundary, that the waters should not violate his commandment, when he marked out the foundations of the earth,…
- Isaiah 43:11-13 (v17) I myself am Yahweh. Besides me, there is no savior. I have declared, I have saved, and I have shown, and there was no strange god among…
- Revelation 1:17 (v17) When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I am the first and the last,
- Colossians 1:13 (v15) who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love,
- John 15:24 (v15) If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now they have seen and also hated both me and…
- Hebrews 13:8 (v17) Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
- Exodus 24:10 (v15) They saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was like a paved work of sapphire stone, like the skies for clearness.
- Numbers 12:8 (v15) With him, I will speak mouth to mouth, even plainly, and not in riddles; and he shall see Yahweh’s form. Why then were you not afraid to…
- Philippians 2:10 (v16) that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, those on earth, and those under the earth,
- 1 Peter 3:22 (v16) who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him.
- Colossians 2:15 (v16) Having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
- Hebrews 11:27 (v15) By faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.
- Ephesians 6:12 (v16) For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the…
- Colossians 1:20 (v16) and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through…
- Revelation 2:8 (v17) “To the angel of the assembly in Smyrna write: “The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life says these things:
- Revelation 5:13-14 (v16) I heard every created thing which is in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them, saying, “To him who sits…
- 1 Samuel 2:8 (v17) He raises up the poor out of the dust. He lifts up the needy from the dunghill to make them sit with princes and inherit the throne of…
- Micah 5:2 (v17) But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, being small among the clans of Judah, out of you one will come out to me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose…
- Isaiah 40:9-12 (v16) You who tell good news to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who tell good news to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with strength! Lift it…
- John 5:17-18 (v17) But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, so I am working, too.” For this cause therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill…
- Romans 8:38 (v16) For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
- Revelation 1:11 (v17) saying, “What you see, write in a book and send to the seven assemblies: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and…
65 distinct cross-references across this passage (68 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (24 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv15–17 15. Who is the image of the invisible God.…
15. Who is the image of the invisible God. He mounts up higher in discoursing as to the glory of Christ. He calls him the image of the invisible God, meaning by this, that it is in him alone that God, who is otherwise invisible, is manifested to us, in accordance with what is said in John 1:18,
— No man hath ever seen God: the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, hath himself manifested him to us.
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I am well aware in what manner the ancients were accustomed to explain this; for having a contest to maintain with Arians, they insist upon the equality of the Son with the Father, and his (ὁμοουσίαν) identity of essence, while in the mean time they make no mention of what is the chief point — in what manner the Father makes himself known to us in Christ. As to Chrysostom’s laying the whole stress of his defense on the term image, by contending that the creature cannot be said to be the image of the Creator, it is excessively weak; nay more, it is set aside by Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:7, whose words are — The man is the IMAGE and glory of God
That, therefore, we may not receive anything but what is solid, let us take notice, that the term image is not made use of in reference to essence, but has a reference to us; for Christ is called the image of God on this ground — that he makes God in a manner visible to us. At the same time, we gather also from this his (ὁμοουσία) identity of essence, for Christ would not truly represent God, if he were not the essential Word of God, inasmuch as the question here is not as to those things which by communication are suitable also to creatures, but the question is as to the perfect wisdom, goodness, righteousness, and power of God, for the representing of which no creature were competent. We shall have, therefore, in this term, a powerful weapon in opposition to the Arians, but, notwithstanding, we must begin with that reference that I have mentioned; we must not insist upon the essence alone. The sum is this — that God in himself, that is, in his naked majesty, is invisible, and that not to the eyes of the body merely, but also to the understandings of men, and that he is revealed to us in Christ alone, that we may behold him as in a mirror. For in Christ he shews us his righteousness, goodness, wisdom, power, in short, his entire self. We must, therefore, beware of seeking him elsewhere, for everything that would set itself off as a representation of God, apart from Christ, will be an idol.
The first-born of every creature. The reason of this appellation is immediately added — For in him all things are created, as he is, three verses afterwards, called the first-begotten from the dead, because by him we all rise again. Hence, he is not called the first-born, simply on the ground of his having preceded all creatures in point of time, but because he was begotten by the Father, that they might be created by him, and that he might be, as it were, the substance or foundation of all things. It was then a foolish part that the Arians acted, who argued from this that he was, consequently, a creature. For what is here treated of is, not what he is in himself, but what he accomplishes in others.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv15–16 Begotten before anything was made: and therefore the everlasting…
Begotten before anything was made: and therefore the everlasting Son of the everlasting Father.
A lively description of the person of Christ, whereby we understand that in him only, God showeth himself to be seen: who was begotten of the Father before anything was made, that is, from everlasting, by whom also all things that are made, were made without any exception, by whom also they do consist, and whose glory they serve.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv15–17 15 Who is the image of the invisible God,…
15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Ver. 15. Who is the image] The express image of his person, Heb 1:2. Milk is not so like milk as this Son is like the Father. By whom also God (otherwise invisible) is manifested to us. And here, he that would see God must set the eyes of faith upon the manhood of Christ; for he "that seeth the Son, seeth the Father." When a man looketh into a crystal glass, it casteth no reflex to him; but put steel upon the back of it, it will cast a reflex. So put the humanity (as a back of steel) to the glass of the Godhead, and it casteth a comfortable reflex to us. As without this, if we look upon God, we see indeed some small sparks of his glory to terrify and amaze us; but in Christ (God and man) we behold the lively and express face of God; not any more as a fearful and terrible Judge, but a most gracious and loving Father to comfort and refresh us.
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The firstborn of every creature] As being begotten of the substance of the Father, after a wonderful manner, before all beginnings, and as being the heir of all his Father’s goods. And so this text is parallel to that Heb 1:2.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv15–17 Having touched on the benefit of Christ’s sacrifice, which…
Having touched on the benefit of Christ’s sacrifice, which implies his human nature, he doth here rise higher, to set forth the dignity of his person, (which made it satisfactory), both with respect to his Father and the creature. As to the former, he styles him his image, which is not to be understood of an artificial, accidental, or imperfect image, as that of the king on his coin, or as man was the feeble image of God, Gen 9:6; 1Co 11:7; Col 3:10; for the apostle’s arguing Christ’s dignity to redeem, would have no force in it, if Christ were no more than a mere man; but of a natural, substantial, and perfect image: as Seth was the natural image of his father Adam, of the same substance with him, Gen 5:3; so Christ, the eternal Word, the only begotten Son of God by nature, Joh 1:1,18, (See Poole on "Phi 2:6"), very God of very God, Joh 17:3,5, doth exactly resemble, perfectly and adequately represent, his Father, of whose person he is the express character, or perfect image, Heb 1:3. Yet more distinctly Christ is the image of God, either:
1. As he is the Second Person in the blessed Trinity, from an intrinsical relation to the Father, in regard of the same essence with him by eternal generation before the world was made. He being eternally in the Father, and the Father in him, Joh 14:10; so he is in respect of his Father his essential image, and in regard to us as invisible as the Father himself; no creature could be the eternal image of the Creator, as that Son of the only true God, the living God, was, and is, Mat 16:16; Joh 6:69, in respect of his Father.
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2. As he is God-man, in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily, Col 2:9, whereby he doth infinitely exceed and surpass angels and men at first, Heb 1:5,6; 2:5. The apostle in this place doth not say simply Christ the image of God, but of the invisible God, ( considered personally), i.e. the Father; because the Father cannot be known to us but in his Son, as in an image, in which he would represent or manifest himself to be seen or known, Joh 1:14,18; Joh 14:8,9; 2Co 4:4. And in this latter respect (which imports the manifestative, not essential image) is Christ the image of his invisible Father unto us; unto whom, in all his offices and works of mediation, the attributes, affections, and excellencies of God clearly shine forth, they being otherwise incomprehensible and invisible by a creature: but Christ is the complete image of them, in a transcendent way; for as they are in him, they are incommunicable to any mere creature, and therefore he is the image of the invisible God, in that he makes him visible unto us. God is a pure Spirit, without body, or bodily parts, but yet was clearly manifested in Christ tabernacling amongst us, Joh 1:14; 1Ti 3:16; he represents him to us in his understanding and wisdom, Pro 8:14,15; almightiness and eternity, Isa 9:6; Joh 1:1; 8:58, permanency and unchangeableness, Heb 1:11,12; 13:8, omnipresence and omnisciency, Joh 2:24,25; 13:18; Rev 2:13. Not (as the Lutherans strangely imagine) that Christ is omnipotent with the omnipotency of the Divine nature, or omniscient with that omnisciency, as if the manhood did instrumentally use the attributes of the Godhead; but such perfections are really inherent in and appertaining to the manhood, by virtue of its union with the Divine nature in the Second Person of the Trinity, that though they are vastly short of the attributes which are essential to the Godhead, yet they are the completest image of them, and such as no mere creature is capable of. Hence it is said, we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten Son of God, who did further represent and manifest his Father to us, in the works of creation and preservation which he did, Joh 1:3; 5:19; Heb 1:10. Hence the apostle in this verse considers the dignity of Christ, with respect to the creature, adding to the forementioned intrinsic, an extrinsic royalty, the first-born of every creature, which a learned man would render, begotten before all the creation, or born before every creature, which is a Hebrew phrase. The Greek scholiast and several of the Greek fathers go this way; not as if the ineffable generation of Christ had any beginning, as some falsely conceited Christ to be made in time, just in the beginning before the world, by whom as an instrument all the rest were created; but the apostle doth not say he was first made, or first created; but, Col 1:17, was, or did exist, before all things besides; (as John Baptist said, he was before me, Joh 1:15); and therefore none of the rank of all them, but of another, viz. equal with his Father, whose image he was, above all that was made or created: he was not created at all, though first-born, or first-begotten, yet not first-created, (being distinguished here from created, as the cause from the effect), as it refers to him that begets, so it may to only begotten, Christ being so begotten as no other was or could be, Pro 8:22; Mic 5:2; Heb 1:5,6, even from eternity. The word first may either respect what follows, and so notes order in the things spoken of, he who is first being one of them, 1Co 15:47; or things going before, in which sense it denies all order or series of things in the same kind: as God is first before whom none, Isa 41:4; 43:11; Rev 21:6; so Christ may be said to be first-born because the only begotten Son of his Father, Joh 1:14; so the apostle may consider him here in order to establish the consideration of him as Mediator and Head of his church, Col 1:18; he speaking before, Col 1:16, of those things more generally whose creation are assigned to him, in contradistinction to those of the church or new creation, Col 1:18. Agreeably to our translation, first-born of every creature, ( note, here is a difference in the Greek, between first-born of and for, Col 1:18), we may consider:
1. Negatively. It is not to be understood properly for the first in order, so as to be one of them, in reference to whom he is said to be the first-born. But:
2. Positively, yet figuratively in a borrowed speech: so primacy and primogeniture may be attributed to him in regard of the creatures:
a) By a metonymy of the antecedent for the consequent; he who hath the privileges of enjoying and disposing of his father’s goods and inheritance, is accounted the first-born, Gen 27:29; Gal 4:1; so is Christ, being Owner, Lord, and Prince of every creature, as he is God-man, or ordained to human nature, he hath the preeminence of the whole creation, and is the chief, Psa 2:7,8
Heb 1:2,6. The heir amongst the Hebrews was reckoned the prince of the family, and so amongst the Romans the heir was taken for the lord: so God said he would make David his first-born, Psa 89:27, compared with Job 18:13; Isa 14:30
Jer 31:9. This sovereign empire which Christ hath over all the creation, and the parts of it, is by his primogeniture, or that he is first-born, since there is left nothing that is not under him, Heb 2:8, (as Adam in this lower world, in regard of his dominion, the state of innocency, might be first-born of them created for him), for the apostle brings in the next verse as the fundamental reason of this assertion.
b) By a consideration of Christ in God’s eternal decree and purpose, as the common womb of him who is God-man, and all creatures; being fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, 1Pe 1:20, he may be looked upon as the first-born amongst those who are predestinated to be conformed to his image, Rom 8:29, with Eph 1:4,5; for upon this account he is the first-born of the first-born creatures or church, (but this, as hinted before, is considered more specially, Col 1:18), Heb 12:23, therefore the first-born of all others: and this may be one respect in which he is before them, Col 1:17, with Pro 8:22; yea, all of them of the old, as well as the new creation. The Socinians are so daringly bold as to restrain this extensive expression of
every creature, or all the creation, to the new creation of men or the faithtful only, by perverting some texts of Scripture to strain them that way; when it is plain by what follows, the Spirit of God means all created beings, either in the first or second world, Christ being the principal cause both of the one and the other; the apostle, by the general term every creature simply, without any additament, doth import all created things, viz. the heavens and the earth, with all that is made in them: neither angels, nor inanimate and irrational creatures, are excluded; as in the apostle’s reason immediately following this expression.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv15–16 The apostle having mentioned our redemption in the former…
The apostle having mentioned our redemption in the former verse, describes the person of our Redeemer in this and the following verses, in such lofty characters, as evidently bespeak him to be a divine person, truly and really God, and consequently the fittest person to undertake so great and glorious a work, as the redemption and salvation of a lost and perishing world.
Note here, 1. The Redeemer described by his eternal relation to God, he is the image of the invisible God, that is, his natural and essential image; thus he is, in respect of his eternal generation as God; as a child whom we call the express image of the father, is of the same nature with his father, so is Christ of the same essence and nature with God; his nature is the same, his attributes are the same, his works the same, the worship given him the same; faith and affiance in him the same: Ye believe in God, believe also in me Joh 14:1.
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Again, Christ is the image of the invisible God, as God-man; by him, as a lively image, did God the Father set forth unto us his glorious attributes of wisdom, mercy, righteousness, and power. The first person in the God-head is called invisible to the patriarchs; but the Son frequently apperared, as a preludium to his incarnation, in which he appeared visibly to all.
Note, 2. Christ is here described, as by his eternal relation to God, so by his eternal relation to the creatures; He is the first born of every creature; that is,
1. He was before every creature, and therefore he himself cannot be a creature: The apostle says expressly, That he is before all things, Col 1:17 that is, Christ had a being before there was any created; he was before all creature, both in point of dignity, and in point of duration.
Thus, Chirst calls himself the beginning of the creation of God, Rev 3:14 that is, the principal and efficient cause of the creation, and so could not be a creature himself, but consequently must of necessity have been God from all eternity with the Father:
Or else, 2. By the first-born of every creature, may be understood, that he was the Lord and heir of all the creatures; in allusion to the first born among the Jews of old, who were Lords over their brethren, Behold I have made him thy Lord Gen 27:37; the first-born is natural heir, and heir did anciently signify Lord.
Now Christ is said in to be Lord of all Act 10:36, and He is called heir of all things Rom 4:14 : Now, how well may Christ be said to be the Lord and heir of all things, when all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made!
Learn hence, That the Socinians have no ground from this text to reckon Christ amongst the number of creatures, he having a being antecedent to all creatures; yea, being Lord of the whole creation; and accordingly the apostle styling him here the first born of every creature, never designed to insinuate, that the Son of God is a creature, as most evidently appears by the next verses.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv15–17 Who is the image of the invisible God,.... Not…
Who is the image of the invisible God,.... Not of deity, though the fulness of it dwells in him; nor of himself, though he is the true God, and eternal life; nor of the Spirit, who also is God, and the Spirit of the Son; but the Father, called "God", not to the exclusion of the Son or Spirit, who are with him the one God: "and he is invisible"; not to the Son who lay in his bosom, and had perfect and infinite knowledge of him; nor, in some sense, to angels, who always behold his face, but to men: no man hath seen him corporeally with the eyes of his body, though intellectually with the eyes of the understanding, when enlightened; not in his essence and nature, which is infinite and incomprehensible, but in his works of creation, providence, and grace; nor immediately, but mediately, in and through Christ, in whom he gives the light of the knowledge of the glory of his person and perfections; and this not perfectly now, but in the other state, when the saints shall see him face to face. But chiefly the Father is said to be invisible, because he did not appear to Old Testament saints; as his voice was never heard, so his shape was never seen; he never assumed any visible form; but whenever any voice was heard, or shape seen, it was the second person that appeared, the Son of God, who is here said to be his "image", and that, as he is the Son of God; in which sense he is the natural, essential, and eternal image of his Father, an eternal one, perfect and complete, and in which he takes infinite complacency and delight: this designs more than a shadow and representation, or than bare similitude and likeness; it includes sameness of nature and perfections; ascertains the personality of the Son, his distinction from the Father, whose image he is; and yet implies no inferiority, as the following verses clearly show, since all that the Father hath are his. Philo, the Jew (f), often speaks of the or Word of God, as the image of God. Also, this may be understood of him as Mediator, in whom, as such, is a most glorious display of the love, grace, and mercy of God, of his holiness and righteousness, of his truth and faithfulness, and of his power and wisdom:
the firstborn of every creature; not the first of the creation, or the first creature God made; for all things in Col 1:16 are said to be created by him, and therefore he himself can never be a creature; nor is he the first in the new creation, for the apostle in the context is speaking of the old creation, and not the new: but the sense either is, that he was begotten of the Father in a manner inconceivable and inexpressible by men, before any creatures were in being; or that he is the "first Parent", or bringer forth of every creature into being, as the word will bear to be rendered, if instead of we read which is no more than changing the place of the accent, and may be very easily ventured upon, as is done by an ancient writer (g), who observes, that the word is used in this sense by Homer, and is the same as "first Parent", and "first Creator"; and the rather this may be done, seeing the accents were all added since the apostle's days, and especially seeing it makes his reasoning, in the following verses, appear with much more beauty, strength, and force: he is the first Parent of every creature, "for by him were all things created", &c. Col 1:16, or it may be understood of Christ, as the King, Lord, and Governor of all creatures; being God's firstborn, he is heir of all things, the right of government belongs to him; he is higher than the kings of the earth, or the angels in heaven, the highest rank of creatures, being the Creator and upholder of all, as the following words show; so the Jews make the word "firstborn" to be synonymous with the word "king", and explain it by , "a great one", and "a prince" (h); see Psa 89:27.
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(f) De Mund. Opific. p. 6. de Plant. Noe, p. 216, 217. de Coufus. Ling. p. 341. de Somniis, p. 600. de Monarch. p. 823. (g) Isidior. Pelusiot. l. 3. Ep. 31. (h) R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 50. 1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv15–17 Who is - By describing the glory of Christ,…
Who is - By describing the glory of Christ, and his preeminence over the highest angels, the apostle here lays a foundation for the reproof of all worshippers of angels. The image of the invisible God - Whom none can represent, but his only begotten Son; in his divine nature the invisible image, in his human the visible image, of the Father. The first begotten of every creature - That is, begotten before every creature; subsisting before all worlds, before all time, from all eternity.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv15–17 Verse 15. Who is the image of the invisible…
Verse 15. Who is the image of the invisible God] The counterpart of God Almighty, and if the image of the invisible God, consequently nothing that appeared in him could be that image; for if it could be visible in the Son, it could also be visible in the Father; but if the Father be invisible, consequently his image in the Son must be invisible also. This is that form of God of which he divested himself; the ineffable glory in which he not only did not appear, as to its splendour and accompaniments, but concealed also its essential nature; that inaccessible light which no man, no created being, can possibly see. This was that Divine nature, the fulness of the Godhead bodily, which dwelt in him.
