| Understanding the Christ, Part 2: The Revelation of Christ as God in Colossians 1:15-20 |
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| Written by David Lawrence |
| Monday, September 04 2006 00:00 |
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Christ is fully man, and as man can identify with our sins, temptations, trials, and suffering. As man he lived a life of perfect obedience to the law of God to merit such righteousness as could be imputed to unrighteous sinners and to qualify himself to endure the wrath of God for our sins. But he is more: He is God. When Christ came to this earth as fully man, He remained fully God, thus as Paul wrote: “Christ is the image of the invisible God.” It is interesting that Paul inserts these comments about Christ after having said in Col. 1:14 exactly what he said about Him in Eph. 1:7, that in Him we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. In Ephesians he continues to tell us about God’s gathering together all things in Christ, but in Colossians he reveals much more about Christ Himself. Genesis tells us that God created man in His image. In the fall that image was damaged but not destroyed, and in Christ that image is restored more and more until heaven when it shall be fully and finally restored in glory. (See 2 Cor. 3:18, Rom. 8:30, Rom. 12:1-2) But Christ exists in the perfect image of God: untarnished, unblemished, and absolutely perfect. It is an image that continued in perfection even in his incarnation. The word for image here is the word icon. As an icon is a representation of a certain reality, Christ came to be an accurate representation of God. Second, Paul says that he is the firstborn over all creation. The concept of firstborn is that of first in rank. It reminds us of the preeminent position of the firstborn in a family. It does not at all suggest, as Arius claimed, that there was a time when the Son was not; rather, it denotes primacy. Christ is the head of all creation. The word prototokos carries this idea of preeminence rather than suggesting birth as such. Third, Paul tells us that Christ was actually the agent of creation, for “by him all things were created,” and lest we have any misunderstanding about the scope of Christ’s creative acts, Paul enumerates everything in heaven and on earth, all things both visible and invisible, including all thrones, powers, rulers, or authorities. He reiterates that “all things were created by him and for him.” |
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