Colossians 1:16, commentary and pictures

All things in heaven and on earth, seen and unseen, were made by Christ and made for him. Thrones, dominions, principalities and powers are every order of rule and authority, including all angelic and invisible ranks. He is the eternal Son, one with the Father in nature, character and purpose and equal in dignity and glory, and the Father made all things by and through him as His associate in carrying out the counsels of the divine will. By him all things hold together, and as Creator he made the Sabbath as the memorial of creation, proclaimed the law and remains Lord of the Sabbath and author of both moral and physical law. The hand that upholds the worlds is the hand that was nailed to the cross, so that in him is redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, for fallen humanity and the confirming of unfallen worlds.

Words and Scope

All things in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, were created by Christ and for Christ, with Christ as both agent and purpose of creation. He is head over creation, before all things, holding the universe together and sustaining it, and the hand that sustains the worlds is the hand nailed to the cross. This is part of the great plan of redemption and calls for earnest thanksgiving, being sanctified body, soul, and spirit, purified through the washing of the Word, watching unto prayer, grounded and settled in faith, exercising faith which works by love and purifies the soul, and not being moved away from the hope of the gospel preached to every creature under heaven. Because He first created human beings, His bearing through toil and suffering the divine punishment they justly deserved proves His love and calls for love in return, and having paid so great a price He gives the help and grace and power they need for victory, making it possible for fallen people to keep God's commandments.

The thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers name every rank of rule and authority, including all heavenly beings and every invisible and spiritual order. By Him identifies Christ as agent of creation and for Him identifies Him as its purpose, making Him its head, center, Lord, first and last, to whom all creation owes existence and purpose. He is center of creation and essential theme for contemplation and worship, first because all things were made by Him and He is before all things, last because all things were made for Him and He is judge of all. He founded His church and will bring it to completion, remaining the same yesterday, today, and forever, and all things belong to Him by original and mediatorial work as source of all value in every human being, with everything people have entrusted to them to carry out His plan.

The scope includes the earth and every living thing, created with the Father and through Him and for Him, with His authority over all created beings and powers following from His role as Creator. The Son carried out the Father's will and purposes and did not work apart from the Father. He made the sun and the moon and every star that beautifies the heavens, and He is the life and light of every living thing, a truth to be learned from observing created things. He made every blooming flower with delicate tints and sweet fragrance for enjoyment and happiness, and provided every article of food upon the table for sustenance, so that day by day comes the unfailing flow of goodness with His stamp and superscription upon it all, received through Him as the only-begotten Son. The blessings of creation, including rain and light, come through Him and testify to love, and He was nailed to the cross that all these bounties might flow to God's workmanship.

Humanity is included, made personally in His image by a personal, self-existing God through Christ, not as something intangible. The human form was made perfect in all its arrangements but without life, then God breathed into that form the breath of life so man became a living, breathing, intelligent being and a living soul. At creation all parts of the human organism were put in action and placed under law — heart, arteries, veins, tongue, hands, feet, senses, and perceptions of the mind — and man was endowed with intelligence and power. All thought and all talent were created by Christ Himself, who as originator of truth has power to recast important truths, releasing them from forms and customs that rob them of life and giving them back in original freshness and force and sacred elevated character, and to explain their true far-reaching principles. He borrows nothing from even the highest earthly intellect, and minds of the highest intelligence comprehend only a small part of the infinite whole He made.

Divine Identity of Christ

The verse reveals Christ as the image of the invisible God, the only begotten Son who is one with the eternal Father in nature, in character, and in purpose. He is equal with the Father in dignity and glory and honor, and is to be honored even as the Father is honored. Because the Father created all heavenly beings through Him, including every rank of thrones and dominions and principalities and powers, all heaven owed allegiance and homage to Christ equally with the Father. He alone could fully enter into all the counsels and purposes of God and share His joy in giving happiness to created beings, and He holds supremacy over angels and over all created orders. This belongs to the time before evil entered, when there was peace and joy throughout the universe in perfect harmony with the Creator's will.

