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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Chapter 1:15 -23 Previous Section - Chapter 1:3 - 14 Next Section - Chapter 1:24 - 29 The
Supremacy Of Christ
(ch. 1:15-23) The content of these particular verses gets to the reason why Paul wrote this letter in the first place. The Gnostics, those to whom Paul was refuting, believed in the worship of angels and the reducing of the essence of Jesus Christ to angelic status. Verse
15 reads, "He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God." This
is simple to understand. God is
invisible. He can’t be seen by humanity. So
in His love and willingness to communicate with man, God became a man.
That man is Jesus. Jesus was
the one and only visible expression of who God is.
The writer of the book of Hebrews says something similar in Hebrews 1:3.
He says that Jesus is the "exact representation of His (God’s)
being." In every detail of who
God is, Jesus is a mirror image. The
Greek word "eikon" is translated into English as "image" in
verse 15. This Greek word involves
two concepts; representation and manifestation.
Jesus is the exact representation of who God is and He manifests the
nature of God exactly as God's nature is. The
verb "is" in verse 13 is a present active indicative verb in Greek.
This means that right now, not only when He was on earth, Jesus is the
image of God.
In John 4:24 Jesus told us that God is a spirit. Here in verse 15 Paul says that God is invisible. This begs the question; "Can man or will man ever see God?" Jesus, in John 6:46 tells us that no man has seen God except the Son. John, in 1 John 4:12 says that no man has seen God at any time. I believe, therefore, at least in man's humanity, in his human likeness, has ever seen God. Some might suggest that Moses saw God but that's not so. If you study the text, He saw the glory of God. Exodus 33:20 tells us that no man can see God and live. I think these Scriptures make it clear. We cannot see God, but, will we be able to see God in the next life? Revelation 22:3 speaks of the "throne of God and the Lamb." Then, the next verse tells us that "we will see His face." Does this mean we will see the face of God? Note that there is one throne but two sitting on the throne, God and the Lamb. Note also the singular verb "His". I know that this gets into the discussion of the Trinity, which I will not get into here, but, it seems to me that at this point in eternity, somehow, and probably because we will be like Jesus at this point with a glorified body (1 John 3:2), we will not only see Jesus but see God, maybe like Adam and Eve saw God prior to the fall, assuming they actually saw God and that's an assumption becaue the text does not say they saw God.
The
last half of verse 15 is a little tricky and has been misinterpreted by many
over the years. It even could be
seen as an argument on behalf of the Gnostics. Paul says that Jesus is the
firstborn over all creation. Does
this mean that Jesus had a birth? He
did have a human birth, but He existed prior to His human birth.
John 1:1 says that He is both with God and is God, thus, He existed prior
to His birth into humanity. The word
"creation" confuses some too, like the Jehovah Witnesses.
They believe that Jesus is a created being, much like an angel.
In this sense the Jehovah Witnesses line up with the Gnostics of Paul's
day. The
Biblical fact is that Jesus was not created.
He co-exists with God from eternity past into eternity future, if you can
actually say it that way. Paul
goes on to confirm what John has said in the first few verses of his gospel.
John says that "all things were made by Him (Jesus) and without Him
was nothing made (John 1:1-3)." In
verse 16 Paul says that all things were created by Jesus and for Jesus.
Jesus was there in the creation of all things.
He played a key roll in creating all things.
Paul makes sure you know what all things means.
He says, "Things visible and things invisible."
He goes on to say that all rulers and authorities, both earthly
authorities and spiritual authorities, were created by Jesus.
Jesus created all of the angels, including satan. Nothing
was created without Jesus. They were
all created for His pleasure and purposes. Anyone
of us who creates or makes anything makes it for his pleasure and purposes.
We like making things. For
the artist, painting a picture is enjoyable.
To the photographer, taking a picture is pleasurable.
For a song writer, writing and performing a song gives a sense of
accomplishment. The same is true
with Jesus. His creation was made
for Him and His enjoyment and purposes. We
should make special note here that Paul says that Jesus has created earthly
authorities. Daniel 2:21, Romans
163:1, and elsewhere clearly tell us that God is behind all human authority.
He causes leaders and nations to both rise and fall, and He does so to
accomplish His will on earth.
That being said, I believe Paul is not merely talking
about human authorities here. I believe he also has spiritual authorities
in mind as he did in Ephesians 6:10 and following where he speaks about our
fight against spiritual rulers in the heavenly world.
