Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Colossians 1:16
For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
16. for ] because. Now follows the proof, given in the creative action of the Son, of His priority to and lordship over created being.
by him ] Lit. and far better, in Him. “The act of creation is supposed to rest in Him, and to depend on Him for its completion and realization” (Ellicott). In other words, the mighty fact that all things were created was bound up with Him, as its Secret. The creation of things was in Him, as the effect is in its cause.
A meaning so to speak more recondite has been seen here. The text has been taken to mean that the Son, the Logos, is as it were the archetypal Universe, the Sphere and Summary of all finite being as it existed (above time and temporal development) in the Eternal Mind; and accordingly that, when it came into being in time, its creation was “in” Him who thus summed it up. We venture to think that such a view is rather “read into” the words of the Christian Apostle, from non-Christian philosophies, (see Appendix C), than derived from the words.
were created ] A real event, or real events, in time. The Son is seen to have been “First with regard to creation” by the fact that He produced it; Himself existing before (or rather above) time, above all succession, all becoming.
“ Created: ” the Greek verb denotes the making, constituting, of a new state of things. As a Divine operation, such “creation” is the ordering by sovereign will of the material (of whatever kind) which by that will exists. See on Eph 2:10; and cp. Joh 1:3; Heb 1:2; Heb 1:10-12; Heb 3:3-4.
The “Creator” here in view is properly the Father, working “in” the Son. But such, in the light of the context, is the Son, that, being from one point of view the Instrument, He is also from another the eternal Co-Agent of the Father’s will.
that are in heaven, and that are in earth ] In all regions of finite being; in the whole created universe. Cp. Gen 1:1, and a long chain of passages down to Rev 21:1.
visible and invisible ] Belonging to all orders of finite being. The division is not precisely between “material” and “spiritual;” for e.g. human beings might be classed under both these. It practically emphasizes the fact that personal powers of the Unseen Universe were as truly “created in” the Son of God as existences (of any kind) that could be seen. Here, as through the whole passage, the errors current at Coloss are in view; errors which put “Christ” and the unseen Powers in a very different relation. See Introd., ch. 3.
thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers ] More strictly, thrones, or lordships, or governments, or authorities. See Eph 1:21 for a close parallel. The word “ thrones ” is absent there, as “ powers ” ( dunameis) is absent here. For similar language cp. Rom 8:38; below, Col 2:15; Eph 3:10; Eph 6:12 ; 1Pe 3:22. See further our notes on Eph 1:21 (partially quoted below, Appendix D).
Lightfoot remarks here: “No stress can be laid on the sequence of the names, as though St Paul were enunciating with authority some precise doctrine respecting the grades of the celestial hierarchy. He does not profess to describe objective realities, but contents himself with repeating subjective opinions. His language here shews the same spirit of impatience with this elaborate angelology as in Col 2:18.” We venture to dissent, in measure, from this statement. It is most certain that St Paul is not here directly and as a main purpose teaching a doctrine of angels. But he is glorifying the Son of God by a view of His relation to created being; and assuredly this would not be best done by alluding to phases of created being which might all the while be figments of the imagination. Passingly, but distinctly, so we hold, he does affirm the existence both of angels and of angelic orders, “the powers that be” of the invisible world, “created in” the eternal Cornerstone of order, the Son of God. In Eph 3:10, beyond question, “the principalities and powers” are regarded as facts of the unseen world.
all things ] From the details of his allusion to the hierarchies he returns to the universal statement.
were created ] Lit. have been created, stand created. (Not so in the first clause of this verse.)
by him ] Quite precisely, through Him; the phrase of e.g. Joh 1:3; Joh 1:10; 1Co 8:6; Heb 1:2. It teaches that the Son, in creation, while Himself a true Divine Origin (“ Beginning,” Rev 3:14) of finite being, is the Divine Instrument of the Father’s supreme Origination. The phrase alone does not quite fix this meaning, for in a very few passages (e.g. Heb 2:10) it is used of a supreme Agent’s action. But phrase and context together, as here, are decisive.
for him ] “The Word is the final cause as well as the creative agent of the Universe the goal of the Universe, as He was the starting-point. This expression has no parallel, and could have none, in the Alexandrian phraseology and doctrine” (Lightfoot). Thus interpreted, this wonderful phrase points to that “far-off Divine event” shadowed out by 1Co 15:28; when all finite existence, even all existence which from its own side is “hostile” to God, shall be “put under the feet” of the Son, made the footstool of His throne, contributing with a harmony perfect from the side of God to the glorification of the Son, and the realization of the Father’s eternal purpose in Him. Meanwhile the words surely refer not to the mysterious future only, but to the present, to all periods and moments. From one side or another all finite being is, consciously or not, willingly or not, always subserving the glory of the Son of God, and of the Father in Him.
We gather from 1Co 15:28 that the “event” of the final subjection of all things to the Son will open up, in eternity, a mysterious “subjection” of the Son to the Father. What that means we cannot enquire here. Whatever it is, it is no dethronement of the Son (Rev 22:3); most surely no revolution in the inner and eternal Relations of Godhead; rather, a mighty Manifestation of Sonship and Fatherhood. It is instructive in this direction to remember that the present passage was written some years later than 1 Corinthians 15, and that thus the course of inspiration did anything but lower the Apostle’s language about the glory and eternity of the Son.
