Colossians 1:15-17 - Envisioning the Invisible - Part 1
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Introduction:
Have you ever wondered what the wind looks like? It is a relatively common question. We know wind is there. We feel it. We can study it. But we can never actually see it.
How much more amazing would it be to see God! We know He is there. Creation screams His majesty. We see His handiwork everywhere we look - even how our bodies work shows the amazing handiwork of His creation. Yet we could not see Him. No one had ever seen God (John 1:18). That is, no one had ever seen God until Christ came to earth. The Great I Am and Creator of the universe came down from heaven and revealed the invisible to mortal man. Today we are going to discuss the first half of a two-part sermon on how we can envision the invisible.
Join me as we read God’s Word:
15 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—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Let us pray.
Prayer
Today we are going to discuss three ways we can envision the invisible God. The first is…
I. We Can Envision the Invisible Through... The Firstborn (15)
I. We Can Envision the Invisible Through... The Firstborn (15)
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
The three verses we are going to cover today could actually be broken down into three entire sermons. There is so much wonderful theology and Christology packed into these verses. The first theologically loaded word we come to is the word image.
Christ is the image of the invisible God. What exactly is an image? An image is something that we can see. Since the fall of man, people were unable to see God. He revealed Himself to Israel as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night (Ex 13:22). He showed part of His glory to Moses as he passed by (Ex 33:18-23). He showed Himself to Moses in a burning bush (Ex 3:2). But none of these were said to be the actual image of God. They were ways that God revealed Himself to man at that time.
The Greek word for image here is eikōn (eek-on) which means image or likeness. Man was made in the image of God but is not the perfect image of God. We are marred by sin. Jesus is instead the exact likeness of God. He is the full and complete revelation of God.
How important is it to believe that Jesus is fully God? Let’s read what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4:4:
4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Paul says that the god of this world - meaning Satan - has blinded the minds of unbelievers from seeing Christ as the image of God.
This was no better seen than in the case of a fourth century presbyter named Arius. This man wanted to prevent the heresy that Christianity was polytheistic. You see, some people were spreading lies about Christianity - not unlike they do today as well. They said that Christians worshiped three gods instead of one God. Muslims and others still spread this misunderstanding. Arius wanted to prevent this misinterpretation and instead created his own heresy!
Let’s take a brief moment to realize the tendency of over-correction here. I think that we can all be prone to over-correct in our lives. What do I mean? I mean that when we see a problem, we may go to an extreme to try to correct it. And this correction can oftentimes be a bigger problem than what we had before! We need to allow the Word of God to interpret everything and we need to be sober-minded and thorough in our study. Watch out when you hear an extreme teaching that doesn’t seem congruent with Scripture. Think hard when someone says something that you have never heard before and doesn’t have Scripture to back it up. Oftentimes these statements are out of bounds and dangerous teachings.
Getting back to Arius, we see that he:
Essentially Arius falsely taught two things:
1) Jesus is not self-existent and was created as a "perfect creature"
2) Jesus has no communion or even direct knowledge of the Father
These false teachings still are held by the cult of Jehovah’s Witnesses. They still believe that Christ is not God made flesh. And because of this, they are not true believers as they are condemned by Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 4:4 that we read a short while ago.
It should be noted that Arius’s teachings were condemned at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD and were ruled to be heresy.
My friends, a proper understanding of the Person of Christ is paramount to a saving faith. We must know who our Savior is! He is the image of the invisible God. And next we see He is the firstborn of all creation.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Arius also took this term, firstborn, incorrectly as well. The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus has been since before the beginning. It also teaches clearly that Jesus is God. See John 1:1 for complete clarity there!
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
But what does this term firstborn mean here? It can obviously be misunderstood as we have seen in the past.
The Greek word for firstborn is prōtotokos (pro-tow-ta-kose) which can mean firstborn or more accurately here, preeminent.
Firstborn = preeminent - which means above all; to take precedence; position of primacy; existing before
This Greek word for firstborn is actually listed 9 times in the New Testament and it is only actually used one of the 9 times as a reference to progeny - literally meaning born first (Luke 2:7). The other 8 times are all used as the word preeminent.
Revelation 1:5 (ESV)
5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood
Obviously we know Jesus wasn’t the firstborn from the dead. Jesus, Himself, raised multiple people from the dead! But He is the preeminent from the dead. His resurrection does take precedence above all others!
And we will see this next week which describes this concept further as we see the two closely related words of firstborn and preeminent in the same verse:
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.
As we can see, Paul makes it clear what he means when he says that Christ is the image of the invisible God and the firstborn of all creation. Jesus Christ is fully God. He the complete revelation of God. Knowing Jesus is knowing God, Himself.
Envisioning Jesus is seeing the invisible God.
We have seen how we can envision the invisible through the firstborn - the preeminent Savior Jesus Christ. Next we see that we can...
Scripture References: John 1:18; Exodus 13:22, 33:18-23, 3:2; 2 Corinthians 4:4; John 1:1, Luke 2:7, Revelation 1:5, Colossians 1:18
II. We Can Envision the Invisible Through… The Founder (16)
II. We Can Envision the Invisible Through… The Founder (16)
16 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 created through him and for him.
