Colossians 1:15-18: What’s So Special About Jesus?

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by
him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and
invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were
created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold
together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and
the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the
supremacy.

Introduction
When the gospel came to Colossae, there was already an incumbent religion; or rather, there were a series of mini-religions, which combined the ideas of Greek philosophy, eastern mystery religions and Jewish monotheism. Scholars now collectively refer to these as “Gnosticism” because of their emphasis on ‘knowledge’. Last week, we talked about three characteristics of these mini-religions:

1. They emphasized the superiority of the world of ideas and spirit over the physical world.
2. They promised special insight (‘mysteries’) only available to the religious insiders. Remember ‘you can’t handle the truth’
3. They tied into ancient religions (such as Judaism) to gain respectability and authority.

When the gospel comes into contact with the world—the system of thought which attempts to make sense of how things work without God—there are always two problems.

1. How to communicate the gospel so that people in the world can understand? The gospel is not the native language of anyone. Grace, forgiveness, justification—those concepts are as foreign as Czechoslovakian to us. God has provided in every culture an entry point, a beachhead for the gospel, a glaring hole where people feel the need for a savior.
   
2. How to avoid having the gospel swallowed or twisted by the prevalent system of thought? For example, we see the Jewish synagogue in Galatia attempting to pull Jesus back into Jewish legalism. Today, we see America attempting to swallow Jesus into consumerism; a sort of buffet-style gospel. Or there is the Jesus, CEO movement. Each time the question is: what to do with Jesus.

That was certainly true in Colossae. As we discussed last week, Jesus as God in the flesh, dying on the cross and returning in the flesh was a tough pill to swallow for someone who viewed the flesh as inherently sinful or degraded. But these mini-religions had a solution for Jesus.

To understand this solution, you need to go back nearly 400 years over to Athens, Greece and the great thinkers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Men like these first came up with this world of ideals that we talked about, but they lived in a culture which was still polytheistic (many Gods). Each of the cities had a patron deity, such as Apollo or Aphrodite or Athena, each profession had a patron little god, such as Mercury; households often had their own small house gods. But the more these great thinkers contemplated the world of ideals, the more dissatisfied they became with their gods. They were…too fleshly…too badly behaved…too much like hormone-driven teenagers with super powers. The god that they imagined was spiritual--the most real, the most true, the most beautiful and the most ‘good’. The god they came up with was the first mover; the one that started everything off. This god didn’t have much of a personality, certainly not a god of love or anger or compassion.

In their minds, between our world—the world of people, places and things—and the world where this god existed as spirit, there was a huge gap. This god of theirs couldn’t intervene directly in the physical world because it was too sinful, too degraded. Instead this gap between god and earth was populated by layer upon layer of intermediary beings called demi-urges, who were some mixture of spiritual and physical. The more spiritual were closer to this god, but had less direct impact on the world, and the more physical were closer to earth, but had less true power.

Now, when this mixed with Jewish religion, there was a reasonably comfortable fit. God is holy, holy, holy, far away, up on his throne and man is here on earth and in between you have the angels. It was during this period, between the end of the Old Testament and the start of the New Testament that you really see a flourishing of angel-ology, as first Greece and then Rome conquered Jerusalem.

But when the Christians came along, the real problem was: what do you do with Jesus? And the natural tendency with these mini-religions was to fit Jesus right in there as another demi-urge, right? Because he obviously couldn’t be God, right, because God can’t be physical and flesh. And why would he come back to life, in a body, since that would be a down-grade from his post-crucifixion spiritual existence? So therefore Jesus is another one of these demi-urges, some mix of spiritual and physical who came down to lead us in the secret knowledge about God, right? (Gospel of Judas)

No! Starting in these verses, Paul is going to take the language and terminology of these mini-religions and use them to describe a Jesus who is unique and a gospel that is available to everyone. It is a dangerous road to take because it requires that you understand the words you are using well enough to avoid the confusion and traps. You might end like Saruman in the Lord of the Rings, who looked deeply into the lore of the rings and became a prisoner to that knowledge.

So starting in this section, Paul presents Jesus.

1. First, he is unique by making God visible. (verse 15)
2. Second, he is unique because of his role in making the world (verse 16)
3. Third, he is unique in ruling the world today (verse 17)
4. Fourth, and finally, he is the founder of the church (verse 18)

Jesus Is Unique Because He Makes God Visible
Last week, we talked about how God is on the move? When we say that, we would already be raising red flags in the minds of Paul’s listeners. In their minds, if God is already perfect, why does he move? What was wrong with the way He was yesterday? Movement meant imperfection.
Paul pulls no punches:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
–Colossians 1:15

The word image here is the Greek word eikon (eye-kown), where we get the word icon. An icon is a symbol or statue which stands in the place of something else and which is instantly recognizable. In the Old Testament, when the people would craft an idol which expressed in gold, silver, clay and bronze the characteristics of the god and then they would bow down and worship it. That was an icon. In that famous passage where Jesus said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s.” (Matthew 22:15-22) he took a coin and asked, literally, “Whose icon is this?” People immediately recognized who it was and what it meant. See also Revelation 13 and 14, where it talks about the beast and his image.
God is spirit; spirit is invisible; but he impressed his spirit on human flesh. Everything that is significant about God is seen in Jesus. Echoing this same idea, the author of Hebrews says:

The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his
being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. – Hebrews 1:3

But wait, doesn’t it say in Hebrews 13:8 that:

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday; today and forever. – Hebrews 13:8

Now that’s a verse to warm every Greek philosopher’s heart. The same. The same. But wait, God did change, forever. When Jesus took on a body, it was a permanent change in God. That body came back from the grave with Jesus and went with Jesus into heaven. What doesn’t change is Jesus’ uniqueness and character. So Jesus is God’s icon.

