Colossians 1:15-16
Well, you can open your Bibles to Paul’s letter to the Colossians, and we’re coming into what is the defining passage of Colossians, what Colossians is known for. It’s the most comprehensive and yet condensed teaching on Christology really in all the New Testament, which is Colossians 1:15 through 20. We’re just going to get into the first couple of verses for our exposition this morning, but I can tell you it’s going to be theologically deep, christologically focused, and robust. And that means that this, you know, theology, Christology leads to doxology.
Doxology meaning we’re going to learn to give glory and praise to God through all that we learn here and are able to meditate on and reflect on. And I hope that what we hear this morning feeds your soul in a very special way that only God can do, because by his Spirit, he knows each one of us. He knows our need individually. He’s intimately acquainted with all of our ways. The Spirit intercedes for us according to the will of God.
The son at the father’s right hand is ministering on our behalf, to us for God and for our good, and he prays for us as well. And so I know that what we learn here, not only in Colossians 1 this morning, but what we learned from Hebrews 1, as well tonight, We’re just getting into that section, as well. You’re getting double barreled Christology today, and I trust that it will be profitable and joyful to your soul.
Paul has a strategic reason for the high Christology that we find in this section in Colossians 1. It’s a deep foray into the cosmic Christ to demonstrate the absolute and the unparalleled supremacy of the son. And I’m going to put off addressing his strategic reason for this high Christology so that we can dive right into the text. But I will say this, by way of introduction, Paul’s reflection in verses 12 to 14 that we heard last week on the graciousness and the magnanimity of the father’s salvation, that has resolved in the Son of God.
Everything’s focused on the second person of the Trinity, and that’s by God’s design, according to his perfect will, according to his eternal decree. God has decreed, as we’re going to hear this morning, God has decreed that everything does resolve in his son. Jumping ahead just a bit to verses 19 and 20, Paul says, “It’s in him that all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile all things to himself.”
So for all things to resolve fully and finally in Christ, the Son of God, the one preeminent in both creation and redemption, this has been God’s design and plan all along. This has strategic importance in Paul’s argument in this letter. We’ll set that aside for now. I’ll come back to that at a later time. But I want us to see this morning and reflect on and rejoice in the one in whom we are redeemed and forgiven.
I want nothing to distract from the leader that Paul has provided in redemption and forgiveness, that leads right into this meditation on Christ. So let’s start by reading those verses, Colossians 1:15 through 20, He, or as it says here in the LSB, it starts out with a relative pronoun, who, “who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. For in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities- all things have been created through Him and for Him.
“And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together, and He is the Head of the Body, the Church; Who is the beginning, the first born from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross- through him- whether things on earth or things in heaven.”
Those verses can be divided into two or three parts. There are different ways of dividing it. I’m going to follow the LSB with its three-part division, which can be found in a number of faithful commentators as well. But the first part, some of you may have this laid out in your Bible translations, others of you may not, but the first part is verses 15 to 16; the second part is verse 17 into the first part of verse 18, and then the third part is the second-half of verse 18 into verse 20.
So three parts, you can see the first and the third parts are marked out by this introductory: who is. So the, the relative pronoun, hos is followed by the stative verb, eston, a verb, of being, who is and then it features immediately that concept of the first-born. Okay, so you can see the first part, verses 15 to 16 starts with “Who is the image of the invisible God,” and then, “the first born of all creation,” followed by the elaboration, the explanation in verse 16.
You see the same pattern in in the third part, middle of verse 18 to verse 20. It starts out with, “Who is,” and then there’s the term, “first born,” but this time it’s, “who is the beginning,” and then, “the first born from the dead,” again, followed by more elaboration in verses 19 to 20.
So that leaves the second part there, a lonely middle, which is verse 17 to first part of verse 18. And you can see that that’s distinguished from the other two parts by, two, “and he is” statements. See that there? “And he is,” those two statements are on either side. And then what holds those two statements together, you got “and he is before all things.”