Now that we have heard about the Deity of Christ, we are given another level of understanding of Christ’s power. We see Christ as Creator God.
For by Him - meaning Christ - all things were created. What exactly does Paul mean by all things? He goes on to explain it in detail.
Christ Created All Things - In Heaven and on Earth
Both Visible - Obviously the Earth and Universe - What We Can See
Invisible - Thrones, Dominions, Rulers, Authorities - meaning all spiritual beings
Let’s break this down a bit.
First we see that Christ created the earth and everything on it. He also created the heavens which likely refers to Heaven proper - the place of God’s throne - as well as the universe and stars.
Next we see that Christ created everything that is visible. This would be the heavens that we can see - the stars, moon, universe etc - as well as the earth. This visible creation screams of a Creator! Romans 1:20 articulates this well.
20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
16 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 created through him and for him.
Next we get a more difficult understanding grouping of words. He created things that are invisible. The first being heaven proper - or the dwelling place of God. That one isn’t as head-scratching. But the next grouping of words is a little more difficult. Paul states that Jesus created all thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities.
These four terms refer to spiritual beings - namely angels and demons. Christ created all of the angels. We see that a third of the angels became demons and followed Satan in Revelation 12:4-9
Revelation 12:4–9 (ESV)
4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth..... 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
So when we see these four terms we are given areas of spiritual authority by angels. Many theologians believe there is a rank and file of angels and demons. There are many Scriptures that do support this although time would fail me to go into it. The real important and relevant teaching that Paul is trying to convey is that Christ is greater than all other spiritual beings. Not only is Christ the complete revelation of God - He is also greater than all others. The author of Hebrews spent quite a lot of time teaching this same concept in Hebrews 1. The author states: Hebrews 1:6
6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”
Paul writing to the church of Colossae, as well as the author of Hebrews - which some assert is Paul - want the reader to understand that Christ is above all. He is superior to all because He is before all. He is the uncreated Creator. All created things and beings have been created by Him.
Colossians 1:16 (ESV)
16 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 created through him and for him.
Not only was the creation created by Him but we see some other wonderful prepositions at the end of this verse as well. Take a look at the areas I have bolded in verse 16.
We see here that all things were created:
By Him
Through Him
For Him
This first statement, “By Him,” refers to the fact that Christ came up with all of the ideas of creation. God designed creation from the ground up. He didn’t use anyone else’s opinion. There was no one else to consult. In the beginning, God… There is a reason there isn’t anything else mentioned in the beginning other than God. That is because there was nothing before the beginning other than God!
11 “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
All things were created by the will of God. All of creation was completely God’s idea and handiwork. Everything was created by God. Jesus Christ is God, thus everything was created by Christ.
The second statement, “Through Him,” can be clearly summarized by John 1:1-3
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
Obviously the Word here is referring to Christ. All things were made through him. There was nothing that was made that wasn’t made through Christ!
Finally, we see that all things were made “For Him.” This means everything was made for His good pleasure. It is all made for His glory. In fact, we see this articulated in the age old question, “What is the chief end of man? A man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever. Everything exists to glorify Christ. Today, we see that many are in rebellion to Christ’s rule and reign. But as we discussed last week, in Philippians 2:10-11 - that one day at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord.
I pray that each of us here have made that profession. May we be a people who glorify and worship our creator and enjoy him always. Because our Creator not only made us, He redeemed us from the power of sin. We rebelled against Him and He sacrificially gave Himself for us. He lived the perfect life that we couldn’t live and died a substitutionary death on the cross that we deserved. Now we may be saved by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ who died and rose three days later and now intercedes for us. We only must be sure that we have repented of our sins and believed in the Lord Jesus and we may be saved. Praise God for His free gift of salvation!
Friends, I pray that you all have envisioned the invisible through the true Founder - the founder of Creation and the Founder of salvation. Finally...
Scripture References: Romans 1:20; Revelation 12:4,9; Hebrews 1:6; Revelation 4:11; John 1:1-3; Philippians 2:10-11
III. We Can Envision the Invisible Through… The Fastener (17)
III. We Can Envision the Invisible Through… The Fastener (17)
17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
For those of you who aren’t as mechanically savvy, a fastener is something that secures something else. It is something that holds things together. We are told in verse 17 that Jesus is the Great Fastener. He is the One who holds all things together. Before get into this however, we see the first part of the verse which emphatically states He is before all things.
This is an important distinction. There is nothing that is before Jesus. This verse speaks to His eternality. He has always existed. In the beginning, God. In the beginning, Jesus. Frankly it is more clearly stated before the beginning - Jesus existed.
This can be a difficult concept for many who are atheists or agnostics. They struggle with this idea that a being could have always existed and not have a beginning.
Yet, no matter how much atheists try to understand creation without a Creator, they are always left with the same question that we are asked as Christians.
For the atheist the question is what was before the Big Bang?
Obviously, we as Christians must reject the idea of the Big Bang as it is contrary to Genesis 1 which shows that God created the earth by His Word in an orderly fashion and in 6 days - not millions or billions of years.
