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doctrine that emanated from the arch-deceiver, Satan himself. The mediatorial position
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ in creation is first brought before us:
"Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in Him were
all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created
through Him and unto Him; and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist"
(Col. 1: 15-17 R.V.).
God is spirit (John 4: 24 R.V. margin), and as such He is invisible and
unapproachable. He needs a concrete representation of Himself if ever He is to be known
in any measure by limited created beings and this has been fulfilled in Christ as the Image
of God, or, as Heb. 1: puts it, "the Express Image of His substance", the exact
representation of all God is. This was the pre-existent Christ, the Logos, through Whom
everything came into being and in Whose Image Adam was created (Gen. 1: 26). We
must be very careful with the word `firstborn' (prototokos) and not make the gross error
of arguing from the English word that Christ was the first being who was `born' or
created. This the Arians do, but they conveniently ignore the argument of the context.
Christ was the Firstborn because by Him all things were created (Col. 1: 16). In other
words, it is as God the Creator He is described as the `Firstborn' and only as such could
it be said with truth that "He is before ALL things" (verse 17). This could never be said
of a created being. We quote from The Deity of Christ by Professor F. F. Bruce and
Dr. W. J. Martin:
"The word `firstborn' had long since ceased to be used exclusively in its literal sense,
just as `prime' (from Latin primus--first) with us. The Prime Minister is not the first
minister we have had, he is the most pre-eminent. A man in the `prime' of life has long
since left the first part of his life behind. Similarly `firstborn' came to denote not priority
in time, but pre-eminence in rank." (Italics ours.)
In other words, prototokos expresses primacy and great dignity of rank and rather than
limiting Christ or degrading Him into the position of a created being, it does just the
opposite. Furthermore the word used by Paul, all, means exactly what is says. Had the
Lord been a created being, the Apostle would have had to use the Greek word meaning
`other things' or the word meaning `remainder' or `rest' and the phrase would then have
read that He was the first of all other beings to be created or born. Not only this, but Paul
would have described Him as first-created, a term never applied to Christ. But let us note
verse 17. "And He is before all things"; not He was before all things. This is surely
parallel to the great statement of the Lord in John 8: 58 "Before Abraham was, I AM
(ego eimi).
We must also take careful note of the fact that not only did the whole creation come
into being through His agency, its goal is to Him also. It is not only through Him, but
"unto Him". This again stresses His primacy in all things. Such a statement could never
have been made with truth in connection with any created being, however great. Not
only was He the Creator, but His omnipotence holds the creation together--"by Him all
things consist". This goes far beyond the impersonal force of cohesion.