In the light of this phrase deep is the significance of, e.g., Rom 14:8, and of every Scripture in which Christ appears as the Lord and God of the believer’s life and being.
F. CHRIST AND CREATION. (Col 1:16.)
“The heresy of the Colossian teachers took its rise in their cosmical speculations. It was therefore natural that the Apostle in replying should lay stress on the function of the Word in the creation and government of the world. This is the aspect of His work most prominent in the first of the two distinctly Christological passages. The Apostle there predicates of the Word [the Son] not only prior but absolute existence. All things were created by Him, are sustained in Him, are tending towards Him. Thus He is the beginning, middle, and end of creation. This He is because He is the very Image of the Invisible God, because in Him dwells the Plenitude of Deity.
“This creative and administrative work of Christ the Word [the Son] in the natural order of things is always emphasized in the writings of the Apostles when they touch on the doctrine of His Person With ourselves this idea has retired very much into the background And the loss is serious How much more hearty would be the sympathy of theologians with the revelations of science and the developments of history, if they habitually connected them with the operations of the same Divine Word who is the centre of all their religious aspirations, it is needless to say.
“It will be said indeed that this conception leaves creation as much a mystery as before. This may be allowed. But is there any reason to think that with our present limited capacities the veil which shrouds it ever will be removed? The metaphysical speculations of twenty-five centuries have done nothing to raise it. The physical investigations of our own age from their very nature can do nothing; for, busied with the evolution of phenomena, they lie wholly outside this question, and do not even touch the fringe of the difficulty. But meanwhile revelation has interposed, and thrown out the idea which, if it leaves many questions unsolved, gives a breadth and unity to our conceptions, at once satisfying our religious needs and linking our scientific instincts with our theological beliefs.”
Lightfoot, Colossians, pp. 182, 183.
“From dearth to plenty, and from death to life,
Is Nature’s progress, when she lectures man
In heavenly truth; evincing, as she makes
The grand transition, that there lives and works
A soul in all things, and that soul is God.
The Lord of all, Himself through all diffused,
Sustains, and is the life of all that lives.
Nature is but a name for an effect
Whose Cause is God. He feeds the secret fire
By which the mighty process is maintain’d
[All things] are under One. One Spirit, His
Who wore the platted thorns with bleeding brows
Rules universal Nature. Not a flower
But shews some touch, in freckle, streak, or stain,
Of His unrival’d pencil. He inspires
Their balmy odours, and imparts their hues,
And bathes their eyes with nectar, and includes
In grains as countless as the seaside sands,
The forms with which He sprinkles all the earth.
Happy who walks with Him! whom what he finds
Of flavour or of scent in fruit or flower,
Or what he views of beautiful or grand,
Prompts with remembrance of a present God.”
Cowper, The Task, Book vi.
The views outlined by Bishop Lightfoot, in the passage quoted above, are pregnant of spiritual and mental assistance. At the same time with them, as with other great aspects of Divine Truth, a reverent caution is needed in the development and limitation. The doctrine of the Creating Word, the Eternal Son, “in” Whom finite existence has its Corner-stone, may actually degenerate into a view both of Christ and Creation nearer akin to some forms of Greek speculation than to Christianity, if not continually balanced and guarded by a recollection of other great contents of Revelation. Dr J. H. Rigg, in Modern Anglican Theology (3rd Edition, 1880), has drawn attention to the affinity which some recent influential forms of Christian thought bear to Neo-Platonism rather than to the New Testament. In particular, any view of the relation of Christ to “Nature” and to man which leads to the conclusion that all human existences are so “in Christ” that the individual man is vitally united to Him antecedent to regeneration, and irrespective of the propitiation of the Cross, tends to non-Christian affinities. It is a fact never to be lost sight of that any theology which on the whole gives to the mysteries of guilt and propitiation a less prominent place than that given to them in Holy Scripture, tends to a very wide divergence from the scriptural type. Here, as in all things, the safety of thought lies on the one hand in neglecting no great element of revealed truth, on the other in coordinating the elements on the scale, and in the manner, of Divine Revelation.
G. DEVELOPMENTS OF DOCTRINE IN COLOSSIANS. (Col 1:16)
In the precise form presented in Colossians the revelation of the Creative Work of the Son is new in St Paul’s Epistles. But intimations of it are to be found in the earlier Epistles, and such as to make this final development as natural as it is impressive. In 1Co 8:6 we have the “one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we through Him; ” which is in effect the germ of the statements of Colossians 1. And in Rom 8:19-23 we have a passage pregnant with the thought that the created Universe has a mysterious relation to “the sons of God,” such that their glorification will be also its emancipation from the laws of decay; or at least that the glorification and the emancipation are deeply related to each other. Nothing is wanted to make the kinship of that passage and Colossians 1 evident at a glance, but an explicit mention of Christ as the Head of both worlds. As it is, His mysterious but most real connexion with the making and the maintaining of the Universe is seen lying as it were just below the surface of the passage in Romans.
