| Understanding the Christ, Part 3: The Revelation of Christ as God in Colossians 1:15-20 (continued) |
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| Written by David Lawrence |
| Monday, September 11 2006 00:00 |
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Paul wrote in Col. 1:16: “For by him all things were created…by him and for him.” Thus He is not only the agent of creation; He is the object of creation, for it was created for Him. It is the Father’s good purpose to receive glory for Himself, and also that His Son be glorified by redemption. In a sense, the Father bestows honor on the Son by giving him redeemed brothers and sisters. “here am I, and the children God has given me,” (Heb. 2:13b) There are other New Testament passages that teach that Christ is the agent of creation. See John 1:3 (“Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made”), 1 Cor. 8:6 (“Jesus Christ through whom all things came…”), and Heb. 1:2 (“his Son….through whom he made the universe”) all teach the same truth along with Col. 1:16. He then tells us that Christ is before all things (verse 17). The question is here, does Paul mean before in the sense of time, that is, that he existed before the universe? Certainly this is true, but is not the main idea of Paul’s remark. The Greek word here, pro, suggests in front of. The idea is again his preeminence, but not in the sense earlier as of rank among all authorities, but here in the sense that he completely overshadows everything as not only preeminent but predominant. Paul then makes the amazing assertion that in him all things hold together. Some versions translate the passage as in him all things consist. The idea is that Christ sustains all things. The universe exists from day to day because of Christ. As it is true that in God we live and move and have our being, Paul says that truly the Son occupies this position, perhaps, again as agent. He is agent of creation and agent of the ongoing sustenance of that creation. The Greek word sunesteken literally tells us that they stand with (by means of) Christ. The writer of Hebrews makes a similar assertion in Heb. 1:3 when he says that “the Son is the radiance of his glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. In his relation to his body, the church, he is the unquestioned head of all things, Col. 1:18. He is the beginning and the firstborn from the dead. Christ was not the first person ever raised from the dead. Paul means to say that he stands at first rank among those raised, for his resurrection confirms his atonement and assures our own eternal life. As beginning from the dead, again the word is prototokos which suggests that Christ stands at the front rank, the leader, of those who have died and are raised. |
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