That takes us back to the beginning, “And he is the head of the body,” that takes us to the end. So he is, as we’ve seen in another text, “he is the alpha and the Omega. He’s the beginning and the end.” He’s the start and the finish. Another interesting observation to make about this second part, in the middle, verses 17 to 18a and about the middle of the section between those two, and he is, statements, what holds those two statements together.
The second-half of verse 17 is the statement, “And in him all things hold together.” It’s kind of fitting, isn’t it, that Paul portrays the Son of God as the first-born of creation in verses 15 to 16, as the first-born of redemption in verses 18 to 20, and as the one who holds all things together from beginning to end. And he’s even used the syntactical structure of the text to portray this; that we see from the smallest details, even of text and grammar, syntax, to the grandest of eternal designs, pre–incarnate Christ, all the way to the culmination of the very final end. God is pleased to reconcile all things to himself, whether in heaven or on earth, and it’s him who holds all things together.
For today, we’re in verses 15 to 16, and we’re here to learn several things about the son, who is the divine agent of creation. I just want to say here at the outset that if you find what we go through this morning to be beyond your comprehension, trust me, you’re not alone. We’re taking a spiritual journey together into that which is fundamentally incomprehensible to us. We need to know that at the outset, it’s fundamentally incomprehensible. Notice I didn’t say it’s irrational. I didn’t say it’s beyond any comprehension.
It is fully within God’s comprehension, but we finite creatures, we cannot get our heads around this fully. This is beyond us and yet there is enough here, revealed in the text, as God accommodates his infinite reality in eternity, as he accommodates himself to us using language we can understand in concepts and images and pictures. He’s brilliant, not only in his infinite knowledge and understanding and wisdom, but in his ability to bring it to our level and feed us truth.
What we learn, even though it is going to be beyond our comprehension, is profoundly sublime, wonderful, and fills our heart with joy because this is our God, this is our Savior, that we’re caught up in his glory, his reality. Got a few points for you, but it will start with this one. Number one: The son’s essential nature. Number one: The son’s essential nature, starting in verse 15, Colossians 1:15. As I said, the sentence in the original begins with a relative pronoun: Who. “Who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation.”
He’s not asking a question. Who is it? He’s telling us who it is. He’s referring back to the son, the son of the father’s love, the son in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, “who is the image of the invisible God and the first born of all creation.” The, Who, is a call back to verse 13, for into the Son of God’s love. He is the chief subject of all these verses, starting in verse 15 all the way through verse 22, really, he’s the chief subject.
The context of verse 15 to 16, as you heard, when we read it, is creation. That’s the context. And so this opening assertion that he is the image of the invisible God, that opening assertion is set in the context of the son’s agency in creation. So Paul is not talking here, when he speaks of him as the image of the invisible God.
He’s not talking about the son here in the incarnation, taking on humanity, that’s not what his point is here. He’s backing us up, in our minds, prior to creation itself. He’s forcing us to think of a reality that none of us can really imagine because we were not there. We can’t understand anything that doesn’t have to do with time and space and material and matter and things we can see and feel and all that.
So we’re going back to before creation of all things, to a reality that none of us can really even imagine, picture, even comprehend and yet here we are prior to matter, prior to motion, time, concept of time, the orderly, consistent, constant, repeatable, observable, measure, succession of moments that we all live in and we’re subject to before Genesis 1:1, when “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
The only thing prior to that first verse of the Bible is the subject of that first verse: Who is God? One being whose essence it is to exist, whose existence is his essence. His essence is perfect, it’s singular, it’s simple, it’s infinite. His essence is spiritual, therefore invisible. This one being who is God is existing eternally in three persons, all three persons sharing in that same essence.
One of the three persons is, The Who, of Colossians 1:15, and Paul sets him apart from another of the three persons, the invisible God. So two divine persons in this verse, one of them is the image, the eikon of the other. So before the creation of matter, space and time, before the beginning of any created thing, if it’s in the category of created, Paul takes us back before that. He wants us to consider, who this, who is; specifically, who this is in relation to all of creation.