H. “THRONES AND DOMINIONS.” (Col 1:16)
We transcribe here a note from our edition of Ephesians in this Series; on the words of Eph 1:21:
“Two thoughts are conveyed; first, subordinately, the existence of orders and authorities in the angelic (as well as human) world; then, primarily, the imperial and absolute Headship of the Son over them all. The additional thought is given us by Col 1:16, that He was also, in His preexistent glory, their Creator; but this is not in definite view here, where He appears altogether as the exalted Son of Man after Death. In Romans 8, Colossians 2, and Ephesians 6 we have cognate phrases where evil powers are meant. But the context here is distinctly favourable to a good reference. That the Redeemer should be “exalted above” powers of evil is a thought scarcely adequate in a connexion so full of the imagery of glory as this. That He should be “exalted above” the holy angels is fully in point. 1Pe 3:22 is our best parallel; and cp. Rev 5:11-12. See also Mat 13:41; “The Son of Man shall send forth His angels.”
“We gather from the Epistle to the Colossians that the Churches of Asia Proper were at this time in danger from a quasi-Jewish doctrine of Angel-worship, akin to the heresies afterwards known as Gnosticism. Such a fact gives special point to the phrases here. On the other hand it does not warrant the inference that St Paul repudiates all the ideas of such an angelology. The idea of order and authority in the angelic world he surely endorses, though quite in passing.
“Theories of angelic orders, more or less elaborate, are found in the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, (cent. 1 2); Origen (cent. 3); St Ephrem Syrus (cent. 4). By far the most famous ancient treatise on the subject is the book On the Celestial Hierarchy, under the name (certainly assumed) of Dionysius the Areopagite; a book first mentioned cent. 6, from which time onwards it had a commanding influence in Christendom. (See Article Dionysius in Smith’s Dict. Christ. Biography). “Dionysius” ranked the orders (in descending scale) in three Trines; Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones; Dominations, Virtues, Powers (Authorities); Principalities, Archangels, Angels. The titles are thus a combination of the terms Seraphim, Cherubim, Archangels, Angels, with those used by St Paul here and in Colossians 1.
“Readers of Paradise Lost, familiar with the majestic line,
‘Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Pow’rs,’
are not always aware of its learned accuracy of allusion. The Dionysian system powerfully attracted the sublime mind of Dante. In the Paradiso, Canto xxxviii., is a grand and characteristic passage, in which Beatrice expounds the theory to Dante, as he stands, in the Ninth Heaven, in actual view of the Hierarchies encircling the Divine Essence:
‘All, as they circle in their orders, look
Aloft; and, downward, with such sway prevail
That all with mutual impulse tend to God.
These once a mortal view beheld. Desire
In Dionysius so intensely wrought
That he, as I have done, ranged them, and named
Their orders, marshal’d in his thought.’
Cary’s Dante.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For by him were all things created – This is one of the reasons why he is called the image of God, and the first-born. He makes God known to us by his creative power, and by the same power in creation shows that he is exalted over all things as the Son of God. The phrase which is used here by the apostle is universal. He does not declare that he created all things in the spiritual kingdom of God, or that he arranged the events of the gospel dispensation, as Socinians suppose (see Crellius); but that every thing was created by him. A similar form of expression occurs in Joh 1:3; see the notes at that verse. There could not possibly be a more explicit declaration that the universe was created by Christ, than this. As if the simple declaration in the most comprehensive terms were not enough, the apostle goes into a specification of things existing in heaven and earth, and so varies the statement as if to prevent the possibility of mistake.
That are in heaven – The division of the universe into heaven and earth is natural and obvious, for it is the one that is apparent; see Gen 1:1. Heaven, then, according to this division, will embrace all the universe, except the earth; and will include the heavenly bodies and their inhabitants, the distant worlds, as well as heaven, more strictly so called, where God resides. The declaration, then, is, that all things that were in the worlds above us were the work of his creative power.
And that are in earth – All the animals, plants, minerals, waters, hidden fires, etc. Everything which the earth contains.
Visible and invisible – We see but a small part of the universe. The angels we cannot see. The inhabitants of distant worlds we cannot see. Nay, there are multitudes of worlds which, even with the best instruments, we cannot see. Yet all these things are said to have been created by Christ.
Whether they be thrones – Whether those invisible things be thrones. The reference is to the ranks of angels, called here thrones, dominions, etc.; see the notes at Eph 1:21. The word thrones does not occur in the parallel place in Ephesians; but there can be no doubt that the reference is to an order of angelic beings, as those to whom dominion and power were intrusted. The other orders enumerated here are also mentioned in Eph 1:21.
All things were created by him – The repetition, and the varied statement here, are designed to express the truth with emphasis, and so that there could not be the possibility of mistake or misapprehension; compare the notes at Joh 1:1-3. The importance of the doctrine, and the fact that it was probably denied by false teachers, or that they held philosophical opinions that tended to its practical denial, are the reasons why the apostle dwells so particularly on this point.