He is before all things, before Abraham, and before the angels were created, and it pleased the Father that in Him all fullness should dwell. Together with the next verse, the verse shows both that He existed before all things and that by Him all things hold together and consist. He is the firstborn of every creature, the divine Creator beheld in His power, in whom is redemption through His blood even the forgiveness of sins. This reveals His Godhead and His righteousness and His love for the world, and His eternal pre-existence, divinity, sustaining power, and supreme place as the One by whom and for whom creation exists.

Though He Himself made the world, He lived in the world He had made unrecognized and unhonored. He was often homesick there, suffering loneliness of spirit in humiliation after taking human flesh. He could have lived in ease in a world of His own making, but He denied Himself ease and self-pleasing, endured toil and privation, and used His life to bless others and to give an example of obedience and bear the penalty of transgression.

Father and Son Creating

The Father made all things by and through the Son, and the Son carried out the Father's will and purposes and did not work apart from the Father. All heavenly beings were created through Christ, including every rank of heavenly authority named as thrones, dominions, principalities and powers. Everything in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, was created by the Son and for him. Christ shares the Father's nature, character and purpose as the Word, the only begotten of God.

As God's associate and co-worker, Christ alone could fully share the Father's purposes, joy and counsels. Only Christ, who shares the Father's throne and is encircled by the glory of the eternal, self-existent One, could fully enter into the Father's purposes in giving happiness to created beings. To him was committed the execution of the mighty counsels of God's will in creating all the hosts of heaven, and he was still to exercise divine power in the creation of the earth and its inhabitants. In all this work he did not seek power or exaltation for himself contrary to God's plan, but exalted the Father's glory and executed his purposes of beneficence and love.

Because all things in heaven were created by him, all heaven gave allegiance to Christ equally with the Father. The homage and allegiance of all created beings are due to him as well as to God, and he holds supremacy over angels and all created orders. This relation of Christ to all created beings as Creator was declared by the King of the universe before the assembled inhabitants of heaven to set forth the true position of his Son. This belongs to the time before the entrance of evil, when there was peace and joy throughout the universe and all was in perfect harmony with the Creator's will.

Because he created the angels by his power, he has authority over them, and their authority could be overturned by his power. His authority over all created beings and powers follows from his role as Creator, active with the Father in creating the earth and every living thing, with all created things existing through him and for him. Christ existed before the angels were created and held authority at God's right hand. His loving authority had brought no complaint from the angels, and they had been glad to carry out his commands.

Sustaining Lord of All

Colossians 1:16 teaches together with the next verse that Christ is before all things and that by Him all things hold together in ordered existence. All things in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, were created through Him and for Him. The universe is held together and sustained by Him, and the hand that sustains the worlds and upholds the universe is the hand that was nailed to the cross for humanity. He is beheld in His power with admiration as the One for whom creation exists, in whom it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell, revealing eternal pre-existence, divinity, sustaining power and supreme place, even while clothing His divinity with humanity. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature, in whom is redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, and as Creator He makes it possible for fallen people to keep God's commandments. Though He Himself made the world He lived in the world He had made unrecognized and unhonored, homesick in humiliation, having taken human flesh to give an example of obedience and to bear the penalty of transgression.

His infinite power sustains the worlds, and His mediatorial work extends throughout creation to save fallen humanity and to preserve the order of unseen worlds, confirming their inhabitants in purity and loyalty. Though angels honor and obey Him, He is tender toward children and deeply moved by the suffering of those He came to save. Created things are not greater than their Creator, for God's laws of nature cannot prevent His word from being fulfilled because the Creator has power over what He made, and the flood in Noah's day demonstrates that power.

All created worlds are His possessions, and the Judge is the eternal God whose judgment is without error. The worlds were created through Jesus Christ, and those worlds watched with intense interest when Christ was born and laid in a manger. All things belong to Him through His original and mediatorial work, for He is first and last and the source of all value in every human being, so everything people have is entrusted to them to carry out His mediatorial plan. The created world and everything in it belong to Him, so the Sabbath honors and exalts Him as Creator.

As over all the works of His creation, the same Christ who created all things guided the children of Israel in the pillar of fire, with His eyes seeing past, present, and future. Because He made all things He is to be recognized and honored by all who love God, and His commandments are to be reverenced and cherished and obeyed as the controlling power in the lives of His people. Denying His supreme place and setting aside His character and law destroys restraint and moral control, leaving men without love or fear of God, without sense of obligation to one another, without God and without hope in the world.