The first-born of every creature] I suppose this phrase to mean the same as that, Php 2:9: God hath given him a name which is above every name; he is as man at the head of all the creation of God; nor can he with any propriety be considered as a creature, having himself created all things, and existed before any thing was made. If it be said that God created him first, and that he, by a delegated power from God, created all things, this is most flatly contradicted by the apostle's reasoning in the 16th and 17th verses. Col 1:16; Col 1:17 As the Jews term Jehovah בכורו של עולם becoro shel olam, the first-born of all the world, or of all the creation, to signify his having created or produced all things; (see Wolfius in loc.) so Christ is here termed, and the words which follow in the 16th and 17th Col 1:16; Col 1:17 verses are the proof of this. The phraseology is Jewish; and as they apply it to the supreme Being merely to denote his eternal pre-existence, and to point him out as the cause of all things; it is most evident that St. Paul uses it in the same way, and illustrates his meaning in the following words, which would be absolutely absurd if we could suppose that by the former he intended to convey any idea of the inferiority of Jesus Christ.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv15–16 Col 1:15. Who — That is, the Son of…
Col 1:15. Who — That is, the Son of God, in whose blood we have redemption; is the image of the invisible God — By the description here given of the glory of Christ, and his pre-eminence over the highest angels, the apostle lays a foundation for the reproof of all worshippers of angels. The Socinians contend that Christ is here styled the image of the invisible God, merely because he made known to men the will of God; and that in this sense only Christ said to Philip, (Joh 14:9,) He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. But it should be considered, that in other passages in Scripture, the word image denotes likeness, if not sameness of nature and properties, as 1Co 15:49 : As we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Certainly, as Dr. Whitby observes, the more natural import of the phrase is, that Christ is therefore called the image of God, because he made him, who is invisible in his essence, conspicuous to us by the divine works he wrought, they being such as plainly showed that in him dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily; for the invisible God can only be seen by the effects of his power, wisdom, and goodness, and of his other attributes. He who, by the works both of the old and new creation, hath given such clear demonstrations of the divine power, wisdom, and goodness, is, upon this account, as much the image of God as it is possible any person or thing should be; and to this sense the expression seems here necessarily restrained by the connective particle οτι, for. He is the image of God, for by him all things were created. Moreover, this passage in exactly parallel to that in the beginning of the epistle to the Hebrews, as will evidently appear on a comparison of the two. Here he is said to be the image of God; there, the brightness (απαυγασμα, effulgence) of his Father’s glory, and the express image of his person, or substance, as υποστασεως more properly signifies: here he is called the firstborn, or Lord, of every creature; there, the heir of all things: here it is said that all things were created by him; there, that he made the worlds: here, that by him all things do consist; and there, that he upholdeth all things by the word of his power. Now, that he is there styled the image of God’s glory, and the express image or character of his person, or substance, by reason of that divine power, wisdom, and majesty, which shone forth in his actions, some Socinians are forced to confess. It is not, therefore, to be doubted that he is here styled the image of God in the same sense. And it is highly probable that he is called the image of the invisible God, as appearing to the patriarchs, and representing to them the Father, who dwells in light inaccessible; (1Ti 6:16;) according to what is frequently observed by the ante-Nicene fathers, that God the Father being invisible, and one whom no man hath seen or can see, appeared to the patriarchs by his Son. Add to this, that the Son is likewise called the image of God, because he manifested the divine perfections in the flesh visibly, by that fulness of grace and truth which shone in him during his abode on earth. This St. John’s words evidently imply: No man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. See the notes on Joh 1:14; Joh 1:18. In which sense Christ’s words to Philip also (Joh 14:9) are to be understood: He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, as our Lord manifestly shows, when he adds, I am in the Father, and the Father in me: the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. And 2Co 4:4, he is plainly styled the image of God, for the like reason, because (Col 1:6) the light of the knowledge of the glory of God is reflected from his face, or person, as προσωπω signifies. See the notes there.
The firstborn — Or first-begotten, (πρωτοτοκος,) of every creature — Or rather, of the whole creation, as πασα κτισις is translated Rom 8:22, existing before it, and the heir and Lord of it. “According to the Arians, the firstborn of the whole creation is the first-made creature. But the reason advanced to prove the Son the firstborn of the whole creation overturns that sense of this passage; for surely the Son’s creating all things doth not prove him to be the first-made creature; unless his power of creating all things originated from his being the first-made creature; which no one will affirm. As little does the Son’s creating all things prove that he created himself. Yet these absurdities will be established by the apostle’s reasoning, if the firstborn of the whole creation signifies the first-made creature. But it is proper to observe, that πρωτοτοκος, the firstborn, or first-begotten, in this passage, may signify the heir, or Lord: of the whole creation. For, anciently, the firstborn was entitled to possess his father’s estate, 2Ch 21:3. The firstborn was likewise lord of his brethren, who were all his servants. This appears from what Isaac said to Esau, after he had bestowed the rights of primogeniture on Jacob, Gen 27:37. Hence, among the Hebrews and other nations, firstborn, heir, and lord, were synonymous terms. See Gal 4:1. According to this interpretation of the terms firstborn and heir, the apostle’s reasoning is perfectly just: for the creation of all things, (Col 1:16,) and the making of the world, (Heb 1:3,) through the Son, is a direct proof that he is the firstborn, heir, or Lord of the whole.” See Whitby and Macknight.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv15–17 Who is the image of the invisible God -…
Who is the image of the invisible God - εἰκὼν τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ἀοράτου eikōn tou Theou tou aoratou. The objects. here, as it is in the parallel place in Eph 1:20-23, is to give a just view of the exaltation of the Redeemer. It is probable that, in both cases, the design is to meet some erroneous opinion on this subject that prevailed in those churches, or among those that claimed to be teachers there. See the Introduction to this Epistle, and compare the notes at Eph 1:20-23. For the meaning of the phrase occurring here, “the image of the invisible God,” see the Heb 1:3, note, and 2Co 4:4, note. The meaning is, that he represents to mankind the perfections of God, as an image, figure, or drawing does the object which it is made to resemble. See the word “image” - εἰκὼν eikōn - explained in the notes at Heb 10:1. It properly denotes that which is a copy or delineation of a thing; which accurately and fully represents it, in contradistinction from a rough sketch, or outline; compare Rom 8:29; 1Co 11:7; 1Co 15:49.
The meaning here is, that the being and perfections of God are accurately and fully represented by Christ. In what respects particularly he was thus a representative of God, the apostle proceeds to state in the following verses, to wit, in his creative power, in his eternal existence, in his heirship over the universe, in the fulness that dwelt in him. This cannot refer to him merely as incarnate, for some of the things affirmed of him pertained to him before his incarnation; and the idea is, that in all things Christ fairly represents to us the divine nature and perfections. God is manifest to us through him; 1Ti 3:16. We see God in him as we see an object in that which is in all respects an exact copy of it. God is invisible. No eye has seen him, or can see him; but in what Christ is, and has done in the works of creation and redemption, we have a fair and full representation of what God is; see the notes at Joh 1:18; Joh 14:9, note.
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The first-born of every creature - Among all the creatures of God, or over all his creation, occupying the rank and pro-eminence of the first-born. The first-born, or the oldest son, among the Hebrews as elsewhere, had special privileges. He was entitled to a double portion of the inheritance. It has been, also, and especially in oriental countries, a common thing for the oldest son to succeed to the estate and the title of his father. In early times, the first-born son was the officiating priest in the family, in the absence or on the death of the father. There can be no doubt that the apostle here has reference to the usual distinctions and honors conferred on the first-born, and means to say that, among all the creatures of God, Christ occupied a pre-eminence similar to that. He does not say that, in all respects, he resembled the first-born in a family; nor does he say that he himself was a creature, for the point of his comparison does not turn on these things, and what he proceeds to affirm respecting him is inconsistent with the idea of his being a created being himself.
He that “created all things that are in heaven and that are in earth,” was not himself created. That the apostle did not mean to represent him as a creature, is also manifest from the reason which he assigns why he is called the first-born. “He is the image of God, and the first-born of every creature, for - ὅτι hoti - by him were all things created.” That is, he sustains the elevated rank of the first-born, or a high eminence over the creation, because by him “all things were created in heaven and in earth.” The language used here, also, does not fairly imply that he was a creature, or that he was in nature and rank one of those in relation to whom it is said he was the first-born. It is true that the word “first-born” - πρωτότοκος prōtotokos - properly means the first-born child of a father or mother, Mat 1:25; Luk 2:7; or the first-born of animals. But two things are also to be remarked in regard to the use of the word:
(1) It does not necessarily imply that anyone is born afterward in the family, for it would be used of the first-born, though an only child; and,
(2) It is used to denote one who is chief, or who is highly distinguished and pre-eminent. Thus, it is employed in Rom 8:29, “That he might be the first-born among many brethren.” So, in Col 1:18, it is said that he was “the first-born from the dead;” not that he was literally the first that was raised from the dead, which was not the fact, but that he might be pre-eminent among those that are raised; compare Exo 4:22. The meaning, then, is, that Christ sustains the most exalted rank in the universe; he is pre-eminent above all others; he is at the head of all things. The expression does not mean that he was “begotten before all creatures,” as it is often explained, but refers to the simple fact that he sustains the highest rank over the creation. He is the Son of God. He is the heir of all things. All other creatures are also the “offspring of God;” but he is exalted as the Son of God above all.
(This clause has been variously explained. The most commonly received, and, as we think, best supported opinion, is that which renders πρωτοτοκος πασης κτισεως prōtotokos pasēs ktiseōs; “begotten before all creation.” This most natural and obvious sense would have been more readily admitted, had it not been supposed hostile to certain views on the sonship of Christ. Some explain πρωτότοκος prōtotokos actively, and render “first begetter or producer of all things,” which gives, at all events, a sense consistent with truth and with the context, which immediately assigns as the reason of Christ being styled πρωτότοκος prōtotokos, the clause beginning ὁτι εν αυτω εκτισθη hoti en autō ektisthē, “For by him were all things created.” Others, with the author explain the word figuratively, of pre-eminence or lordship. To this view however, there are serious objections.
It seems not supported by sufficient evidence. No argument can be drawn from Col 1:18 until it is proved that “firstborn from the dead,” does not mean the first that was raised to die no more, which Doddridge affirms to be “the easiest, surest, most natural sense, in which the best commentators are agreed.” Nor is the argument from Rom 8:29 satisfactory. “Πρωτότοκος Prōtotokos,” says Bloomfield, at the close of an admirable note on this verse, “is not well taken by Whitby and others, in a figurative sense, to denote ‘Lord of all things, since the word is never so used, except in reference to primogeniture. And although, in Rom 8:29, we have τον ρωτοτοκος εν πολλοις αδελφοις ton prōtotokos en pollois adelphois, yet there his followers are represented not as his creatures, but as his brethren. On which, and other accounts, the interpretation, according to which we have here a strong testimony to the eternal filiation of our Saviour is greatly preferable; and it is clear that Col 1:15, Col 1:18 are illustrative of the nature, as Col 1:16-17 are an evidence of the pre-existence and divinity of Christ.”)
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv15–16 The first [2] born of every creature. St. John…
The first [2] born of every creature. St. John Chrysostom takes notice against the Arians, that the apostle calls Christ the first-begotten, or first-born, not the first created, because he was not created at all. And the sense is, that he was before all creatures, proceeding from all eternity from the Father; though some expound the words of Christ as man, and that he was greater in dignity. See Romans viii. 29. (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Primogenitus omnis creaturæ; Greek: prototokos pases ktiseos. St. John Chrysostom, Greek: log. g. p. 103. Greek: ou protoktistos, alla prototokos....oukoun ektistai.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv15–17 They who have experienced in themselves "redemption" (Col 1:14),…
They who have experienced in themselves "redemption" (Col 1:14), know Christ in the glorious character here described, as above the highest angels to whom the false teachers (Col 2:18) taught worship was to be paid. Paul describes Him: (1) in relation to God and creation (Col 1:15-17); (2) in relation to the Church (Col 1:18-20). As the former regards Him as the Creator (Col 1:15-16) and the Sustainer (Col 1:17) of the natural world; so the latter, as the source and stay of the new moral creation.
image--exact likeness and perfect Representative. Adam was made "in the image of God" (Gen 1:27). But Christ, the second Adam, perfectly reflected visibly "the invisible God" (Ti1 1:17), whose glories the first Adam only in part represented. "Image" (eicon) involves "likeness" (homoiosis); but "likeness" does not involve "image." "Image" always supposes a prototype, which it not merely resembles, but from which it is drawn: the exact counterpart, as the reflection of the sun in the water: the child the living image of the parent. "Likeness" implies mere resemblance, not the exact counterpart and derivation as "image" expresses; hence it is nowhere applied to the Son, while "image" is here, compare Co1 11:7 [TRENCH]. (Joh 1:18; Joh 14:9; Co2 4:4; Ti1 3:16; Heb 1:3). Even before His incarnation He was the image of the invisible God, as the Word (Joh 1:1-3) by whom God created the worlds, and by whom God appeared to the patriarchs. Thus His essential character as always "the image of God," (1) before the incarnation, (2) in the days of His flesh, and (3) now in His glorified state, is, I think, contemplated here by the verb "is."
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first-born of every creature-- (Heb 1:6), "the first-begotten": "begotten of His Father before all worlds" [Nicene Creed]. Priority and superlative dignity is implied (Psa 89:27). English Version might seem to favor Arianism, as if Christ were a creature. Translate, "Begotten (literally, 'born') before every creature," as the context shows, which gives the reason why He is so designated. "For," &c. (Col 1:16-17) [TRENCH]. This expression is understood by ORIGEN (so far is the Greek from favoring Socinian or Arian views) as declaring the Godhead of Christ, and is used by Him as a phrase to mark that Godhead, in contrast with His manhood [Book 2, sec. Against Celsus]. The Greek does not strictly admit ALFORD'S translation, "the first-born of all creation."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv15–17 I. THE GLORIOUS PERSON AND REDEMPTIVE WORK OF CHRIST,…
I. THE GLORIOUS PERSON AND REDEMPTIVE WORK OF CHRIST, Col_1:15 to Col_2:7.
1. His exalted dignity, Col_1:15-18.
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Against all possible systems of human salvation, and especially that one which at Colosse assumed a position of antagonism with the gospel, and through its mediatorship of angels with Christ, it is necessary to show his absolute and unapproachable pre-eminence in himself and as Mediator, together with the entire sufficiency of what he has done. The passage, though brief, is important as one of the principal four which describe the person of our Lord. Comp. Eph_1:20-23; Php_2:6-11; and Heb_1:2-3.
a. His relation to God, Col_1:15.
15. Who is—The subject is the Son of his love, in Col_1:13. The entire description takes in both his pre-incarnate, and his incarnate and now glorified state. The division is at the end of Col_1:17. Both before creation and after his ascension, from eternity to eternity, he is what is here asserted. The word is is the word of eternity.
Image—An image of what is invisible must itself be invisible. Image is more than resemblance or likeness: it is the exact counterpart of the being imaged, perfectly representing his attributes and essential nature, with, therefore, in the present case, the same substance, power, and eternity. As Ellicott observes, “The Son is the Father’s image in all things, save only in being the Father.” In his pre-existence, his incarnation, and his glorification, all the characteristics of God are in him. In his relations to the world he reveals and manifests God; but these are not in question here. They belong to his office, not to his nature and relation to God.
Firstborn of every creature—This phrase, standing alone, would confirm the Arian view, that the Son was the first created being; but the context, which ascribes to him the whole creation, with no exception, and also asserts his pre-existence, forbids that interpretation. No creature can create himself, or exist prior to any creation. He created the creation, and therefore existed before all creation. Moreover, first-created is not the word here used. Nor is the reference to our Lord’s birth of a human mother, as the for of the next verse shows; but rather to that mysterious emanation of the Son from the Father, in which he is said to be “begotten” or “born.” A correct rendering would read, the firstborn before every creature, that is, every kind of creature; and in Scripture, whatever is before any creation is from eternity. So the Nicene Creed expresses it, “begotten before all worlds,” that is, from eternity. In his eternal relation to the Father, the Son is the only begotten: in his relation to his creatures, he is before them all. Besides priority in time, he also has the priority in dignity and right which belong to the firstborn.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv15–17 15–17. the thought continued: greatness of the redeemer as…
15–17. the thought continued: greatness of the redeemer as head of creation
15. who is] Here opens, in closest connexion with the preceding matter, a confession of truth and faith about the Person of the Redeeming Son of God, the King of the redeemed. He appears in His relation to (a) the Eternal Father, (b) the created Universe, especially the Universe of spirits, (c) the Church of redeemed men. Every clause is pregnant of Divine truth, and the whole teaches with majestic emphasis the great lesson that the Person is all-important to the Work, the true Christ to the true salvation.
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the image] So 2Co_4:4. The Greek word (eicôn) occurs often in Biblical Greek, most frequently (in O.T.) as a translation of the Hebrew tselem. Usage shews that on the whole it connotes not only similarity but also “representation (as a derived likeness) and manifestation” (Grimm’s N. T. Lexicon, ed. Thayer; and see Lightfoot’s note, or rather essay, here). An instructive passage for study of the word is Heb_10:1, where it is opposed to “shadow,” and plainly means “the things themselves, as seen.” Thus the Lord Christ, the mystery of His Person and Natures, is not only a Being resembling God, but God Manifest. Cp. Joh_14:9, and Heb_1:3.
“Christian antiquity has ever regarded the expression ‘image of God’ as denoting the eternal Son’s perfect equality with the Father in respect of His substance, power, and eternity … The Son is the Father’s Image in all things save only in being the Father” (Ellicott; with reff. inter alia to Hilary de Synodis, § 73; Athan. contra Arian. i. 20, 21).
the invisible God] For the same word see 1Ti_1:17; Heb_11:27. And cp. Deu_4:12; Joh_1:18; Joh_5:37; 1Ti_6:16; 1Jn_4:20. This assertion of the Invisibility of the Father has regard to the manifesting function of the Image, the Son. See Lightfoot here. The Christian Fathers generally (not universally) took it otherwise, holding that the “Image” here refers wholly to the Son in His Godhead, which is as invisible as that of the Father, being indeed the same. But the word “Image” by usage tends to the thought of vision, in some sort; and the collocation of it here with “the Invisible” brings this out with a certain emphasis. Not that the reference of the “Image” here is directly or primarily to our Lord’s visible Body of the Incarnation, but to His being, in all ages and spheres of created existence, the Manifester of the Father to created intelligences. His being this was, so to speak, the basis and antecedent of His gracious coming in the flesh, to be “seen with the eyes” of men on earth (1Jn_1:1). In the words of St Basil (Epist. xxxviii. 8, quoted by Lightfoot) the creature “views the Unbegotten Beauty in the Begotten.”
the firstborn of every creature] Better perhaps, Firstborn of all creation (Lightfoot and R.V.), or, with a very slight paraphrase, Firstborn over all creation; standing to it in the relation of priority of existence and supremacy of inherited right. So, to borrow a most inadequate analogy, the heir of an hereditary throne might be described as “firstborn to, or over, all the realm.” The word “creature” (from the (late) Latin creatura) here probably, as certainly in Romans 8, means “creation” as a whole; a meaning to which the Greek word inclines in usage, rather than to that of “a creature” (which latter Ellicott and Alford however adopt). See Lightfoot’s note.
“Firstborn:”—cp. Psa_89:27; and the Palestinian Jewish application, thence derived, of the title “Firstborn” to the Messiah. A similar word was used of the mysterious “Logos” among the Alexandrian Jews, as shewn in the writings of St Paul’s contemporary, Philo. Studied in its usage, and in these connexions, the word thus denotes (a) Priority of existence, so that the Son appears as antecedent to the created Universe, and therefore as belonging to the eternal Order of being (see the following context); (b) Lordship over “all creation,” by this right of eternal primogeniture. See Psa_89:27, and cp. Heb_1:2.
“Of all creation:”—so lit. The force of the Greek genitive, in connexion with the word “first” (as here “firstborn”), may be either partitive, so that the Son would be described as first of created things, or so to speak comparative (see a case exactly in point, Joh_1:15, Greek), so that He would be described as first, or antecedent, in regard of created things. And the whole following context, as well as the previous clause, decides for this latter explanation of the grammar.
