Who is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of every creature. Colossians 1:15
Some of the scholars (if they can be called scholars) among the Moslem religion point to today’s text as a ‘proof’ that Jesus Christ had a beginning when He was born. The Mormons and so-called Jehovah’s Witnesses make similar claims. But these merely point out their deep ignorance of the meaning of the word ‘firstborn’. This term has nothing to do with a birth, but has everything to do with rank or position. He is the Creator, not the leader among the created, as the cults would suggest. Our text is simply stating that nothing in all of creation can have a higher position than Jesus Christ. He is – and always was and always will be – supreme and preeminent above all. Amen. The Bible fully supports this truth regarding the Firstborn of every creature.
The term ‘firstborn’ in the Scriptures is clearly not always applied to one who was born first, or was the eldest. Consider what we find in Psalm 89: ‘I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him’ (verse 20), and ‘Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth’ (verse 27). Was David the oldest and first of the kings of Israel? No, that was Saul. Was David the oldest and first of the sons of Jesse? No, that was Eliab; David was actually the seventh son in that family. So it is nonsense to say that David was the firstborn because he was born first. We find the same truth concerning Joseph, when he was assigned the birthright that was forfeited by his older brother Reuben (1 Chronicles 5:1-2). Consider the following portion from Deuteronomy 21:15-17: ‘If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another hated, and they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated: then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn: but he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.’ This makes it very clear that, according to the law, the right of the firstborn is not automatically tied to the right of being born first, but is applied to the one who is both heir and preeminent. And that applies to the Lord Jesus.
Why is it important to us that the Lord Jesus is the Firstborn of every creature? Its importance relates to the supremacy that the Lord Jesus holds over every one of us. Most of the world today deny or reject that supremacy; at the very least, they don’t care. That will not matter at the Great White Throne, when they will all bow and acknowledge His supremacy. But there are some today who recognize His supremacy. In fact, acknowledging His lordship is part and parcel of our salvation, when we consider the words of Romans 10:9: That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Confessing with our mouths the Lord Jesus means confessing Him as Lord. If He is our Lord, we owe Him our full submission and obedience.
Does the One Who is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of every creature actually receive our submission and obedience? All the time? – Jim MacIntosh