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In this message we will continue to consider Christ as the portion of the saints.
As the allotted portion of the saints, Christ is the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15). Since Christ is the Firstborn of all creation, He is the first of all creation. Christ as God is the Creator. However, as man, sharing the created blood and flesh (Heb. 2:14a), He is part of the creation. Firstborn of all creation refers to Christ’s preeminence in all creation, because from Colossians 1:15-18 the apostle stresses the first place that Christ has in all things. Verse 15 reveals that Christ is not only the Creator but also the first among all created things, the first among all creatures.
Some insist that Christ is only the Creator, not a creature. But the Bible reveals that Christ is both the Creator and a creature, for He is both God and man. As God, Christ is the Creator, but as man, He is a creature. Because He was a creature, He took on a body with flesh, blood, and bones. Our Christ is God, has always been God, and always will be God. But through incarnation He became a man. Otherwise, He could not have been arrested, tried, and crucified, and He could not have shed His blood on the cross for our sins. We should praise the Lord for the truth that our Christ is both God and man.
As God, Christ is eternal and did not need to be born, but in verse 15 He is called the Firstborn of all creation. Anything that requires birth must be a creature, part of creation. If Christ were only God and not man, He could not have been born, for God is infinite and eternal, without beginning or ending. But as a man, Christ had to be born. Christ was born as a man. In keeping with this, Isaiah 9:6 says, “A child is born to us, / A Son is given to us; / ...And His name will be called...Mighty God, / Eternal Father.” As a child born to us, Christ is called Mighty God; as a Son given to us, His name is called Eternal Father. As the Mighty God and the Eternal Father, Christ is eternal, but as a child and a Son, He had to be born. Some argue that Christ was born but not created. According to the Bible, birth is the carrying out of creation. Therefore, to be born is to be created.
Some may wonder how Christ could be the Firstborn of all creation since He was born less than two thousand years ago, not at the beginning of creation. If we would understand this properly, we need to realize that with God there is no time element. For example, according to our estimate of time, Christ was crucified about two thousand years ago, but Revelation 13:8 says that Christ was slain from the foundation of the world. Both are right. However, God’s reckoning is much more important than ours. In the eyes of God, Christ was crucified from the foundation of the world. In eternity God foresaw the fall of man. Therefore, also in eternity He made preparation for the accomplishment of redemption.
The difference between God’s estimate of time and ours also helps us to understand why Christ is called the second man (1 Cor. 15:47). From our point of view, the second man was Cain, the son of the first Adam, but from God’s point of view, the second man is Christ.
We may apply this matter of the different ways of reckoning time to Christ as the Firstborn of all creation. According to our sense of time, Christ was born in Bethlehem approximately two thousand years ago, but in the eyes of God, the Lord Jesus was born before the foundation of the world. If He was slain from the foundation of the world, certainly He must have been born before then. Therefore, according to God’s perspective in eternity, Christ was born in eternity past. This is the reason that, according to God’s viewpoint, Christ has always been the first of all creatures. God foresaw the day that Christ would be born in a manger in Bethlehem. Because Christ is the first among the creatures, we can say that as the all-inclusive One He is both the Creator and part of creation.
Colossians 1:17 says, “He is before all things.” This indicates His eternal preexistence.
In verse 16 Paul says, “Because in Him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or lordships or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and unto Him.” In Him means in the power of Christ’s person. All things were created in the power of what Christ is. All creation bears the characteristics of Christ’s intrinsic power. Through Him indicates that Christ is the active instrument through which the creation of all things was accomplished in sequence. In keeping with this, John 1:3 says, “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not one thing came into being which has come into being.” In this verse the emphasis is not that Christ is the Creator but that He is the means through which creation was processed and came into existence. Unto Him indicates that Christ is the end of all creation. All things were created unto Him for His possession. In, through, and unto indicate that creation is subjectively related to Christ. The creation was created in Him as the sphere, through Him as the means, and unto Him as the goal.