Jesus Is Unique Because He Made the World
Then Paul goes on to point out that Jesus is unique because he made the world. Starting in verse 15:

He is the firstborn of all creation for by him all things were created: things
in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or
rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. –
Colossians 1:16

Again Paul chooses a word that can almost get him into as much trouble of eikon: prototokos, literally first-born. What? Was Jesus somehow born or created? No. The term firstborn had as much to do with first position as it did with first born. You can see that here, but it might sneak right by you: the word ‘for’. He is the firstborn of all creation for or better, because by him all things were created. He has the first position because, though coming in a physical body later, he was responsible for starting it all.

Yet there is for us only one God, the Father, who is the Creator of all things
and for whom we live; and there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all
things were created and through whom we live. – 1 Corinthians 8:6

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him
nothing was made that has been made. – John 1:1-3

In these verses, we four important things about Jesus:

1. Jesus is separate from God the Father.
2. Jesus existed since the beginning with the Father.
3. Jesus was the agent by which God the Father created the world.
4. Jesus has a higher rank than anything else.

Specifically, Jesus has a higher rank than “thrones or powers or rulers or authorities” These mini-religions used these same words to describe the specific areas of authority that the demi-urges had. Remember, the Colossians were very familiar with the idea of many gods. And typically, these gods were divided into areas of authority, usually roughly paralleling physical phenomena: the sun, the moon, the weather, etc. These were their areas of authority. In addition, different cities or regions often had a patron god and that was that god’s seat. Homer’s Illiad describes Troy as the special seat of Apollo and the Bible mentions one of the 7 Wonders of the World, the Temple of Diana (or Artemis) in Ephesus (Acts 19:27)

The mini-religions were very accommodating. Rather than attempting to throw out these other gods, Gnosticism attempted to accommodate them by giving them a lower rank. Yes, your god is important, but is really only one of many and, if you were really smart, you would see that your god is just part of the bigger picture. Jesus, they said, was just another example of this.

I had a friend named Dennis. Over a period of time at work we became close friends. He had been raised a Buddhist and he told me he could accept Jesus and Christianity, because Buddhism believed there were multiple paths. But, I said, Jesus claimed to be the only way and he said, the only way on Jesus’ path. But, I said, some things are contradictory between Buddhism and Christianity. He said, you are right. Buddhism believes that babies are born pure and perfect, not bent towards sin. We can’t accept that.

You see these mini-religions were very accommodating. But they could accommodate only so far. Paul doesn’t set out to deny the existence of other spiritual beings or angels or their authorities or territories. Rather he says that Jesus out-ranks them because they are the created and he is the creator. He is not one among many. He is unique because he made the world.

Jesus Is Unique Because He Holds the World Together.
He is also unique because he holds the world together.

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. –Colossians
1:17

Jesus is the glue; the nubs on the Lego blocks; the biscuit-joint in woodworking; the stickiness in the play-do; the one who stuck all the plugs in the sockets and makes sure the lights don’t go out. In fact, the word translated ‘hold together’ can sometimes be translated as ‘formed’ or even, figuratively, to ‘build up’.

Jesus Is Unique Because He Pioneered The Church
Finally, Jesus is unique because he pioneered the church.

And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the
firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the
supremacy. – Colossians 1:18

“As it has been, so it ever more shall be.” There are some who think that’s the way the universe works. If there is a God, it is the toymaker God who put the world together and set it going and who may, when the batteries run out, step back in to judge the results.

But God isn’t like that. In fact, Jesus said,

My Father is always at work to this very day, and I, too, am working. (John
5:17)

Rather than the toymaker, he is the artist. Jesus Christ is the artist and he is painting the glory of God on the canvas of the universe. But his characters are not fixed. They are not static. He introduces new ones all the time and, when their time is finished, they exit the canvas.

For in him we live and move and have our being. –Acts 17:28a

When God worked on his painting, the picture was dark and bleak and without hope. But, in a bold stroke, God introduced a new portrait into the painting: himself. “The Word because flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14 ). For a while, it seemed as though the darkness would overwhelm; in fact, the new character was snuffed out and, for three days, the darkness ruled the canvas. But God, the artist, revived his character in a brilliant blaze of light on Easter morning and promised that, for those who followed him, they could never be snuffed out. There is life beyond the canvas.

Jesus was the firstborn of the revived; the renewed; the reborn. This community of the reborn we call the church. There is life beyond this canvas and Jesus went first, to show us the way.
So, not only is Jesus the subject of the painting, Jesus is the painter.

Conclusion
We are very good at explaining things. We like to believe that if we can understand how something works, then we can control our future. We like systems. We like rules. We like predictability. This happens because of that. There have been, perhaps, 36 billion people who have ever lived on Earth. They all had a mother and a father. They all grew up and then they died. Yes, there is a lot of variation in those people, but those variations can be explained. We can see seasons and tectonic plates and planetary motion and the speed of light and quantum physics. And knowing those things makes us feel wise and powerful, because we can explain and predict and control.

We aren’t very good with the unique. We will squeeze the unique into our patterns and systems and theories. Or we will deny the uniqueness. But, by definition, unique isn’t the first of many or the last of its kind; it stands alone. That doesn’t make it less true or less valid or less real.
The same is true with Jesus. Jesus is unique. He is an anomaly; a breaking of the rules; an unrepeatable event; something that this world couldn’t produce on its own; because he is the creator; he is God made visible and he is the first of the reborn.