Now, we’ve all heard of the concept of a prototype. Prototypes, say, of a car, some new newfangled airplane, some jet, some bomber, some stealth thing, some fancy gadget, tech wizardry. We all understand what a prototype is. The prototype is really the first thing to roll off the assembly line, and then is subject to testing, scrutiny, proving such that they can fix whatever brakes and come up with the best thing before they start producing it.
This prototype, this first one, the first of the type, is the concrete actualization of the plans, or of the blueprint, or the pattern, which had its origin as an abstraction, in the mind of the designer. Try something like the 2006 Bugatti Tourbion. That’s a French word. I thought I’d pronounce it Frenchy, but the Bugatti Tourbillion is a hybrid hyper-car that retails at more than four million U.S. dollars.
And if that’s slightly out of your price range, there are several budget friendly options that are under a half million dollars, like the Aston Martin Vanquish, the Ferrari Spyder, the McLaren Artura, cool cars; all these supercars that you can really drive. They started in someone’s mind and they become visible, touchable, drivable in actual space, in real time.
All of them started with artistic concepts, penciled out sketches, which then led to more elaborate designs. They used computers for digital rendering, built smaller scale physical modeling, made that possible, allowed for engineering of outside inside components. So much happens from the time of the conception of an idea to the real thing. In fact, it takes like two, three, four years to get to a prototype, one you can actually build and then drive and test.
But once that prototype rolls out, that concept car can be put to the test, so you can work out the bugs and make refinements and prepare the thing for mass production, to sell cars to paying customers. Cars sold to customers are what we call ECTYPEs. Nobody calls them that. Nobody says, hey, look at the ECTYPE of the Honda that I have. But that’s what they are. They’re copies. They’re reproductions of that original, finely tuned, ready for production prototype.
The prototype, the first concrete model, is based on what’s called the archetype, the abstract, unrealized idea in the creator’s mind, the designer’s mind, the engineer’s mind that has the archetype in it. It’s put down on paper. It’s then realized in the prototype. So from archetype to prototype, the ECTYPE. Okay, so we get that that’s our process, that’s how things work here in reality that we live in.
That’s how we actualize, that which is potential. It’s how we bring what was once only an idea in somebody’s mind into a time and space reality that we can make use of. That provides an illustration, and not a perfect one, by any means, but it’s an illustration to give us a sense of the relationship between the father and the son. And I want to make it really clear, with God there is no potentiality, there is only actuality. God is, as it’s said, Actus Purus; he’s pure act.
The three persons who share equality in the divine essence, there is for them, there is no coming into being, they always are: God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. God is eternally perfect. He never changes, never improves. There’s no prototype to ECTYPE, with him, but between father and son, we could say that the father is related to the son by eternal generation and the son to the father by eternal filiation or sonship.
But if we put that into terms of our illustration, the father is the archetype, the son is the perfect ECTTYPE, with no need for a prototype at all. Paul has used language in his time, like we’re using now for archetype and ECTYPE. He uses here, he calls the son the eikon, eikon of God, the image of God and we tend to think, visible limited human creatures as we are, we tend to think that this invisible God here is speaking of being made visible by the son. And when we do that, we’re thinking as creatures. There’s no problem in that, we just are.
But this is speaking again, as I said, of a time prior to creation when nothing at all was visible, because the only being in existence is God, spiritual and invisible, in all three of his persons, Father, Son, and Spirit. So Paul is not talking here about the son who is the visible eikon of God, visible in contrast to invisible. The idea here is the relationship of the archetype, the invisible God, to the ECTTYPE, the son, the one who is, as Hebrews 1:3 puts it, “The exact representation of his nature.”
The exact representation, his nature, being, the word hupostasis, his substance. In fact, that term, eikon, translated here as image, can refer to two ideas. It can refer to the idea of manifestation, bringing something invisible to make it visible. It can also refer to the idea of representation. So in the incarnation the son manifests God, as John says in John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.”