And for him – For his glory; for such purposes as he designed. There was a reference to himself in the work of creation, just as, when a man builds a house, it is with reference to some important purposes which he contemplates, pertaining to himself. The universe was built by the Greater to be his own property; to be the theater on which he would accomplish his purposes, and display his perfections. Particularly the earth was made by the Son of God to be the place where he would become incarnate, and exhibit the wonders of redeeming love. There could not be a more positive declaration than this, that the universe was created by Christ; and, if so, he is divine. The work of creation is the exertion of the highest power of which we can form a conception, and is often appealed to in the Scriptures by God to prove that he is divine, in contradistinction from idols. If, therefore, this passage be understood literally, it settles the question about the divinity of Christ. Accordingly, Unitarians have endeavored to show that the creation here referred to is a moral creation; that it refers to the arrangement of affairs in the Christian church, or to the kingdom of God on earth, and not to the creation of the material universe. This interpretation has been adopted even by Grotius, who supposes that it refers to the arrangement by which all things are fitted up in the new creation, and by which angels and men are reconciled. By the things in heaven and in earth, some Unitarian expositors have understood the Jews and the Gentiles, who are reconciled by the gospel; others, by the things in heaven, understand the angels, and, by the things on earth, men, who are brought into harmony by the gospel plan of salvation. But the objections to this interpretation are insuperable:
(1) The word created is not used in this sense properly, and cannot be. That it may mean to arrange, to order, is true; but it is not used in the sense of reconciling, or of bringing discordant things into harmony. To the great mass of men, who have no theory to support, it would be understood in its natural and obvious sense, as denoting the literal creation.
(2) The assertion is, that the creative power of Christ was exerted on all things. It is not in reference to angels only, or to men, or to Jews, or to Gentiles; it is in relation to everything in heaven and in earth; that is, to the whole universe. Why should so universal a declaration be supposed to denote merely the intelligent creation?
(3) With what propriety, or in what tolerable sense, can the expression things in heaven and things in earth be applied to the Jews and Gentiles? In what sense can it be said that they are visible and invisible? And, if the language could be thus used, how can the fact that Christ is the means of reconciling them be a reason why he should be called the image of the invisible God?
(4) If it be understood of a moral creation, of a renovation of things, of a change of nature, how can this be applied to the angels? Has Christ created them anew? Has he changed their nature and character? Good angels cannot need a spiritual renovation; and Christ did not come to convert fallen angels, and to bring them into harmony with the rest of the universe.
(5) The phrase here employed, of creating all things in heaven and on earth, is never used elsewhere to denote a moral or spiritual creation. It appropriately expresses the creation of the universe. It is language strikingly similar to that used by Moses, Gen 1:1; and it would be so understood by the great mass of mankind. If this be so, then Christ is divine, and we can see in this great work a good reason why he is called the image of the invisible God, and why he is at the head of the universe – the first-born of the creation. It is because, through him, God is made known to us in the work of creation; and because, being the great agent in that work, there is a propriety that he should occupy this position at the head of all things.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Col 1:16
By Him were all things created.
I. Some of those cases which illustrate the harmony between natural religion and our Christian faith.
1. The doctrine of the being of a God. I do not need to open the Bible to learn that. It is enough that I open my eyes, and turn them on the book of nature, where it stands legibly written on every page.
2. So also is the doctrine that man is a sinner. It is enough to open my heart, or read in the light of conscience the blotted record of my past life.
3. Such also is the doctrine that sin deserves punishment. Hell is no discovery of the Bible. In vain do men flee from Christianity to escape what their uneasy conscience feels to be a painful doctrine.
4. Such also is the doctrine that man cannot save himself. In what country or what age of heathenism does man appear standing erect before his God, demanding justice? In none. All her temples had vicarious sacrifices and atoning altars.
5. Such also is the doctrine that the soul survives death. This hope has been a star that shone in every sky, a flower that bloomed in the poorest soil. Although it cannot be said that the doctrine of the resurrection is to be placed in the same class with those universal fixed beliefs, yet may not the feelings which prompt to such tender care of the lifeless body have suggested the idea? Different from these, the doctrine of God incarnate is one which nature nowhere teaches us. Our proofs of this must be sought for in Scripture. In illustration of this remark, notice that–
II. The word of God both here and elsewere ascribes the work of creation to Jesus (1Co 8:6; Eph 3:9; Joh 1:3). Our Lord has been connected with creation sometimes more in beautiful fancies than in plain facts. There is a flower, e.g., which the piety of other days associated with the piety and love of Calvary. In the form and arrangement of its parts it presents such a remarkable resemblance to the cross and nails, enriched by a halo of floral glory, that, as if originally made to anticipate and afterwards left to commemorate our Redeemers sufferings, it has received the name of the passion flower. And I remember how, in wooded dell, or on brown heather hill, we were wont to pull up a fern, and having cut its root across wonder on the initials Jesus Christ printed there on the wounded stem. And when the mariner, leaving our northern latitudes, pushes southward, he sees a starry cross emerging from the deep; and as his course tends further it rises higher in the heavens, till, when the pole-star has dipped beneath the wave, he gazes with awe and wonder at the sign of salvation blazing above his head. In these things a devout superstition sought to gratify its affections. It is not, however, in these fancies that we seek or see our Lords connection with nature. But as, with the genius that aspires to immortality, the painter leaves his name in the corner of the canvas, so Inspiration, dipping her pen in indelible truth, has inscribed the name of Jesus on all we see–on sun and stars, flower and tree, rock and mountain, the unstable waters and the firm land; and also on what we do not see–angels and spirits, the city and heavens of the eternal world. This is not fancy, but fact. No voice ever sounded more distinctly than that of revealed truth proclaiming the Creatorship of Jesus, and hence His Lordship of all. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Christ the Creator
I. Consider the statement itself.
1. Heaven itself was created by and for Christ Jesus.
(1) There is such a place, as well as such a state, and of that place Jesus is the centre.
(2) It was created for Jesus, and for the people whom He will bring there to be one for ever with Himself.
(3) It exists by Jesus and for Jesus.
