The High Christology of Colossians

Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist. Today, we're going to be starting the book of Colossians. And I know it seems like the last few weeks we've been going really quickly book by book, but remember these smaller books only have a few chapters.

And so this is the way it's going to work. We're going to be going quickly through these shorter books. And so today we're going to be in Colossians chapter one. And I wanna begin today's episode by reading just a quick portion of this book.

Now, I mentioned this book a few weeks ago. This is Introducing the New Testament by D .A. Carson and Doug Moo. This is a tremendously helpful little tool. I've been actually just, since I got it, I've just been keeping it in my backpack because I've been referencing it quite a bit for just little things in my teaching.

I'm currently teaching or preparing to teach a survey of the New Testament in our Sovereign Grace Academy. And so I've been referencing this book quite a bit. So if you're interested in it, send me a message and I'll tell you how to get a copy for yourself.

Why Colossians Was Written and the Problem of False Teaching

So I'm gonna read the question, why was Colossians written? And this is what they write. Paul writes Colossians primarily to refute the errors of some false teachers who had come to Colossae. The precise nature of the false teaching is not clear, as is common when we have none of the teaching itself, but only what is written to refute it.

It appears to be a blend of Greek and Jewish teachings that minimized Christ and promoted asceticism, circumcision, and the observation of the Sabbath. Such a mixture of different religions was a feature of the ancient world and it attracted new and imperfectly instructed Christians.

Paul did not want the young church at Colossae to be harmed by these teachings. So Dick Carson and Doug Moo are telling us that what Colossians is about is ultimately it's written in somewhat of an apologetic against false teaching.

The High Christology of Colossians

And the wonderful thing that we see in Colossians and the wonderful thing about the book that I find to be just incredibly encouraging in such a small book is that it has a, what we would call a very high Christology, meaning it says some things about Jesus that are profound and important.

And they help us in our understanding of things like the doctrine of the Trinity and the doctrine of the hypostatic union, the doctrine of the deity of Christ. All of those things are founded not on one or two passages, but on several entire books of the Bible that are spread throughout the scriptures.

And those important doctrines cannot be overemphasized. They are the heart and soul of what we believe. And so when we come to Colossians, we see the heart of this high Christology, even in chapter one.

And that's what I wanna focus on today is chapter one, verses 15 to 20. Now, I do not have the time to properly exegete this whole passage. I just can't do that because there's so much here. But I do wanna address some of the finer points that are often either used by false teachers to misrepresent Christ or are misunderstood by people who are simply not understanding what the text is saying.

So I'm gonna read the text. I'm gonna make a few very important, but minor, when I say very important, very important comments, but some very quick comments. They won't be long, but I hope that they're encouraging to you.

Christ the Image of God and Firstborn Over Creation

Speaking of Jesus, verse 15 says, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were made through him and for him.

And he is before all things. And in him, all things hold together. 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.

For in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Again, tremendous words.

Refuting Jehovah's Witness Misreadings of Colossians 1

Now, right away, I wanna address one of the issues that's often brought up, especially by maybe the Jehovah Witnesses. You maybe have had a Jehovah Witness share this passage with you. And the thing about Jehovah Witnesses, they believe Jesus existed before the incarnation, but they do not believe that Jesus is eternal.

And that's important because if you say, well, Jesus pre-existed Bethlehem, they would say, well, of course, Jesus pre-existed Bethlehem. But they would say there was a time when Jesus was not. They would say there was a time when Jesus was created by the Father, making him a created being.

And one of the verses they use is this passage, verse 15, where it says, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. And see, they say right there, there was a time when he wasn't and he was created.

But the word firstborn here is not in the sense of having been created when he was not, but the word firstborn actually is in relationship of preeminence. That is what the word firstborn here is referring to.

Not that he was created by God, but that he is, in fact, the first over creation. He is the preeminent one over creation. And we see this actually in verse 18. It says, he is the beginning, firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

The word firstborn, praetotikos, is the Greek word, and it literally means to be the most important. And so what we see here in Colossians 1 is we see the Apostle Paul explaining to us that Christ is supreme.

Christ Is Supreme Over All Creation and the Resurrection

In fact, we see this in the book of Hebrews. The whole book of Hebrews is about the supremacy of Christ. And when we get to Hebrews, I look forward to looking at that more specifically with you. But the Bible makes no bones about it.

Jesus is the most important person in the world. Jesus is the most important person in history. And Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, over all of creation, he is preeminent.

He is Lord. He is king. He is ruler. He is praetotikos. He is in the first place. It's not saying that he was not, and then he was created. What it's saying is that he takes the position of being the most important.

And so he is the most important of all. He is over all. And that's what we see in verse 15. And then verse 16 follows that up, says, for by him all things were created. You'll notice if you ever do see a Jehovah Witness Bible that they actually include an additional word in that passage.

