Christ Supreme Over Creation and Paul Writing to Colossaeby emmanuel_higgins
1:15Colossians 1:15
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Christ is the visible likeness and perfect representation of the unseen God, making known as much of God as human beings could bear to see. Firstborn does not mean He was created, but that He is first over everything made, holding priority and preeminence over all creation. He existed before all things, and everything in heaven and earth was made by Him, through Him and for Him, and all things hold together in Him. To see Him is to see the Father, for in His words, works, life and teaching are revealed God's glory, nature and character as unselfish love and continual ministry for others. Through His blood is redemption and forgiveness, reconciling alienated sinners to present them holy, and by beholding Him believers are changed into the divine image from glory to glory.
Context and Wording
The chapter sets forth the privileges and responsibilities of the Christian life, teaching that believers may constantly grow in spirituality through Christ the Lord by yielding the will to God to be led and taught, with no limit fixed to advancement. The verse belongs with verses 14-17 as a strong and assured answer to who Christ is. “Firstborn” does not make Him a created being, for the next verses show that all things were created by Him and for Him, that He existed before all things, and that all things hold together through Him, presenting Him as divine and preeminent over creation.
“Firstborn” means first over everything that was made, priority over all creation, and preeminence in all things. He is the head who makes known the God who cannot be seen, the visible manifestation of God. Everything in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, including thrones, dominions, principalities and powers, was made by Him and for Him, He is before all things, and all things hold together in Him. His title as firstborn from the dead also shows His preeminence, and in Him all fullness dwells, through whose cross God makes peace and reconciles all things to Himself.
Revealing the Invisible God
Christ is the likeness, visible manifestation, express image, and perfect and complete representation of the unseen God, with God's image manifest in Him. He was with the Father from the beginning, one with the Father from eternity, holding a divine position in heaven before coming to earth as a man. Seeing Him is seeing the Father, and knowing Him is the way to know God savingly in the measure needed for salvation and for the recovery of lost humanity.
In Him are revealed God's glory, greatness, majesty, power, wisdom, nature, attributes, personality, and character, with the Father's power and glory shown in His words and works which bear the divine signature, done in dependence on the Father who dwells in Him and does the works. His nobility, mercy, tender pity, love, goodness, and compassion embody divine perfection. His life and teaching show God's nature is unselfish love and continual ministry and service for others rather than living for self, with self-sacrificing love as the law of life in heaven and earth, disproving Satan's claim that God is selfish.
As speech expresses thought, He makes the Father known, embodying God's law as a transcript of His character. God sent His Son to teach what He desires people to know by revealing, so far as human sight can bear, as much of God as human beings could endure, for without the veil of humanity people would have been consumed. This revelation in Christ is clearer than nature, for although the heavens above, the earth, the broad waters of the ocean, the stars, and the cataract show God's handiwork and testify to His power, wisdom, and love, God's personality is not learned from them. The verse shows God is personal and Christ represents and reveals Him, against teachings that obscure or diminish God's personality.
No verbal description could reveal God, so Christ alone could represent Him because He had been in the Father's presence from the beginning. He clothed His divinity with humanity and employed human faculties, for only by adopting them could He be comprehended by humanity and only humanity could reach humanity, living out God's character and life in human flesh through purity, perfect trust and submission to the will of God, and humiliation such as even the highest seraph would have shrunk from, blessing the world and showing power to unite humanity to divinity. God was manifested in the flesh in Christ, God with us and the embodiment of the glory of the Godhead, who though invested with divinity and infinitely higher than the angels and equal with the Father in dignity, glory, and blessedness, took human nature, became like men and like His human brothers and sisters, took the form of a servant and humbled Himself in obedience even to death on the cross, sharing human needs, temptation, and trial yet remaining the blameless Son of God without sin. Though people saw God's purity and benevolence in Him, their depravity and darkness kept them from recognizing Him as God's Son. Beholding Him makes faith and affection possible, for in Him people see the image of God and the attributes of the Infinite's character, and without Him the soul's hunger for what is higher and purer than earthly things remains unsatisfied.
Eternal Creator Over Creation
Christ is divine and pre-existent, existing before every created thing and before all things. He is the head who makes known the God who cannot be seen and stands first over everything that was made. Firstborn does not make Him a created being, for the next verses show His divine power and preeminence over creation. His title as firstborn from the dead also shows His preeminence, and in Him all fullness dwells.
