giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. (13) He has delivered us from the power of darknesss and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, (14) in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. (15) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  (16) For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.  All things were created through Him and for Him.  (17) And He is before all things and in Him all things consist.  (18) And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,  the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. 

The letter to the Colossians was written by the apostle Paul during his first imprisonment in Rome.  The church there was not founded by Paul but by one of his ministers, instructed in the gospel. Shortly after, evil men crept in to distort/corrupt the gospel. On the one hand the Jewish legalizes were preaching Jesus AND; Jesus and circumcision, Jesus and the Law, Jesus and rituals and ceremonies. The gospel tells us that Jesus is sufficient. On the other hand philosophers speculated on celestial hierarchy -that God is good and God is spirit and material or created things are evil. They posited that Jesus was created and not truly God. Paul in this letter reminds the Christians in Colosse that they have heard the true gospel and that all parts of salvation are to be found in Christ alone and they are to beware of strange doctrine.

Because of sin we are born spiritually dead – in darkness and hostile to God. We have been redeemed – set free – by Christ and and the cross. In Christ we pass from death into life and not by man’s efforts in any way. Christ Jesus is the Son of God’s love and His sacrifice is the ONLY price of reconciliation. It is in Christ alone that God who is invisible is manifest to man. Christ Jesus is not less than God – He is not one of many gods, not a created being or an angel, or teacher, or prophet or emanation. God is invisible but has been made visible – the Greek word used here means exact replica – in the person of Jesus Christ.  Man was created (Genesis) in the image of God but Jesus IS the image of God; the exact reproduction and the equal to God. Christ is the agent of creation by whom God made the worlds.

Calling Christ the firstborn of all creation means He has the right to rule. Jesus is the one in authority. Adam was the first one created but Jesus was not created – firstborn is meant as a ranking.  Jesus is supreme and sufficient and the only heir to all things. He is pre-eminent and the guarantor of resurrection.  Christ is the universal point of reference and we are complete in Him. Nothing else is needed. In God’s redemption plan Christ’s sacrifice was the only way to reconcile man with God. Salvation is always and only of the Lord.