Sabbath Law and Nature

Because all things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, were created by and for Christ, He made the Sabbath and set it apart as the memorial of that creation. Jehovah performed the six days' work of creating the world and man through Jesus Christ, with man as the last grand work coming from His hand, and that work through Christ laid the foundation of the Sabbath when it was instituted in Eden to be sacredly observed as a day of rest and worship throughout all time. In six days He created the heavens and the earth and all things therein, and on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed, setting that day apart as His own holy day, giving men six days to labor and do all their work and reserving the seventh for rest and for worship of the Creator. As Creator and the One who holds all things together and is head of the church, Christ made the seventh day sacred for the worship of angels and people, and the Sabbath is a sign of His power to reconcile people to God, make them holy, and sanctify all who become part of the Israel of God through Him.

Honoring the Sabbath therefore honors and exalts Him as Creator, to whom the created world and everything in it belong. Observing it preserves among the nations a clear knowledge of the only true God above all gods when men look upon the heavens and the earth, honoring, worshiping, praising and exalting Him as Creator. It marks the line between him that serves God and him that serves Him not, revealing those who keep it holy as His peculiar people whose God sanctifies them. Creation by Christ shows the Sabbath is not merely a Jewish institution.

Because He is over all the works of His creation, the same Creator who made all things guided the children of Israel in the pillar of fire, with His eyes seeing past, present, and future. Because Christ is the Creator, He proclaimed the law at Sinai and is Lord of the Sabbath. Because He made all things He is to be recognized, honored, reverenced, cherished and obeyed by all who love God, and His commandments are to be the controlling power in the lives of His people. Denying His supreme place and setting aside His character and law destroys restraint and moral control, leaving men without love or fear of God, without sense of obligation to one another, without God and without hope in the world.

As Creator and author of human being and life, He is author of physical law just as He is author of moral law. Transgression of physical law is therefore transgression of God's law and sin against God, and careless and reckless habits and practices concerning physical life and health fail to reverence, respect, and recognize God and injure the body in violation of His law. The laws of nature He established are not arbitrary exactions, and every "Thou shalt not" in physical or moral law contains or implies a promise, bringing blessing when obeyed and danger and unhappiness when disobeyed. As Creator who is before all things and sustains them, including every throne, dominion, principality, and power created through Him and for Him, He makes it possible for fallen people through faith to keep God's commandments and to be reconciled, made holy, and sanctified.

At His word the features of nature came into being, so the works of nature are lessons written by His own hand. The earth and sea and sky hold lessons His own hand had written, forming a great library of animate and inanimate nature from which He Himself as a child of humanity gained knowledge day by day by studying them. The parables by which He taught in ministry show how open His spirit was to nature and how in youth He delighted to gather spiritual teaching from daily surroundings, with the significance of God's word and works unfolding gradually as He sought to understand the reason of things as any youth may. He is the life and light of every living thing, a truth students can learn from the school farm and the created things they observe, for the natural world reflects the glory of its Creator as the God of nature, and Christ used its features to teach people about God, call them to obey His voice, and impart true education grounded in simple religion.

Creator as Redeemer

The hand that sustains the worlds and upholds the universe in ordered existence is the hand that was nailed to the cross for humanity, for the Creator who made all things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, is before all things and holds them together. Though infinitely above the angels and equal with the Father in dignity, glory, and blessedness, He became flesh, humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death to save humanity. He who is the image of the invisible God, before all things and before Abraham, equal with God and to be honored even as the Father, made the world and then lived in it unrecognized and unhonored in loneliness of spirit, and was afterward highly exalted as Lord over heaven and earth. At His death inanimate nature groaned in sympathy with Him, the earth trembling while sun and heavens responded to His suffering.