You see 1 John 1, right in the opening there, we touched him, we beheld him, we saw him, we heard him. They were there. He’s physical. He’s making God’s invisible glory visible and manifest to them. That’s one use of eikon. Verse 18, “No man has seen God at any time,” John 1:18, “but the only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father.” He has explained him, he has exegeted him.
John never uses the word, eikon, image, in his writing, but he does refer to the manifestation aspect of eikon, saying that God who is incarnate in Jesus Christ has become manifest. The invisible God is made visible in and through, by Jesus Christ. Here in Colossians 1:15, Paul is using this eikon or image concept, but he’s not using it to refer to manifestation. He’s speaking prior to creation where nothing was yet manifest or visible, and he’s using this eikon or image term to refer to representation. That’s what’s in view here.
The son perfectly represents the father, the first person represented perfectly by the second person, thus representing the true essence of God. Now if your head is still stuck back at that Bugatti Tourbillion, wondering what color you might like for yours, we try to bring you up to speed. If you can grasp this concept, you’ll have an apt illustration of what Paul means when he says, “He is the image of the invisible God. The Son is the eternally begotten of the father,” and therefore he is the perfect ECTTYPE.
He’s the exact representation. Everything that the father is, he is. he’s the exact representation of the father’s eternal archetype, and as the perfect ECTTYPE, the father has chosen the son, designated the son as the first-born over-all creation. And this is remarkably what turns the son into the archetype himself, the pattern for the world that he creates.
In fact, it turns him into the pattern of mankind, who he made in his image, when he said in the beginning, “let us make man in our image, in the image of God, He made him.” You know who is the archetype for that? The son, the pre-Incarnate son. A second point and this is tied very closely to the first, number two: The son’s substantial rank. So we talked about the son’s essential nature. Now the son’s substantial rank. Again, Colossians 1:15, “He is the image of the invisible God and the first-born of all creation. And Paul keeps these two terms connected grammatically, keeping the son as the eikon image and the prototokos, the first-born. He keeps these tied tightly together.
The two terms share the same verb, of being. The word, is, and that links the two terms together, connects them to show us that the son’s supremacy in all creation is based on his essential nature and his personhood, and he is the prototokos of all creation and overall creation, precisely because he is the eikon of the invisible God. The two are linked together. The first term is about his essential nature and distinguishing his personhood, and the second term is about the preeminence of his rank, the absolute supremacy of his role.
We always have to draw a line between creator and creation. We always need to remember that the son is clearly on the creator side of that line, not on the creation side. That’s the error of Arius the Heretic and the Arian controversy back in the third century. He saw these terms first-born, not as preeminent one, but he saw these terms of first-born, as he’s born, he’s a created being and that led the Church astray for quite a number of years after, centuries.
Alot of people led astray by Arius in his clever theology, that really denied the truth of what’s being said here. The son is the prototokos of all that is not God, of all that is outside of God, of all that is come into being because of God, because he is God. That indicates this term first-born, it’s not being used here in its literal sense, that that is as the first one born of his or her mother. And it’s used a lot like that in Scripture.
Prototokos is used of a first-born child. Here though, and there’s some, some places in Scripture where it’s being used in a figurative sense referring to rank, preeminence, supremacy. That’s, what it, how it’s being used here. We give you a couple examples. Yahweh used the term in a figurative sense when he sent Moses to tell Pharaoh to let Israel go in Exodus 4, verse 22. That verse says, “Thus says Yahweh, Israel is my son, my first born.” He’s Speaking of the nation Israel.
Well, it’s even before it’s a nation, but it’s, he’s speaking of Israel in relational terms. He’s using a term of favor and calling Israel his first-born and on that basis he’s saying, Pharaoh, you let them go. You’re a nation too. And I’ve prospered you, I’ve blessed you, I’ve given to you, you’ve repaid me with your idolatry. No thanks.