They include the word other. It says in the Jehovah Witness Bible, for by, and by the way, that's the New World Translation. If you ever see a Bible that says New World Translation, know that that's not a good translation.

That is a mistranslation, which is used by the Jehovah Witnesses. And their Bible says, for by him all other things were created. Rather than saying all things were created, they say all other things because they include Jesus as a part of creation.

They include him. Rather than being over all creation, he's a part of creation. And Jesus is not part of creation. He is God in the flesh. Of course, in the incarnation, there's flesh. But prior to the incarnation, he is God.

God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We have to keep that in mind and we have to keep our categories correct. And so when it says by him all things were created, what it's saying is all things that were created were created by him.

Jesus himself is not created, but all things that were created are created by him. And it says in heaven, on earth, under the earth, visible and invisible. Doesn't say under the earth. I'm sorry. That's just my remembering another passage jumping in there.

In heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, rulers or authorities, which of course we know that references earthly thrones and dominions, but also heavenly dominions. We see that in other passages which refer to the angelic realm as being rulers and dominions.

The devil is called the prince of the power of the air. And it says here all things were created through him and for him. This world was created for Jesus. That's an amazing thought. You and I and all the world was created for Jesus Christ.

It was created through him and it was created for him. Actually it says it was created by him. It says by him all things were created, for him all things were created, and through him all things were created.

And he is before all things. Again, that's the word, before, preeminent. He's over all. And in him all things hold together. That, I could spend another 30 minutes talking about that. In Christ all things hold together.

Understand this. We exist at the pleasure of Almighty God. We don't have to exist. We could stop existing. But God, and again, we exist at the pleasure of Almighty God. We exist because God chooses that we exist.

That's, to me, that's just an amazing reality. The reality that I exist, my existence is contingent upon God. And I've said this in a few sermons. I've said this a few times over the years. I remember the time that I really came to that understanding.

I remember where I was. I was walking toward my office one day and it just struck me that if God so choose, if God were to so choose, I would not even have been created. And if God were to so choose, I could be removed from creation.

Not that I believe that he would, but God is the very reason my heart beats within my chest. God is the very reason why my cells hold together. God is sustaining me. In him we live and move and have our being, the Apostle Paul tells us.

And that's why it says here, in him all things hold together. That is such an important reality. In him all things hold together and he is the head of the body, the church. He's the beginning, the firstborn.

That word firstborn is used here, but here it's referring to the fact that Jesus was the firstborn from the dead. He's the first one to be raised eternally because he did die in the flesh and he was raised with a glorified body and he was the firstborn of the dead in the sense that he's not the first person that would be raised from the dead, but everybody else who was raised from the dead died again.

Lazarus was raised from the dead, he died again. The widow's son at Nain raised and died again. The little girl, daughter of Jairus, she raised but she died again. Jesus raised, firstborn, first one to raise and not die again.

So not only is he preeminent in having been the creator of all things, not only does he have first place as creator, he also has first place as in the resurrection. He is in the first place there because he's the first one.

He's the first fruits. The Apostle Paul tells us, 1 Corinthians 15, Jesus's resurrection is the reminder of the promise that we will be raised. So much here that's important. Again, I have to hasten to the end.

It says that in everything he might be preeminent for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Chapter two of Colossians tells us all the fullness of the Godhead is in him bodily. This does not deny the divinity of Christ.

This proclaims, this declares the divinity of Christ. No one in the world could say in him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, but in Christ we can say that. And through him to reconcile all things, whether on earth or heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

This passage is so valuable. We should all take the time to study what it says. And I do encourage you. Look at what I've said today and go and research it and write it out and think about it and study it.

This is our savior. This is talking about our savior. There's nothing more precious in the whole world than to study about Jesus Christ. This coming week, I'm gonna be preaching or teaching in our Sovereign Grace Academy.

We're in the Old Testament. We're doing a survey of the Old Testament. One of the classes that I do is seeing Jesus in the Old Testament, both in Messianic prophecy, but also in types and figures and shadows that all represent the coming of Jesus.

It's my most favorite thing to teach in the Old Testament, to show people that Jesus Christ has always existed. He has always been the second person in the Trinity. He has always been God the Son. And we see him throughout the Old Testament.

As he says in Luke 24, when he was with the people on the road to Emmaus, the two disciples, and he said to them, it says that starting with Moses, he showed them where he was in the scriptures. He explained to them how the scriptures had talked about him.

And I look forward to talking about that because to talk about Jesus is the greatest thing in the world to get to do. And I'm thankful that you spend your mornings with me, listening to me talk about the Bible and talking about Christ.

This is one of the great joys of ministry to get to talk about my savior. And I thank you for joining me today. I hope that this episode has been helpful. And if you are enjoying these episodes, please take an opportunity to like, comment, share, and subscribe.

These are all helps to us and we really would appreciate it. Again, thank you for watching Coffee with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey and I've been your Calvinist.