Everything in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, was made by Him, through Him, and for Him. This includes thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers. Through His blood is redemption, even the forgiveness of sins, and the verse belongs to the central theme of His divine identity and saving work, to be held before people for contemplation and adoration.
He is before all things and all things hold together and consist in Him. All things were created by Him and for Him, and they hold together through Him. As head and first over creation He has supremacy and preeminence over all things. As the firstborn over creation He is before all things and has supremacy over them, the divine Christ who humbled Himself, gave Himself for humanity, and is worthy of worship.
The Christ who made the world afterward lived in that same world He had made unrecognized and unhonored. He suffered loneliness of spirit while here and often felt homesick. Colossians 1:14-17 gives a strong and assured answer to who Christ is, declaring both His creatorship and His unrecognized dwelling in His own creation.
Redeemer Defeats Satan's Claim
Through His blood comes redemption, even the forgiveness of sins. In Him humanity finds redemption through His blood and forgiveness of sins, for He is the image of the invisible God and firstborn of every creature who created all things and holds them together.
It pleased the Father that in Him all fullness should dwell, and having made peace through the blood of His cross He reconciles all things in earth and in heaven. Those alienated and enemies by wicked works He reconciles in the body of His flesh through death, to present them holy and unblameable and unreproveable if they continue grounded and settled in the faith and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel preached to every creature. His title as firstborn from the dead also shows His preeminence, for He existed before all things and all things hold together in Him.
As Restorer and Lifegiver He came to expose the falsity of Satan's claim to sovereignty of the world and to reassert God's original supreme ownership. He disputes Satan's right to the souls and bodies of men and women, plants His cross midway between heaven and earth to wrestle with and overcome the powers of darkness, and gives His life for the life of sinners so that Satan the prince of the world is cast out.
As Lifegiver He alone could bear the message of deliverance to a degraded race under the control and deception of an apostate foe who seeks to kill soul and body. He came with a full and complete ransom to bring life and immortality within reach of the fallen race. He assumed human nature to reveal God's character and to stamp His image on all who receive Him, so that through His infinite sacrifice God might receive the homage of the restored race.
God was manifested in the flesh in Christ, the divine Christ who humbled Himself and gave Himself for humanity. He took the form of a servant, obedient even to death on the cross, followed by exaltation, through whom and for whom all things were created and by whom all things hold together. As firstborn over creation He is before all things and has supremacy over them, and is worthy of worship.
The verse belongs to the central theme of Christ's divine identity and saving work, to be held before people for contemplation and adoration. In His divine nature and creative power and redeeming love He is the grand and heavenly theme of Christ's righteousness and love for the world that revives and quickens into new life. He displays infinite wisdom, infinite love, infinite justice, and infinite mercy among the essential truths about His life, character, and mediatorial work that most concern present and eternal good.
Christian Growth and Witness
Colossians 1:15 presents Christ as the likeness of the unseen God, and by beholding Him believers are changed into the divine image from glory to glory and from character to character. Character never remains the same, and Christ stamps His image on all who receive Him, bringing life and immortality within reach of the fallen race so that God may receive the homage of a restored race. There must therefore be growth in grace and in the knowledge of the truth, as the Spirit works continually in and by and through believers, giving a deeper and more solid experience as they follow on to know the Lord.
Those taught this excellent way of redemption are to watch unto prayer to receive God's unfailing promises. They are to be sanctified body, soul, and spirit and purified and cleansed through the washing of the Word. They are to exercise faith which works by love and purifies the soul, and to remain grounded and settled in the faith and not moved away from the hope of the gospel. Christ kept God's law in His human nature, showing His divine power by making it possible for fallen humanity joined to Him by faith to keep God's commandments through Him.
Christ's life needs to be understood, for He came as the great Teacher who will educate all who are willing to be educated. The verse belongs among essential truths about His life, character, and mediatorial work that most concern present and eternal good, displaying infinite wisdom, infinite love, infinite justice, and infinite mercy. It is to be studied deeply rather than cheaply or casually and presented in simplicity to bring people to the waters of life, meeting them where they are with plain, serious, solemn instruction that instructs and brings light with every word. Christ must be lifted up, contemplated, and adored, formed within the human mind, with His powerful and essential name on every tongue. Leaving Him out makes preaching dry and Christless and lets Satan have his way by keeping Christ from being the theme, whereas holding Him before people as their divine identity, creative power, and redeeming love revives and quickens into new life.