But what is their answer when this question is raised?
For the atheist - their answer is that matter has always existed. There is a law in science that matter cannot be created nor destroyed. So their “faith” (yes I used that word because atheists have faith and worship the ‘little g gods’ of theories by men such as Charles Darwin - rests on the idea that matter has existed for all eternity. Their theory has obvious deficiencies that I could preach on for hours - but the greatest hole in my finding is trying to understand how all of the matter of the known cosmos existed in an inert - or nonreactive state - for all eternity and one day spontaneously blew up and created order. If I set a can of gasoline on a table and leave it there for eternity - it will never catch fire unless an outside force lights it. So they still must answer the question - what caused the Big Bang to go bang! And in this same vein - their theory doesn’t flow with observational science today. Take a look at any explosion upon planet earth and you will always find more disorder after the explosion - not more order. I can guarantee you that 100% of the time a building will look worse after an explosion. The bricks are not going to be neatly laid after an explosion. The mortar isn’t going to be nice a smoothed out. It will look like a disaster!
For us as believers in Christ, we are asked what was before God?
Our answer is nothing - God has always existed. We freely admit that this must be accepted in faith. We can’t prove the pre-existence of God. But our faith is rooted in a rational finding of what we see and observe on earth. We see created order.
We see that our planet is the exact distance from the sun that would support life. On Venus we would roast like marshmallows! On Mars we would freeze to death.
We see that the axis of the earth is 23.5 degrees. A different axis would create catastrophic environmental changes that would likely destroy life as we know it.
Our God has created everything through Christ. He has always existed and is the uncreated Creator.
17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Finally we get to the end of this verse where we started this point - that Christ is “The Fastener” - in him all things hold together. This idea is expressed in Hebrews 1:3 as well:
Hebrews 1:3a (ESV)
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power...
The author of Hebrews echos the words of Colossians 1:15 - that Christ is the image of the invisible God. And then he echos the words of Colossians 1:17 - that Christ holds everything together. The author of Hebrews adds one more piece of the puzzle as well. How does Christ hold everything together? By His Word! The same Word that created everything holds everything together.
We touched on this idea of Christ holding everything together in discussing the axis of the earth and the distance of the earth from the sun somewhat. Christ holds the earth exactly where it needs to be. He also holds us on the earth by the force of gravity!
All of the forces in our world that we take for granted are constantly held in check by the Word of Christ’s power. And He never tires or runs out of energy. He never needs sleep or rest. His power is infinite and keeps on going. What a comforting thought to know. To know that we don’t have to worry because Christ holds everything together.
In his book The Atom Speaks, D Lee Chestnut describes this amazing power of Christ to hold things together:
Consider the dilemma of the nuclear physicist when he finally looks in utter amazement at the pattern he had now drawn of the oxygen nucleus.… For here are eight positively charged protons closely associated together within the confines of this tiny nucleus. With them are eight neutrons—a total of sixteen particles—eight positively charged, eight with no charge.
Earlier physicists had discovered that like charges of electricity and like magnetic poles repel each other, and unlike charges or magnetic poles attract each other. And the entire history of electrical phenomena and electrical equipment had been built up on these principles known as Coulomb’s law of electrostatic force and the law of magnetism. What was wrong? What holds the nucleus together? Why doesn’t it fly apart? And therefore, why do not all atoms fly apart?
I pray that we didn’t nerd out too much by addressing what Chestnut just explained. But what he is saying is that for some reason all 8 protons stay in the nucleus even though they should be repelled from one another. It doesn’t make sense why they stay together. In fact, to disrupt this force is to create enough energy to make a nuclear bomb!
Physicists have labeled this force that holds these protons and neutrons together in the nucleus as what they call “The Strong Force.” (1) Note how smart scientists like to sound with phrases such as “the strong force” and “big bang!”
“The Strong Force” - This force is 6 (followed by 39 zeros) times more powerful than gravity!
If any of you have fallen on the ground lately, you understand that the force of gravity is no joke itself!
Brothers and sisters, we know where the “The Strong Force” originates. It is the power of Christ that holds the atom together. The smallest building block of everything we see and know is miraculously held together by the Word of Christ’s Power. It is the power of Christ that holds everything together. And I pray that your faith and your hope rests in the one who is the Great Fastener. The One Who not only holds you together - but He offers the free gift of salvation by fastening you to the Father forever. He offers forgiveness and desires a relationship with you.
This is the kind of God we worship, my friends. All powerful and All Mighty - yet All Loving as well. Praise be to God.
Scripture References: Genesis 1, Hebrews 1:3a
Conclusion:
Today we have seen that we can envision the invisible through…
The Firstborn - The Preeminent Christ Who is Above All
The Founder - The Cornerstone of all Creation
The Fastener - The One Who Holds Everything Together
Join us next week as we discuss three more ways we can envision the invisible God.
Let us pray.
Prayer
If you would like to learn more about salvation through Jesus Christ or want to obey Jesus by obeying the first commandment of a believer in going through the waters of baptism - please let me know.
Have a blessed week.