On the theological importance of the passage see further Appendix C.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv15–17 (15) The image of the invisible God.—This all important…
(15) The image of the invisible God.—This all important clause needs the most careful examination. We note accordingly (1) that the word “image” (like the word “form,” Php_2:6-7) is used in the New Testament for real and essential embodiment, as distinguished from mere likeness. Thus in Heb_10:1 we read, “The law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things;” we note also in Rom_1:23 the distinction between the mere outward “likeness” and the “image” which it represented; we find in 1Co_15:49 that the “image of the earthy” and “the image of the heavenly” Adam denote actual identity of nature with both; and in 2Co_3:18 the actual work of the Spirit in the heart is described as “changing us from glory to glory” into “the image” of the glorified Christ. (2) Next we observe that although, speaking popularly, St. Paul in 1Co_11:7 calls man “the image and glory of God,” yet the allusion is to Gen_1:26; Gen_1:28, where man is said, with stricter accuracy, to be made “after the image of God” (as in Eph_4:24, “created after God”), and this more accurate expression is used in Col_3:10 of this Epistle, “renewed after the image of Him that created him.” Who then, or what, is the “image of God,” after which man is created? St. Paul here emphatically (as in 2Co_4:4 parenthetically) answers “Christ,” as the Son of God, “first-born before all creation.” The same truth is conveyed in a different form, clearer (if possible) even than this, in Heb_1:3, where “the Son” is said to be not only “the brightness of the glory of the Father,” but “the express image of His Person.” For the word “express image” is character in the original, used here (as when we speak of the alphabetical “characters”) to signify the visible drawn image, and the word “Person” is substance or essence. (3) It is not to be forgotten that at this time in the Platonising Judaism of Philo, “the Word” was called the eternal “image of God.” (See passages quoted in Dr. Light-foot’s note on this passage.) This expression was not peculiar to him; it was but a working out of that personification of the “wisdom of God,” of which we have a magnificent example in Pro_8:22-30, and of which we trace the effect in the Alexandrine Book of “Wisdom” (Wis_7:25-26). “Wisdom is the breath of the power of God, and a pure stream from the glory of the Most High—the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image of His goodness.” It seems to have represented in the Jewish schools the idea complementary to the ordinary idea of the Messiah in the Jewish world. Just as St. John took up the vague idea of “the Word,” and gave it a clear divine personality in Christ, so St. Paul seems to act here in relation to the other phrase, used as a description of the Word. In Christ he fixes in solid reality the floating vision of the “image of God.” (4) There is an emphasis on the words “of the invisible God.” Now, since the whole context shows that the reference is to the eternal pre-existence of Christ, ancient interpreters (of whom Chrysostom may be taken as the type) argued that the image of the invisible must be also invisible. But this seems opposed to the whole idea of the word “image,” and to its use in the New Testament and elsewhere. The true key to this passage is in our Lord’s own words in Joh_1:8, “No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son” (here is the remarkable reading, “the only begotten God”), “who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath revealed Him.” In anticipation of the future revelation of Godhead, Christ, even as pre-existent, is called “The image of the invisible God.”
The firstborn of every creature (of all creation).—(1) As to the sense of this clause. The grammatical construction here will bear either the rendering of our version, or the rendering “begotten before all creation,” whence comes the “begotten before all worlds “of the Nicene creed. But the whole context shows that the latter is unquestionably the true rendering. For, as has been remarked from ancient times, He is said to be “begotten” and not “created;” next, he is emphatically spoken of below as He “by whom all things were created,” who is “before all things,” and in whom all things consist.” (2) As to the order of idea. In Himself He is “the image of God” from all eternity. From this essential conception, by a natural contrast, the thought immediately passes on to distinction from, and priority to, all created being. Exactly in this same order of idea, we have in Heb_1:2-3, “By whom also He made the worlds . . . upholding all things by the word of His power;” and in Joh_1:3, “All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made which was made. Here St. Paul indicates this idea in the words “firstborn before all creation,” and works it out in the verses following. (3) As to the name “firstborn” itself. It is used of the Messiah as an almost technical name (derived from Psa_2:7; Psa_89:28), as is shown in Heb_1:6, “when He bringeth the first begotten into the world.” In tracing the Messianic line of promise we notice that; while the Messiah is always true man, “the seed of Abraham,” “the son of David,” yet on him are accumulated attributes too high for any created being (as in Isa_9:6). He is declared to be an “Emmanuel” God with us; and His kingdom a visible manifestation of God. Hence the idea contained in the word “firstborn” is not only sovereignty “above all the kings of the earth” (Psa_89:28; comp. Dan_8:13-14), but also likeness to God and priority to all created being. (4) As to the union of the two clauses. In the first we have the declaration of His eternal unity with God—all that was completely embodied in the declaration of the “Word who is God,” up to which all the higher Jewish speculations had led; in the second we trace the distinctness of His Person, as the “begotten of the Father,” the true Messiah of Jewish hopes, and the subordination of the co-eternal Son to the Father. The union of the two marks the assertion of Christian mystery, as against rationalising systems, of the type of Arianism on one side, of Sabellianism on the other.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv15–17 Vers. 15-23. SECTION II THE REDEEMING SON AND HIS…
Vers. 15-23. SECTION II THE REDEEMING SON AND HIS KINGDOM. We now approach the real subject of the apostle"s letter, and that which is its distinction and glory amongst the Epistles, in the great theological deliverance of vers. 15-20 concerning the Person of Christ. This passage occupies a place in the Christology of St. Paul corresponding to that which belongs to Rom_3:19-26 in regard to his Soteriology. Here he treats directly and expressly of the sovereignty of Christ and the nature of his Person subjects which elsewhere in his writings are for the most part matter of assumption or mere incidental reference. But the paragraph is no detached or interpolated piece of abstract theology. It depends grammatically and practically on the previous verses (12-14). It sets forth who he is and what place he fills in the universe that Son of God"s love in whom we have redemption, and in whose kingdom the Father has placed us; and what cause, therefore, there is for the Colossians to give thanks as having such a Person for their redeeming King. The passage fails into two parts, closely corresponding both in form and sense, and governed, like other of the apostle"s more fervid and elevated utterances, by a Hebraistic antithetical rhythm of expression, which should aid us in the difficulties of its interpretation. A twofold headship is ascribed to the Lord Christnatural (vers. 15-17) and redemptional (vers. 1820): the first the source and ground of the second; the second the issue and consequence of the first, its reassertion and consummation. This symmetrical structure we may attempt to exhibit in the following way:
I Ver. 15. (a) Who is Image of God the invisible, Firstborn of all creation:
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Ver. 16. (b) For in Him were created all things,
(c) In the heavens and on the earth, the things visible and the things invisible whether thrones, whether lordships, whether principalities, whether dominions
Ver. 17. (d) All things through Him and unto Him have been created;
(e) And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
II Ver. 18. (e) And He is the Head of the body, the Church;
(a) Who is (the) Beginning, Firstborn out of the dead, that in all things He might become pre-eminent:
Ver. 19. (b) For in Him he was pleased that all the fulness should dwell;
Ver. 20. (d) And through Him to reconcile all things unto Him, having made peace through the blood of his cross, through Him,
(c) Whether the things on the earth, or the things in the heavens.
I
(a) In virtue of his relation to God, Christ is at once
(b) ground of creation,
(c) both in heaven and on earth, and at the same time
(d) its means and its end; he is, therefore,
(e) supreme over the universe, preconditioning its existence, constituting its unity.
II In a similar sense he is
(e) Head of the Church,
(a) in virtue of his new relation to man, which makes him
(b) ground,
(d) means, and end of reconciliation also,
(c) whether on earth or in heaven.
Who is Image of God the invisible. (Col_2:9; Php_2:6; 2Co_4:4; Heb_1:1-3 Heb_11:27; Joh_1:1-3, 18 5:37, 38; 1Ti_1:17; Exo_33:20; Job_23:8, Job_23:9) On "image" (Elsie), see Lightfoot"s full discussion; and Trench"s "Synonyms." The word is well defined by Philo ("On Dreams," 1. "The image no imitation, but the very archetypal representation itself (aujto totupon ei=dov)." This title the apostle had before conferred on Christ in 2Co_4:4. There it is in the moral and redemptional attributes of the Godhead, manifest in "the illumination of the gospel," that Jesus Christ (ver. 6), the incarnate Redeemer, appears as "the Image of God:" hero the title is put upon him as representing the invisible God in all that pertains to nature and creation. The Colossian error rested on a philosophical dualism. It assumed an absolute separation between the infinite God and the finite, material world, which was viewed as the work of lower and more or less evil powers. To counteract it, therefore, the apostle"s argument must go down to the foundation of things, and seeks for a true conception of the universe on which to ground itself. Accordingly, in this and the following verses, he bases the redeeming work of "the Word made flesh who dwelt among us," set forth in his previous Epistles, upon that of "the Word who was with God in the beginning, who was God, and through whom all things were made." He avoids, however, the term Loges, which must have been perfectly familiar to him in this connection possibly to prevent misunderstanding (see Introduction, 7). Firstborn of all creation (Rom_8:29; Heb_1:2, Heb_1:6; Joh_1:18; Psa_89:27) (On "firstborn," see again Lightfoot"s invaluable note.) Primogeniture in early ages carried with it the rights of full heirship, involving representation of the father both in his religious and civil capacity, and in his sovereignty within the house (Gen_25:31 Gen_27:29 Gen_49:3; Deu_21:17; 1Ch_5:1) But natural precedence, as in the ease of Esau and Jacob, may yield to Divine election, which gives a unique sacredness and separateness to the position and title of the firstborn. So Israel is Jehovah"s firstborn among the nations (Exo_4:22, Exo_4:23; Jer_31:9) What belonged to the chosen people under this title is, in the language of Psa_89:27, concentrated on the person of the Messianic King, the elect Son of David; and firstborn became a standing designation of the Messiah. The apostle has already applied it to Christ in his relation to the Church Rom_8:29; see below, ver. 18), as being not the eldest simply, but one intrinsically superior to and sovereign over those whom he claims for his brethren. (Rom_14:9) Here the historical birthright and actual sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ within the Church are affirmed to rest upon an original primacy over the universe itself. He is not the Church"s only, but "all creation"s Firstborn". (comp. Heb_3:3-6, "Son over his own house the house of him "who built all things The phrase is synonymous with the "Heir of all things" of Heb_1:2, and the "Only-begotten" of Joh_1:18. So far were the titles Firstborn and Only-begotten from excluding each other in Jewish thought that Israel is designated "God"s firstborn, only-begotten," in the apocryphal Psalms of Solomon (18:4; also 4 Est 6:58); and so entirely had the former become a title of sovereignty that God himself is called "Firstborn of the world" (Rabbi Bechai: see Lightfoot). Philo uses the equivalent prwtogonov of the Divine Word as the seat of the archetypal ideas after which creation was framed. This phrase has been a famous battle-ground of controversy. It was a chief stronghold of the Arians, who read "of (out of) all creation" as partitive genitive. This interpretation, while grammatically allowable, is exegetically and historically impossible. For vers. 16 and 17 expressly and emphatically distinguish between "him" and "the all things" of creation. The idea of the Son of God being part of creation was foreign to St. Paul"s (Col_2:9; 1Co_8:6; Php_2:6-8) and to the thought of his day. Had such a misunderstanding occurred to him as possible, he would, perhaps, have expressed himself differently. Some of the early opponents of Arius gave to prwtotokov, against all usage, an active sense of all creation." Athanasius, with ether Greek Fathers of the fourth century, in the stress of the same controversy, were led to propose whatsubsequently became the standard Socinian interpretation, understanding "creation" to mean "the new (moral) creation" (so also Schleiermacher) against the whole scope of the context, and cutting the very nerve of the apostle"s argument. The Jewish theosophy of the day distributed the offices of representing God, and of mediating between him and the creatures, amongst a variable and nebulous crowd of agencies angels, words, powers neither human nor strictly Divine. The apostle gathers all these mediatorial and administrative functions into one, and places them in the hands of "the Son of his love." Looking up to God, he is his Image: looking down on creation, he is its primal Head and Lord. "Creation," standing collectively without the article in antithesis to "Firstborn," is used qualitatively, or (as the logicians would say) intensively (see Alford; and comp. ver. 23 and. (Eph_2:21, Revised Text) This is better than making ktisiv a quasi-proper noun (Winer, Lightfoot), or rendering distributively, "every creature" (Meyer, Ellicott). (On this occasional collective use of pav without article, see Kruger"s "Griech. Sprachlehre," 1:50. 11.9.)
Vers. 15-23. Sect. 2.
The redeeming Son and his kingdom.
I CHRIST THE LORD OF UNIVERSAL NATURE. (Vers. 15-17.) Colossian error was undermining the Christian system by introducing into it a false, dualistic theory of nature, then widely prevalent in other quarters.
And the leaders of Christian thought can never afford to be indifferent to the current philosophic views of their day. Indeed, in the contact of Christian teaching with philosophy, and in the reflection of thoughtful men at all times, the question was sure to arise and must constantly recur in new forms, "What is the relation of Christ to the universe? At what point does he enter the scheme of things? He who died on Calvary, who claims to save the souls of men, what has he to do with nature and the common world?" If this question could not be answered, or if any inferior and limited position in the world of being must be assigned to him, then, as the Colossian heresy shows, his spiritual authority and the efficacy of his redemption become, in the same degree, limited and uncertain. Hence the teaching of the Epistles of this group (Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians) respecting the Person of Christ is the logical and theological sequel of that of the second (Galatians, Romans, I and 2 Corinthians), respecting our salvation through him. We gather from the apostle"s teaching hero:
1. That in Christ God becomes visible, and nature becomes intelligible.
To earnest philosophic thought, as to sound religious instinct, it has always been evident that "what is seen hath not been made out of things which do appear". (Heb_11:3) An "everlasting power and divinity are clearly seen from the creation of the world but as "invisible things". (Rom_1:20) Our latest Agnosticism is but a despairing echo of the cry of Job: "I go towards the east, but he is not there; and westward, but I cannot perceive him; toward the north, where he is working, but I cannot see him; where he veileth himself in the south, but I cannot find him". (Job_28:8, Job_28:9) God effectually hides himself behind his works. All visible point to invisible causes, all finite things lead up to the Infinite, all phenomena to the noumenal; but whither they point we cannot follow. Some of the most profound and minute of modern scientific inquirers testify most strongly to this ( e.g. M. Dumas and M. Pasteur, in their addresses at the French Academy, 1880, 1882). From that invisible. Christ comes forth to testify of him whom "no man hath seen nor can see". (Joh_1:14, 18 14:9) We know now what the Maker of the universe is like. The world is no longer orphaned. The unknown God proves to be its Father, and his Son its older Brother. Human thought has a visible centre around which to move, a sun which sheds light and warmth over all its speculations. The incarnation and resurrection of Christ, with the whole course of his miracles (his signs), assure us that natural law is, and must prove itself ultimately to be, subservient to spiritual law, the lower to the higher order, the material world to the moral being of man. His miracles and parables and his general teaching furnish many fruitful hints, some that lie on the surface, others that await our deeper searching or future need, respecting the meaning and use of the natural world. He is, after all, its chief Interpreter, the Master of poets and philosophers of nature who often owe most to him when they are least aware of it, as well as of religious thinkers and social reformers. While we hold fast this faith in the "Image of God the invisible," the "Firstborn of all creation," we may witness science and philosophy pursuing their inquiries without misgiving, and we may follow them, warily indeed, but without mistrust; for they can discover no truth which will not in the end support the "truth as it is in Jesus," and they labour, though they know it not, only to add their own to the "many crowns" that are preparing for the head of our Immanuel.
2. All the relations which nature holds to God centre in Christ.
(1) If the world rests on God, is grounded in him, refers secretly and everywhere to God as the immanent, perpetual Cause of its being and its energy; if in him "we live and move and are; then we are to understand all this of Christ. "In him were created, in him consist all things" (vers. 16, 17). "God was in Christ" creating the heavens and the earth; is "in Christ" sustaining, coordinating, directing the march of the circling worlds, the evolution of their teeming, endlessly varied forms of life. The "winds and the sea" that "obeyed him," disease and death and the mighty spirits of darkness that fled at his word, knew something of this secret, if men do not.
(2) If through God the universe came to be; (Rom_11:36) if he supplied the agencies of creation, the matter and the force (unless matter is really force) out of which it was generated, the laws which shaped its form and governed its development; then it appears that all this was done through Christ.
(3) If the world moves towards God, (Rom_11:36) in spite of all divergence and confusion; and if throughout the unmeasured cycles of its duration past and to come it advances towards the fulfilment of its destiny, "that God may be all in all"; (1Co_15:28) then its course is directed also unto Christ. The will of God respecting the kingdom of his Son was the secret of creation. (Eph_3:9, Eph_3:10) Man"s sin did not give birth to that purpose. It called for its vindication in new forms of superabounding grace; but from the beginning it was "the Father"s will that all should honour the Son as they honour the Father". (Joh_5:23) He is "the Heir of all things", (Heb_1:2) and it is "the glory of God the Father" "that every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord". (Php_2:9-11) So far, therefore, as we can trace any Divine working in the course of nature or history, we may refer it to Christ as truly as the forgiveness of sins or the resurrection of the dead. Nature and grace, body and spirit, history and revelation, the secular and sacred, are essentially one, are parts of the same scheme, each being the complement of the other (instance the inseparable connection of Christ"s miracles of healing with his spiritual work), and are working under the same management, (Mat_28:18) towards the same issue, that "purpose of the ages which God purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, to sum up all things in Christ". (Eph_1:10 Eph_3:9-11)
II CHRIST THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH. (Vers. 18-23.)
1. Into the world created to be "the kingdom of the Son of God"s love," "sin entered, and death through sin;" and death became king, sin in death, (Rom_5:12, Rom_5:13, Rom_5:21) instead of "the Prince of life." Hatred was planted in the human breast, and with it came a darkness that "apprehended not the light of life" (vers. 13, 21; Joh_1:4, Joh_1:5; 1Jn_3:8, 1Jn_3:11, 1Jn_3:12) and men fell under "the dominion of Satan" (Act_26:18; Eph_2:2, Eph_2:3; Luk_4:6; 1Jn_5:19) the "murderer," the "father of lies;" till it came to pass that, though Christ ever "was in the world, the world knew him not". (Joh_1:10) Men were everywhere "cut off from Christ," "alienated," "children of wrath" (ver. 21; Eph_2:3, Eph_2:12) how rebellious against him, his advent proved. Then, in their "wicked works," they not only denied the Son his preeminence, but even said, "Come, let us kill him" (Mat_21:38; Luk_19:14 Ps 2)
2. And he submits to die, that he may "put away sin by the sacrifice of himself." The Firstborn of all creation becomes Firstborn out of the dead. So high he was in his Divine, eternal birth, so low he steeped to the Virgin"s womb, to "a servant"s form," and "unto death, yea, the death of the cross" (vers. 18, 20; Php_2:7, 8; Rom_1:3 Rom_9:5; 2Co_8:9; Gal_4:4; Heb_2:5-18) to restore his human brethren, to recover his alienated kingdom, "to reconcile all things unto himself" (vers. 18, 20; Rom_14:9; Php_2:10; Rev_1:5, Rev_1:6, Revised Text)
3. So dying, he lives again that he may give its life; (Rom_6:4-11) descending, in turn he ascends and lifts us with him (Eph_4:8-10 Eph_2:5, Eph_2:6; Joh_12:32) emptying himself, he gains a new sovereign fulness (ver. 19; Php_2:8; Eph_4:10 Eph_1:20-23) of all that the dark, exiled, broken, miserable world needs to restore it and build it up again (Col_2:9, Col_2:10; Php_4:19)
4. Round himself as the living Centre, he gathers a new humanity and forms a new world, which is his body, the Church (vers. 18, 24; Col_2:19; Eph_4:16 Eph_5:23; Joh_15:1-8) a body wider, and yet narrower, than the visible (Mat_13:24-30; Joh_10:16) "a spiritual house," built of those united as "living stones" to the "living Stone", (1Pe_2:4, 1Pe_2:5) which "groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord". (Eph_2:21) So he is the Beginning (ver. 18) of an agelong, world wide process of resurrection and reconstruction. The life that is in him is an organic, formative, spiritual enemy, with a "mighty working" in it that is "able to subdue all things unto itself" (Php_3:21; Rom_8:2-11) a leaven destined to leaven the whole lump. (Mat_13:31-33) "The kingdom of this world" must "become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ" (Rev_11:15; 1Co_15:25; Dan_2:34, 35 7:13, 14) "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" must penetrate, transform, and dominate every sphere of human thought and activity; "the works of the devil" everywhere, and in every form and shape, must be "destroyed". (1Jn_3:8) Then only will he have "reconciled all things on the earth to himself.