Note that Paul says that all things were created for
Jesus. He created all things for His
own good pleasure. That means He
created Lucifer (satan prior to his rebellion) who obviously had the ability to
rebel. For some reason unknown to me, and I believe to us all, the concept of
evil somehow was in the plan of God. That may be hard to comprehend but if God
is God then there can be nothing outside of God that is not a product of Him. In
verse 17 Paul says that "He (Jesus) was before all things and in Him all
things hold together." The
writer of Hebrews, (who maybe Paul) says the same in Hebrews 1:3. He
says, that Jesus "sustains all things by His powerful word."
This can be understood as a simple physics lesson.
The reason why the universe and all of the atomic structure of things are
held together, and don’t fly out of control from their orbit, is because Jesus
holds all things together. The
basic element of life is the atom. It
consists of protons that spin rapidly around an electron, similar to our solar
system. Why do these protons stay in
their orbit? Why does our earth and
Mars and other planets stay in their orbit?
Why don’t we have an atomic holocaust of protons exploding throughout
the universe? Because Jesus holds
all of these protons in place. He keeps each and every proton in its orbit.
He does the same with each and every solar system in the universe.
From the smallest of atoms, to the largest solar system that spin in
their orbits, Jesus is there holding everything together.
You didn’t know that the Bible taught eleventh grade physics, did you.
If for any reason anything flies out of its orbit you can be certain that
Jesus is in control. In
verse 18 Paul goes on to say that Jesus is the head of His body, the church.
This is one Biblical truth that the church often forgets, neglects, and
even rejects. I once heard a Bible
teacher prophesy saying that Jesus wants His church back.
Jesus would say such a thing because in many areas of what we call church
we have hijacked His church and taken it from Him.
I believe this prophetic word is relevant for today's western world
church.
Note that Jesus is Head of the body, the church.
I believe many Christians understand the word "body" as it is
used in the term "Body of Christ" to be symbolic.
That is to say, the church is like a body.
It's not a literal body. I
don't see it that way and I don't think Paul saw it that way either.
The word "body" in this verse is not an adjective describing
the word "church". The
word "body" is a noun that does not describe the word
"church". Both
"body" and "church" speak of the same thing.
The church is the body and the body is the church.
In fact, the Body of Christ inn which the Spirit of God lives is the
replacement body of Jesus on earth. Once
Jesus passed through the clouds and returned to Heaven He was no longer on earth
in human form. To make up this loss
He returned to earth in the form of His Spirit and lives in a new body, a body
that consists of a multitude of believers we call church. At
this point I'd like to insert a short article that I wrote on the word
"firstborn" that we've seen in the last few verses.
It is as follows. Those who say that Jesus
was created by God at His human birth and base it on Colossians 1:15 are not
being orthodox or Biblical in their thinking.
Colossians 1:15 says that
"Jesus is the image of the invisible God (aikon in Greek - exact
representation and manifestation)". An
image is an exact replication of something, but yet separate from that which it
replicates. 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.
Now we go back to my
commentary.
Verse
19 says that God “was pleased to have all of His fullness dwell in Jesus.”
This means that all of who God is, in every last little detail could be
found in Jesus. This shows us the
Deity of Christ. Imagine what it
must have been like to meet such a man. Paul
goes on to say in verse 20 that the reason why God came to earth in Jesus was to
reconcile Himself to all things, whether things on earth or in Heaven.
This is interesting. Jesus’
work on the cross not only made it possible for mankind to be reconciled to God,
but for all things to be reconciled to God.
Salvation is for mankind but it exceeds beyond us.
Salvation is for all that God created on this planet.
Creation was subject to the curse when Adam and Eve initially sinned.
As can be seen clearly in Romans 8, creation itself is waiting for the
day when God’s plan of salvation is realized in its fullness.
Creation is waiting with eager anticipation because it knows that it will
be restored to God’s original purpose along with mankind as Paul states in
Romans 8:20 and following. All
this is accomplished through the blood of Jesus that was shed on the cross, as
Paul puts it in verse 20. The death
of the only perfect life was the only way for God’s extreme anger and sense of
justice to be satisfied. Only the
death of Jesus could please God. Any
other sacrifice made to fix our sin problem could not be good enough.
God is a perfect God. Anything
less than total perfection is unsuitable. Any
human way to fix our sin problem would not do.
God’s way only would do. God’s
only perfect solution was to execute Jesus, His exact representation, for the
punishment of man’s sin. “This was a perfect sacrifice, perfect in every
way, perfect in every aspect”, as I once heard Derek Prince say.
He is totally right. God is
absolutely perfect. He does not do
anything outside of perfection. Note
in verse 19 that all the fullness of God dwells in Jesus.
