The Pre-Eminence Of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Colossians 1:13-22

It was Paul’s purpose in writing this letter to the Colossians to both set forth and defend the glorious Person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ as the incarnate God. In this first chapter he declares Christ to be the King into whose kingdom we have been translated by the new birth, telling us in verse 13 that it is God almighty "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son." He is also the Redeemer through whose blood we have redemption and the forgiveness of all our sins. "In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins" (v. 14). Note: Redemption and forgiveness go hand in hand. All who have been redeemed by Christ’s precious blood have been forgiven by God’s free grace of all their sins. Next, our great Savior is God Incarnate and God the Creator of all things. "Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him" (vv. 15-16). He who is “the firstborn of every creature is “the beginning of the creation of God,” not the first creature of God as some heretics say, but “the beginning of the creation of God,” that is to say the One from whom creation sprang! (See Rev. 3:14). This incarnate God is himself the eternal, self-existent God who upholds and rules all things in providence. "He is before all things, and by him all things consist" (v. 17). Not only did he make all things, he holds all things together, rules all things, and disposes of all things as he will. Christ is the Head of his body, the church, and the first one to be risen from the dead to die no more. "He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence" (v. 18). The Head of the church is not in Rome or any other place of ecclesiastical or denominational headquarters. Christ is the Head, Ruler, Lawgiver, and Voice of Authority in his church and kingdom. Many were raised from the dead by him before his resurrection; but they all died again. He was raised by his own power unto immortality and everlasting life to die no more. This Man who is God is the One in whom all the fullness God and all the fullness of grace resides. "For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell" (v. 19 cf 2:9-10). And that One in whom and by whom we are reconciled to God. "And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven. And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight" (vv. 20-22). Having declared all these glorious truths about the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, the Apostle concludes that it is the purpose of God “that in all things he might have the preeminence” (v. 18).

Don Fortner