5. For ourselves, as individuals, the design of Christ"s reconciliation is the perfection of our personal character as approved by himself at the day of judgment (vers. 22, 28). This is true also of the Church collectively. (Eph_5:27) He is Judge as well as Saviour; and his justice is as inflexible as his mercy is compassionate. "The King," for as King he will then appear, desires to be able to say to each of us, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you;" "sit with me in my throne" (Mat_25:34; Rev_3:21) but he will only say it to those who are worthy. (Rev_3:4, Rev_3:5) To this end he redeemed us by his blood, bestowed on us Ms Spirit, brought us into his kingdom, subjects us to its discipline, employs us in its service, instructs us in its wisdom, enriches us with all its spiritual blessings present us (on that day) holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him" (Jud_1:24, 25; 1Th_3:12, 13 5:23, 24)
6. How far the influence of this reconciliation extends beyond the things upon the earth; and, if it does so extend, in what direction; whether or how it touches "the principalities and powers in heavenly places, we cannot tell, and dare not attempt to guess. Origen, on the warrant of this passage (ver. 20), fondly thought that even Satan himself would be ultimately reconciled to God. At any rate, when he "through whom and unto whom all things have been created" is the sacrifice, and when the evil of this world is but a part of the realm of evil above and around us, we may not deny the possibility of others sharing with us, somehow, in the atoning virtue of his death.
7. But all this is so far stated from the Divine side, as matter of God"s general purpose and plain in Christ (Eph_1:10; 2Ti_1:9; Act_3:21) and this plan will certainly be carried out; "all things," as a whole, will certainly be reconciled. But there is nothing here to contradict the possibility of a self-exclusion of individuals, belonging to this world or to other worlds, from the benefits of the Divine amnesty, and of their expulsion from a reconciled universe (2Th_1:9; Mat_25:41; Luk_13:25; Rev_22:15) Ver. 23 intimates as much as this. "All this is yours," the,apostle virtually says, "if ye continue in the faith, not being moved away from the hope of the gospel;" but if not, what then? Contrast 2Co_5:19 and 20; Joh_10:10 and 5:40. Still the distressing question, "Lord, are there few that be saved?" presses on us, and our Lord"s reply speaks in the same tones of stern and solemn warning. (Luk_13:23-30) For us to whom the message of reconciliation is now addressed, it is clear that now is the day of salvation". (2Co_6:2) To be a minister of this reconciliation, and so a minister of the Church, a builder of the house of God, the Body of Christ, how high and responsible the office! (vers. 23-26; 1Co_4:1, 1Co_4:2; 2Co_5:11-21; 2Co_6:1-10)
Vers. 15-17.
Christ"s headship over nature.
The Gnostic errorists at Colossae taught that the gulf between the infinite God and finite man was bridged across by subordinate angelic agencies. The apostle teaches that the gulf is bridged by Jesus Christ, who, being both God and Man, touches both and is the Reconciler of God and man. He shows that Christ has a double sovereignty, a twofold mediatorial function in relation to the universe and in relation to the Church. Thus we have a most pregnant statement concerning the doctrine of the person of Christ with the view of showing that there is a real mediation between God and creation.
I HIS RELATION TO THE INVISIBLE FATHER. "Who is the Image of the invisible God." Christ is likewise called "the Brightness of the Father"s glory, the express Image of his person". (Heb_1:3)
1. The meaning of this image.
(1) Christ is not a mere likeness of the Father, like the head of a sovereign stamped on a coin, or as a son hears the features of his father.
(2) But he is an essential manifestation and embodiment of the Father. Thus the invisible God becomes visible to man, according to our Lord"s own words, "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed him". (Joh_1:18) "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father". (Joh_14:9)
(3) It implies his perfect equality with the Father in respect to substance, nature, and eternity. The Son is the Father"s Image except in respect that he is not the Father.
2. Lessons to be drawn from this representation of Christ"s glory.
(1) If we would know the Father, we must get into Christ by faith. (2Co_4:4)
(2) As it is Christ"s glory to be God"s Image, be it our honour to be Christ"s image, in knowledge, (Col_3:10) in holiness, in righteousness. (Eph_4:21) We are "predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son". (Rom_8:29)
(3) How great a sin it is to turn the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of corruptible creatures"! (Rom_1:23)
II CHRIST"S RELATION TO THE UNIVERSE. He is "the Firstborn of all creation." As his being God"s Image implies his eternal unity with God, so his being the only begotten Son of God implies the distinctness of his Person. The apostle thus guards the truth on one side against Arianism, on the other side against Sabellianism. There are two ideas involved in this statement.
1. Christ has a priority to all creation. Arians refer to the passage as implying that he is only one, though the very first, of created beings. But
(1) he is said here to be begotten, not created.
(2) He is declared in the context to be "before all things," and therefore he is no part of them.
(3) "All things" are declared to be "made by him," but he is himself necessarily excepted from the number of the things he created.
(4) The Scriptures elsewhere declare his eternal preexistence and Godhead.
2. Christ is sovereign Lord of creation by right of primogeniture. The word "Firstborn" is used of the Messiah almost as his technical designation, (Psa_2:7) as we see by Heb_1:6, "When he bringeth the First-begotten into the world." As such he is "Heir of all things" (Heb_1:2; Rom_4:14) There is thus implied a mediatorial function in the world as well as in the Church.
3. Christ is the actual Creator of all things. "For in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers." These words justify the title of "Firstborn of all creation." They were all created "in him," not merely "by him as if the germ of all creative power and wisdom lay in his infinite mind, as the sphere of their operation. The words impliedly exclude the Gnostic idea that Christ was an inferior agent of the infinite God. He was the creative centre of the universe. Mark:
(1) The extent of creation in the heavens and things upon the earth." This includes all creation as described by locality.
(2) The variety of the creation things visible or invisible." This division would include the sun, moon, stars, the earth with all its visible glories, in one class; the angels and the souls of men in the other class.
(3) The orders of creation, "whether thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers." As Gnosticism placed Christ among the higher intelligences, the apostle places him far above all angelic intelligences of every order. It is not possible to say whether these names represent various grades of a celestial hierarchy, but it is probable that they do; "thrones and dominions" belonging to the first order, "principalities and powers" standing next, as including spirits both good and evil. Christ made the angels.
4. Christ is himself the End or final Cause of creation. "All things have been created through him and for him." All things were created by him as well as for him for the manifestation of his glory. "He that was the first Cause must be the last End." The final destination of the universe is referred to the Son, just as it is elsewhere ascribed to the Father. (Rom_11:36) The Son is the Centre of the world"s final unity.
5. Christ is the Sustainer of the universe. "And by him all things consist." The continued existence, as well as the creation, of all things, depends upon him. "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work". (Joh_5:17) He "upholds all things by the word of his power". (Heb_1:3) The sustaining unity of the creation is in him
(1) because he maintains its order, appointing all things to their respective ends;
(2) because he sustains the operation of all things, correlating means with ends;
(3) because he secures the cooperation of all things, so that all things work together for his glory;
(4) because he maintains the perpetuity of all things. Thus Christ maintains the cohesion of the universe.
III LESSONS TO BE DRAWN FROM CHRIST"S RELATION TO HIS FATHER AND TO THE UNIVERSE.
1. We delight in the doctrine of Christ"s divinity, which is the doctrine of Christendom.
2. If he made angels and men, they may well worship him.
3. His relation to creation encourages us to hope that he will overrule all the power of nature for the growth of his Church. Even wicked men will have no power to destroy his Church. The creation proves his power, and his love proves his good will.
4. The knowledge of his glory ought to deter from all creature worship.
5. We should ever pray that he would direct the work of our hands continually. (Psa_90:7)
6. We ought not to fret at Divine providence. (Psa_37:2, Psa_37:3) The creative and administrative work of Christ, in the natural order of things, is the comfort of all believers. T. C.
Vers. 15-20.
The glories of King Jesus.
The apostle, having in his prayer pleaded for the Colossians that they may be worthy members of the kingdom of Christ, proceeds to speak of the glories which belong to their King. His purpose, like that of every true preacher, is to make Christ pre-eminent. The central thought of the passage is that God is invisible, but Christ is the visible Manifestation of the Father"s perfections. In him as the perfect "Image" we may "see God.
I JESUS AS THE GLORIOUS CREATOR REVEALED THE MIND OF GOD. (Vers. 15, 16.) We are apt to think of Christ"s revelation of the Godhead solely in his incarnation. Doubtless it was the climax of the "exegesis of the invisible God (cf.sato). (Joh_1:18) ejxhgh But there were previous revelations, and this is Paul"s idea here that creation is a revelation of God through the power of. Christ. Now, one thing is certain about the creation, that it addresses itself to mind. If men imagined it was thoughtless, they would not spend two minutes more in its investigation. All science proceeds on the postulate of creation being thinkable, intelligible, an appeal to mind. If creation, then, embodies thought, we have further to notice that it is thought of the same order as human thought. After all the weary investigation, therefore, which tries to blink the fact of creation being a revelation of God, we are reduced in the last analysis exactly to this idea. Of course, we have not succeeded in interpreting the revelation in nature with either accuracy or fulness; but every year"s honest work carries us on towards the fuller understanding of the Divine Thinker who speaks to his creatures in all the work of his hands. The fascination of science lies in the fact that a deeper Thinker than any of the investigators is behind the work, and is calling for interpreters. The wonderful creation is from end to end, in heaven above and in earth beneath, Christ"s exposition of the mind of God.
II HISTORY IS ALSO AN EXPOSITION BY CHRIST OF THE DIVINE MIND. (Ver. 17.) For not only did Christ as Creator give the system a start, but as the Upholder of the system he makes it a continuous revelation. The philosophy of history lies in the assurance of the great procession of facts being under the constant control and direction of Divinity. Of course, as in the former case of the interpretation of nature, we may be and are very far from a full grasp of the significance of history. Yet undoubtedly a reverential study of the course of events brings us daily nearer the understanding of the whole. It adds to our interest to take with us this assurance that Jesus Christ is at the back of all being, upholding it, sustaining the system, and reducing it to an orderly exposition of the Divine thought. Amid the apparently chaotic course of events, in consequence of the freedom and frailty of the creature, there is the really orderly procession of the whole towards that "one Divine event to which the whole creation moves.
III CHRIST"S ECCLESIASTICAL HEADSHIP IS A FURTHER REVELATION OF GOD. (Ver. 18.) For not only has Christ been Creator, not only has he been and is the Preserver of the system, but he has also been constituted Head of a special class of beings, united in what is called "the Church. Many of his creatures do not recognize either him or his relations to the universe. They act as if he were not, and his control of them is without their leave and in spite oftentimes of their opposition. But others happily have come to recognize him as Lord of all, and consequently of themselves as well. Believers in him, adorers of him, they have learned to look on life as simply a longer or shorter opportunity of doing his will or of suffering" his good pleasure." And as Christ comes lute tenderer and closer relations to the believers of the world than he can come into towards the unbelievers, he is as closely bound to his believing people as the ruling and sovereign "head" is to the subject and obedient "members "of the one body. And this headship of Christ is a revelation unto men of the mind of God. Of course, in this case, as in the previous cases, there is only an approximation to the understanding of God"s mind and will as thus revealed. But we are progressing steadily towards the ideal of perfect light and perfect submission. The Churches may but imperfectly grasp what God in Christ means; they may be very wayward and arbitrary in many of their interpretations; but the desire to know and obey Christ brings them along the line of privilege and duty with increasing appreciation and success.
IV IS CHRIST"S RECONCILIATION OF ALL THINGS UNTO GOD HE FURTHER REVEALS TO THE UNIVERSE THE MIND OF GOD. (Vers. 18-20.) Now, just as philosophy is the reduction of the multiform in fact to the uniform in idea, so is there in the system administered by Christ provision made for the reconciliation of all things to the Supreme, that the unity of all things may be the last thought of God. This is the meaning of the cross and the blood shed upon it, and all the redemptive system which centres around it. This is the purpose of Christ"s resurrection to immortal life the first, that, as the pre-eminent One, he might gather in his embrace a reconciled universe and lay it at the Father"s feet. Of course, the prerogative of creaturely freedom is such as to refuse the reconciliation and to crystallize into hostility in some sad cases. It would be contrary to the Divine plan to force the will and ride rough shod over the determinations of the creature. Some consequently, it would seem, are to be allowed to take their own course and remain incorrigible; yet in the unifying idea of God their discord, as in the music of the great masters, will be made to contribute to and to emphasize the general harmony. Meanwhile, how grand the idea is of the unity of all things! Surely we should not allow ourselves to conflict consciously with it in our dealings with men. We should back it up as the goal and far off Divine event to which all things are made to move. The blood of the cross cries really for the reconciliation of the universe to God. R.M.E.
Vers. 15-29.
Christ all in all.
The truth taught in our text is that Christ is all and in all, the one absolute Mediator between God and man, the only Reconciler of heaven and earth. We notice
I THE DIVINE PRE-EMINENCE OF CHRIST. This includes:
1. His supremacy in relation to God. He is his Image, Likeness, Representation. Heathen idolatries utter the longing of the soul for him. To the prayer, "Show us the Father," Christ answers, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.
2. His supremacy in relation to nature. He is "the Firstborn." To all creation he stands as Heir. We notice:
(1) His creative agency. Christ is the Wisdom of God; Christ is the Word of God; Christ is the Arm of God.
(2) His sustaining energy. He binds all things together.
(3) His consummating glory. He is the End of creation, the Alpha and the Omega. As the bow of Ulysses could only be bent by its master, so creation only fully responds to the touch of Christ.
1. His supremacy in relation to the Church. He is the Head. This implies sovereignty and sympathy vital union. We say that "the blood of the martyrs.is the seed of the Church." In an infinitely higher sense the blood of Christ is the seed of the Church.
2. His supremacy in relation to the Resurrection. He is "the Firstborn from the dead." The risen Christ is the life of the Church.
II THE EXPLANATION OF THIS DIVINE PRE-EMINENCE IS THE DIVINE PLENITUDE, Christ is as supreme as the apostle has been describing because he is so lull of God. He is the Pleroma. This, as Archdeacon Farrar shows, is the keynote of the Epistle. When we say this, we mean that in Jesus is found "the "totality of Divine attributes and powers." For in him there is:
1. Fulness of might. He is manifested in his miracles and in his own resurrection as the Lord of nature. Its forces are subject to him.
2. Fulness of wisdom. He claims, and as far as can be these claims are verified, to reveal God and to know what is in man. He did not misinterpret the Divine nor misunderstand the human.
3. Fulness of love. God is love. But could there be an amplitude of love beyond that which is manifested in Jesus Christ? Where is the love of God and where the God of love, if not in Jesus?
III THE WORK OF CHRIST IN HIS PRE-EMINENCE AND PLENITUDE IS THE WORK OF RECONCILIATION. Our Lord is thus set forth as in his supremacy and fulness the great Reconciler. This is God"s purpose; nay, God"s passion. But all words are faint in describing any emotion in the infinite heart. The clear teaching here is, not that God loves because Christ died, but that Christ died because God loves. Reconciliation is the Father"s desire, the Father"s work. Much is left in necessary mystery, but Paul"s words here answer for us two great questions.
1. What is God reconciling to himself through Christ? We must not be afraid of the assertion things." By that I read all things
(1) in this world"s activities and institutions;
(2) in human hearts and minds. The whole universe of being is to find its lapsed harmony in Jesus Christ; to be set again in its right relation to the righteous Father.
2. How is God reconciling all things to himself through Jesus Christ? Such a work involves even Divine effort; such a work is worth accomplishing at a tremendous cost. Hence "the blood of the cross," i.e. life poured out in a sacrifice of utmost pain and darkest shame. The highest can only serve through suffering; the mightiest can only save by sacrifice. Three practical questions.
(1) Has Christ pre-eminence in all things with us? Do all our sheaves make obeisance to his in the great field of life and love?
(2) Is Christ the Plenitude of all things to us? Kepler felt, in studying the laws of nature, that he was thinking over again the thoughts of God. Is it so with us in duty, thought, and love? Is Christ all in all?
(3) Has Christ reconciled us to God? Are we
(a) forgiven;
(b) resigned; and
(c) most difficult of all, ceaselessly obedient to God? U. R.T.
Vers. 15-17.
The glory of the Son.
The blessings which flow to us from the love of the Father (vers. 12-14) are only enjoyed by union with "the Son of his love," "in whom" we are, (1Co_1:30) and "in whom we have our redemption" and all its allied blessings. Who is this Son of God? In answering this question the apostle unfolds the true doctrine of the Christ, and meets one of the errors that was seeking a home in the Colossian Church. The error of the heretical teachers was twofold had a false conception in theology and a false basis of morals. These two were closely connected together and had their root in the same fundamental error the idea of matter as the abode of evil and thus antagonistic to God. As the two elements of the heretical doctrine were derived from the same source, so the reply to both was sought by the apostle in the same idea the conception of the person of Christ as the one absolute Mediator between God and man, the true and only Reconciler of heaven and earth." The practical error is dealt with in the second chapter; the doctrinal heresy is refuted here. The false teachers seem to have believed in a variety of angelic or superhuman mediators who had some place in the works of creation and redemption. Paul teaches that both in the universe and in the Church, in creation and redemption, Christ is the one and all-sufficient Mediator. He alone could fill the void between God and man; he alone could be the great Reconciler; and to him alone was due the homage which these false teachers were diverting to angels or other beings standing in the place which God claims for "the Son of his love." The apostle"s teaching is "that in all things he might have the preeminence in relation to God; to the universe, the natural creation; and to the Church, the moral creation (vers. 15-18).
I THE GLORY OF THE SON IN RELATION TO GOD. "Who is the Image of the. invisible God." The two chief ideas seem to be representation and revelation. Elsewhere the Son is called "the Effulgence of his glory revelation, and the very Image of his substance representation". (Heb_1:3) We may find an important application of this truth in the life and character of the Incarnate Word. Christ"s words, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father," seem to require this. The Father"s perfections were represented and reflected in the sinless character of the Man Christ Jesus, as the brightness of the midday sun, on which we cannot gaze, may be reflected in a lake or mirror, and under certain limitations its rays may be examined and analyzed. Through the words and conduct of Jesus we may learn much concerning the truthfulness, the unselfishness, the indignation, and the love of God. But while this truth may have been a thought in Paul"s mind, the truth he teaches here is part of the revelation which Scripture gives respecting the nature of the Triune Jehovah. That the term "Image" refers to the pro-incarnate Christ, we infer from
(1) the creation being ascribed to him; and
(2) the term "Firstborn," etc., being coupled with it a term which includes both priority and supremacy. Notice:
1. There is that in the Divine nature which is both invisible and incomprehensible. (Exo_33:20; Joh_1:18; 1Ti_6:15, 1Ti_6:16) As we cannot see "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" with mortal eyes, neither can we fully comprehend a Divine Being who is absolute, infinite, without beginning and without end.