(a) Prepared by Jesus. He is the designer of it.
(b) Reflects Jesus. He is the soul of it.
(c) Praises Jesus. He is the King of it.
2. The angels. All their ranks were made by Him and for Him.
(1) To worship Him, and glorify Him with their adoration.
(2) To rejoice with Him and in Him, as they do when sinners repent.
(3) To guard Christs people in life, and bring them to Him in death.
(4) To carry out His purposes of judgment, as with Pharaoh, etc.
(5) To achieve His purposes of deliverance, as Peter from prison.
3. This world was made by Him to be–
(1) A place for Him to live and die upon.
(2) A stage for His people to live and act upon.
(3) A province to be fully restored to His dominion.
(4) A new world in the ages to come, to bless other worlds, if such there be; and to display, for ever, the glories of Jesus.
4. All the lower creatures are for Jesus. And that are in earth.
(1) They are needful to man, and so to our Lords system of grace.
(2) They are illustrations of Christs wisdom, power, and goodness.
(3) They are to be treated kindly for His sake.
5. Men were created by and for Christ.
(1) That He might display a special phase of power and skill, in creating spiritual beings embodied in material forms.
(2) That He might become Himself one of them.
(3) That He might Himself be the Head of a remarkable order of beings who know both good and evil, are children of God, are bound to God by ties of gratitude, and are one with His Son.
(4) That for these He might die: to save them, and to make them His companions, friends, and worshippers for ever.
(5) That human thrones, even when occupied by wicked men, might be made to subserve His purpose by restraint or by overruling.
II. Review the reflections hence arising.
1. Jesus, then, is God. By Him were all things created.
2. Jesus is the clue of the universe; its centre and explanation. All things are to be seen in the light of the cross, and all things reflect light on the cross. For Him all things exist.
3. To live to Jesus, then, is to find out the true object of our being, and to be in accord with all creation.
4. Not living to Jesus, we can have no blessing.
5. We can only live for Him as we live by Him, for so all things do.
6. It is clear that He must triumph. All is going well. If we look at history from His throne, all things are for Him. He must reign. Let us comfort one another with these words. What an honour to be the smallest page in the retinue of such a prince! (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Advent in Creation
A very narrow notion of the functions of Christ is afloat in the atmosphere of popular religious thought, though not formulated into dogmatic phrases. It is that our Lord is limited in work and even in nature to the mission of redemption. Such an idea implies that Christ is dependent on the existence of sin, and that His very being is but an expedient required for the deliverance of man. So stated the doctrine is monstrous. If there had been no sin, Christ would have visited the world in some way of Divine goodness. He came in the creation before the birth of sin.
I. The fact.
1. As regards the relation of Christ to creation. This is threefold.
(1) In Christ is the fundamental basis of creation. In Him, i.e., His thoughts, are the archetypes of the worlds and their contents, and the genesis of them follows the principles of His nature.
(2) Christ is the instrumental agent of creation through Him. He is the Mediator in creation as well as redemption.
(3) Christ is the end of the creation. Unto Him, i.e., all things grow into His likeness, they move upwards towards the realization of His life. Christ in His human nature was the highest development of the upward movement of creation. They are also destined to serve and glorify Him.
2. As regards the scope and range of the work of Christ. This was universal in creation. It included:
(1) All things visible and invisible, i.e., physical and spiritual existences, or things within our observation and the infinite population of the spaces beyond.
(2) All orders of being, thrones, etc., none too great for His power, none too small for His care.
(3) Every variety and every individual. Different classes are specified. Creation is not a work merely of general laws, it implies individual formation under them.
II. Inferences.
1. AS regards Christ.
(1) His pre-existence. That which was Divine in Christ was before all things. The Christ-side of God, all that is so touching and winning in the marvellous revelation of God in Jesus, is no new phase of His character. It was before the sterner revelation of Sinai. It is eternal (Heb 13:8).
(2) His glory. All that is great and beautiful in creation glorifies Him through whom it came into existence.
2. As regards the creation.
(1) This must be in harmony with Christ. Therefore–
(a) We must interpret its darker phases by what we know of the spirit and character of Christ.
(b) We must expect that ultimately its laws and forces will make for Christianity, breathing benedictions on the faithful followers of Christ, and bringing natural penalties on those who rebel against His rule.
(2) We should endeavour to trace indications of the presence of Christ in nature. (W. J. Adeney, M. A.)
The work of creation by and for Jesus Christ
I. Christ is the creator of all things. Whatever is the act of creation it must be the Divine act; and whoever is the Creator He must be Divine.
1. Creation is always averred to be a Divine act (Gen 1:1, etc.). It answers to our idea of the highest omnipotence, for the things which are made were not made of the things which do appear.
2. The creating act is always set before us as the basis on which the exclusive honours of the Deity are challenged.
(1) God puts His right to worship on this act.
(2) He suspends the veracity of His statements on it.
(3) His majesty and pre-eminence are made to depend upon it.
3. The creating act is always represented as designed to manifest the glory of Him by whom it was done. For thy pleasure they are and were created. The heavens declare the glory of God.
4. The creating act constitutes the very groundwork of natural religion. We will wait upon Thee, for Thou hast made all these things.
5. There is a validity stamped upon all the blessings of revelation, because they issue from Him who is this universal Creator. The great blessings of the gospel are placed in immediate connection with this omnific act.