Christ is the visible likeness and perfect representation of the unseen God, making known as much of God as human beings could bear to see.
Firstborn does not mean He was created, but that He is first over everything made, holding priority and preeminence over all creation.
He existed before all things, and everything in heaven and earth was made by Him, through Him and for Him, and all things hold together in Him.
To see Him is to see the Father, for in His words, works, life and teaching are revealed God's glory, nature and character as unselfish love and continual ministry for others.
Through His blood is redemption and forgiveness, reconciling alienated sinners to present them holy, and by beholding Him believers are changed into the divine image from glory to glory.
Context and Wording
The chapter sets forth the privileges and responsibilities of the Christian life, teaching that believers may constantly grow in spirituality through Christ the Lord by yielding the will to God to be led and taught, with no limit fixed to advancement. The verse belongs with verses 14-17 as a strong and assured answer to who Christ is. “Firstborn” does not make Him a created being, for the next verses show that all things were created by Him and for Him, that He existed before all things, and that all things hold together through Him, presenting Him as divine and preeminent over creation.
“Firstborn” means first over everything that was made, priority over all creation, and preeminence in all things. He is the head who makes known the God who cannot be seen, the visible manifestation of God. Everything in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, including thrones, dominions, principalities and powers, was made by Him and for Him, He is before all things, and all things hold together in Him. His title as firstborn from the dead also shows His preeminence, and in Him all fullness dwells, through whose cross God makes peace and reconciles all things to Himself.
Revealing the Invisible God
Christ is the likeness, visible manifestation, express image, and perfect and complete representation of the unseen God, with God's image manifest in Him. He was with the Father from the beginning, one with the Father from eternity, holding a divine position in heaven before coming to earth as a man. Seeing Him is seeing the Father, and knowing Him is the way to know God savingly in the measure needed for salvation and for the recovery of lost humanity.
In Him are revealed God's glory, greatness, majesty, power, wisdom, nature, attributes, personality, and character, with the Father's power and glory shown in His words and works which bear the divine signature, done in dependence on the Father who dwells in Him and does the works. His nobility, mercy, tender pity, love, goodness, and compassion embody divine perfection. His life and teaching show God's nature is unselfish love and continual ministry and service for others rather than living for self, with self-sacrificing love as the law of life in heaven and earth, disproving Satan's claim that God is selfish.
As speech expresses thought, He makes the Father known, embodying God's law as a transcript of His character. God sent His Son to teach what He desires people to know by revealing, so far as human sight can bear, as much of God as human beings could endure, for without the veil of humanity people would have been consumed. This revelation in Christ is clearer than nature, for although the heavens above, the earth, the broad waters of the ocean, the stars, and the cataract show God's handiwork and testify to His power, wisdom, and love, God's personality is not learned from them. The verse shows God is personal and Christ represents and reveals Him, against teachings that obscure or diminish God's personality.
No verbal description could reveal God, so Christ alone could represent Him because He had been in the Father's presence from the beginning. He clothed His divinity with humanity and employed human faculties, for only by adopting them could He be comprehended by humanity and only humanity could reach humanity, living out God's character and life in human flesh through purity, perfect trust and submission to the will of God, and humiliation such as even the highest seraph would have shrunk from, blessing the world and showing power to unite humanity to divinity. God was manifested in the flesh in Christ, God with us and the embodiment of the glory of the Godhead, who though invested with divinity and infinitely higher than the angels and equal with the Father in dignity, glory, and blessedness, took human nature, became like men and like His human brothers and sisters, took the form of a servant and humbled Himself in obedience even to death on the cross, sharing human needs, temptation, and trial yet remaining the blameless Son of God without sin. Though people saw God's purity and benevolence in Him, their depravity and darkness kept them from recognizing Him as God's Son. Beholding Him makes faith and affection possible, for in Him people see the image of God and the attributes of the Infinite's character, and without Him the soul's hunger for what is higher and purer than earthly things remains unsatisfied.
Eternal Creator Over Creation
Christ is divine and pre-existent, existing before every created thing and before all things. He is the head who makes known the God who cannot be seen and stands first over everything that was made. Firstborn does not make Him a created being, for the next verses show His divine power and preeminence over creation. His title as firstborn from the dead also shows His preeminence, and in Him all fullness dwells.
