Colossians
1:15-20 He is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn over all creation. For everything was created by Him, in
heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or
dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through Him
and for Him. He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together. He
is also the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything. For God
was pleased ⌊to
have⌋
all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile everything to
Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross—
whether things on earth or things in heaven.
This one
paragraph sums up everything essential to know about the Lord Jesus; His deity,
humanity, role in creation, place in history, role in His church, position in
eternity, and authority over all things. Most of what we read in the Bible
about Jesus can be traced to Paul’s description of Him here. And several of
Paul’s statements were taken from other places in God’s Word. When we study the
Bible rightly, we will see that the entire Bible truly is about Him – just as
He stated in John 5:39 and Luke 24:27
Speaking to
the Pharisees who had seen the many miracles Jesus performed and had just heard
His testimony of His mission on earth, Jesus said, You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in
them, yet they testify about Me. (John 5:39)
Speaking to
the disciples who had seen the crucifixion but did not comprehend what they had
seen: Then beginning with Moses and all
the Prophets, He interpreted for them the things concerning Himself in all the
Scriptures. (Luke 24:27)
The whole
Bible, and every message from it that we are to bring forth must have the Lord
Jesus as its topic, its solution, its main point. If a man preaches without
pointing people to Christ as the Savior of sinners, he has preached in vain.
In saying
that Jesus is the image of the invisible
God, I dare say our thinking will bring to our recall Genesis 1:27: So God created man in His own image; He
created him in the image of God; He created them male and female. Note a
major difference: Adam (and all humans) are created
in the image of God; Jesus is the image of God. Man is a created
being; Jesus is the eternal God. The likeness of God present in Jesus is far
superior to the image possessed by Adam, even before the Fall. This image is
something given to man by Creator; it is something inherent to the character of
Christ, for He is God. Later in Paul's letter to Colossi we read that we have put on the new self, which is being renewed
in knowledge after the image of its creator (chapter 3:10). As we pursue
the Lord, walking as children of the light, we are being ever conformed and
renewed in grace and knowledge so we will reflect Him better, to bring more
glory to the Lord Jesus.
He is the beginning, meaning without Him nothing was
made that was made. He is essential to all that is, the agent of creation Who
will judge all of creation. Jesus is also the
firstborn of all creation, by this is meant He is preeminent over
everything that has been created. We are all familiar with the Jewish culture
in which all the blessings of inheritance went to the firstborn male. This is
the connection with the phrase, firstborn. It is not, as some cults try to
assert, that Jesus came into existence when He was born as a man. Jesus is the
ruler over all creation - just as the firstborn son became ruler over his
father's estate when the son was of age. Having accomplished the work given Him
to redeem the lost sheep, Jesus was exalted, enthroned in majesty, and all
things were put under His feet. Because He is the firstborn Son of God -
sovereign over all creation.
He is
preeminent over all created things because all things were created by Him
(verse 16). But we read in Genesis how God the Father created all things. We
must keep in mind the unity of God within the holy Trinity. We see this unity
in many places in Scripture. When God the Father completed His creation work,
He rested from that work. He continued to guide redemptive history and the
Scriptures, actively involved in shaping history and the lives of men. When the
Lord Jesus had finished His work of atonement, He sat down at God's right hand,
resting from His work of redemption. He yet works, serving as our high priest
and advocate, our protector and shepherd. And so it is with the third person in
the holy trinity; the Holy Spirit worked during and after Pentecost to bring
about the birth of the church, with many signs and miracles. Though the bulk of
these miracles has ceased, the foundation of the church having been completed,
the Holy Spirit continues His work of giving us illumination as we read the
Scriptures; convicting the world of sin and revealing the righteousness of
Jesus. In each of these creation/recreation works and in all of the ongoing
works, the three persons of the trinity are completely unified. Recall that the
world was created by the Father through the Son, with the Spirit hovering over
the waters during this event, as if giving birth. The Father chose those to be
redeemed, Jesus atoned for them, and the Spirit has sealed them until the Day
of Judgment. They each had a role in one-time creation work and in regeneration
work, followed by resting from that work, while continuing on, in unity, with
other work required for our good and their glory. This is the work of the
Trinity, each completely unified with the other two; one God, three persons in
covenant with one another for the redemption of sinners to bring glory to their
name.
Don’t miss
the scope of what was created by Him, everything in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones
or dominions or rulers or authorities. This is very similar to what Paul
wrote in Romans 8:38 & 39 - For I am
convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities,
neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of
God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus is Lord over all, heaven and
earth; creator of all things. This is why we can have confidence in Him to not
lose us to anything – He truly is Lord of all and nothing He has created can
overthrow Him!
Building on
the preeminence of Jesus, Paul tells us He is before all things (see Jesus’
statement in John 8:58 – before Abraham
was, I am!) and He holds all things together. Do not think that materials
such as wood and Styrofoam keep their qualities is due to nature. Nature is
held together by the will of God in Christ Jesus. If, as some assert, the devil
is the absolute ruler of this world, all would be chaos and materials could not
counted on to maintain their characteristics. While Satan is the ruler of this
age, he is, as Luther said, God's devil. He is bound and has as much influence
as it pleases YHWH to give him. Jesus holds the devil on a leash; Christ is
Lord of all. At His word, these heavens and the earth will be judged, put to
death, and resurrected to serve as our eternal home. He decreed the destruction
of the world in the great flood that wiped out the human race, save 8 souls. He
promised to provided seed-time and harvest, rain and sun, until the end of this
age, when He comes a second (and final) time. Unlike you and me, He is the
faithful One; He will keep His promises!