2. Yet God hath been seen by mortal eyes. (Gen_18:22-33 Gen_32:28; Exo_24:10, 11 33:23; Jos_5:13-15 Jos_6:2, etc.) And men have learned to see God by the eye of faith, to know him as their own God. The doctrine of the Word of God, who is "the Image of God", (2Co_4:4) "the Life" and" the Light of men" (Joh_1:4; 1Jn_1:2) is the reconciling truth. There is a glory in God which no creature can behold; but the Divine Word is a ray of that glory. There is a Divine personality which is invisible; but the Word is the express image of that Person. There is a Divine silence respecting mysteries we cannot comprehend; but there is also a Divine" Word" which breaks the silence and reveals to us something of the infinite and incomprehensible. (Joh_1:1, Joh_1:14, Joh_1:18) Every manifestation in time has been through him who is "the Image of the invisible God." But "who by searching can find out God" etc.? (Job_11:7-9)
Thought, repress thy weak endeavour! Here must reason prostrate fall; Oh, the ineffable for ever, And the eternal all in all!
II THE GLORY OF THE SON IN RELATION TO THE CREATION. This is unfolded by four truths respecting him.
1. He is "the Firstborn of all creation. In the New Testament the term "Firstborn" is applied five times to Christ (vers. 15 and 18; Heb_1:6; Rev_1:5) Its use here figuratively reminds us of the place which the firstborn occupied in a Hebrew family. Having priority, he had also a certain supremacy over the other members and a double portion of the inheritance. Our Lord Christ has priority; " before Abraham," before all creation; (Joh_1:1, Joh_1:2) absolute preexistence, "before all things" (ver. 17). He has supremacy. If Paul here alludes to Psa_89:27, we are reminded that the Messiah is "higher than the kings of the earth, King of kings," "Lord of all," etc. And he enjoys more than the firstborn"s double portion. (Joh_3:34, 35 5:22, 23, 26, 27)
2. He is the means of all creation. The sixteenth verse confutes the notion of the Son of God being himself a creature, though the highest. He is the Creator, not of "the rest" of the universe, but of "all things." Who can adequately interpret that mysterious term "in him," etc.? We can only venture to suggest such truths as these: Apart from Christ there would have been no creation at all. He was the reason for it. He was the First Cause and the Final Cause, the Alpha and the Omega of creation. The term "in him" includes both the following truths "by him" and "for him," "through him and unto him." The same preposition (ejn), which the apostle so often uses to describe the relations between the Saviour and his people, he here employs to teach us the relations between Christ the Creator and the universe. But these are but guesses towards an interpretation. (Luk_10:21) We are at any rate expressly taught that all things were created "through him" or "by him"; (Joh_1:3) "in the heavens" (revelations of the telescope, Isa_40:26) "and upon the earth" (revelations of the microscope, making "things invisible" become visible), all were created by Christ. From the world of matter we turn to theworld of spirits, to things strictly "invisible." The false teachers may have indulged speculations as to the ranks and power and authority of angels. Without discussing the subject, Paul teaches that, whoever they may be and whatsoever their authority, they are all created by and subordinated to Christ, the "Firstborn of all creation.
3. He is the object of all creation. We need not dissociate the human nature of our Lord in his present glory from the Divine nature when we reflect on the truth that all things were created "for him," "unto him." It is a sublime thought that everything in creation and in history was planned for the glory of our blessed Redeemer. This world with its mountains and lakes and cataracts, its flowers and fruits and birds, was made so beautiful because it was Christ"s world. Other worlds, peopled by the heavenly hosts, were created that his glory might be revealed to them and through them. Man was created and the ages of history were all arranged for him. Sin was permitted for him (like a dark cloud showing more clearly the glory of the rainbow). The eternal purposes of redemption and their fulfilment in time were all for him. What a proof of the Deity of Christ is supplied by comparing ver. 16 with Rom_11:36!
4. He is the upholder of all creation. (Ver. 17.) Being "before all things" from the moment of creation down to the present time, he had upheld all things by the word of his power, and "in him all things consist," i.e. hold together. He is the Corner-stone of the universe no less than of the Church. Behind the laws of nature we see the mind of Christ. If he were to cease to uphold things they could not "hold together;" their harmony, nay more, their very existence, would cease; for in him all things live and move and have their being. But "My Father worketh even until now, and I work". (Joh_5:17, 19 10:30) All these truths respecting the glory of Christ remind us of the supreme claims over each one of us of that Divine Son who created us for his own glory and redeemed us by his own precious blood, that he might reign over us for our salvation E.S.P. (Act_5:31; Rom_14:7-9)
Christ in his relations to God and to the world.
This Epistle to the Colossians is conspicuous among the writings of St. Paul for its enthusiastic assertion of the supreme glory and divinity of Jesus Christ. In opposition to an incipient Gnosticism which would lose the solitary rank of the Son of God in a crowded hierarchy of angels, it exalts that rank with an elevation and a distinctness not to be met with in any previously written portion of the New Testament. It is impossible to read the words of the apostle impartially without seeing that he taught the full divinity and pre-existence of Jesus Christ. The old unitarianism that appealed to scriptural authority for confirmation was simply blind with prejudice. Modern unitarianism is more consistent when it rejects the inspiration of the book which plainly contains the doctrine it repudiates. It is true that the ideas of St. Paul are expressed in accordance with the notions of his times, especially in relation to the "Loges" doctrine of Alexandrian philosophy, and therefore that if we interpret them into the language that fits our modern conception of things, they may appear to change their form. But however expressed, the truths taught by the great apostle concerning the Divine, pre-existent, and supreme Christ are essential to the gospel of the New Testament.
I CHRIST IN HIS RELATION TO GOD. He "is the Image of the invisible God." This implies two facts.
1. Resemblance. The likeness is not external and accidental, "as one egg is like another the "homoiousion" of the semi-Arians. The image is produced by the prototype as the seal by the die; it is "the impress of his substance," as the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews describes it. (Heb_1:3) The language of the apostle refers to the Divine nature of Christ. But it remains true after the Word has been made flesh. Thus we may see that, as at the creation man was made in the image of God, so in the Incarnation the perfection of humanity is identical with the exact likeness of God. Christ became no less human because he was the Image of God, but, on the contrary, just perfectly human. Our highest conception of divinity is our ideal of manhood.
2. Expression. Christ is the Image of the invisible God. "No man hath seen God at any time," etc.. (Joh_1:18) God is invisible because he is pure spirit. No change of place and no change of state will ever enable us to see God with our physical eyes. The light which suffuses the air is invisible except where it shines on some object and is reflected to us. God"s universally diffused presence requires such reflection for us to see it. We have this in some degree in the works of nature star, sea, and flower reflecting God"s glory. But it is only in Christ the perfect Image that we can have the perfect manifestation of God. He only can say, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father". (Joh_14:9)
II CHRIST IN HIS RELATION TO THE WORLD. He is "the Firstborn of all creation." That this expression refers, not to the Incarnation, but to the Divine pre-existence of Christ, is plain if only from the language of the following verse (ver. 16). It expresses two facts.
1. Pre-existence. We have no reason for thinking that the human soul of Christ existed before the Incarnation. But it is plainly taught by St. Paul that that which is Divine in him did so exist. Our Lord said the same of himself. (Joh_8:58) Without attempting to understand the mystery of the nature of God, we may gather this important lesson that all those Divine characteristics which are so beautifully revealed in Jesus of Nazareth were not produced for the first time in the New Testament days. Though less known, they were as really existing in the age of Moses and even at the first creation of the world. Therefore the very scheme of nature and the whole government of the world must be in accordance with what we know of Christ. As Christ will finally judge the world, and all that we know of his Spirit will lead us to be thankful that such a one is the Judge, so we may rejoice that the same Spirit of love and gentleness has been from the first eternally pervading all things.
2. Pre-eminence. The firstborn has the chief honour. Christ"s rank is not only above that of the highest archangels; it is distinctive in kind. He is not the first creature of many creatures, but the first born of all creation, in the deepest sense the only begotten Son of the Father.
(1) Thus he who is most pure and good is most noble.
(2) He who humbled himself and sacrificed himself the most was the most highly exalted.
(3) All who trust in Christ may have the assurance that they could have no greater security for their confidence.
(4) Christ is worthy of worship. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv15–17 Christ the Image of the invisible God.
Col_1:15
Christ the Image of the invisible God.
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I. Christ is the image of God. Image signifies that which represents another, and as things are variously represented, so there is a great variety of images.
1. Some are imperfect, and express but some particular, and that defectively.
(1) Artificial images, whether drawn, sculptured, or embroidered, represent only the colour, figure, and lineaments, and have nothing of life and nature.
(2) Adam, who was called Gods image because the conditions of his nature had some resemblance to the properties of God--intellect, will, and lordship; but he had not Gods essence.
2. Some are perfect. We call a child the image of his father, inasmuch as he has not merely the colour or figure of his parent, but his nature and properties, soul, body, life, etc. So a prince has not only the appearance of his predecessors power, but its substance (Gen_5:3).
3. In which of these two senses is the figure true of Christ? Surely not in the sense that man is the image of God. For intending to exalt Christ and to show that His dignity is so great as to capacitate Him to save us, it would ill suit his design if the apostle attributed no more to Him than what holds good for any man. Read our Lords own testimony (Joh_14:9; Joh_12:45). Now where is the portrait of which it may be said that he who has seen it has seen him whom it represents? This can only be found in one which contains the nature of the original (Heb_1:3).
(1) Gods nature is perfectly represented in Christ. Hence He is called God over and over again.
(2) Christ represents the Father in His properties, eternity, immutability, wisdom, etc.
(3) In His works 1Jn_5:19; Heb_1:10; Joh_1:3, etc.).
4. Now no child perfectly represents is father; there are differences of manner, disposition, feature: but Christ represents the Father in everything.
5. This sacred truth overthrows two heresies--the Sabellian and the Arian. The former confounded the Son with the Father, the latter rent them asunder. Those took from the Son His person, these His nature. Paul demonstrates the Sabellian error here, for no one is the image of himself; and the Arian, for Christ could not be a perfect image unless He had the same nature as the Father.
II. God, whose image Jesus is, is invisible.
1. The Divine nature is spiritual, and hence invisible, inasmuch as the eye sees only corporeal objects. For this cause, Moses, in teaching that there is nothing material in the Divine essence that might be represented by pencil or chisel, remonstrates to them that when God manifested Himself they saw no similitude (Deu_4:12; Deu_4:15). Whence He infers they must make no graven image.
2. But the meaning here is also that God is incomprehensible. Seeing is often put for knowing. The Seraphim cover their faces to embody this truth (Isa_6:2). Through His grace indeed we may know something of His nature (Heb_1:1); but however clear it does not amount to a seeing, i.e., an apprehension which conceives the proper form of the subject.
3. Why is this quality mentioned here? To show us that God has manifested Himself to us by His Son. There is a secret opposition between image and invisible. God has a nature so impenetrable that without this His Image men would not have known Him.
(1) By Him He made, preserves, and governs the world. To Him we must refer the revelations of God under the Old Testament.
(2) But here the reference is to what took place in the fulness of time. In Christ we see all the wonders of the invisible Father--His justice, mercy, power, etc., in all their completeness, whereas creation only shows the edges. (J. Daille.)
The image of God
We believe in many things we never saw, on the evidence of other senses than sight. We believe in music, invisible odours, nay, in what we can neither hear, taste, smell, nor touch--our own life, our soul. Thus it were irrational to disbelieve in God because He is invisible. Still we are tempted to forget His existence, and as for the ungodly God is not in all their thoughts.
I. I would warn you against allowing God to be out of mind because He is out of sight.
1. This is a danger to which our very constitution exposes us. Hence the necessity of striving to walk by faith, not by sight. This is difficult because we are creatures of sense. The dead are out of sight and so often forgotten, the eternal world, the devil, and so God.
2. Why should the invisibility of God be turned into a temptation to sin? It should rather minister to holy care. How solemn the thought that an unseen Being is ever at our side! Were this realized, then bad thoughts would be banished, and unholy deeds crushed, and purity and heavenliness imparted to the life and conduct.
II. The visible revelations of the invisible in the old testament were most probably manifestations of the Son of God. To Jacob at Peniel, to Joshua at Jericho, to Manoah, to Isaiah (chap. 6.), and to others God appeared. How are we to reoncile this with No man hath seen God at any time? Only by regarding these appearances as manifestations of Him who is the image of the invisible God. This is in perfect harmony with other passages in the history of redemption. We know for certain that the fruits of the incarnation were anticipated, and the fruits of His death enjoyed before He died. Why not, then, the fact of the incarnation? Viewed in this light, these Old Testament stories acquire a deeper and more enduring interest. In the guide of Abrahams pilgrimage I see the guide of my own. Jacobs success in wrestling imparts vigour to my prayers.
III. The greatness of the worker corresponds with the greatness of the work. It is not always so. Sometimes God accomplishes mighty ends by feeble instruments in both nature and grace. But redemption is differentiated in greatness, grandeur, and difficulty from all the other works of God. It cost more love, labour, and wisdom than all yon starry universe. But great as is the work the Worker is greater--the visible Image of the invisible God.
IV. God as revealed visibly in Jesus meets and satisfies one of our strongest wants,
1. The second commandment runs more counter to our nature than any other.
(1) Look at the heathen world. For long ages the world was given up to idolatry with the exception of a single people. To fix the mind on an invisible Being seemed like attempting to anchor a vessel on a flowing tide. And as a climbing plant, for lack of a better stay, will throw its arms round a rotting tree; rather than want something palpable to which their thoughts might cling, men have worshipped the Divine Being through the most hideous forms.
(2) Look at the proneness to sensuous worship among the Jews.
(3) We find the evidence of this prosperity in the Christian Church. Fancy some old Roman rising from his grave on the banks of the Tiber, what could he suppose but that the Eternal City had changed her idols, and by some strange turn of fortune had given to one Jesus the old throne of Jupiter and assigned the crown which Juno wore in his days to another queen of heaven?
2. In what way are we to account for this universal tendency? It is not enough to call it folly; the feelings from which it springs are deeply rooted in our nature. You tell me that God is infinite, incomprehensible; but it is as difficult for me to make such a Being the object of my affections as to grasp a Sound or detain a shadow. This heart craves something more congenial to my nature, and seeks in God a palpable object for its affections to cling to.
3. Now see how this want is met in the Gospel by Him who knoweth our frame. In His incarnate Son the Infinite is brought within the limits of my understanding, the Invisible is revealed to my sight. In that eye bent upon me I see Divine love in a form I can feel. God addresses me in human tones, and stands before me in the fashion of a man; and when I fall at His feet with Thomas I am an image worshipper but no idolater, for I bend to the image of the invisible God.
V. In what sense is Christ the image of the invisible God?
1. It means much more than mere resemblance; it conveys the idea of shadow less than of substance. I have known an infant bear such a resemblance to his father that what his tongue could not tell his face did, and people struck by the likeness exclaimed, He is the very image of his father. Such was Adam in his state of innocence. Now it may be said that as our Lord, like the first Adam, was holy, he is therefore called the image of God; yet that does not exhaust the meaning, nor is it on that account that Paul calls Him the second Adam. Nor have they sounded the depths who say He was so called because He was endowed with power to do the works of God. For many others have been in that sense equally images of God. But where are they represented as God manifest in the flesh?
2. In Christs character and works we have a living, visible, perfect image of the invisible God.
(1) In Him we see the power of God, and notably at the grave of Lazarus. To make something out of nothing is a work more visibly stamped with divinity than to make one thing out of another--a living man out of lifeless dust, and then on that mountain side the bread multiplies.
(2) In Christ we have the image of a holy God.
(3) In Christ we have the image of a God willing and waiting to save. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
The image of the invisible God
I draw out from my pocket a little miniature, and look upon it and tears drop from my eyes. What is it? A piece of ivory. What is on it? A face that some artist has painted there. It is a radiant face. My history is connected with it. When I look upon it tides of feeling swell in me. Some one comes to me, and says: What is that? I say, It is my mother. Your mother I should call it a piece of ivory with water-colours on it. To me it is my mother. When you come to scratch it, and analyze it, and scrutinize the elements of it, to be sure it is only a sign or dumb show, but it brings to me that which is no sign nor dumb show. According to the law of my mind, through it I have brought back, interpreted, refreshed, revived, made patent in me, all the sense of what a loving mother was. So I take my conception of Christ as He is painted in dead letters on dead paper, and to me is interpreted the glory, the sweetness, the patience, the love, the joy-inspiring nature of God; and I do not hesitate to say, Christ is my God, just as I would not hesitate to say of that picture, It is my mother. But, says a man, you do not mean that you really sucked at the breast of that picture? No. I did not; but I will not allow any one to drive me into any such minute analysis as that. Now I hold that the Lord Jesus Christ, as represented in the New Testament, brings to my mind all the effluence of brightness and beauty which I am capable of understanding. I can take in no more. He is said to be the express image of Gods glory. He reveals to us a God whose interest in man is inherent, and who through His mercy and goodness made sacrifices for it. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to die for it. What is the only begotten Son of God? Who knows? Who can know? That His only begotten Son is precious to Him we may know, judging from the experience of an earthly father; and we cannot doubt that when He gave Christ to come into life, and humble Himself to mans condition, and take upon Himself an ignominious death, He sacrificed that which was exceedingly dear to Him. And this act is a revelation of the feeling of God toward the human race. (H. W. Beecher.)
Christ the image of God
There is in Rome an elegant fresco by Guido--The Aurora. It covers a lofty ceiling. Looking up at it from the pavement your neck grows stiff, your head dizzy, and the figures indistinct. You soon tire and turn away. The owner of the palace has placed a broad mirror near the floor. You may now sit down before it as at a table, and at your leisure look into the mirror, and enjoy the fresco that is above you. There is no more weariness, nor indistinctness, nor dizziness. Like the Rosplglioso mirror beneath The Aurora, Christ reflects the glory of the Divine nature to the eye of man.
Christ is intended to be familiarly known
The whole value of the gospels to Erasmus lay in the vividness with which they brought home to their readers the personal impression of Christ Himself. Were we to have seen Him with our own eyes, we should not have so intimate a knowledge as they give us of Christ, speaking, healing, dying, rising again, as it were in our very presence … If the footprints of Christ are shown us in any place, we kneel down and adore them. Why do we not rather venerate the living and breathing picture of Him in these books?… It may be the safer course, he goes on, with characteristic irony, to conceal the state mysteries of kings, but Christ desires His mysteries to be spread abroad as openly as was possible. (Littles Historical Lights.)
The firstborn
The expression as it stands is somewhat ambiguous.
1. Does it imply that all creatures have been born, but that Jesus was born before them? Impossible. All human creatures have been born, all at least but the first; and even he was the son of God (Luk_3:38). We are all Gods offspring. But, except in poetry, we can scarcely speak of the birth of the earth, ocean, stars, etc. They have been created, not born; they are the creatures rather than the children of God.
2. Nor can the meaning be firstborn within the circle of all creation; for the higher nature of Jesus is not within that circle: it is far above it; before Abraham, and sun, moon, and stars, He was and is.