(1) Reconciliation. All things are of God, who hath reconciled us.
(2) Atonement. It became Him, for whom are all things, etc.
(3) Illumination. God, who hath commanded the light to shine, etc.
(4) Protection. Let us commit our souls to Him as a faithful Creator.
6. Idolatry is reprobated on this exclusive ground, that it is offered to those who are not the makers of the universe. Worshipping and serving the creature more than the Creator.
7. Creation is always considered an unassisted act. I am the Lord that maketh all things.
8. Now, without any qualification or exception, creation is attributed to Christ; how, then, can we deny Him to be Divine?
II. All things were created for Christ, and form his right and prerogative.
1. There are two forms of the Divine foreknowledge.
(1) God is acquainted with actions however future.
(2) God realizes in His own mind what would be the issue of circumstances had they been different from what they are. They would have repented long ago.
2. We are assured, then, that this universe being created for Christ was not a supplementary design upon some previous arrangement that had been tried and had failed. This is our method, not Gods. Christ wrought this instrument, and it shall go on in His service.
3. Foreseeing sin He made the world in which it was to be vanquished, and hence we read of Gods eternal purpose, and of the Lamb which was foreordained before the foundation of the world. The world is still in revolt, but the eternal purpose shall be accomplished, and all the forces of nature and history shall contribute to it.
4. More particularly all things are created for Christ, inasmuch as–
(1) They furnish the scenes of His mediation. Lo, I come! The earth claimed His birth, life, and entombment. He made it the seat of His Church. Here is the sphere of His Spirits influence. This is the receptacle of His most complacent operations, where He is satisfied for all the travail of His soul. This is the arena of His spiritual victories.
(2) They are tributaries to His praise. All things are created to do Him direct homage. Angels do; the redeemed will; devils and sinners shall.
III. The connection between the two propositions. That Christ is the Creator and Proprietor of all things.
1. This is shown by arguing the difficulty of our redemption, because only the Creator could surmount it.
2. The sufficiency of that redemption because the Creator has wrought it. (R. W. Hamilton, LL. D.)
Christ the end of creation
I. The text furnishes a proof of our Lords divinity.
1. He is in the position of a servant who works for others; He is a Master who, by other hands or His own works for Himself. Look at the condition of man. Whatever office he fills in Providence he is a servant, and on crowned monarchs, who are but upper servants, Paul lays the duty of doing all to the glory of God. Nor do angels, although holding a much higher rank, differ from us in this respect. I am thy fellow-servant. The Lord hath made all things for Himself. This prerogative is held by Christ.
2. Some have attempted to evade the argument for our Lords Divinity based on the fact of creation. The objectors say that He created by such power as Elijah received from God to restore the widows son, etc. But the text cuts the ground under their feet. Did Elijah bring back the dead for himself and his own glory? If Christ was less than God, then in kindling the sun He no more acted for Himself than a domestic does in kindling a fire. It is the nature of a creature to hold a servants place.: Now if Jesus were man He was justly condemned, for He laid Himself open to the charge of blasphemy, since, as the Jews truly averred, He made Himself the Son of God, equal with God To the all Mine are Thine, Christ added Thine are Mine. All that is Gods is Christs, is the consistent testimony of the New Testament.
II. The glory of God was the original purpose of creation. Sill had to some extent blighted the beauty of creation. Still the Psalmist said, The heavens declare, etc., and the closer we examine the works of God, the higher our admiration rises. The whole earth is full of His glory. Some things remain unaffected by the blight of sin, as God made them for Himself; the flowers have lost none of their fragrance, and seas and seasons, obedient to their original impulse, roll on as of old to their Makers glory. But from man, alas! how is the glory departed! Look at his body when the light of his eye is quenched; or look at his soul. What glory does God get from many of us!
III. God will make even the wicked and their sins redound to His glory. A strange machine is this of Providence. Virtue is struggling with the temptations of poverty, the wicked are in great power, spreading like a green bay-tree. Sin triumphs, and devils seem to defeat the purposes of God. Defeat the purposes of God! Impossible. Did you ever stand beneath the leaden lowering cloud, and mark the lightnings leap, and think that you could grasp the bolt and change its path? Still more foolish and vain his thought who fancies that: he can arrest Gods purposes. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. Do you, e.g., injure a godly man? God is using you to train up His child in the grace of patience. Messenger of Satan! dost thou buffet an apostle? God uses thee to keep him humble, arid to teach him to wear his honours meekly.: No man liveth for himself. The most bold and God-hating sinners may rest assured that when the machine of Providence has done its work, and the secret purposes of God are fully completed, it shall be seen how the Lord hath made all things for Himself.
IV. Since Christ hath made all things for Himself, His people are called to consecrate themselves and their all to His glory. To this we are called by the obligations of both a natural and spiritual creation. This may expose us to pain; but what pain Jesus endured for us! What owest thou unto thy Lord? You cannot tell that; therefore lay your all at His feet, He who lives for Christ has one end in view which lends dignity to his life. Glorify Christ and you shall enjoy Him. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
What is said of the Father in 1Co 8:6, the same is here Said of the Son. All things must find their meeting-point, their reconciliation, at length in Him from whom they took their rise–in the Word as the mediatorial agent, and through the Word in the Father as the primary source. The Word is the final cause as well as the creative agent of the universe. This ultimate goal of the present dispensation in time is similarly stated in several passages. It is represented–
1. As the birth-throe and deliverance of all creation through Christ (Rom 8:19, etc.).
2. The absolute and final subjection of universal nature to Him (1Co 15:28).
3. The reconciliation of all things through Him (verse 20).
4. The gathering in one head of the universe in Him (Eph 1:10). The Eternal Word is the goal of the universe, as He was the starting-point. It must end in unity, as it proceeded from unity, and the centre of this unity is Christ. (Bp. Lightfoot.)
Thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers
The Colossian heretics seem to have held that all matter was evil, and that therefore the material creation could not have come directly from a good God, but was in a certain sense opposed to Him, or at all events separated from Him by an immense gulf. The void space was bridged by a chain of beings, half abstractions and half persons, gradually becoming more and more material. The lowest, of them had created the material universe and now governed it, and were all to he propitiated by worship. Paul opposes the solid truth to these dreams, and instead of a crowd of powers and angelic beings in whom the effulgence of Deity was gradually darkened, and the spirit became more and more thickened into matter, he lifts high and clear against that background of faith the solitary figure of the, one Christ. He fills all the space between God and man. There is no need for a crowd of shadowy beings to link heaven with earth. There is a tone of contemptuous impatience in Pauls voice as he quotes the pompous list of sensuous titles, which a busy fancy had coined. It is as if he had said, You are being told a great, deal about these angel hierarchies, and know all about their ranks and gradations. I do not know anything about them; but this I know, that if, amid the unseen things in the heavens or the earth, there be any such, my Lord made them, and is their Master. He is first and last in all things, to be listened to, loved, and worshipped by men. As when the full moon rises, so when Christ appears, all the lesser stars with which Alexandrian and Eastern speculation had peopled the abysses of the sky are lost in the mellow radiance, and instead of a crowd of flickering ineffectual lights there is one perfect orb, and heaven is overflowed. We see no creature any more save Jesus only. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 16. 17. For by him were all things created, c.] These two verses contain parts of the same subject. I shall endeavour to distinguish the statements of the apostle, and reason from them in such a way as the premises shall appear to justify, without appealing to any other scripture in proof of the doctrine which I suppose these verses to vindicate.
Four things are here asserted:
1. That Jesus Christ is the Creator of the universe of all things visible and invisible of all things that had a beginning, whether they exist in time or in eternity.
2. That whatsoever was created was created FOR himself; that he was the sole end of his own work.
3. That he was prior to all creation, to all beings, whether in the visible or invisible world.
4. That he is the preserver and governor of all things; for by him all things consist.
Now, allowing St. Paul to have understood the terms which he used, he must have considered Jesus Christ as being truly and properly God.
I. Creation is the proper work of an infinite, unlimited, and unoriginated Being; possessed of all perfections in their highest degrees; capable of knowing, willing, and working infinitely, unlimitedly, and without control: and as creation signifies the production of being where all was absolute nonentity, so it necessarily implies that the Creator acted of and from himself; for as, previously to this creation, there was no being, consequently he could not be actuated by any motive, reason, or impulse, without himself; which would argue there was some being to produce the motive or impulse, or to give the reason. Creation, therefore, is the work of him who is unoriginated, infinite, unlimited, and eternal. But Jesus Christ is the Creator of all things, therefore Jesus Christ must be, according to the plain construction of the apostle’s words, truly and properly GOD.
II. As, previously to creation, there was no being but God, consequently the great First Cause must, in the exertion of his creative energy, have respect to himself alone; for he could no more have respect to that which had no existence, than he could be moved by nonexistence, to produce existence or creation. The Creator, therefore, must make every thing FOR himself.
Should it be objected that Christ created officially or by delegation, I answer: This is impossible; for, as creation requires absolute and unlimited power, or omnipotence, there can be but one Creator; because it is impossible that there can be two or more Omnipotents, Infinites, or Eternals. It is therefore evident that creation cannot be effected officially, or by delegation, for this would imply a Being conferring the office, and delegating such power; and that the Being to whom it was delegated was a dependent Being; consequently not unoriginated and eternal; but this the nature of creation proves to be absurd.
1. The thing being impossible in itself, because no limited being could produce a work that necessarily requires omnipotence.
2. It is impossible, because, if omnipotence be delegated, he to whom it is delegated had it not before, and he who delegates it ceases to have it, and consequently ceases to be GOD; and the other to whom it was delegated becomes God, because such attributes as those with which he is supposed to be invested are essential to the nature of God. On this supposition God ceases to exist, though infinite and eternal, and another not naturally infinite and eternal becomes such; and thus an infinite and eternal Being ceases to exist, and another infinite and eternal Being is produced in time, and has a beginning, which is absurd. Therefore, as Christ is the Creator, he did not create by delegation, or in any official way.
Again, if he had created by delegation or officially, it would have been for that Being who gave him that office, and delegated to him the requisite power; but the text says that all things were made BY him and FOR him, which is a demonstration that the apostle understood Jesus Christ to be truly and essentially God.
III. As all creation necessarily exists in time, and had a commencement, and there was an infinite duration in which it did not exist, whatever was before or prior to that must be no part of creation; and the Being who existed prior to creation, and before all things – all existence of every kind, must be the unoriginated and eternal God: but St. Paul says, Jesus Christ was before all things; ergo, the apostle conceived Jesus Christ to be truly and essentially God.
