"EXALTING THE SON"
ETERNAL CREATOR
Many have said that reading one of Paul's letters is similar to hearing one side of a telephone conversation. We know what Paul wrote, but we don't completely know what issues or concerns were expresed by his recipients. Aparantly, the heresay threatening the church at Colossae included an inadequate view of Jesus, because Paul dedicated considerable attention early in his letter to the correct understanding of Jesus. Colossians 1:15-20 is a long poetic passage that stresses several key apects of the doctrine of Christ.
Some readers might be puzzled at some of Pauls emphase, since we find it easier to understand Jesus in the way Hes presented in the four Gospels. The Gospel writers stressed Jesus' virgin birth, teaching, preaching, miracles, death, and resurrection. We often think of Jesus in traditional time lines, but Paul surprises us with other relevant and essential teachings about Jesus.
Paul identified Jesus as THE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD. We saw in last weeks study that God the Father is Spirit, which includes the notation that He is invisible.
The word IMAGE has several possible meanings. An image could be the picture of a person on a coin, or in the refection of a mirror. The word IMAGE could, however, also refer to a manifestation. Paul's meaning is closer to this idea, since he clearly meant that Christ was divine. Throughout this passge Paul stressed Christ's deity. Jesus is the unique and special manifestation of God in human form.
God created human beings in His image, but Christ was God's image in a unique sense. This key idea appears elsewhere in the New Testament. For example, John stressed that no one can see God but Christ, the "One and only Son has revealed Him". The Book Hebrews comes closer to Paul's terminology with Christ being "the exact expression of His nature."
One of Paul's most puzzling comments is his description of Christ as FIRST BORN OVER ALL CREATION. The word "firstborn" can mean first in a time sequence. I am, for instance, the firstborn son of my parents. They later had another son and a daughter. The danger with pushing the time sequence meaning, however, is that it makes Christ a creature, rather than the Eternal Son of God. The Bible clearly teaches that Christ was not a mere man. He is both fully human and fully devine. Paul, for example, identified Christ as "our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ." Later in Christian history, the heretic, Arius took the idea of Christ as firstborn out of context and argued that Jesus was a creature rather than the Creator. The early church rejected his view and affirmed the the full deity of Christ.
Although "Firstborn" can refer to time sequence in some texts, another meaning for this term is privilege or priority. Paul's main concern in this section was to stress Christ's preeminence over all creation. Christ is Creator of the universe.
Thinking of Christ as Creator of the universe may stretch our minds. When we look at the overall testimony of the Bible, however, we learn that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit were all involved in the creation of the world. Most Christians understand God, to be God the Father. God the Spirit, however, is mentioned in Genesis 1;2. God the Son's role is mentioned several times in the New Testament. Besides the idea appears in John 1;3, and Hebrews 1;2. Paul insisted that Christs role in creation was crucial. The world was created THROUGH HIM AND FOR HIM. Without gong to deep into the details of the doctrine of the Trinity, the Bible suggests that God the Father initiated the creation process. God the Son was the active agent of creation, while God the Holy Spirit was also directly involved in bringing the process to completion.
Part 2 of
"EXALTING THE SON"
Will be posted tomorrow night.
:)
Always remember, with God all things are possible
1|1|Thank you!!|Skaytes|skaytez@gmail.com|14:19:11|12/27/2009|
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