3. The apostles idea is that Jesus is the hereditary Lord of the whole creation. The representation is based on the prerogative that is still attached in many lands to primogeniture. That prerogative is great. In virtue of it the first-born of the Queen is Prince of Wales; of the Emperor of Germany, Crown Prince; of the late Emperor Napoleon, Prince Imperial. In ancient times and among the apostles people, in the days of their national grandeur, there was a corresponding privilege attached to the royal firstborn. And hence in the course of time the word came to be so employed that the ideas of birth and priority of birth got sometimes to be merged out of sight, while the ideas of special hereditary privilege, prerogative, and honour stood prominently forth. Hence God said to Pharaoh, Israel is My son, My firstborn, because they were in distinction from other peoples the recipients of the advantages which were the natural prerequisites of primogeniture. Again in Jer_31:9 the idea of priority in birth is entirely shaded off, for that priority could not be affirmed of Ephraim--the reference is to peculiarity of prerogative and honour. Take again Heb_12:22-23. Here Christians are called the firstborn, and not Christians in heaven, for they are distinguished from the spirits of just men made perfect, but Christians on earth. All such Christians, though scattered, and variously denominated, are the one general assembly and Church of the firstborn. This shows that the term may be and is used without priority of birth, and in the sense of being Gods very highly-favoured children. All the blessings of primogeniture are theirs because they are Christs, the Firstborn. As He is the Crown Prince of the universe, the Prince Imperial and hereditary Lord of the whole creation, they are constituted joint heirs with Him of the inheritance incorruptible, etc. Again, this interpretation is supported by Rom_8:29. Firstborn among many brethren is a notable expression. We cannot suppose that God desired to secure the Saviour a relation of chronological priority. Jesus was already before all. The idea is that it was the aim of God to remove from the peerless Son the condition of solitariness in the parental and heavenly home. This aim was accomplished by surrounding Him with a circle of multitudinous brethren, bearing the familiar family likeness, who might be sharers with Him in His inheritance of glory. (J. Morison, D. D.)
Christ is one of us
On the centenary of the birth of Robert Stephenson, there was a very large demonstration at Newcastle. The town was paraded by a vast procession who carried banners in honour of the distinguished engineer. In the procession there was a band of peasants, who carried a little banner of very ordinary appearance, but bearing the words, He was one of us. They were inhabitants of the small village in which Robert Stephenson had been born, and had come to do him honour. They had a right to a prominent position in that days proceedings, because he to whom so many thousands did honour was one of them. Even so, whatever praise the thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers can ascribe to Christ in that grand celebration when time shall be no more, we from earth can wave our banners with the words written on them, He was one of us.
Col_1:15-19
Who is the image of the invisible God.
This is the most exhaustive assertion of our Lords Godhead to be found in St. Pauls Writings. This magnificent dogmatic passage is introduced, after the apostles manner, with a strictly practical object. The Colossian Church was exposed to the attacks of a theosophic doctrine which degraded Christ to the rank of one of a long series of inferior beings supposed to range between man and the Supreme God. Against this assertion Paul asserts that Christ is:
I. The image of the invisible God. The expression supplements the title of the Son. As the Son, Christ is derived eternally from the Father, and of one substance with Him. As the image Christ is in that one substance, the exact likeness of the Father, in all things except being the Father. He is the image of the Father, not as the Father, but as God. The image is indeed originally Gods unbegun, unending reflection of Himself in Himself, but is also the organ whereby God, in His essence invisible, reveals Himself to His creatures. Thus the image is naturally, so to speak, the Creator, since creation is the first revelation God has made of Himself. Man is the highest point in the visible universe; in man, Gods attributes are most luminously exhibited; man is the image and glory of God (1Co_11:7). But Christ is the adequate image of God, Gods self-reflection in His own thought, eternally present with Himself.
II. As the image Christ is the first-born of all creation, i.e., not the first in rank among created beings, but begotten before any created beings. That this is the true sense of the expression is etymologically certain; but it is also the only sense which is in real harmony with the relation in which, according to the context, Christ stands to the universe. Of all things in heaven and earth, of things seen and unseen, of the various orders of the angelic hierarchy, it is said that they were created:
1. In Christ. There was no creative process external to and independent of Him; since the archetypal forms after which the creatures are modelled and the sources of their strength and consistency of being eternally reside in Him.
2. By Him. The force which has summoned the worlds out of nothingness into being, and which upholds them in being is His; He wields it; He is the one producer and sustainer of all created existence.
3. For Him. He is not as Arianism pretended, merely an inferior workman creating for the glory of a higher Master; He creates for HimSelf; He is the end of all things as well as their immediate source; and in living for Him every creature finds at once the explanation and law of its being. For He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.
III. After such a statement it follows naturally that the fulness, i.e., the entire cycle of the Divine attributes, considered as a series of forces, dwells in him; and this not in any ideal or transcendental manner, but with that actual reality which men attach to the presence of material bodies which they can feel and measure through the organs of sense (Col_2:9). Although throughout this Epistle the word Logos is never introduced, it is plain that the Image of St. Paul is equivalent in His rank and functions to the Logos of St. John. Each exists prior to creation; each is the one agent in creation; each is a Divine person; each is equal with God and shares His essential life; each is really none other than God. (Canon Liddon.)
The person of Christ
I. As related to God. Image. Some interpret this of the essential image; others as setting forth Christ as Gods messenger, or as perfect man, in allusion to Gen_1:26. But there is a great difference between man made in, after, or according to Gods image, and Christ the image itself.
1. An image
(1) differs widely from a shadow. The Old Testament discoveries of Christ are called shadows, and though a shadow presupposes substance, it is only a mere appearance (Heb_10:1).
(2) Is more than a similitude. One thing may be very similar to another in some things, and yet in others be very unlike. The sun is a similitude, but not an image of God.
(3) Corresponds entirely with that which it represents a perfect model and transcript. The cast is an exact sampler of the mould; the wax bears a correct impress of the seal, not merely in general figure, but in every line. The word therefore shows that Christ is the very form of God in whom are embodied all His perfections.
2. This suggests that
(1) the dignity of our Saviours person stamps infinite merit on His work.
(2) Since it is to the Divine image that believers have to be conformed, we have some idea of the privileges and dignity to which we shall be exalted.
(3) In Christs glorious person we may read our own defects.
II. As related to the universe.
1. He is Creator: from which it is clear that all things had a beginning, and that nothing exists that does not owe its existence to Christ; and therefore Christ is the lawful proprietor of all things. That there may be no cavil we have a particular enumeration of His works:
(1) In their universality, all things;
(2) their properties, visible and invisible;
(3) their grades in the scale of being, thrones, etc. Try to elevate your thoughts to the dignity of this subject. What an Almighty Saviour you have. He is above all human portraiture. His name is Wonderful.
2. But if Christ be all this, then
(1) here is an end of Atheism, Deism, Unitarianism.
(2) What a claim have Christs meanest creatures on our consideration.
(3) How desperate their condition who will not have Him to reign over them.
III. As belated to His Church. Head.
1. By Divine appointment; and as the natural head is the highest part of the body, so Christ has in all things the pre-eminence.
2. In respect of His wisdom. The head is the seat of mind. There are all the organs and mental phenomena: the eye to see, etc. In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
3. As regards spiritual sustenation and support. The head is where most of the vital functions are which impart energy through the system, and diffuse pleasure or pain, joy or sorrow. So Christ transmits whatever supplies are required for the Churchs welfare; through Him the whole body increases with the increase of God.
Lessons: We have a Saviour--
1. Almighty.
2. Sympathizing.
3. Everlasting. (T. Watson, B. A.)
The dignity of Christ
I. Christ in his pre-incarnate state. This dignity is represented by two brief clauses dealing with--
1. His relation to the God head, image. There is a distinction between image and likeness. Likeness represents superficial resemblance, as when two leaves from the same tree are said to be like each other; image indicates resemblance by participation in the same life by reproduction of essence. Likeness is that which is superficial and partial, image that which is essential and exhaustive. Our Lord is that representation of God which God could not but have. Whatever of glory dwells in the Eternal Father is eternally imaged in His Son.
2. His relation to the universe.
(1) In Him all things were made, i.e., the creative energy not only passed through Him, as the volume of a rivers waters passes through its rock-hewn channels, but the creative energy dwells in Him, belongs to Him, as the life of His life, essentially and eternally.
(2) In Him also all things consist, stand together; in Him the universe finds its unity and coherence. We talk about the laws of nature. If it were possible for us to trace the laws of nature and of history to their point of convergence, we should find that to be nothing less than the personal sovereignty of Jesus Christ.
(3) He is the universal Governor. For Him all things exist, to serve His purpose and to manifest His glory. Jesus Christ is the first, efficient, and final cause of all created existence.
3. Now these separate clauses are dove-tailed into the clause preceding them, the firstborn, for that expression does not mean that our Lord is the first creature, either in time or in rank. The emphasis must be put upon both adjectives, firstborn. The primacy of Jesus Christ in the creation is the primacy of birth. He alone is born, not made; all other things are made, not born; and there is a very marked distinction between these two. Our thoughts are born of our intelligence; our works are the product of our hands. The things that we make are outside of ourselves; they may perish, and our being be not affected; but the thoughts that are born within us and of us are a part of our being; when you touch them you touch yourself. Our Lords place in the universe is that of the firstborn; His own being is rooted in the very being of God, as inseparable from Him as thought is from being. Therefore He is called the Eternal Word of God. Thought always precedes achievement, just as a great cathedral is born in the mind of the architect before the click of a chisel is heard. Even so is Christ the first born of creation as holding in His living thought all the realms and ages. Thus far the essential majesty of the Divine Christ. This is a glory that blinds us, but does not kindle nor transfigure us.
II. The apostle passes to the glory of Him who tabernacled in human flesh. As creation finds in Him its head, unity, and coherence, so also does the kingdom of grace. These are not two systems, joining each other as two circles might have their contact at a single point, or overlapping, but are one, because the sovereignty of each and both is invested in Christ.
1. In His relation to redemption Christ is the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead, not the first who came forth from the grave in rank or time. His relation to the kingdom of grace as to that of nature is birth, i.e., in Him the resurrection finds its original and eternal home. It is net merely said that He is risen, but that He is the Resurrection and the Life.
2. As He is said to be the source of spiritual creative energy, so also is it declared that the authority of spiritual control is vested in Him. He is Head of the Church, to whom alone our prayers are to be addressed, and through whom alone the answer of God can come to us. Between us and God there are no hierarchies of principalities and powers, no army of saints and martyrs. The way is clear through Christ. There is but one Mediator. Just as the head interprets, gathers up, and responds to the multitudinous demands of the body that are telegraphed along the nervous filaments of sensation, so also does Christ, as the Head of His Church, interpret her needs and respond to her prayers. The heart does not always pray as do the lips, and our wishes are sometimes very different from our wants: but the great Head of the Church knows how to interpret, and always pierces to the deepest need. And so when the strength of our hands fails us, and our wisdom is staggered by the problems that front us, a larger wisdom and a mightier hope come pulsing into our feebleness.
3. Great prerogatives are these, but they are not a temporary investiture. They belong to Him by eternal right, for it pleased the Father that in Him all fulness should dwell. Grace has in Him its eternal dwelling place. And so long as the redeemed shall endure will He be their loving and loved Head. For in Him both God and man find their sufficient and eternal reconciliation.
4. This great reconciliation is not merely problematical and partial, it is positive and universal. The tenses are in the past. We are living to-day, not in the dispensation of the wrath of God, but in the dispensation of His redeeming grace. God is sending forth His ministers, bidding all to repent, assuring them that the feast is ready, and that it is only waiting for the guests. The age of demoralization passed away eighteen hundred years ago. The age of reconstruction began when on the cross our Lord said, It is finished! That was the burial of the old, as it was the birth of the new; and ever since, and until the end of time, in spite of opposition and apparent defeat, all things have been and shall be working together for good, and surely, though slowly, advancing the cause of Gods eternal righteousness.
III. Practical inferences.
1. We have been led by the apostle to the most exalted conceivable position whence we can look out on the works of God and upon the history of the world. We have been led through all the grades of being, from matter in its crudest form to mind in its loftiest manifestation, and we have seen that in Christ the whole universe of created existence finds its unity and coherence, while the awful struggle of right against wrong, truth against falsehood, find in Him its consummation and ending. This is something that neither science nor philosophy can give. In Him all contradictions are solved between the seen and the unseen, the created and the uncreated, the sin of man and the righteousness of God.
2. If it be true that both creation and redemption find in Christ their living centre, then it is also plain that only in proportion as we enter into the mind of Christ can we understand aright either the works of God, or the history of the race, or the revelation of His character and purposes in Scripture.
3. Here, too, is the only solution of the vexed question of Christian union. How shall that unity be brought about? Certainly not by creeds nor by forms. There is only one name, one sign, that can subdue us all, and that is the sign that must conquer the world, the flaming cross of Jesus Christ. When we bow before that, and all our faces are turned reverently toward the One on the throne, then shall enmity perish, and we shall be one, even as He and the Father are one.
4. The incomparable dignity of our Lord should awaken in us a three-fold attachment.
(1) It should awaken in us a feeling of reverence. As no one of us would think of standing before a throned king without becoming humility, it behoves us when we come into our Creators presence to bow with reverence at His feet.
(2) But incomparable as is His dignity, it is for ever joined with our common nature; and therefore, while it calls for reverence it also calls for trust. He is the Head of the Church, and therefore we ought to come not only reverently, but confidently and boldly. There ought to be joy as well as reverence in our worship and in our service.
(3) This incomparable dignity ought also to fill us with assurance and courage. (A. J. F. Behrends, D. D.)
The Divine pre-eminence of Christ
I. Christs pre-eminence.
1. His supremacy in relation to God. Image means
(1) The supreme likeness of God.
(2) The supreme representation of God.
(3) The supreme manifestation of God.
2. His supremacy in relation to nature. We have
(1) His dignity, firstborn, telling of His age, heirship, authority.
(2) His creative and sustaining agency. All is made by Him and consists in Him. In His miracles He was the Divine Ulysses whose use of his love proclaimed him lord.
(3) His consummating glory. Creation exists for Him as well as by Him. He is its end as well as its origin.
3. His supremacy in relation to His Church. He is
(1) Its sovereign, Head;
(2) Its force, Beginning.
(3) Life, Firstborn from the dead. His risen life is the life of the Church.
II. The explanation on His pre-eminence is his Divine plenitude. He is the Pleroma, the totality of Divine attributes and powers.
1. In Him are all the Divine resources. He is the fulness of wisdom, power, love.
2. In Him all those resources permanently dwell. Because He is thus full of God, He must in pre-eminence be fully God.
III. The work of Christ in His pre-eminence and plenitude is the work of reconciliation.
1. Reconcile what? All things.
2. How? By the blood of His cross. (U. R. Thomas.)
The glory of the Son
There are here three grand conceptions of Christs relations.
I. To God. Paul uses language which was familiar on the lips of his antagonists. Alexandrian Judaism had much to say about the Word, and spoke of it as the Image of God. Probably this teaching reached Colossae. An image is a likeness as of a kings head on a coin or a face in a mirror. Here it is that which makes the invisible visible.
1. God in Himself is inconceivable and unapproachable. No man hath seen, etc. He is beyond the sense and above understanding. There is in every human spirit a dim consciousness of His presence, but that is not knowledge. Creatural limitations and mans sin prevents it.
2. Christ is the perfect manifestation of God. Through Him we know all that we can know of God. He that hath seen Me, etc. The great fathomless, shoreless ocean of the Divine nature is like a closed sea. Christ is the broad river which brings its waters to men. Our souls cry for the living God; and never will that orphaned cry be answered but in the possession of Christ, in whom we possess the Father also.
II. To creation. Firstborn.
1. At first sight this seems to include Him in the great family of creatures as the eldest, but it is shown not to be the intention in the next verse, which alleges that Christ was before, and is the agent of, all creation. The true meaning is that He is firstborn in comparison with, or reference to, all creation.
2. The title implies priority in existence and supremacy. It applies to the Eternal Word and not to His incarnation.
3. The necessary clauses state more fully this relation and so confirm and explain the title.
(1) The whole universe is set in one class, and He alone over against it. Four times in one sentence we have all things repeated, and traced to Him as Creator and Lord.
(a) In the heavens and earth is quoted from Genesis, and is intended, as then, to be an exhaustive enumeration of the creation according to plan.
(b) Things visible and invisible includes the whole under another principle of division--there are visible things in heaven, and may be invisible on earth, but wherever they are He made them. () Whether thrones, etc., an enumeration alluding to dreamy speculations about an angelic hierarchy filling the space between God and men.
(2) The language employed brings into strong relief the manifold variety of relations which the Son sustains to the universe. The Greek means all things considered as a unity.
(a) In Him, regards Him as the creative centre or reservoir in which all creative force resided, and was in a definite act put forth. The error of the Gnostics was to put the act of creation and the thing created as far away as possible from God, and is here met.
(b) But the possible dangers of that profound truth are averted by the preposition through Him. That presupposes the clear demarcation between creature and creator, and extricates the person of the firstborn from all risk of being confounded with the creation, while it makes Him the medium of the Divine energy, and so shows His relation to the Divine nature. He is the image of the invisible God, and accordingly through Him have all things been created. The express image of His person by whom He made the worlds.
(c) For Him. All things sprung from His will, and return thither again. These relations are more than once declared of the Father. What theory of Christs person explains the fact?
3. His existence before the creation is repeated. He is emphatic, He Himself; is emphasises not only preexistence, but absolute existence. He was would not have said so much as He is before all things. Before Abraham was I am.
4. In Him all things hold together. He is the element in and by which is that continued creation which is the preservation of the universe. He links all creatures and forces into a co-operant whole, reconciling their antagonisms, and melting all their notes into music which God may hear, however discordant it may be to us.
III. To the Church. A parallel is plainly intended between Christs relation to the material creation and to the spiritual. As is the pre-incarnate word to the universe, so is the incarnate Christ to the Church.
1. Christ the Head and the Church His body. Popular physiology regards the head as the seat of life. So our Lord is the source of that spiritual life which flows from Him into His members, and is sight in the eye, strength in the arm, swiftness in the foot, colour in the cheek, richly various in its manifestations, but one in its nature and all His. That thought leads to Him as the centre of unity by whom the many members become one body. The head, too, is the symbol of authority.
2. Christ is the beginning of the Church. In nature He was before all, and the source of all. So the beginning does not mean the first member of a series, but the power which causes the series to begin. The root is the beginning of flowers, although we may say the first flower is.
3. He is head and beginning by means of His resurrection.
(1) He is firstborn from the dead, and His communication of spiritual life to His Church requires the historical fact of His resurrection, for a dead Christ could not be the source of life.
(2) He is the beginning through His resurrection, too, in regard to raising us from the dead. He is the firstfruits, and bears promise of a mighty harvest. Because He lives we shall live also.
4. So Paul concludes that in all things He is first, and all things are that He may be first. Whether in nature or grace the pre-eminence is supreme. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v15 Chapter 1 Part 5
Chapter 1 Part 5
THE GLORY OF THE SON IN HIS RELATION TO THE FATHER, THE UNIVERSE, AND THE CHURCH
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Col_1:15-18 (R.V.)
As has already been remarked, the Colossian Church was troubled by teachers who had grafted on Jewish belief many of the strange speculations about matter and creation which have always had such a fascination for the Eastern mind. To us, they are apt to seem empty dreams, baseless and bewildering; but they had force enough to shake the early Church to its foundation, and in some forms they still live.
These teachers in Colossae seem to have held that all matter was evil and the seat of sin; that therefore the material creation could not have come directly from a good God, but was in a certain sense opposed to Him, or, at all events, was separated from Him by a great gulf. The void space was bridged by a chain of beings, half abstractions and half persons, gradually becoming more and more material. The lowest of them had created the material universe and now governed it, and all were to be propitiated by worship.
Some such opinions must be presupposed in order to give point and force to these great verses in which Paul opposes the solid truth to these dreams, and instead of a crowd of Powers and angelic Beings, in whom the effulgence of Deity was gradually darkened, and the spirit became more and more thickened into matter, lifts high and clear against that background of fable, the solitary figure of the one Christ. He fills all the space between God and man. There is no need for a crowd of shadowy beings to link heaven with earth. Jesus Christ lays His hand upon both. He is the head and source of creation; He is the head and fountain of life to His Church. Therefore He is first in all things, to be listened to, loved, and worshipped by men. As when the full moon rises, so when Christ appears, all the lesser stars with which Alexandrian and Eastern speculation had peopled the abysses of the sky are lost in the mellow radiance, and instead of a crowd of flickering ineffectual lights there is one perfect orb, "and heaven is overflowed." "We see no creature any more save Jesus only."