Israel is my first born, preeminent above all the nations, supreme in my affections, and I’ve set Israel apart. Same thing in Jeremiah 31:9, “I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born. Even though between Ephraim and Manasseh, who was born-first, Manasseh, and between Jacob and Esau, Jacob’s name changed to Israel, but between Jacob and Israel who came out first, Esau, not Jacob.
Yahweh speaks of David in the same way. Psalm 89 in verse 27, “I shall make him my first born, the highest of the kings of the earth.” We know that David was the youngest of his brothers. Jacob too, whose name God changed to Israel, though he was Esau’s twin. Esau was the oldest, Jacob was youngest. But David is clearly the youngest of all his brothers, and he is called by God the first-born.
In both examples, this term, first-born designates Israel and David, not as first coming out of the womb, but as preeminent. Israel above all the nations, preeminent over all the nations. David above all the kings of Israel, preeminent over all the kings, and Israel being above all the nations, that makes David and his kingship, a head of all the nations too. So he is elevated above all kings of all nations.
Reading Psalm 89, when you read that whole Psalm, it’s a reflection on the Davidic covenant. In 2 Samuel 7, we know that God promised David a permanent place for Israel, a permanent throne with one of his own offspring to sit on the throne, saying in 2 Samuel 7:16, “Your house and your Kingdom shall endure before me forever, and your throne shall be established forever.” And that illustrates what God means when he calls a nation or a king his first-born. He’s not referring to birth order or first in existence of nations, but to preeminent status in the rank of highest supremacy.
Obviously, we know that David’s greater son, Jesus, he fulfills all God’s promises to David and to Israel, but that is not what Paul has in mind here in Colossians 1:15, not primarily. Paul’s obviously talking about Christ, but he’s not talking about his fulfillment of promises to Israel here or to the Davidic covenant, he’s being far more comprehensive.
He takes us back again, as I said, to the preexistent state of Jesus, well before all these biblical predictions about Jesus or about the Christ of God. He takes us all the way back before the Scripture was written, even before creation itself, to see how it was, that from eternity the son has been designated by the father as the first-born, as the prototokos over all creation.
And so it makes sense all these promises to Israel and to David are being fulfilled and culminating and pointing to Jesus Christ, the first-born from all eternity. From all eternity, when God decreed creation, it’s by a free choice of his perfect will, the father designated the son to be the preeminent, to be the absolute sovereign, to be the supreme one, to be the highest, the Alpha and the Omega overall creation.
It’s Psalm 2, where David writes of an intertrinitarian conversation between the father and the son. He’s portraying it as if he’s recorded the son speaking, and here in verses 7 and 8 of Psalm 2, he pushes play and lets us listen in, “I will surely tell of the decree of Yahweh.” We hear the second person of the Trinity say, “I will surely,” declare or, “tell of the decree of Yahweh.” “He said to me, ‘You are my Son, today I have begotten you, ask of me, and I will surely give the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth, as your possession.’”
It’s going back, all the way back, to a pretemporal eternal decree, one that is designating the son, the father’s only begotten, the first-born of all creation, as the prototokos, the absolute pinnacle, supreme of all that is created. And that means, as Psalm 2 makes plain, he’s been designated for this from before time began. He’s been chosen for this before creation, to be preeminent in rank, supreme, uncontested, absolute sovereign over all creation.
So why, beloved, would any Christian shift his gaze from this Christ? Why would any of us become distracted by lesser glories? Why would any of us become unsettled if we’re found in him? He gets everything. The son’s nature is essential, which leads us to the son’s substantial rank and then finally we come in verse 16 to our third point: the son’s essential role.
Number three: The son’s essential role, verse 16 begins with a subordinate conjunction, for, it’s the word, hoti, in Greek, but it means that verse 16 is explaining what Paul has just said at the end of verse 15, namely the son is the first born of all creation. He possesses the most substantial highest rank because of his essential role in creation and that on three accounts.