Everything in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, was made by Him, through Him, and for Him. This includes thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers. Through His blood is redemption, even the forgiveness of sins, and the verse belongs to the central theme of His divine identity and saving work, to be held before people for contemplation and adoration.
He is before all things and all things hold together and consist in Him. All things were created by Him and for Him, and they hold together through Him. As head and first over creation He has supremacy and preeminence over all things. As the firstborn over creation He is before all things and has supremacy over them, the divine Christ who humbled Himself, gave Himself for humanity, and is worthy of worship.
The Christ who made the world afterward lived in that same world He had made unrecognized and unhonored. He suffered loneliness of spirit while here and often felt homesick. Colossians 1:14-17 gives a strong and assured answer to who Christ is, declaring both His creatorship and His unrecognized dwelling in His own creation.
Redeemer Defeats Satan's Claim
Through His blood comes redemption, even the forgiveness of sins. In Him humanity finds redemption through His blood and forgiveness of sins, for He is the image of the invisible God and firstborn of every creature who created all things and holds them together.
It pleased the Father that in Him all fullness should dwell, and having made peace through the blood of His cross He reconciles all things in earth and in heaven. Those alienated and enemies by wicked works He reconciles in the body of His flesh through death, to present them holy and unblameable and unreproveable if they continue grounded and settled in the faith and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel preached to every creature. His title as firstborn from the dead also shows His preeminence, for He existed before all things and all things hold together in Him.
As Restorer and Lifegiver He came to expose the falsity of Satan's claim to sovereignty of the world and to reassert God's original supreme ownership. He disputes Satan's right to the souls and bodies of men and women, plants His cross midway between heaven and earth to wrestle with and overcome the powers of darkness, and gives His life for the life of sinners so that Satan the prince of the world is cast out.
As Lifegiver He alone could bear the message of deliverance to a degraded race under the control and deception of an apostate foe who seeks to kill soul and body. He came with a full and complete ransom to bring life and immortality within reach of the fallen race. He assumed human nature to reveal God's character and to stamp His image on all who receive Him, so that through His infinite sacrifice God might receive the homage of the restored race.
God was manifested in the flesh in Christ, the divine Christ who humbled Himself and gave Himself for humanity. He took the form of a servant, obedient even to death on the cross, followed by exaltation, through whom and for whom all things were created and by whom all things hold together. As firstborn over creation He is before all things and has supremacy over them, and is worthy of worship.
The verse belongs to the central theme of Christ's divine identity and saving work, to be held before people for contemplation and adoration. In His divine nature and creative power and redeeming love He is the grand and heavenly theme of Christ's righteousness and love for the world that revives and quickens into new life. He displays infinite wisdom, infinite love, infinite justice, and infinite mercy among the essential truths about His life, character, and mediatorial work that most concern present and eternal good.
Christian Growth and Witness
Colossians 1:15 presents Christ as the likeness of the unseen God, and by beholding Him believers are changed into the divine image from glory to glory and from character to character. Character never remains the same, and Christ stamps His image on all who receive Him, bringing life and immortality within reach of the fallen race so that God may receive the homage of a restored race. There must therefore be growth in grace and in the knowledge of the truth, as the Spirit works continually in and by and through believers, giving a deeper and more solid experience as they follow on to know the Lord.
Those taught this excellent way of redemption are to watch unto prayer to receive God's unfailing promises. They are to be sanctified body, soul, and spirit and purified and cleansed through the washing of the Word. They are to exercise faith which works by love and purifies the soul, and to remain grounded and settled in the faith and not moved away from the hope of the gospel. Christ kept God's law in His human nature, showing His divine power by making it possible for fallen humanity joined to Him by faith to keep God's commandments through Him.
Christ's life needs to be understood, for He came as the great Teacher who will educate all who are willing to be educated. The verse belongs among essential truths about His life, character, and mediatorial work that most concern present and eternal good, displaying infinite wisdom, infinite love, infinite justice, and infinite mercy. It is to be studied deeply rather than cheaply or casually and presented in simplicity to bring people to the waters of life, meeting them where they are with plain, serious, solemn instruction that instructs and brings light with every word. Christ must be lifted up, contemplated, and adored, formed within the human mind, with His powerful and essential name on every tongue. Leaving Him out makes preaching dry and Christless and lets Satan have his way by keeping Christ from being the theme, whereas holding Him before people as their divine identity, creative power, and redeeming love revives and quickens into new life.