IV. As every effect depends upon its cause, and cannot exist without it; so creation, which is an effect of the power and skill of the Creator, can only exist and be preserved by a continuance of that energy that first gave it being. Hence, God, as the Preserver, is as necessary to the continuance of all things, as God the Creator was to their original production. But this preserving or continuing power is here ascribed to Christ, for the apostle says, And by him do all things consist; for as all being was derived from him as its cause, so all being must subsist by him, as the effect subsists by and through its cause. This is another proof that the apostle considered Jesus Christ to be truly and properly God, as he attributes to him the preservation of all created things, which property of preservation belongs to God alone; ergo, Jesus Christ is, according to the plain obvious meaning of every expression in this text, truly, properly, independently, and essentially God.
Such are the reasonings to which the simple letter of these two verses necessarily leads me. I own it is possible that I may have misapprehended this awful subject, for humanum est errare et nescire; but I am not conscious of the slightest intentional flaw in the argument. Taking, therefore, the apostle as an uninspired man, giving his own view of the Author of the Christian religion, it appears, beyond all controversy, that himself believed Christ Jesus to be God; but considering him as writing under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, then we have, from the plain grammatical meaning of the words which he has used, the fullest demonstration (for the Spirit of God cannot lie) that he who died for our sins and rose again for our justification, and in whose blood we have redemption, was GOD over all. And as God alone can give salvation to men, and God only can remit sin; hence with the strictest propriety we are commanded to believe on the Lord Jesus, with the assurance that we shall be saved. Glory be to God for this unspeakable gift! See my discourse on this subject.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For by him were all things created: he proves Christ to be before and Lord over every creature, more excellent than them all, with a prerogative other princes want, for none of them is a creator of his subjects, who were not made by him or for him, as all creatures without exception were made by and for Christ. The apostle here is as cautious as may be, lest by speaking of Christ as
the firstborn of every creature, he should seem to put him in the order of creatures, which he shows do depend upon him for their creation and preservation, since he brought them out of nothing into being, and therein doth sustain them.
By him; in whom they have their beings, live and move, Act 17:28. Some render the particle in, rather than by. But they disclaim the philosophical notions about Platonic ideas, only conceive all to be made in Christ, as the exemplary cause, whom God had in his eternal decree set up as the pattern of all perfections, being his image, according to which it was agreed, in the council of the Trinity, man should be made, Gen 1:26. But the most do, according to our translation, render it (as a Hebrew phrase) by, ( being of the same import with that in the end of the verse), or through, which is expressive of the principal efficient, not the instrumental cause, for all the things made were produced out of nothing into being immediately by him, Joh 1:3,10; Heb 1:8,10; he might well be Lord over them all, who was the first founder of them, Act 10:36; 1Co 8:6; and whatever the adversaries allege, it is plain in Scripture that by is used of the principal cause, Col 1:1; Rom 11:31,36; 1Co 1:1; 1Co 12:8,9; 2Co 1:1; Gal 1:1; 1Th 4:2; 2Th 3:12.
Were all things created: creation is simply, universally, and absolutely attributed to him; for whatever subtilties some would suggest,
all things created by him is equivalent to he created all things; compare Psa 96:5; 102:25, with Isa 44:24; 48:13; Jer 10:12; Act 17:24, with Rom 11:36; (like 1Co 1:9, with 1Th 2:12).
That are in heaven, and that are in earth: the apostle speaks extensively of all proceeding from not being into being, both generally and distributively, agreeably to the common expression of
all things that were made at the beginning, Act 4:24; though in Scripture, where mention is made of the creation, heaven and earth be not always expressed, Isa 40:26; Mar 10:6; 13:19; Act 17:24; Rom 1:20; 2Pe 3:4; Rev 4:11; but here, where all things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, are expressed, it is evident that heaven and earth are together comprehended.
Visible and invisible: these two adjuncts of visible and invisible do divide all creatures whatsoever, there being nothing made that is not one or the other.
Whether they be; all enumeration is particularly made of the latter, which for their excellency (if any) might seem to be exempted (by those in danger of being beguiled to the worshipping of angels) from the state and condition of being created by Jesus Christ; particularly,
thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; those he here names, as elsewhere, Rom 8:38; Eph 1:20,21; 3:10; 6:12, in the abstracts for the concretes, the invisible inhabitants of the world. I know some would have dignities in human policy to be meant, as Tit 3:1; 2Pe 2:10; Jud 1:8; but it is more rational, with the generality of ancient and modern interpreters, as Col 2:15, to expound these titles of incorporeal and angelical creatures, whether by an emphatical synonyme, angels generally, by a metonymy, being ministers of the heavenly state; or more probably, as should seem from the scope of the place, by such a subdivision of invisibles as the apostle did conceive there was, according to the properties wherein they were eminent, and the offices whereunto they were delegated of God, which he expressed disjunctively by borrowed titles from the distinctions of men in dignities and offices here below, as dukes, earls, lords, and other magistrates; the Scriptures elsewhere initmating distinctions amongst the spiritual ministers attending the commands of the heavenly Majesty upon his throne, represented shadowed by the cherubims, Gen 3:24; Exo 25:18,22; 1Sa 4:4; 2Sa 6:2; 1Ch 28:18; Psa 80:1; