In this message we will continue to consider Christ as the portion of the saints.
As the allotted portion of the saints, Christ is the Firstborn of all creation (Col. 1:15). Since Christ is the Firstborn of all creation, He is the first of all creation. Christ as God is the Creator. However, as man, sharing the created blood and flesh (Heb. 2:14a), He is part of the creation. Firstborn of all creation refers to Christ’s preeminence in all creation, because from Colossians 1:15-18 the apostle stresses the first place that Christ has in all things. Verse 15 reveals that Christ is not only the Creator but also the first among all created things, the first among all creatures.
Some insist that Christ is only the Creator, not a creature. But the Bible reveals that Christ is both the Creator and a creature, for He is both God and man. As God, Christ is the Creator, but as man, He is a creature. Because He was a creature, He took on a body with flesh, blood, and bones. Our Christ is God, has always been God, and always will be God. But through incarnation He became a man. Otherwise, He could not have been arrested, tried, and crucified, and He could not have shed His blood on the cross for our sins. We should praise the Lord for the truth that our Christ is both God and man.
As God, Christ is eternal and did not need to be born, but in verse 15 He is called the Firstborn of all creation. Anything that requires birth must be a creature, part of creation. If Christ were only God and not man, He could not have been born, for God is infinite and eternal, without beginning or ending. But as a man, Christ had to be born. Christ was born as a man. In keeping with this, Isaiah 9:6 says, “A child is born to us, / A Son is given to us; / ...And His name will be called...Mighty God, / Eternal Father.” As a child born to us, Christ is called Mighty God; as a Son given to us, His name is called Eternal Father. As the Mighty God and the Eternal Father, Christ is eternal, but as a child and a Son, He had to be born. Some argue that Christ was born but not created. According to the Bible, birth is the carrying out of creation. Therefore, to be born is to be created.
Some may wonder how Christ could be the Firstborn of all creation since He was born less than two thousand years ago, not at the beginning of creation. If we would understand this properly, we need to realize that with God there is no time element. For example, according to our estimate of time, Christ was crucified about two thousand years ago, but Revelation 13:8 says that Christ was slain from the foundation of the world. Both are right. However, God’s reckoning is much more important than ours. In the eyes of God, Christ was crucified from the foundation of the world. In eternity God foresaw the fall of man. Therefore, also in eternity He made preparation for the accomplishment of redemption.
The difference between God’s estimate of time and ours also helps us to understand why Christ is called the second man (1 Cor. 15:47). From our point of view, the second man was Cain, the son of the first Adam, but from God’s point of view, the second man is Christ.
We may apply this matter of the different ways of reckoning time to Christ as the Firstborn of all creation. According to our sense of time, Christ was born in Bethlehem approximately two thousand years ago, but in the eyes of God, the Lord Jesus was born before the foundation of the world. If He was slain from the foundation of the world, certainly He must have been born before then. Therefore, according to God’s perspective in eternity, Christ was born in eternity past. This is the reason that, according to God’s viewpoint, Christ has always been the first of all creatures. God foresaw the day that Christ would be born in a manger in Bethlehem. Because Christ is the first among the creatures, we can say that as the all-inclusive One He is both the Creator and part of creation.
Colossians 1:17 says, “He is before all things.” This indicates His eternal preexistence.
In verse 16 Paul says, “Because in Him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or lordships or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through Him and unto Him.” In Him means in the power of Christ’s person. All things were created in the power of what Christ is. All creation bears the characteristics of Christ’s intrinsic power. Through Him indicates that Christ is the active instrument through which the creation of all things was accomplished in sequence. In keeping with this, John 1:3 says, “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not one thing came into being which has come into being.” In this verse the emphasis is not that Christ is the Creator but that He is the means through which creation was processed and came into existence. Unto Him indicates that Christ is the end of all creation. All things were created unto Him for His possession. In, through, and unto indicate that creation is subjectively related to Christ. The creation was created in Him as the sphere, through Him as the means, and unto Him as the goal.