We have outgrown the special forms of error which afflicted the Church at Colossae, but the truths which are here set over against them are eternal, and are needed today in our conflicts of opinion as much as then. There are here three grand conceptions of Christs relations. We have Christ and God, Christ and Creation, Christ and the Church, and, built upon all these, the triumphant proclamation of His supremacy over all creatures in all respects.
I. We have the relation of Christ to God set forth in these grand words:
"the image of the invisible God."
Apparently Paul is here using for his own purposes language which was familiar on the lips of his antagonists. We know that Alexandrian Judaism had much to say about the "Word," and spoke of it as the Image of God: and probably some such teaching had found its way to Colossae. An "image" is a likeness or representation, as of a kings head on a coin, or of a face reflected in a mirror. Here it is that which makes the invisible visible. The God who dwells in the thick darkness, remote from sense and above thought, has come forth and made Himself known to man, even in a very real way has come within the reach of mans senses, in the manhood of Jesus Christ. Where then is there a place for the shadowy abstractions and emanations with which some would bind together God and man?
The first thought involved in this statement is, that the Divine Being in Himself is inconceivable and unapproachable. "No man hath seen God at any time nor can see Him." Not only is He beyond the reach of sense, but above the apprehension of the understanding. Direct and immediate knowledge of Him is impossible. There may be, there is, written on every human spirit a dim consciousness of His presence, but that is not knowledge. Creatural limitations prevent it, and mans sin prevents it. He is "the King invisible," because He is the "Father of Lights" dwelling in "a glorious privacy of light," which is to us darkness because there is in it "no darkness at all."
Then, the next truth included here is, that Christ is the perfect manifestation and image of God. In Him we have the invisible becoming visible. Through Him we know all that we know of God, as distinguished from what we guess or imagine or suspect of Him. On this high theme, it is not wise to deal much in the scholastic language of systems and creeds. Few words, and these mainly His own, are best, and he is least likely to speak wrongly who confines himself most to Scripture in his presentation of the truth. All the great streams of teaching in the New Testament concur in the truth which Paul here proclaims. The conception in Johns Gospel of the Word which is the utterance and making audible of the Divine mind, the conceptions in the Epistle to the Hebrews of the effulgence or forthshining of Gods glory, and the very image, or stamped impress of His substance, are but other modes of representing the same facts of full likeness and complete manifestation, which Paul here asserts by calling the man Christ Jesus, the image of the Invisible God. The same thoughts are involved in the name by which our Lord called Himself, the Son of God; and they cannot be separated from many words of His, such as "he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." In Him the Divine nature comes near to us in a form that once could be grasped in part by mens senses, for it was "that of the Word of life" which they saw with their eyes and their hands handled, and which is today and forever a form that can be grasped by mind and heart and will. In Christ we have the revelation of a God who can be known, and loved, and trusted, with a knowledge which, though it be not complete, is real and valid, with a love which is solid enough to be the foundation of a life, with a trust which is conscious that it has touched rock and builds secure. Nor is that fact that He is the revealer of God, one that began with His incarnation, or ends with His earthly life. From the beginning and before the creatural beginning, as we shall see in considering another part of these great verses, the Word was the agent of all Divine activity, the "arm of the Lord," and the source of all Divine illumination, "the face of the Lord," or, as we have the thought put in the remarkable words of the Book of Proverbs, where the celestial and pure Wisdom is more than a personification, though not yet distinctly conceived as a person, "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way. I was by Him as one brought up- or as a master worker-with Him, and I was daily His delight and My delights were with the sons of men." And after the veils of flesh and sense are done away, and we see face to face, I believe that the face which we shall see, and seeing, shall have beauty born of the vision passing into our faces, will be the face of Jesus Christ, in which the light of the glory of God shall shine for the redeemed and perfected sons of God, even as it did for them when they groped amid the shows of earth. The law for time and for eternity is, "I have declared Thy name unto My brethren and will declare it." That great fathomless, shoreless ocean of the Divine nature is like a "closed sea"- Christ is the broad river which brings its waters to men, and "everything liveth whithersoever the river cometh."
In these brief words on so mighty a matter, I must run the risk of appearing to deal in unsupported statements. My business is not so much to try to prove Pauls words as to explain them, and then to press them. home. Therefore I would urge that thought, that we depend on Christ for all true knowledge of God. Guesses are not knowledge. Speculations are not knowledge. Peradventures, whether of hope or fear, are not knowledge. What we poor men need is a certitude of a God who loves us and cares for us, has an arm that can help us, and a heart that will. The God of "pure theism" is little better than a phantom, so unsubstantial that you can see the stars shining through the pale form, and when a man tries to lean on him for support, it is like leaning on a wreath of mist. There is nothing. There is no certitude firm enough for us to find sustaining power against lifes trials in resting upon it, but in Christ. There is no warmth of love enough for us to thaw our frozen limbs by, apart from Christ. In Him, and in Him alone, the far off, awful, doubtful God becomes a God very near, of Whom we are sure, and sure that He loves and is ready to help and cleanse and save.
And that is what we each need. "My soul crieth out for God, for the living God." And never will that orphaned cry be answered, but in the possession of Christ, in Whom we possess the Father also. No dead abstractions-no reign of law-still less the dreary proclamation, "Behold we know not anything," least of all, the pottage of material good, will hush that bitter wail that goes up unconsciously from many an Esaus heart-"My father, my father!" Men will find Him in Christ. They will find Him nowhere else. It seems to me that the only refuge for this generation from atheism-if it is still allowable to use that unfashionable word-is the acceptance of Christ as the revealer of God. On any other terms religion is rapidly becoming impossible for the cultivated class. The great word which Paul opposed to the cobwebs of Gnostic speculation is the word for our own time with all its perplexities-Christ is the Image of the Invisible God.
II. We have the relation of Christ to Creation set forth in that great name, "the firstborn of all creation," and further elucidated by a magnificent series of statements which proclaim. Him to be agent or medium, and aim or goal of creation, prior to it in time and dignity, and its present upholder and bond of unity.
"The firstborn of all creation." At first sight, this name seems to include Him in the great family of creatures as the eldest, and clearly to treat Him as one of them, just because He is declared to be in some sense the first of them. That meaning has been attached to the words; but it is shown not to be their intention by the language of the next verse, which is added to prove and explain the title. It distinctly alleges that Christ was "before" all creation, and that He is the agent of all creation. To insist that the words must be explained so as to include Him in "creation" would be to go right in the teeth of the Apostles own justification and explanation of them. So that the true meaning is that He is the firstborn, in comparison with, or in reference to, all creation. Such an understanding of the force of the expression is perfectly allowable grammatically, and is necessary unless this verse is to be put in violent contradiction to the next. The same construction is found in Miltons
"Adam, the goodliest man of men since born, His sons, the fairest of her daughters, Eve," where "of" distinctly means "in comparison with," and not "belonging to."
The title implies priority in existence, and supremacy. It substantially means the same thing as the other title of "the only begotten Son," only that the latter brings into prominence the relation of the Son to the Father, while the former lays stress on His relation to Creation. Further it must be noted, that this name applies to the Eternal Word and not to the incarnation of that Word, or to put it in another form, the divinity and not the humanity of the Lord Jesus is in the Apostles view. Such is the briefest outline of the meaning of this great name.
A series of clauses follow, stating more fully the relation of the firstborn Son to Creation, and so confirming and explaining the title.
The whole universe is, as it were, set in one class, and He alone over against it. No language could be more emphatically all comprehensive. Four times in one sentence we have "all things"- the whole universe-repeated, and traced to Him as Creator and Lord. "In the heavens and the earth" is quoted from Genesis, and is intended here, as there, to be an exhaustive enumeration of the creation according to place. "Things visible or invisible" again includes the whole under a new principle of division-there are visible things in heaven, as sun and stars, there may be invisible on earth, but whatever and of whatever sort they are. He made them. "Whether thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers," an enumeration evidently alluding to the dreamy speculations about an angelic hierarchy filling the space between the far off God, and men immersed in matter. There is a tone of contemptuous impatience in Pauls voice as he quotes the pompous list of sonorous titles which a busy fancy had coined. It is as if he had said, You are being told a great deal about these angel hierarchies, and know all about their ranks and gradations. I do not know anything about them; but this I know, that if, amid the unseen things in the heavens or the earth, there be any such, my Lord made them, and is their master. So he groups together the whole universe of created beings, actual or imaginary, and then high above it, separate from it, its Lord and Creator, its upholder and end, he points to the majestic person of the only begotten Son of God, His Firstborn, higher than all the rulers of the earth, whether human or superhuman.
The language employed brings into strong relief the manifold variety of relations which the Son sustains to the universe, by the variety of the prepositions used in the sentence. The whole sum. of created things (for the Greek means not only "all things," but "all things considered as a unity") was in the original act, created in Him, through Him, and unto Him. The first of these words, "in Him," regards Him as the creative centre, as it were, or element in which as in a storehouse or reservoir all creative force resided, and was in a definite act put forth. The thought may be parallel with that in the prologue to Johns Gospel, "In Him was life." The Word stands to the universe as the incarnate Christ does to the Church; and as all spiritual life is in Him, and union to Him is its condition, so all physical takes its origin within the depths of His Divine nature. The error of the Gnostics was to put the act of creation and the thing created as far away as possible from God, and it is met by this remarkable expression, which brings creation and the creatures in a very real sense within the confines of the Divine nature, as manifested in the Word, and asserts the truth of which pantheism so called is the exaggeration, that all things are in Him, like seeds in a seed vessel, while yet they are not identified with Him.
The possible dangers of that profound truth, which has always been more in harmony with Eastern than with Western modes of thought, are averted by the next preposition used, "all things have been created through Him." That presupposes the full, clear demarcation between creature and creator, and so on the one hand extricates the person of the Firstborn of all creation from all risk of being confounded with the universe, while on the other it emphasises the thought that He is the medium of the Divine energy, and so brings into clear relief His relation to the inconceivable Divine nature. He is the image of the invisible God, and accordingly, through Him have all things been created. The same connection of ideas is found in the parallel passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the words, "through Whom also He made the worlds," stand in immediate connection with "being the effulgence of His glory."
But there remains yet another relation between Him and the act of creation. "For Him." they have been made. All things come from and tend towards Him. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending. All things spring from His will, draw their being from that fountain, and return thither again. These relations which are here declared of the Son, are in more than one place declared of the Father. Do we face the question fairly - what theory of the person of Jesus Christ explains that fact?
But further, His existence before the whole creation is repeated, with a force in both the words, "He is," which can scarcely be given in English. The former is emphatic-He Himself-and the latter emphasises not only pre-existence, but absolute existence. "He was before all things" would not have said so much as "He is before all things." We are reminded of His own words, "Before Abraham was, I am."
"In Him all things consist" or hold together. He is the element in which takes place and by which is caused that continued creation which is the preservation of the universe, as He is the element in which the original creative act took place of old. All things came into being and form an ordered unity in Him. He links all creatures and forces into a cooperant whole, reconciling their antagonisms, drawing all their currents into one great tidal wave, melting all their notes into music which God can hear, however discordant it may sometimes sound to us. He is "the bond of perfectness," the keystone of the arch, the centre of the wheel.
Such, then, in merest outline is the Apostles teaching about the Eternal Word and the Universe. What sweetness and what reverential awe such thoughts should cast around the outer world and the providences of life! How near they should bring Jesus Christ to us! What a wonderful thought that is, that the whole course of human affairs and of natural processes is directed by Him who died upon the cross! The helm of the universe is held by the hands which were pierced for us. The Lord of Nature and the Mover of all things is that Saviour on whose love we may pillow our aching heads.
We need these lessons today, when many teachers are trying hard to drive all that is spiritual and Divine out of creation and history, and to set up a merciless law as the only God. Nature is terrible and stern sometimes, and the course of events can inflict crushing blows; but we have not the added horror of thinking both to be controlled by no will. Christ is King in either region, and with our elder brother for the ruler of the land, we shall not lack corn in our sacks, nor a Goshen to dwell in. We need not people the void, as these old heretics did, with imaginary forms, nor with impersonal forces and laws-nor need we, as so many are doing today, wander through its many mansions as through a deserted house, finding nowhere a Person who welcomes us; for everywhere we may behold our Saviour, and out of every storm and every solitude hear His voice across the darkness saying, "It is I; be not afraid."
III. The last of the relations set forth in this great section is that between Christ and His Church. "He is the head of the body, the Church; who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead." A parallel is plainly intended to be drawn between Christs relation to the material creation and to the Church, the spiritual creation. As the Word of God before incarnation is to the universe, so is the incarnate Christ to the Church. As in the former, He is prior in time: and superior in dignity, so is He in the latter. As in the universe He is source and origin of all being, so in the Church He is the beginning, both as being first and as being origin of all spiritual life. As the glowing words which described His relation to creation began with the great title "the Firstborn," so those which describe His relation to the Church close with the same name in a different application. Thus the two halves of His work are as it were moulded into a golden circle, and the end of the description bends round towards the beginning.
Briefly, then, we have here first, Christ the head, and the Church His body. In the lower realm the Eternal Word was the power which held all things together, and similar but higher in fashion is the relation between Him and the whole multitude of believing souls. Popular physiology regards the head as the seat of life. So the fundamental idea in the familiar metaphor, when applied to our Lord, is that of the source of the mysterious spiritual life which flows from Him into all the members, and is sight in the eye, strength in the arm, swiftness in the foot, colour in the cheek, being richly various in its manifestations but one in its nature, and all His. The same mysterious derivation of life from Him is taught in His own metaphor of the Vine, in which every branch, however far away from the root, lives by the common life circulating through all, which clings in the tendrils, and reddens in the clusters, arm is not theirs though it be in them.
That thought of the source of life leads necessarily to the other, that He is the centre of unity, by Whom the "many members" become "one body," and the maze of branches one vine. The "head," too, naturally comes to be the symbol for authority-and these three ideas of seat of life, centre of unity, and emblem of absolute power, appear to be those principally meant here.
Christ is further the beginning to the Church. In the natural world He was before all, and source of all. The same double idea is contained in this name, "the Beginning." It does not merely mean the first member of a series who begins it, as the first link in a chain does, but it means the power which causes the series to begin. The root is the beginning of the flowers which blow in succession through the plants flowering time, though we may also call the first flower of the number the beginning. But Christ is root; not merely the first flower, though He is also that. He is head and beginning to His Church by means of His resurrection. He is the firstborn from the dead, and His communication of spiritual life to His Church requires the historical fact of His resurrection as its basis, for a dead Christ could not be the source of life; and that resurrection completes the manifestation of the incarnate Word, by our faith in which His spiritual life flows into our spirits. Unless He has risen from the dead, all His claims to be anything else than a wise teacher and fair character crumble into nothing, and to think of Him as a source of life is impossible.
He is the beginning through His resurrection, too, in regard of His raising us from the dead. He is the first fruits of them that slept, and bears the promise of a mighty harvest. He has risen from the dead, and therein we have not only the one demonstration for the world that there is a life after death, but the irrefragable assurance to the Church that because He lives it shall live also. A dead body and a living head cannot be. We are knit to Him too closely for the Fury "with the abhorred shears" to cut the thread. He has risen that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. So the Apostle concludes that in all things He is first-and all things are, that He may be first. Whether in nature or in grace, that preeminence is absolute and supreme. The end of all the majesty of creation and of all the wonders of grace is that His solitary figure may stand clearly out as centre and lord of the universe, and His name be lifted high over all.
So the question of questions for us all is, What think ye of Christ? Our thoughts now have necessarily been turned to subjects which may have seemed abstract and remote-but these truths which we have been trying to make clear, and to present in their connection, are not the mere terms or propositions of a half mystical theology far away from our daily life, but bear most gravely and directly on our deepest interests. I would fain press on every conscience the sharppointed appeal-What is this Christ to us? Is He anything to us but a name? Do our hearts leap up with a joyful Amen when we read these great words of this text. Are we ready to crown Him Lord of all? Is He our head, to fill us with vitality, to inspire and to command? Is He the goal and the end of our individual life? Can we each say-I live by Him, in Him, and for Him? Happy are we, if we give to Christ the preeminence, and if our hearts set "Him first, Him last, Him midst and without end."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv15–17 15–17. Who is the image of the invisible God.…
15–17. Who is the image of the invisible God. He came in order to reveal the Father in his own person. See John 14:10, and Heb. 1:3. The love of God is revealed in Christ. He was the visible representative of the invisible God. The first-born of every creature. The thought is that he existed before creation began; born of God instead of being created by the divine fiat; born before any creature was called into existence. The passage does not say that he was the first created, but the first-born. He was before creation. See John 1:1, 2.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v15 Col_1:15. Who is the image of the invisible God.—In…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Col_1:15. Who is the image of the invisible God.—In 2Co_4:4 St. Paul had so named Christ. “Beyond the very obvious notion of likeness, the word for image involves the idea of representation and manifestation” (Lightfoot). Man is said to be the image of God (1Co_11:7), and to have been created in the image of God, as an image on a coin may represent Cæsar, even though unrecognisable almost. Christ is “the very image” (Heb_1:3) of God, able to say, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.” Firstborn of every creature.—“Not that He is included as part of the creation, but that the relation of the whole creation to Him is determined by the fact that He is the ‘firstborn of all creation’ (R.V.), so that without Him creation could not be” (Cremer). The main ideas involved in the word are
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(1) priority to all creation;
(2) sovereignty over all creation (Lightfoot).
Col_1:16. Thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers.—That Paul believed in a heavenly hierarchy can scarcely be doubted; but this letter shows that in Colossæ it had become an elaborate superstition.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Col_1:15-17
The Relation of Christ to God and to all Greated Things.
Having spoken of our redemption, the apostle, in terms of the highest significance and grandeur, dwells upon the dignity and absolute supremacy of the Redeemer.
I. The relation of Christ to God.—“Who is the image of the invisible God” (Col_1:15). God is an infinite and eternal Spirit, incomprehensible and invisible. “No man hath seen God at any time;” yet humanity yearns for some visible embodiment of Deity. Christ reflects and reveals the Father. “He is the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person.” It is believed that the idea of the Logos underlies the whole of this passage, though the term is not mentioned. The heretical teachers at Colossæ had introduced a perverted view as to the nature of the mediation between God and creation, and the apostle aims to rectify it. The word λόγος, denoting both reason and speech, was a philosophical term adopted by Alexandrian Judaism to express the manifestation of the unseen God—the absolute Being—in the creation and government of the world. It included all modes by which God makes Himself known to man. As His reason, it denoted His purpose or design; as His speech, it implied His revelation. When Christian teachers adopted this term, they exalted and fixed its meaning by attaching to it two precise and definite ideas—that the Word is a divine person, and that the Word became incarnate in Jesus Christ (Lightfoot). Christ as the eternal Word is the perfect image, the visible representation, of the unseen God. In addition to the idea of similitude, which is capable of a wide and general use, the word “image” involves two others.
1. Representation.—It implies an archetype of which the image is a copy. Man is said to be in the image of God; but there is a difference between the image of God in man and the image of God in Christ. In Christ it is as Cæsar’s image in his son; in man it is as Cæsar’s image on his coin. In the God-man Christ Jesus we have a visible, living, perfect, and reliable representation of the invisible God.
2. Manifestation.—The general idea of the Logos is the manifestation of the hidden. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him” (Joh_1:18, compared with Joh_14:9-10, Joh_6:46). The incarnate Word, in His nature, attributes, and actions, is the true epiphany of the unseen Deity, setting forth, like distinct rays of one and the same glorious light, His infinite wisdom, mercy, righteousness, and power. Our obligations to Christ for His wondrous revelations are unspeakably great.
