THE FIRSTBORN OF EVERY CREATURE

The word “firstborn” is sometimes treated as though it must always mean the first individual physically born or the first being created.

From that assumption, some conclude that Jesus Christ was God’s first creation and that God later used Him to produce everything else.

But this interpretation contradicts the explanation Paul gives in the very next verses. The One called firstborn is the One who created all things, existed before all things, sustains all things, and possesses preeminence over all things.

The Colossian believers were being warned against teachings that appeared spiritual but moved confidence away from Jesus Christ.

Paul directed them back to the Lord they had received. Their salvation, growth, wisdom, identity, and spiritual completeness were found in Him.

The description in Colossians 1 therefore exalts Christ above every created power, philosophy, tradition, angelic authority, and religious system.

False doctrine may not always deny Jesus openly. It may speak respectfully about Him while reducing His identity, authority, or sufficiency.

A teacher may call Christ an exalted creature, a lesser god, a created angel, or merely a great spiritual example.

Paul allows no such reduction. The Christ of Colossians is the Creator and Lord of every visible and invisible authority.

God is invisible to human sight, but Jesus Christ makes the Father known.

He is not merely a partial picture, imperfect messenger, or created symbol of God. He perfectly reveals God’s character, holiness, authority, wisdom, grace, and glory.

To know the Son is to receive the true revelation of the Father whom no fallen human being could discover independently.

The Son did not begin His relationship with the Father when He was born in Bethlehem.

He is described as being in the bosom of the Father and uniquely declaring Him.

Christ reveals the Father because He possesses an eternal and unique relationship with Him that no created messenger possesses.

A prophet may reveal a message from God. An angel may carry out a command from God. A righteous man may reflect something of God’s character.

Jesus goes far beyond those claims. He says that seeing Him is seeing the Father revealed.

Colossians calls Him the image of the invisible God because He is the perfect and personal revelation of God.

Hebrews describes the Son as the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His person.

He also upholds all things by the word of His power.

This is not the description of a created servant who depends upon the universe for existence. It is the description of the divine Son upon whom the universe depends.

In biblical usage, the firstborn normally possessed the position of inheritance, authority, honour, and leadership within a family.

The term could therefore be used as a title of rank even when the person was not physically born first.

In Colossians, the following verses explain the title. Christ is firstborn because He stands over creation as its Maker, Owner, Heir, Sustainer, and Lord.

God speaks of making David His firstborn and immediately explains the meaning: higher than the kings of the earth.

David was not the first son born into his family. He was the youngest of Jesse’s sons.

“Firstborn” therefore describes David’s appointed rank and superiority among earthly kings, not the order of his physical birth.

Israel was not the first nation to exist historically.

God called Israel His firstborn because He had given that nation a unique covenant position, inheritance, calling, and privilege.

Again, the word communicates relationship and rank rather than merely chronological beginning.

Manasseh was born before Ephraim, yet Ephraim received the firstborn blessing and was later called God’s firstborn.

The title emphasized Ephraim’s appointed privilege and prominence.

These passages show why “firstborn” in Colossians cannot be defined automatically as “first created.”

Paul does not leave the title unexplained. He immediately gives the reason Christ is firstborn over creation: by Him were all things created.

Christ is supreme over creation because creation came into existence through Him.

The explanation does not place Him among created things. It places every created thing beneath His authority.

If all created things came into existence by Jesus Christ, He cannot be one of the created things included within that total.

A builder exists before and apart from the house he builds. The house owes its existence to the builder; the builder does not owe his existence to the house.

In an infinitely greater way, creation depends upon Christ while Christ does not belong to the category of created beings.

Christ did not merely shape the physical earth after another being had produced the universe.

Everything in the heavenly realm and everything in the earthly realm was created by Him.

No location, dimension, authority, or order of existence stands outside His creative power.

The physical universe perceived by human senses was created by Christ.

The invisible spiritual realm was also created by Him.

Angels and spiritual powers are not eternal rivals existing beside God. They are creatures whose existence and authority remain subject to Jesus Christ.

These expressions describe levels and forms of authority, especially within the unseen realm.

Whatever their position or power, they were created by Christ.

No angel, principality, throne, spiritual ruler, or demonic power approaches His rank. He is their Creator and rightful Lord.

Created angels are commanded to worship the Son.

Scripture forbids the worship of creatures, yet the Father directs the angelic host to worship Christ.

Jesus cannot be merely the highest angel. He is the divine Son before whom angels bow.

Paul first lists the realms and powers, then gathers everything into one complete statement: all things were created by Christ.

The phrase leaves no hidden class of creation that existed before Him or independently of Him.

Every creature owes its beginning to the Son.

Creation was not only made through Christ. It was made for Christ.

He is not a servant used temporarily to complete someone else’s plan. He is the rightful goal, Heir, Owner, and Lord of everything created.

All history will finally display His authority and glory.

Hebrews joins the same truths found in Colossians.

The Son made the worlds and is appointed Heir of all things.

The firstborn title therefore fits His position as the supreme Heir who possesses authority over the inheritance He created.

Paul does not say merely that Christ became more important than all things after His resurrection.

He existed before all things. Before any throne, angel, star, planet, atom, living creature, or human being existed, the Son was.

This statement directly contradicts the belief that He began as the first member of creation.