So we’re going to have, kind of, three sub points in this third point, but let’s read the verse. It says, “for in Him all things were created both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through Him and for Him.”
So three reasons we have here for the son’s essential role. Three reasons. First, the son is the sphere of creation. He is the sphere of creation. This is massively important and, and really a crucial fact of reality and one that we’re so quickly forgetful of, especially in our moments of unease, anxiety, fear, foreboding, apprehension about the future and it’s to the detriment of our happiness that we forget that we are created in him.
All creation, in fact, is created in him, as the sphere of all creation. The LSB starts in verse 16, “For in him,” but there are many translations that say, “for by Him all things are created.” So that would indicate, that by him, would indicate the son’s agency in creating, that he’s the one doing it. The son is the divine agent of creation.
But Paul, he comes to that fact at the end of the verse, not here at the beginning. At the end of verse 16, notice it says, “all things have been created through him.” It’s a preposition, dia, and the genitive case, which shows agency. So that’s where he’s talking about him doing it. But the beginning of verse 16, he says, in him, it’s the preposition, en, and the dative case. So it’s all things were created in the son, not here by the son, that comes later. Here it’s in the son. He is the sphere of the existence of all creation. Get your head around that for a moment. How does that compute?
The son is the sphere of creation. He is the realm of all existence. In him all things are created. The verb here is an aorist passive, which kind of hides the agency of creation for a moment to emphasize the first part, that “all things are created in him,” in him, is the idea that Paul wants us to get first.
He said something similar to the philosophers on Mars Hill at the Areopagus in Athens. He said in Acts 17:28, Speaking of God, Paul said, “In him we live and move and exist.” That’s something that the Athenian philosophers were familiar with. Here he’s describing the sphere of all life, movement, existence, that the son, the Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, the sphere in which all creation is.
John put it this way, saying something similar in John 1:4 “in him was life itself, and the life was the light of men.” So the son is the very realm of all life, of all movement, of all existence, all creation exists in him. I mean, it’s so fascinating when you read the Gospels and think about him in a boat on the Sea of Galilee, fast asleep on the waves. Things are tossing and turning.
These are seasoned fishermen, they know what it’s like to be in a storm. They know how to get themselves through a storm. Keep the boat intact. You can keep some of the fish in the hole. And they’re terrified of this storm. He’s fast asleep. Why is he fast asleep? He’s like, this storm is in me, I’m good. The storm obeys me. I don’t obey the storm. I’m sleeping.
When you think about any of his interactions with demons or powers or Pontius Pilate or the Sanhedrin, he doesn’t tremble in fear or cower at any. Not malevolent spirits, not powerful men, not devious people, Pharisees, Sadducees, always trying to trip them up. We go back and scroll through the Gospels and everything we learn, like saying our study of the Gospel of Luke, it’s just amazing to see. We come here and we say, well, no wonder, no wonder. Can we rest in him? That’s our desire, that’s our goal.
The son is the very realm of all life, of all movement, of all existence, all creation exists in him. Being specific, the things Paul speaks of are things in the heavens and on earth and visible and invisible. This expression, literary expression, is called merism. It’s a literary device that Paul is using to portray comprehensiveness.
So he’s just giving us the two contrasting polarities, the opposites, the extremities of the created order to speak of creation as this comprehensive whole. So by heaven and earth he means up there and down here, everything in between. By visible and invisible he means physical and metaphysical, material and immaterial, physical and spiritual.
Then he gets a little more specific still, and here’s where we see him targeting the false teachers, who point to angelic majesties as if there’s some great thing. The angelic majesty, that’s kind of referring to the Colossian heresy from the Jewish point of view. From another point of view would be emanations or demiurges referring it from a proto-gnostic point of view.
Whatever the case, he identifies specifically thrones, Thronos. Thronos can refer to a literal throne. Thronoi is the term. Here it’s plural referring to literal thrones, but here it’s used as a figure of speech to personify the one who ascends on some high throne. So it’s the one enthroned, he’s speaking of. Dominions derived from the term for Lord, kurios. It can refer to the lordship of a realm or a place of dominion, but here it’s personifying the person who has that dominion.