Because He first created human beings, His giving His own life to carry their sins proves His love and calls for love in return. Having borne through a life of toil and suffering and a death of agony and shame the divine punishment they justly deserved, and having paid so great a price to redeem them, He will give the help and grace and power they need for victory. He endured all this for the sinner and died to lead sinners to see the sinfulness of sin and to come to Him that they might have life. His creatorship proves the original and supreme ownership of God against Satan's false claim to the sovereignty of the world. He came as Restorer and Lifegiver to dispute Satan's right to the souls and bodies of men and women, planting His cross between heaven and earth to wrestle with and overcome the powers of darkness, giving His life for the life of sinners so that the prince of this world is cast out.

His death made the blessings of creation flow to God's workmanship, so that rain and light and daily goodness come to humanity through Him and testify to God's love. He made the sun and the moon and every star that beautifies the heavens, every blooming flower with its delicate tints and sweet fragrance for enjoyment and happiness, and every article of food upon the table for sustenance. Through that one Gift comes day by day the unfailing flow of goodness, with the superscription and stamp of Christ upon it all, so that every blessing is received through Him as the only-begotten Son of God. In Him is redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. His work as mediator extends throughout creation: He saves fallen humanity and preserves the order of unseen worlds, confirming their inhabitants in purity and loyalty.

This is essential truth about His divinity and pre-existence and His life, character, and mediatorial work, in which are infinite wisdom, infinite love, infinite justice, and infinite mercy, to be presented in simplicity to bring people to the waters of life for their present and eternal good. It is a large and comprehensive and grand heavenly theme worthy of contemplation, adored and lifted up, that instructs and brings light with every word, revives and quickens to new life, and leads people to understand what Christ is to them and the responsibilities they accept in Him. He is the light of the world, the way to eternal life, the Anointed One given to make atonement for the sins of the world, and belief in that atonement and in being bought with the price of the blood of the only begotten Son is necessary lest one be bound up with the wicked one. All things belong to Him by original and mediatorial work, for He is first and last and the source of all value in every human being, so everything people have is entrusted to them to carry out His mediatorial plan.

Though His infinite power sustains the worlds and angels honor and obey Him, He is also tender toward children and deeply moved by the suffering of those He came to save. As the one by whom all things were made He is first and before all things, and as the one for whom all things were made He is last and judge of all. He founded His church and will bring it to completion, and He remains the same yesterday, today, and forever. His created worlds are all His possessions, and His judgment as the eternal God is without error.

Worship and Obedient Living

Colossians 1:16 is essential truth about Christ to be presented in simplicity to bring people to the waters of life for their present and eternal good. With redemption through His blood it shows His divinity and pre-existence and His life, character, and mediatorial work, in which are infinite wisdom, infinite love, infinite justice, and infinite mercy. It is a large and comprehensive and grand and heavenly theme, worthy of contemplation, that instructs and brings light with every word and leads people to understand what Christ is to them and the responsibilities they accept in Him. When Christ is lifted up, contemplated and adored, with His powerful and essential name on every tongue, this theme revives and quickens to new life, revealing His Godhead and His righteousness and His love for the world, and it is to be preached rather than left out through Satan's working to leave Christ out of preaching.

This truth is part of God's teaching about the great plan of redemption in Christ, by whom and for whom all things in heaven and in earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, were created, and it is cause for earnest thanksgiving and trust in God's unfailing promises. Those promises never fail when believers constantly watch unto prayer. Having learned this excellent way, believers are to be sanctified in body, soul, and spirit, purified and cleansed through the washing of the Word, grounded and settled in the faith. The faith that works by love and purifies the soul holds fast and is never moved away from the hope of the gospel preached to every creature under heaven.

Because He made all things and is over all the works of His creation, He is to be recognized and honored and reverenced and cherished and obeyed by all who love God, and His commandments are to be the controlling power in the lives of His people. The same Christ who created all things guided the children of Israel in the pillar of fire, with His eyes seeing past, present, and future. Denying His supreme place and setting aside His character and law destroys restraint and moral control, leaving men without love or fear of God, without sense of obligation to one another, without God and without hope in the world. Jesus is the Creator whom believers trust and hope to see, in the confidence that seeing Him brings safety and brightness beyond this life.

Though He created the world and could have lived in ease in a world of His own making, He denied Himself, endured toil and privation, and used His life to bless others rather than please Himself. His example as Creator therefore calls believers to deny self-pleasing and use life to bless others rather than live in ease.