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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Firstborn
– Colossians 1:15 The
doctrine that states Jesus was born or created based on Colossians 1:15
is neither orthodox Christianity or Biblical Christianity.
Colossians
1:15 says that "Jesus is the image of the invisible God".
An "image" is a replication of something else, but not
that something else. When
the text states that "Jesus is the image of the invisible
God", it means that Jesus is the human face of the invisible God,
separate from God, yet being God. Hebrews
1:1 to 5 confirms this fact – Jesus is "the exact representation
of His (God) being". Colossians
1:15 goes on to say that Jesus is the "firstborn over all
creation" (NIV – 1984 edition)
Note the words "over all".
Some texts say "of all".
Good hermeneutics suggest we don't build an argument based on
words like "of", "the", and "over".
Besides, in this case, there are more important words to build an
argument on. The
word "firstborn" is the controversial word here.
Some say that Jesus was born, thus He was created.
The obvious conclusion then is that Jesus is not eternal.
He is God's creation, not God Himself.
This flies in the face of the long standing Christian doctrine
known as "the Deity of Christ".
I believe it also flies in the face of Biblical teaching about
Jesus. The
word "firstborn" here does not suggest that Jesus was created
as Adam was created. It's
clear that Jesus was born into humanity.
John 1:1 to 3, along with Colossians 1:16 and 17 state that Jesus
existed in a non-human form before His conception and birth into
humanity. All things in
heaven and earth, whether visible or invisible were created by Jesus and
for Jesus. All
this being understood, if we want to understand what the apostle Paul
meant by the word "firstborn", and in Greek, the word means
just that, "first born", we need to look at how the word is
used in verse 18 of Colossians 1. Paul
says that Jesus "is the firstborn from the dead".
Jesus
was raised from the dead, but He wasn't the only one who has been raised
from the dead. He is
however, the first to be born into a new bodily existence.
He is the first one to be bodily transformed into a new style
bodily creation. The
simple meaning to the word "firstborn' in Colossians 1:15 then is
the fact that Jesus is the first one who has been transformed into what
Christians have termed "a glorified body".
Colossians 1:15 has nothing to do with Jesus being born or
created in eternity past. This
is simply a "doctrine of demons" with the intent to destroy
the very foundation of who Jesus is. You can read 1 Corinthians 15 for further understanding on this issue.
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