So again, he’s referring both terms and the other terms too. He’s referring to, really, angelic realities or spiritual realities outside of our realm, unseen by us, but still exerting power and force and having an effect. Rulers, comes from the term for beginning, arche, and arche is a term that portrays a leader, as well, but this is one who has the authority and the power to affect something, to initiate something, to begin something.
So we think of the power to effect legislation, or the power to start and wage and carry on a war, or the authority and the power to assert a will, prosecute an opponent. Those are all the ideas wrapped up in arche, rulers. Finally, authorities, exousia, indicates one with the ability to exercise the authority, the power to exert influence and control others, and again to effect and execute his own will.
So all these terms, they are represented, find their corresponding role in humanity. We see them in nations, governments, among peoples, in tribes, families, but because of the nature of the Colossian threat, which Paul is attacking in this letter, he’s probably specifically referring here to angelic transcendent thrones, dominions, and the like. That’s probably what he’s targeting here.
These spiritual powers and authorities are to them, the highest, the most powerful, the most terrifying, as they are up there and out there, unseen realms beyond their capacity to see and know. And yet, Paul says, “whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities,” all those entities, all those beings, all ranked in their order of supremacy, they’re all creatures.
They’re made, they don’t have their existence of themselves, as God does, as the son does. They’re dependent. They had a beginning. They had a start. They’re derived. They don’t have life or subsistence in themselves. They don’t have energy or power in themselves. They don’t have the ability to project or move.
They don’t have life in themselves. All alike are creatures. They have their life, their movement, their existence in him, and without him they would have no existence at all, but would disappear immediately. But with him and for those of us who are in him, what could touch us? What harm can befall us? Romans 8, “no one can snatch us out of His hand.”
So that’s the first point to see here is that the son is the sphere of all creation. It’s “in Him that all things are created and have their existence.” But second, the son is the reason for creation, that is to say, he’s the agent of creation, so he’s essential. Without him, no creation, end of verse 16, “All things have been created through him.” I mentioned earlier that’s the preposition, dia, and the genitive case, which shows agency.
And so the way to translate this is probably not with an English preposition, through, which shows means or instrumentality, as if the son is merely the channel through which all the creation has come. The better way to translate it is “all things have been created by him.” By him, that shows direct agency. Same thing in Hebrews 1:2, “God has spoken in these last days in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things.” And that’s the author’s way to refer to the son as the prototokos.
And then he writes this, “through whom also He made the world.” Again, the preposition, dia, with the genitive case showing agency; it’s by him, by whom he also made the world. So when God spoke in Genesis 1:3, saying “Let there be light,” the voice is the voice of the triune God, and it’s the word of God, and he’s affected the creation of light.
He speaks into existence, he says, “Let there be light, there was light.” On and on it goes, as God creates. It’s the son who’s the agent of creation. He’s bringing all things into their existence. He’s giving life. He’s enabling movement. All things were created both in the heavens and on the earth, up there, down here, all things visible and invisible, so material and physical, immaterial and spiritual, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created by him.
Now at the beginning of the verse it says, “All things were created” and here at the end of the verse it says, “all things have been created.” So that’s a change in the tense of the verb, ktizo, create. He goes from, were created, to the beginning, which is aorist tense passive voice to, have been created, at the end, also the passive voice with the tense of the verb changes to the perfect tense.
So the first use of ktizo, create, portrays the action as a whole. The second is portraying the action followed by the results of the action. That is to say, they were created, yes, but they remain created, they continue in their existence. As we find out in verse 17, they continue in their existence by his will, at his good pleasure, “For in him all things hold together.”
What the false teachers in Colossae failed to recognize, and the fears and anxieties that their influence tapped into and preyed upon in other people, for those who are found in him, for those who have been rescued from chaotic authority of darkness, and those living in ignorance of those facts; those who’ve been transferred into the kingdom of God’s beloved son; us, we are set free from fear and anxiety, to rest in our creator’s grip, in his grasp.