All of who God is in His essence is found in Jesus.
This speaks to the Deity of Christ. This
is the most fundamental truth of Christianity.
It's sad to say that in some parts of what we call church these days;
people no longer believe this basic truth of the Bible.
In verse 20 Paul says that Jesus reconciles all
things to Himself. Some take this to
mean that eventually all people will be saved and that eternal punishment isn't
really eternal. It's temporary.
This verse must be understood in light of what the rest of the Bible
says. Eternal punishment is eternal
or else the Bible would not say it is. What
I believe Paul is saying here that all things, even those who reject Him, will
be reconciled to His purpose for them, which is, eternal punishment.
It's not that they will be reconciled in the sense of being saved.
They're reconciled, brought back, to God's purpose, which for them is
eternal punishment. In
verses 21 to 23 Paul gives us some of the results of our reconciliation with God
that was provided by the death of Jesus’ physical body.
We are now holy, without blame, and free from any and all accusations.
Can you believe this? Mankind,
depraved and worthless as we are, can be holy, blameless, and without any kind
of accusation from satan or anyone else. This
is now our position in which we stand before God, that is, if we trust in who
Jesus is and what He has done for us by His sacrifice on the cross.
Don’t get proud or boastful over this exalted position.
We have done nothing to deserve it. It
is all because of God’s mercy that the believer stands before Him free of all
guilt. In
verse 20 Paul speaks of the reconciliation of all things, whether these things
are in Heaven or on earth. Universalists
have taken this verse to say that in the end, all things, all beings, including
satan, demons, and the lost wicked, will eventually be reconciled to God.
Although that's a nice thought, and if true that would be great, but,
when considering the rest of what the Bible says on this issue, it just isn't
true. The Lake
of Fire
is the eternal, not temporal, place of the unbeliever.
In
verse 21 Paul says that the Colossians were once alienated from God.
Most of these Colossian believers were Gentiles.
In every aspect they would have been alienated from God.
In this verse Paul just points out one form of alienation and that was
their sinful behaviour. Paul
also says that in their minds they were enemies of God.
The human mind is so corrupt and defiled that we are enemies of the one
who created us. Jeremiah 17:9 tells
us that we are so desperately wicked that we just don't know how wicked we
really are. How true that is.
This is what Paul is saying here. As
I said earlier, verse 22 tells us that we now stand before God guilt free and
it's all because of Jesus' physical body, as Paul puts it.
This is obviously in reference to Jesus' death.
He was the sacrifice that would end all sacrifices.
His sacrifice alone can satisfy the justice of God.
We must know that God is just. Being
human, I do not believe we can fully understand just how God's justice works.
He hates evil, yet He loves us, who are evil.
This is a paradox that only God Himself could fix, and He did so by
becoming human and taking on our penalty for our sin.
In that sense, we have received the penalty due us, or in another sense,
Jesus was penalized on our behalf. Both
the sin and the punishment are in the past and we stand before the Judge of all
things without a trace of guilt. In
verse 23 Paul says that "if you continue in your faith …"
Continuing in your faith, your trust in Jesus is vitally important.
If you are saved by faith, then it is only logical to conclude that you
stay saved by your faith, or your trust in Jesus.
Nothing you can do can get you saved and nothing you can do can keep you
saved. The other thing this tells me
that if you do not stay in your faith; if you stop trusting your life with
Jesus, you will lose your salvation. I
know that's not accepted by all Christians, but that is my position on the
issue. In
verse 23 Paul also speaks of being established and firm in the hope that the
gospel gives us. Christians don't
hope as the world around us hope. We
don't hope in the sense of winning a lottery.
I hope I win the lottery. Our
hope is based on a certain future with Jesus in Heaven and on the new earth for
all of eternity. Paul also says in verse 23 that the gospel has been proclaimed to every creature under Heaven. We certainly can understand how the gospel of Jesus has been, is, and will be, proclaimed here on earth, but to me Paul is suggesting that the gospel was proclaimed to the heavenly world as well. Was it proclaimed so the angels could find salvation? I don't think so, but that doesn't mean it could not be proclaimed. A close study of the book of Revelation tells us that the angels have heard, know, and understand the meaning of the gospel. It must have been proclaimed in the heavenly world. Revelation 14:6 tells us that an angel is flying preaching the eternal gospel. Angels are obviously well informed in matters concerning the gospel of Christ.
The last phrase in this section tells us that Paul was a servant, a slave, of this very gospel. He served Jesus by laying aside his life to proclaim the gospel to anyone and everyone. That was his mission in life. He had given up everything in his life for this mission
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