Colossians 1:15-20

Will Nielsen

November 13th, 2006

Nestle-Aland 27

15 ὅς ἐστιν εἰκὼν τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ἀοράτου ,
πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως,
16 ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ ἐκτίσθη τὰ πάντα
ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς,
τὰ ὁρατὰ καὶ τὰ ἀόρατα,
εἴτε θρόνοι εἴτε κυριότητες
εἴτε ἀρχαὶ εἴτε ἐξουσίαι·
τὰ πάντα διʼ αὐτοῦ καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν ἔκτισται·
17 καὶ αὐτός ἐστιν πρὸ πάντων
καὶ τὰ πάντα ἐν αὐτῷ συνέστηκεν,
18 καὶ αὐτός ἐστιν ἡ κεφαλὴ τοῦ σώματος τῆς ἐκκλησίας·
ὅς ἐστιν ἀρχή,
πρωτότοκος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν,
ἵνα γένηται ἐν πᾶσιν αὐτὸς πρωτεύων,
19 ὅτι ἐν αὐτῷ εὐδόκησεν πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα κατοικῆσαι
20 καὶ διʼ αὐτοῦ ἀποκαταλλάξαι τὰ πάντα εἰς αὐτόν,
εἰρηνοποιήσας διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ σταυροῦ αὐτοῦ,
[διʼ αὐτοῦ] εἴτε τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς
εἴτε τὰ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς.

One of the amazing things about this Christ-hymn, this passage in Colossians, is that it says so incredibly much. It is worth meditating on for the remainder of one’s life and even then it could not be exhausted.
One way to approach the vastness of all that is being communicated to us about Christ in these verses is to consider the Creation account of the first human beings. They were created as the image of God to demonstrate his likeness to all creation while living in fellowship with God. We know that Adam and Eve did not remain in this initial state. They rebelled against God, demonstrating unlikeness to God and consequently God in his mercy removed himself from fellowship with them – else they be consumed in his holiness. Nevertheless, even in this great dislocation from God, humans are still the image of God. And so humanity as a fallen image, a masterpiece with a hole punched in the canvas, exists as a bundle of contradictions. Human beings exist apart from God as his image and unlike God all at once.
Jesus comes into the world, incarnate not as Adam was, but took on the stuff of our humanness. He took on fallen flesh, yet was without sin. Paul is reminding the Colossians, in their own Christological crisis, of the majesty of Christ. As a human being he was the image of God. Unlike us, he demonstrated the likeness of God (John 10:10; 14:8) and lived in perfect fellowship with him.
The wages for sin was death (Romans 6:23). Jesus had willfully received the sinner’s death in the place of sinner, to redeem a people for Himself with his life. Or as Paul teaches us here in Colossians, “all things were reconciled to himself, making peace through the blood of his cross…” The Father’s justice was satisfied in the willful substitution of Jesus for the sins of His church. As such, Jesus was raised from the dead because he was himself without sin. All who are in Christ, Paul teaches us here, have the same destiny. We will rise from the dead in glory because our sins have been trampled down by the cross of Christ our Lord, who is the image of God (Heb 1:1-4), having lived in the likeness of God to restore the fellowship of God to His people.

It is Christ in his revelatory and redemptive significance who is the subject of praise here…. And the praise is that his redemptive work … is entirely continuous and of a piece with God’s work in creation. It is the same God who comes to expression in creation and definitively in Christ.¹

¹ Quoting Dunn in Wilson, R. McL. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Colossians and Philemon The International Critical Commentary, ed. G. I. Davies and G. N. Stanton. London ; New York: T & T Clark International, 2005.

My Translation

15 Who is image of the invisible God,first-born of all creation, 16 For in him all things were created� �

in the heavens and upon the earth,

things visible and things invisible,

- whether thrones or dominions,

or rulers or authorities -

all things have been created through him and to him.
17 and he is before all things

and all things in him all things hold together.

18 and he is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning,

The first-born from among the dead,

so that he might be in all things first.

19 For in him all of the fullness was pleased to dwell