In verse 17 Paul says, “All things cohere in Him.” This means that all things now subsist together in Christ, just as all the spokes of a wheel subsist together in the hub. Christ is the hub of all things that exist in the universe; they all subsist together in Christ as the hub. Scientists recognize the fact that there is some kind of power in the universe that holds everything together. This scientific fact fits Paul’s concept of all things subsisting in Christ. The holding power, which is the hub, the center, of the universe, is Christ. Because Christ is this holding power, all things subsist in Christ; He is the center that holds everything together, the hub that holds all the spokes. Everything in the universe, living and non-living, subsists in Christ as this hub. Without Christ, the universe and everything in it would collapse. We are upheld not by the earth but by Christ. Apparently we exist on the earth, but actually we are existing in Christ. Our existence is maintained by Christ in whom all things are held together.
Christ is the Firstborn of all creation in order to express God. We have pointed out in the previous message that Christ is the image of God (Col. 1:15). God is invisible, but if we look at God’s creation, we will see that creation is the expression of the invisible God. In creation we see the expression of God’s power and nature. In the words of Romans 1:20, “The invisible things of Him, both His eternal power and divine characteristics, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being perceived by the things made, so that they would be without excuse.” Christ is the image of God expressed in creation. If we see this, we will realize that all material things were created in Christ, through Christ, and unto Christ and that they all subsist in Christ for the purpose that God may be expressed.
We need to see that Christ is the Firstborn among all created things; the various aspects of God’s creation are the expression of God in Christ. When we look at the heavens, we should be reminded of Christ. When we consider the earth, we should think of Christ. We should be mindful of Christ even when we look at ourselves. Every aspect of God’s creation was created in Christ, through Christ, and unto Christ. All these things continue to subsist in Christ for the expression of God. This expression of God in creation is Christ as God’s image.
The universe is the expression of God by Christ. Throughout the universe we see Christ, the image of the invisible God. We see Christ everywhere and in everything. Therefore, we should live Christ, not anything else. The Christ whom we live is all-inclusive. He is the image, the expression, of God in the original creation. Thus, our concept of the universe should be altogether related to Christ. We should only know Christ and live according to Christ.
Colossians 1:18 says, “He is the Head of the Body, the church; He is the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, that He Himself might have the first place in all things.” This verse shows that Christ is the first in resurrection as the Head of the Body. As such, He has the first place in the church, God’s new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15).
According to Colossians 1:18, Christ is the beginning of the new creation, the Firstborn from the dead. As the Firstborn of all creation, He was the first item of the old creation. Now in resurrection Christ as the Firstborn from the dead is the first item of the new creation. Hence, He is the beginning of the new creation that He might have the first place, the preeminence, in all things.
As the Son of God, Christ passed through two births. The first birth took place at His incarnation, and the second, in His resurrection. All Christians realize that Christ was born through incarnation, but not many regard His resurrection also as a birth. Acts 13:33 indicates that Christ was begotten, or born, in resurrection. Through resurrection He was begotten as the Son of God.
Before His incarnation, Christ was not a man; He was simply the infinite, eternal God. But in the fullness of time, Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of Mary, and nine months later He was born in a manger in Bethlehem (Matt. 1:18, 20; 2:1; Luke 2:7). According to John 1:14, the Word who is Christ became flesh. This means that He took the step of becoming a man. How marvelous that through incarnation the infinite, eternal God became a man! However, in becoming man, He did not cease to be God.
After living on earth for thirty-three and a half years, Christ was crucified. Then in resurrection He took a second step to be born the second time and become the firstborn Son of God. Before His resurrection, Christ was the only begotten Son of God (John 3:16), but through resurrection the only begotten Son became the Firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29). According to Hebrews 2:10, God is leading many sons into glory. These many sons are the many brothers of Christ as the firstborn Son.
Through the two births of Christ, divinity has been brought into humanity, and humanity has been brought into divinity. By the incarnation of Christ, God was brought into man. Prior to Christ’s incarnation, God was outside of man. However, through Christ’s incarnation, God was brought into humanity. We may say that with the birth of Christ in incarnation God was born into man. Therefore, by Christ’s first birth God was brought into man and became one with man. Then through Christ’s resurrection man was brought into God. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, God was living in a man, for God was in Him. Now, through Christ’s resurrection, man has been brought into God. As a man, Christ is in the heavens. God has been brought into man, and man has been brought into God. In this two-way traffic God came into man through incarnation, and man was brought into God through resurrection. In eternity Christ was God. Through His incarnation He became a man, and through resurrection He became the firstborn Son of God.