Of
importance to our life in this age, as members in a local church, Jesus is
heralded as the head of the church. We are His body and He is the head – of the
universal church (all believers in all ages) and of the local church. We read
body language as regards the church in several of Paul's letters, reminding us
of the importance of giving ourselves to one another and recognizing Who is the
sovereign head to Whom we owe our allegiance. Let all who put man at the head
of the church repent! We see this phenomenon in hierarchical church
denominations, with the papist religion as the most grotesque example. But we
also see it in our own circle of the faith – with “senior pastors” and his
minions. The structure of these tends to induce people to think more highly of
their elders and for the elders to think the people are right! Peter warns
those who serve as elders not to lord their position over the people, just as
Jesus did when His disciples argued over which of them could at His left and
right hand. Recognizing Christ Jesus as the head of His body, wherein we are
each called a member thereof, is vital to our health! If man can give us
assurance, it is false. If man saves us, it is false. If man condemns us, it is
false. In Christ alone my hope is found; He is my light, my strength, my song.
Paul
continues to repeat what he’s already said, so important is the idea of seeing
Christ accurately.
He is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything. His preeminence, being firstborn,
having first place in everything. Get the idea that we tend to think too little
of Christ and too much of man? I think that’s the point in repeating these
truths about the supremacy of Christ in all things. We are weak and feeble
creatures and tend to grow attached to the comforts and false treasures. As
Peter said, I think it is right to
refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of my body (2 Pet 1:13).
This is one of the core functions of the local church – to equip the saints for
the work of the ministry so we will not be tossed about by the deceitful
cunning of men (Eph 4:12 – 14). If Christ be not first in our lives as
individuals and in our corporate life as a church, we will drift into lesser
things and end up as fables. We need one another to guard against this.
The last two
verses are one sentence that sums up the redemptive historical reason for Jesus
coming to us as a man.
Colossians
1:19-20 For God was pleased ⌊to have⌋ all His fullness dwell
in Him, and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself by making peace
through the blood of His cross— whether things on earth or things in heaven.
We see here
that God the Father and God the Son are two distinct persons, with distinct but
complimentary roles. The Son is not the Father, but the fullness of God is in
the Son – Jesus is fully God and fully man. It pleased the Father to send the
Son to reconcile everything to Himself, doing so by the blood of His cross.
It’s been rightly said that the Christian faith is a bloody one. Without the
shedding of blood there is NO remission of sin. And for true forgiveness of
sin, rather than the temporary covering of it for a season, the divine blood of
the Lamb of God was required.
As to His
mission, to reconcile everything whether on earth or in heaven, does this mean
Jesus will save all people and angels? This passage ties this reconciliation to
the blood of His cross – it MUST mean reconciliation with the Father. So all
people will be saved?
We must go
back in order to answer this properly. We recall how the entire creation was
cursed at the fall (Gen 3:18), and Paul tells us creation eagerly waits with anticipation for God’s sons to be
revealed. For the creation was subjected
to futility—not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it—in the hope that the creation itself will also be set
free from the bondage of corruption into the glorious freedom of God’s
children. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with
labor pains until now (Romans 8:19-22).
Because of
sin, creation was cursed and is in every bit of need of being set free from
that bondage as are we. George Whitefield said that every time a dogs barks at
a man, every time a bear growls at a man, they are taking up their Master’s
charge, reminding man of what his actions have done.
Peter tells
us this present earth will be destroyed (2 Pet 3:10-13) at the end of this age.
It make most sense to understand this as creation being put to death and
resurrected in a glorified state – just as we will be. On that new earth,
righteousness will dwell – that is a pointer to the Lord Jesus Himself, as He
will be among His people on the new earth forever.
Revelation
21:1-5 Then I saw a new heaven and a new
earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea no
longer existed. I also saw the Holy City, new Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. Then I heard a
loud voice from the throne: Look! God’s dwelling is with humanity, and He will
live with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and
be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will no
longer exist; grief, crying, and pain will exist no longer, because the
previous things have passed away. Then the One seated on the throne said,
“Look! I am making everything new.”
This the way
Jesus reconciles "everything" to Himself. When the end of the age is
come, all whose name is not written in the Lamb's Book of Life will be thrown
into the lake of fire. All the saints from every generation will be resurrected
with eternal bodies and the heavens and earth will be made new. All things will
be reconciled to Jesus - all will know He is Lord and all will submit to Him.
This is the
certain promise of eternal life that God has extended to all who have placed
their faith in Christ. Jesus Christ came into this world to find the lost sheep
– He will rescue each and every one of us. John 10:14-16 “I am the good shepherd. I know My own sheep, and they know Me, as the
Father knows Me, and I know the Father. I lay down My life for the sheep. But I
have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they
will listen to My voice. Then there will be one flock, one shepherd.”
Trust the
Lord Jesus. He is the image of the invisible God. He is supreme over all
created things. He will have satisfaction for His sacrifice by bringing many
sons and daughters to victory.
When the end
of the age comes upon man, the only place of refuge is in the Lord Jesus.
