I remind you that the main reason for Paul to write this letter was to combat heresy that was about to come into the church, which would cast a cloud over the glory of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
Paul wrote to say that Christ is supreme.
\nWe are looking at\u2026
\nI. THE SCOPE OF CHRIST’S SUPREMACY
\nColossians 1:15-18
\n15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities\u2014all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, we saw that Paul wanted the Colossians to see\u2026
\nA. CHRIST’S RELATIONSHIP TO DEITY (15)
\n\u201cHe is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next, Paul wanted the Colossians to see\u2026
\nB. CHRIST’S RELATIONSHIP TO CREATION (15-17)<\/p>\n
First, we acknowledge that Christ is\u2026
\n1. The Firstborn Over All Creation (15)
\n\u201cHe is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s clarify what \u201cfirstborn\u201d cannot mean. The context in no way allows for the idea that Christ is a part of the created order. \u201cFirstborn\u201d does not mean that Christ had a birth (a beginning). No, verse 16 clearly describes Him as the creator of the order of creation. \u201cFor by him all things were created\u201d<\/p>\n
One can get around this if they do what the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses have done by inserting the word \u201cother,\u201d \u201cby means of him all [other] things were created\u201d ~ New World Translation<\/p>\n
\u201cFirstborn\u201d denotes two things about Christ. He preceded the whole creation, and He is sovereign over all creation.<\/p>\n
Firstborn can mean priority in time or it can mean supremacy in rank. Both meanings could be seen. Christ is before all creation in time and Christ is over creation in rank and dignity.<\/p>\n
The NIV, Holman, and other translations rightfully imply the idea of Christ being supreme by translating, “the first born OVER all creation.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Old Testament, a firstborn child had not only priority of birth, but also the dignity and superiority that went with it. For instance, the firstborn received the father\u2019s inheritance. It was the first born that the death angel passed over when the blood was placed on the door post.<\/p>\n
Firstborn implies lordship. Christ is Lord over creation because He made it.
\nThe New Century Version (NCV) captures the idea, \u201cHe ranks higher than everything that has been made.\u201d<\/p>\n
The New Living Version also, \u201cHe existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation.\u201d<\/p>\n
All creation therefore owes its unity, its meaning, indeed its very existence to Him.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow, we will continue with\u2026
\n2. The Creative Activity of Christ (16-17)
\n\u201cFor by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities\u2014all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I remind you that the main reason for Paul to write this letter was to combat heresy that was about to come into the church, which would cast a cloud over the glory of Jesus Christ. Paul wrote to say that Christ is supreme. We are looking at\u2026 I. THE SCOPE OF CHRIST’S SUPREMACY Colossians […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4439"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4439"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4441,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4439\/revisions\/4441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/southsidealive.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}