Through Christ, God has been brought into us, and we have been brought into God. When we were born again, simultaneously Christ was born into us, and we were brought into God. Therefore, in our Christian life we have an inward and personal experience of both of the births of Christ. With Christ, His birth in resurrection came thirty-three and a half years after His birth through incarnation. However, in our experience of Christ, God was brought into us and we were brought into God at the same time. We should praise the Lord for the marvelous traffic between God and us.
God has accomplished two creations, the old creation and the new creation. The old creation includes heaven, earth, mankind, and millions of different items. The new creation is the church, the Body of Christ. Colossians 1:15-17 unveils Christ as the first in the original creation, as the One who has the preeminence among all creatures. Verse 18 shows that Christ is the first in resurrection as the Head of the Body. He is the One who has the first place in the church.
The first creation came into being through the speaking of God. In the words of Romans 4:17, God called the things not being as being. The new creation, on the contrary, came into being through resurrection, through the death and resurrection of the old creation. In this new creation, the church, Christ is the Firstborn from the dead.
Both in the old creation and in the new creation, Christ is the first. If the old creation is in Christ, through Christ, unto Christ and subsists together in Christ, so the new creation is all the more. As the new creation, we, the church, are in Christ, through Christ, and unto Christ. Moreover, we are moment by moment subsisting together in Christ. Outwardly we are the old creation, but inwardly we are the new creation. In the church we are in Christ, through Christ, and unto Christ, and we subsist in Christ to be God’s expression in Christ.
In both the old creation and the new creation Christ is the first and occupies the first place, the place of preeminence. Both in the universe and in the church, Christ is the preeminent One. If we see this as a vision — not as a mere doctrine — our living and our church life will be revolutionized. We will realize that in all things Christ must be the first.
In Colossians 1:18 Paul says, “That He Himself might have the first place in all things.” In the Bible to be the first is to be all. Since Christ is the first both in the universe and in the church, He must be all things in the universe and in the church. As the first, He is all.
God’s way of reckoning in this matter is different from ours. According to our estimation, if Christ is the first, then something else should be the second, third, and others in sequence. However, from God’s point of view, for Christ to be the first means that He is all. He is the Alpha, the Omega, and all the letters between (Rev. 22:13).
The first Adam included not only Adam as an individual but all of mankind. In the same principle, in the eyes of God, the firstborn of the Egyptians included all the Egyptians (Exo. 12:12). The firstborn includes all. Therefore, for Christ to be the Firstborn in the universe means that He is everything in the universe. In like manner, for Christ to be the Firstborn in resurrection means that He is everything in resurrection. For Christ to be the Firstborn both of the old creation and of the new creation means that He is everything both in the old creation and in the new creation. This corresponds to Paul’s word in Colossians 3:11, where he says that in the new man, in the new creation, “there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all.” In the new man Christ is everyone and is in everyone. In the new creation there is room only for Christ.
The revelation concerning Christ in Colossians is both all-inclusive and extensive. Colossians reveals that Christ is everything. Christ is the Firstborn both of the old creation, the universe, and of the new creation, the church (1:15, 18). The universe is the environment in which the church, the new creation, exists as the Body of Christ to express Christ in full. The new creation is not as extensive as the old creation, the universe. The church is all-inclusive, but it is not extensive. For Christ to be the Firstborn of both the original creation and the new creation means that He is both extensive and all-inclusive. In the new man there is room only for Christ; Christ is all and in all (3:11). This shows His all-inclusiveness. However, the fact that He is the Firstborn of all creation indicates His extensiveness. In the words of Ephesians 3:18, Christ is the breadth, length, height, and depth.
It makes a tremendous difference when the vision of the all-inclusiveness of Christ pervades our being. When we see this vision, we will hate everything that issues from the self. We will despise not only our hatred but even our love, kindness, and patience. As this vision causes us to hate the self, it will constrain us to love the Lord. We will say, “Lord Jesus, I love You because You are everything. Lord, there is no need for me to struggle or strive to do anything. O Lord, You are so much to me. You are God, You are the Firstborn of all creation, and You are the Firstborn from the dead.” We need to pray until all the aspects of Christ revealed in Colossians saturate our being. We need to be infused and saturated with Christ as the all-inclusive One. If Christ is infused into us, we will drop everything that is not Christ, and we will be constituted with Christ in our being.
In Colossians 1:19, Paul tells us that in Christ “all the fullness was pleased to dwell.” Here the word fullness is personified. If the fullness were not a person, how could the fullness be pleased to dwell in Christ? The expression was pleased to dwell indicates that the fullness is the divine person. This divine person, the fullness, was pleased to dwell in Christ. This fullness — God Himself expressed — was pleased to dwell in Christ, to reconcile us with Himself, and to present us to Himself.
The fullness in verse 19 refers to the image of God in verse 15, who is Christ, a living person. The image of the invisible God is the full expression of the unseen God. For the fullness to dwell in Christ means that all the expression of God, all of His image, was pleased to dwell in Him.
From verses 15 through 19 Christ is revealed as the first both in the old creation and in the new creation. As the One who is first in both of God’s creations, Christ is the expression of God. God is expressed in Him because all things have come into being in Him, through Him, and unto Him, and they subsist in Him. This is true not only of the old creation but even the more of the new creation. The new creation, the church, is Christ’s Body, of which He is the Head. Through His subjective relationship to creation, Christ is the fullness of the unseen God, the image of the invisible God. The fullness in verse 19 is not a thing; it is a person who is the expression, the image, of the Triune God.
All the fullness refers to the fullness in both the old creation and the new creation. The word fullness has no modifier, indicating that this fullness is the unique fullness. It denotes not the riches of what God is but the expression of those riches. The full expression of the rich being of God, in both creation and the church, dwells in Christ. All creation and the whole church are filled with Christ as the expression of God’s riches. Such a fullness is pleased with this. This is pleasant to Christ.
The rich being of God is expressed both in the old creation and in the new creation through Christ as the One in whom, through whom, and unto whom all things came into being and as the One in whom all things subsist. It is in such a way that the invisible God is expressed. When we consider the universe and the church, the old creation and the new creation, we see all the fullness of the Triune God. We behold the expression of the Triune God. This fullness was pleased to dwell in the Son and to reconcile all things to Himself for His expression. Furthermore, this fullness will present us holy, blameless, and without reproach to Himself so that He may have His expression in the new creation.
In verse 20 Paul goes on to say, “Through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross — through Him, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens.” The expression through Him means through Christ as the active instrument through which the reconciliation was accomplished. Verse 20 speaks not of “all people” but of “all things,” referring not only to human beings but also to all creatures, which were created in Christ and now subsist, cohere, in Him (vv. 16-17) and are reconciled to God through Him. To reconcile all things to Himself is to make peace with Himself for all things. This was accomplished through the blood of the cross of Christ. This indicates that Christ is the Redeemer not only of mankind but of all things. Consider the picture of the ark built by Noah. The ark saved not only the eight members of Noah’s family but also saved animals of every kind (Gen. 7:1-9; 8:1). What an extensive Redeemer Christ is, and what an extensive reconciliation He has accomplished!
Both the things in the heavens and things on the earth needed to be reconciled to God because of Satan’s rebellion and man’s fall. God created the universe and committed the universe to His archangel. Yet he with other angels rebelled against God and became God’s enemy, thus polluting the entire universe and particularly contaminating the heavens. God then restored the polluted universe, created man, and gave man dominion over the universe, making man the head of the creation. However, man followed Satan and fell, thus polluting the earth. For this reason, both the things in the heavens and the things on the earth need to be reconciled to God. The blood of the cross of Christ was for not only man but also all the creatures in the heavens and the earth. Through the blood of Christ’s cross, that is, through His death on the cross, God has reconciled to Himself all things both on the earth and in the heavens.
According to Colossians 1:21-22, among all His creation, Christ also reconciled us, the saints, to God in order to present us holy, without blemish, and without reproach before God. This reconciliation of the saints mentioned in verse 22 is from the reconciliation of all things mentioned in verse 20.
We need to enjoy the all-inclusive Christ as the portion of the saints. As the image of the invisible God, He is the center of God; as the Firstborn of all creation, He is the center of the old creation; and as the Head of the Body, He is the center of the church. In resurrection He is the Firstborn from the dead. In Him all the fullness of God as the divine person was pleased to dwell. Through Him all things in the universe were reconciled to God, and through Him we, the saints, have been reconciled to God so that He may have a group of people who are holy, without blemish, and without reproach before Him.