Jesus did not say that He merely existed in God’s plan before Abraham.

He declared His existence before Abraham and used the words “I am.”

His earthly birth was the incarnation of the eternal Son, not the creation of a being who had never existed before.

Micah foretold that the ruler would come forth from Bethlehem.

Yet the same prophecy declares that His goings forth were from old, from everlasting.

Bethlehem marked His entrance into human history through birth. It did not mark the beginning of His existence.

The universe does not continue independently after its creation.

All things hold together, continue, and maintain their appointed order by the power of Jesus Christ.

The One upon whom all creation depends cannot Himself be a dependent part of creation.

Christ did not create the universe and then withdraw from it.

He upholds all things by the word of His power.

Every moment of created existence depends upon His continuing authority.

John does not say that the Word came into existence in the beginning.

When the beginning began, the Word already was. He was with God, showing personal distinction, and He was God, showing divine nature.

This Word later became flesh and was revealed as Jesus Christ.

Everything that was made came into existence through the Word.

John strengthens the statement by adding that without Him nothing made was made.

If Christ had been created, He would belong to the class of things made. John says that the entire class of made things came into existence through Him.

Jesus Christ truly became man without ceasing to be the eternal Word.

His humanity began through conception and birth, but the Person who took human nature already existed.

The incarnation is not the transformation of a creature into God. It is the eternal Son taking flesh and dwelling among men.

Christ is not merely one member among many within the church.

He is the Head from whom authority, direction, unity, and spiritual life flow.

No pastor, institution, denomination, council, tradition, or earthly leader may take the position belonging to Him.

Christ is the beginning in the sense that He is the source, origin, ruler, and foundation of the new creation.

The church does not create Christ or give Him authority. The church receives life and identity from Him.

As He stands over the original creation, He also stands over the redeemed people formed through His death and resurrection.

People had been restored to mortal life before Christ’s resurrection, but they later died again.

Jesus rose in victory, immortality, and glorified life, never to die again.

He is firstborn from the dead because He stands as the risen Head, pattern, guarantee, and supreme Lord of the resurrection to come.

The firstfruits were the beginning and guarantee of the harvest that followed.

Christ’s resurrection guarantees the future resurrection of those who belong to Him.

His title as firstborn from the dead therefore speaks of preeminence, victory, inheritance, and headship within the resurrection order.

Revelation joins Christ’s resurrection title with His position as Prince of the kings of the earth.

“First begotten” does not describe a created origin. It declares His supreme position as the risen Lord.

The One who conquered death will openly rule every earthly power.

Believers are being conformed to the image of God’s Son.

Yet becoming like Christ does not make them equal with Him. He remains the firstborn—the supreme Son and Head among many redeemed brethren.

His firstborn position communicates honour and authority, not creaturehood.

The passage reaches its intended conclusion with the word “preeminence.”

Christ is firstborn over creation, firstborn from the dead, Head of the church, Creator of all things, Sustainer of all things, and Heir for whom all things exist.

Every statement establishes His supremacy.

Christ’s preeminence is not the superiority of the greatest creature over lesser creatures.

It is the supremacy of the Creator over everything He made.

He does not merely possess a higher place within the universe. The universe possesses its place, existence, order, and purpose through Him.

The fulness does not rest in Christ temporarily or incompletely.

Paul continues by teaching that all fulness dwells in Him.

Nothing necessary to reveal God, reconcile sinners, rule creation, or complete redemption is lacking in Jesus Christ.

Jesus is not one step within a chain of spiritual beings leading upward toward God.

All the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily.

His true humanity does not cancel His deity, and His deity does not make His humanity unreal.

Because Christ possesses all divine fulness and rules every power, believers are complete in Him.

They do not need angels, secret knowledge, religious intermediaries, human philosophy, mystical experiences, or ceremonial additions to complete what Christ provides.

A reduced Christ always produces an incomplete gospel.

The Bible maintains a clear distinction between the Creator and everything created.

Creatures must worship the Creator. They must never receive the honour belonging to God.

Colossians places Jesus Christ on the Creator side of that distinction because all creatures were made by and for Him.

Thomas addressed Jesus directly as his Lord and his God.

Christ did not rebuke him for offering worship to a creature.

The confession agrees with Colossians: the One who rose from the dead is the eternal Creator and rightful Lord.

Colossians 1:15 does not teach that Jesus Christ was God’s first created being, the highest angel, a secondary god, or the first member of the universe.

It does not place Christ inside the category of “all things” created, because the next verse says that all created things came into existence by Him.

“Firstborn” describes His rank, inheritance, lordship, and preeminence over creation.

If Jesus is merely a creature, He cannot perfectly reveal God, create and sustain the universe, receive worship, or provide an infinitely sufficient sacrifice for sin.

Reducing Christ’s identity changes the gospel because the value of His saving work is inseparable from who He is.

The correct interpretation exalts Jesus Christ as eternal Creator, risen Lord, Head of the church, and the One who must have preeminence in all things.

It is possible to confess Christ’s preeminence doctrinally while denying it practically.

A believer denies His preeminence whenever personal desire, tradition, culture, fear, ambition, money, relationships, or human authority is allowed to rule above His Word.

The Christ who holds all creation together deserves first place in the mind, worship, decisions, conduct, church, and entire life of every believer.