The son’s essential role, is as the sphere of creation’s existence. He’s the reason for creation’s existence as the divine agent of creation. And third, the son is the purpose of creation. That’s the final statement, there in verse 16, “All things have been created by him,” and then this, for him, “All things have been created for him.” They were created in the beginning for him, and they continue to have their existence for him.
So the expression is showing purpose. It indicates that the son is the reference point for all of creation. It points to the son as the goal of all creation. The purpose of everything in life right now is for the goal of glorifying him. God the father is pleased to put all things under the feet of the son. 1 Corinthians 15:25, 15:27, say that. Ephesians 1:22, says that. Hebrews 2:8, says that.
All those verses are providing some form of commentary on Psalm 8, verses 5 and 6, in which David is reflecting on God’s purpose for mankind. He writes this, and you’re familiar with this. He says, “You’ve made man a little lower than the angels. You’ve crowned Him with glory and majesty. You make him rule over the works of your hands. You put all things under his feet.” That sounds like a dominion mandate for mankind.
Really, what that’s pointing to is the dominion of Jesus Christ. It points to the purpose of all things being under his feet, him reigning all things, him fulfilling the role of man in his glory to glorify God. He succeeded, the first man Adam did not, the last man Adam, Jesus Christ, he certainly has.
And so whatever sense of futility and frustration that we feel as we live in this sin cursed world, as we ourselves are addled by weakness and at times darkened by ignorance. Sometimes we’re frustrated by secretive people with hidden agendas. Sometimes we’re hurt by sinners and their sins. Sometimes we’re troubled by false doctrine.
Sometimes we drift and are distracted by enticing deceptive promises that amount to many roads to nowhere. It’s been tried before. All the stuff in the mainstream and all the stuff the influencers are saying, listen, it’s just the current iteration of stuff that has been repeated since time in memoriam. It doesn’t work. So, beloved, whatever sense of futility or frustration you feel as we live in this world, in the end we realize that the son, he’s the telos of all things. He’s the purpose and the goal, and there is no sense in which he’ll fail.
In fact, he’s won the greatest victory on the cross when he died for the sins of sinners like me and you, when he overcame death, when he emerged from the grave, resurrected, glorified, when he ascended into heaven, and now he is there at God’s right hand. He is there in authority and victory and triumph.
If you’re in him, listen, he’s the sphere of your existence. He’s the reason you exist. He’s the purpose for which you exist, to glorify him. God decreed that from before creation itself, we have the privilege of being united to him by faith, being found in him by God’s grace. And so look down at verse 21. He says, “Although you were formerly alienated and enemies in mind and in evil deeds,” no more, “now He’s reconciled you in the body of his flesh through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach.”
Are there times when you muddy your feet in this world and you’re less than holy? Are there times when you’re blameworthy? Are there times when you, by your sin or folly, bring reproach upon yourself or your family or your church? Your God? Listen, “although you were formerly alienated and enemies in mind and evil deeds,” he’s reconciled you to him in his own body through death, to present you before him, perfect, holy as God is holy, blameless as he is blameless, and beyond any reproach, because you’re found in him who is untouchable
No longer subject of the futility of the curse, no longer having any fear of death, no longer enslaved to sin under its power, under its mastery and dominion, no longer distracted by all who promised significance by any other way. Christ alone is the living way and the absolute truth and the abundant life. No one comes to the father but by him.
Our Father, we come before you just in awe, really. Just we’ve scratched the surface of this majestic text, but we come in awe of our Savior. I think that’s your intent is to just give us a glimpse into his glory to show us how he is the prototokos, the first born; your designated supreme one over all creation, and we humbly and willingly and cheerfully bow at his feet. Pray that you would give us a grander greater vision of him. So we love you and thank you and honor you and give our lives wholly and completely to you. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.