II. The relation of Christ to all created things.—
1. Christ existed prior to the creation. He is “the firstborn of every creature” (Col_1:15). It is not said 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. There is therefore no ground in this passage for the Arians and Socinians to build up their theory of the creatureship of Christ. In relation to all created things, intelligent or unintelligent, terrene or celestial, Christ was the firstborn. In an ineffably mysterious sense He was begotten; they were created. The two ideas involved in the phrase are:
(1) Priority to all creation—the absolute pre-existence of the Son. The term “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. Time is an accident of the creature. Therefore the origin of the Son of God precedes all time.
(2) Sovereignty over all creation. God’s firstborn is the natural Ruler, the acknowledged Head of God’s household. He is “Heir of all things.” He is creation’s supreme and absolute Lord. He brought all creatures out of nothing, and by His own will graduated the degree of being each should possess; and it is fitting He should have unlimited empire over all. As if to prevent the possibility of any misconception regarding the relation of Christ to the universe, and to show that He could not be a part of creation however exalted in degree, but was essentially distinct from it, the apostle sets forth the Son of God as the first cause, the active agent, and the grand end of all created things.
2. Christ is Himself the Creator of all things.—
(1) The conception of creation originated in Christ. “For by Him [or in Him] were all things created” (Col_1:16). He was the great first cause; the being, forms, limitations, energies of all things to be were bound up in Him. It rested with Himself to create or not to create. It is thought by some the Platonic idea is here shadowed forth: that the archetypes, the original patterns of all things, were in Christ before they were created outwardly. This is simply a philosophic speculation, and is readily suggested by the universal method of the mind first forming a mental conception within itself of any object it desires to body-forth to the outward eye. It is in Christ we trace the great work of creation in its beginning, progress, and end.
(2) The powers of creation were distributed by Christ. “All things that are in heaven, and that are in earth” (Col_1:16). He created the heavens also; but those things which are in the heavens are rather named because the inhabitants are more noble than their dwellings. “Visible,” things that are evident to the outward senses; and “invisible,” things that may be conceived by the understanding. “With a view to meet some peculiar doctrine of the false teachers at Colossæ, who seem to have alleged that Christ was but one of the heavenly powers, St. Paul breaks up the things invisible, and distributes them by the words “thrones,” “dominions,” “principalities,” or “powers.” It may be difficult, and indeed impossible, for us now fully to know what the terms severally convey in connection with the several hierarchies of heaven; they seem to point to gradations of being and to distinctions of official glory. 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. All created beings occupying the loftiest thrones throughout the vastness of immensity and amidst the mystery of life do homage and service to Christ Jesus as the firstborn, the only begotten Son of God” (Spence).
(3) Christ is Himself the great end of creation. “All things were created for Him” (Col_1:16). As all creation emanated from Him, so does it all converge again towards Him. “The eternal Word is the goal of the universe, as He was the starting-point. It must end in unity, as it proceeded from unity; and the centre of this unity is Christ.” The most elaborate and majestic machinery of the universe and the most highly gifted intelligence alike exist only to serve the ultimate purpose of creation’s Lord. All created things gather their significance, dignity, and glory by their connection with Him. Christ must be more than a creature, as the loftiest creature could not be the end of all created things. It is a narrow philosophy that teaches that all things were made for man. The grand end of all our endeavours should ever be the glory of Christ.
3. The unchanging eternity of Christ.—“He is before all things” (Col_1:17). Not only is He before Moses and before Abraham, as He declared to the Jews (John 8), but He is before all things. The words refer not so much to His eminence in rank as to duration. The terms HE IS, in the Greek, are most emphatic, the one declaring His personality, the other that His pre-existence is absolute existence. Christ existed before any created thing—even before time itself; therefore, from eternity. Knowing the tendency of men to entertain inferior notions of the person of Christ, and of the redemption He has provided, the apostle multiplies conceptions to represent His divine worth and excellency. He should be preferred before all.
4. The continued existence of creation depends on Christ.—“And by [rather in] Him all things consist” (Col_1:17)—hold together, cohere. He is the principle of cohesion in the universe. He impresses upon creation that unity and solidarity which makes it a cosmos instead of a chaos. Thus, to take one instance, the action of gravitation, which keeps in their places things fixed and regulates the motion of things moving, is an expression of His mind (Lightfoot). The universe found its completion in Him, and is sustained and preserved every moment by the continuous exercise of His almighty power. All things hang on Christ; in Him they live and move and have their being. If He withdrew His upholding hand, everything would run into confusion and ruin. “Thou hidest Thy face, they are troubled: Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.” In Him all things consist. He is the centre of life, force, motion, and rest; round Him all things revolve. He imposes their limits, gives to them their law, strikes the keynote of their harmonies, blends and controls their diverse operations. He is the All-perfect in the midst of imperfection, the Unchanged in the midst of change. He is the Author of human redemption; became incarnate, suffered, died, and rose again, and now reigns with the Father in glory everlasting. He is worthy of our loftiest adoration, our humblest submission, our strongest confidence, our most ardent love.
Lessons.—
1. The supremacy of the Creator and Preserver of all things is absolute and universal.—
2. Human redemption is grounded on the divinity of the Son of God.
3. Personal trust in the Redeemer brings the soul into direct personal relation to the Father.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Col_1:15. Christ a Revelation because He is the Equal of the Father—
I. In His nature.—The incarnation.
II. In His attributes.
III. In His will.—The character of Christ and His moral system.
IV. In His works.—His miracles, His death as a sacrifice for sin, His resurrection.
1. How ungrateful and unbelieving have we been!
2. How zealous and devoted should we be!—G. Brooks.
Col_1:16. Christ the Author and the End of Creation.
I. The Author.—
1. The extent. “All things.” The universe, natural and moral.
2. The variety.—“Visible and invisible.” The near and the distant, the vast and the minute, the material and the spiritual.
3. The orders.—“Whether they be.” Scale of being. Gradations in all classes.
II. The end.—
1. Heaven was created for Him. As the place of His special residence and as the home of His people.
2. Angels were created for Him.—Messengers of His mercy, executioners of His vengeance.
3. Hell was created for Him.—The prison of His justice.
4. The earth was created for Him.—The scene of His incarnation and atoning death. His mediatorial kingdom.
5. The human race was created for Him.—Man created, preserved, redeemed.
(1) How exalted should be our ideas of Christ!
(2) How carefully should we learn to view everything in connection with Christ!
3. What ground for confidence, gratitude, and fear!—Ibid.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v16 16. “Because in Him were created all things in…
ARGUMENT 5
GOD CREATIVE IN THE SECOND PERSON
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16. “Because in Him were created all things in the heavens and upon the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or lordships or governments or authorities. All things were made by him and unto him.”
18. “Himself is the head of the body, the Church; who is the beginning, the first-begotten from the dead, in order that in all things he may be pre- eminent.
19. “And in him all fullness was pleased to dwell.
20. “And through himself to reconcile all things unto himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, through himself, whether things upon the earth or things in the heavens.” We have wonderful and, to the unspiritual, paradoxical revelations in this prolix quotation. The transcendent intellect and liberal culture of Paul well adapted him to the instrumentality of the Holy Ghost in the evolution of these inscrutable mysteries. The singularity of the word heaven in your translation is due to the astronomical incredulity of the translators, as the Greek is uniformly in the plural number, corroborating astronomy in its revelation of an infinite plurality of worlds, constituting the celestial universe. Already one billion and one hundred and seventy millions have been discovered, which in all probability constitute but a fraction of God’s universe, as the telescope rests upon vast fields of nebulae, which are evidently systems of worlds so infinitely distant as to be unindividualizable by the most powerful telescopes. We are here informed that the Son of God, our wonderful Christ, who lay in the Bethlehem manger, and hung on the Cross of Calvary, created all of these stupendous worlds, as many of them are of tremendous magnitude. Saturn, our neighbor, is eleven hundred times as large as this world, and Jupiter, a still nearer neighbor, fourteen hundred times as large as the earth. Hence, after all, we find that our great world is but a speck floating in the ethereal firmament of God’s boundless universe. How glorious it will be when I get my immortal pinions to wing my flight from world to world, exploring with adoring admiration the stupendous works of God, and cultivating an acquaintance with the unfallen intelligences occupying millions of immortal worlds. Yet your Savior and mine, as here we have clearly revealed, created every one of these worlds. Not only did he create the multiplied millions of worlds, flaming suns, and wandering comets, which speed their flight through the void immense, but he created the human race, every angel that shines and shouts, the melodious seraphim, the adoring cherubim, the tall sons of God whose triumphant shout answered the anthem of the morning stars which sang together at creation’s birth, the mighty archangels and the heavenly hierarchies who fill the responsible offices in the perfect organizations, principalities, and powers which characterize the heavenly universe. If the Son executed the stupendous work of all creation, where were the Father and the Holy Ghost? What did they do? You must bear in mind there are not three Gods, but one only. Hence, as we see in the next chapter, “In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead.” Hence, the Father and the Spirit are in the Son in creation, redemption, and administration. You must not differentiate the Divine persons indefinitely, lest you run into tritheistic heresy of three Gods instead of One, which is the first departure into pagan polytheism. This one God manifests himself to our finite senses, and accommodates himself to the plan of salvation in three distinct persons. How are other worlds besides ours affected by the mediatorial work of Christ? The revolt of this world from the Divine government was calculated to jostle the loyalty, and wield an alienating influence on the inhabitants of other worlds, so many as are still on probation like ours. Hence, all worlds as here revealed are reached by the mediatorial administration, culminating in the complete restoration of this world to its celestial loyalty and the perfect reconciliation of all other worlds, and their final and complete fortification against all liability to apostasy, thus in the grand and triumphant finale sweeping the last probability of defection forever from the celestial universe, and eternally establishing all worlds in their Divine loyalty. It is here said that our Savior is the beginning; i.e., he existed alone in the universe before a solitary star had twinkled, or a sun had shot forth one cheering ray. Doubtless the work of creation is still in progress, omnipotence in his glorious majesty tossing other mighty worlds, and populating them with immortal intelligences. We also have it here stated that “Himself is the head of the body, the Church.” In Eph 1:23, we have the climacteric affirmation that the Church is the “fullness of him that filleth all things in all things.” O the unfathomable depths, the immeasurable altitudes, the infinitesimal latitudes and longitudes of the Divine benefactions in behalf of poor, fallen humanity! With adoring wonder we will sing the song of redemption forever! How paradoxical when we contemplate the ineffable glory of the unfallen angels, the inconceivable grandeur and sublimity, splendor and beauty, radiant from the immortal visage of cherubim, seraphim, archangel, and heavenly hierarchies, undimmed by a solitary cloud of sorrow through all the long tread of eternal ages! Lost in unutterable bewilderment while contemplating these matchless splendors, glories, and triumphs characteristic of the mighty unfallen intelligences, who wing their flight through celestial ether! Is it possible that in the wonderful dispensations of grace and glory, the blood-washed, fire-baptized Church of the First- born is destined to stand upon the topmost pinnacle of the universe, and outshout Gabriel and Michael?
Lord, shine on us from heaven, and illuminate us with a glimpse of the glories awaiting the Bridehood of Christ! While all the angels, archangels, cherubim, seraphim, and heavenly hierarchies rank as servants of God, the Bride of Christ will certainly enjoy an honorary pre-eminence and a participation of royal favor utterly staggering the loftiest flights of human imagination. If the human intellect could only apprehend these peerless glories, there would be a universal stampede into the kingdom. But, alas! they are only spiritually discerned.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v15 The Work of the exalted Christ through the Medium…
The Work of the exalted Christ through the Medium of the Ministry.
Jesus Christ all in all:
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v. 15. Who is the image of the invisible God, the First-born of every creature;
v. 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.
v. 17. And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist.
v. 18. And he is the Head of the body, the Church; who is the Beginning, the First-born from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
v. 19. For it pleased the father that in Him should all fullness dwell;
v. 20. and, having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.
This passage is one of the most wonderful and comprehensive in the entire New Testament, for the apostle has crowded into these few sentences almost the entire doctrine of Christ’s person and office. Of Jesus Christ, whose work of redemption he has just described in its chief parts, the apostle says: Who is the image of the invisible God, the First-born of the entire creation. God’s essence is such as to place Him beyond the senses of man; no man has seen nor can see Him, 1Ti 6:16; 1Jn 4:12; Joh 1:18. But God had resolved to reveal Himself to mankind in Jesus Christ, His Son, as His image, in and through whom we can see the Father, Joh 14:7-10; 1Jn 1:1-3. In Jesus Christ the invisible, the unknowable God is both seen and known to us, in Him God has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, 2Co 4:6. in Him, who is the eternal and living and personal image of the Father, of the same essence with the Father, the eternal love, the gracious and merciful essence of the Father, has been manifested to men. Jesus is incidentally the Firstborn of all creation; He is before them and above them in time as well as in rank, He is superior to all creatures, Heb 1:6. Luther is right in stating that to be called the first-born in this connection is to be termed true God.
Just how much is included in these words the apostle shows in the following: For in Him was created everything in the heavens and upon the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; everything through Him and for Him is created, and Himself is before all, and in Him all things subsist. The entire creation rested in the creative power of the Son of God from eternity; the entire counsel of God with regard to the creation of the world was put into execution by Him. Everything, the whole universe with all that it contains, was brought into being by His creative power, the creatures in the heavens, the angels, as well as those on earth, both the organic and inorganic creatures, with man as their glory and crown. Or, to classify these creatures according to their essence and manner of being: to Christ’s creative sphere belong the invisible creatures as well as the visible. The apostle enumerates some of the invisible creatures, the spirits: thrones and lordships and principalities and powers, both the good and the fallen angels being included. See Eph 1:21; Eph 3:10. Whether special ranks or orders of angels must be distinguished, cannot be determined from this passage; the apostle seems rather to have the object to bring out the great power of the spirits, which yet is not to be compared with the almighty, creative power of the Son of God. Therefore He summarizes once more that all things, with not a single exception, through Him, through His omnipotence, and for Him, dependent upon Him, for His glory, are created. He is also said to be the possessor of eternity: He is before all things, He was in existence before a single creature had life and being. He is Providence: all things, the entire universe, exist in Him, hold together through His providential power. He keeps all creatures in their proper place and in the right relation toward one another: He sustains the world in all its parts. Christ is thus the Creator of the world, the Preserver of the world, true God with the Father from eternity.
The apostle now describes the relation of the Mediator to the Church: And He is the Head of the body, of the Church, who is the Beginning, the First-born from the dead, in order that He Himself might become preeminent among all. Since Christ has brought about the cleansing of our sins through Himself, since the Father has rescued us from the rule of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His dear Son, since we have in Him the redemption through His blood, we now belong to His Church, the kingdom of Christ. The Church is the body of Christ, who is the Head. See Eph 1:23; 1Co 12:27; Eph 5:23. By their fellowship with Christ, by their union in Christ, all the believers, as members together of the body of which He is the Head, are partakers of all the blessings and glories which pertain to Him in His capacity as the eternal Son of God. He is the Beginning: without Him the Church could not exist, could not have come into being. He is the First-born out of the dead, from among the dead. Both according to time and in rank He is the first in the resurrection of the dead: He is the cause of the resurrection of the dead; through His righteousness justification of life is come upon all men, Rom 5:18; He is the First-born among many brethren, Rom 8:29; 1Co 15:20. Among all men, among all creatures, He is preeminent, supreme; that is the result of His resurrection from the dead, of His exaltation on high.
The apostle rises to ever greater heights of sustained eloquence: Because in Him it was the good pleasure that all fullness should dwell. This is the climax of the thought. Christ is the first before all creatures; Christ is the first in the redeemed congregation; Christ is the first in the resurrection and in the subsequent glory. He is the Ruler in the Kingdom of Power; He is the Ruler in the Kingdom of Grace; He is the Ruler in the Kingdom of Glory. So Christ is the vessel in which is contained, in which dwells, the fullness of all the divine counsels for creation and humanity; through Him the fullness of all divine thoughts should be expressed, so that His superiority, His preeminence, might be unquestioned in time and eternity. The thought is almost the same as in chap. 2:9.
Not only, however, is the supremacy of Christ emphasized, but also the dependence of the believers upon His work: And that through Him (Christ) everything be reconciled to Him (God the Father), He having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, whether things on earth or things in the heavens. This was also God’s good pleasure. The apostle evidently does not refer only to the reconciliation which was made through the death of Christ, by which fallen mankind was brought back into the right relation with God. The statement is too broad for that. The culmination of Christ’s work, in His state of exaltation, will be to remove the estrangement which exists ever since the evil angels first revolted against the government of God, to effect the reconciliation by which the sum total of all created things shall be restored to its primal harmony with the Creator. See Rom 8:21. The connection of thought, therefore, is this: By the fact that God reconciled us to Himself through the blood of Christ He brought about an adjustment of the relations which were thrown out of alignment by the first revolt, and this will finally result in bringing about harmony and unity between heaven and earth. Not only all those that confess the exalted Christ have entered into this state of proper relation with God, but all creatures that are now groaning under the effects of sin will finally, through the power of the exalted Christ, be delivered from their bondage, thus bringing about the union of heaven and earth, while hell with its occupants will be shut out forever from this glorious reconciliation. All this has resulted and will result from the fact that God has made peace through the blood of His Son’s cross. When Christ was nailed to the accursed tree of the cross, it was in punishment for the sins of the world. But at the same time the shedding of His holy, innocent blood atoned for our transgressions, turned the heart of the Father back to us through our Substitute, and changed the state of warfare existing between the holy, righteous God and the sinful world to one of perfect peace. As a consequence of this sacrifice of atonement the union between God and the believers will be perfect and happy throughout all eternity.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v15 The Son is the image of the invisible God
The Son is the image of the invisible God
Here "image" does not mean a representation of something that is visible. Instead, "image" here means that by knowing the Son, we learn what God the Father is like. (See: Metaphor)
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Son
This is an important title for Jesus, the Son of God. (See: Translating Son and Father)
He is the firstborn
"The Son is the firstborn." The expression "firstborn Son" does not refer to Jesus' birth in Bethlehem. Instead, it refers to the Son's position as the eternal Son of God the Father. In this sense, "firstborn" is a metaphor meaning "most important." Jesus is the most important and the unique "Son" of God. He is God. The word "Son" shows Jesus' intimate relationship with the Father. That relationship cannot be understood until and unless you use your language's words for "son" and "father." (See: Metaphor)
For by him all things were created
This can be stated in active form. AT: "For by him God created all things" or "God caused the Son to create all things" (See: Active or Passive)
all things were created by him and for him
This can be stated in active form. God caused the Son to create all things for the Son's glory. AT: "For by him and for him God created all things" or "God caused him to create all things for himself" (See: Active or Passive)
He himself is before all things
"It is he who existed before all things"
in him all things hold together
Paul is speaking here of the Son controlling all things as if he were physically holding them together. "he holds everything together" (See: Active or Passive and Metaphor)
translationWords
Son of God
image of God
God
firstborn
create
heaven
throne
dominion
authority
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv15–16 1:15-20 Paul presents Jesus as the supreme creator (1:15-17)…
1:15-20 Paul presents Jesus as the supreme creator (1:15-17) and redeemer (1:18-20). The series of short statements, the exalted conceptions of Christ, and the parallelism in language and thought strongly suggest that these verses quote an early Christian hymn about Jesus that Paul applied to the situation of the Colossian Christians.
1:15 visible image: In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, eikōn (“image, representation”) is used to refer to human beings having been made in the image of God (Gen 1:26-27) and also to the wisdom figure in Jewish writings (see Wisdom of Solomon 7:25-26). The New Testament writers speak about Christ as God’s wisdom to help explain his significance (cp. 1 Cor 1:24, 30). • He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation (or He is the firstborn of all creation): This phrase figured prominently in early Christian debates about the nature of Christ. Firstborn does not mean he was created; it is a title, drawn from the Old Testament, indicating supremacy of rank and priority in time (see, e.g., Ps 89:27).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.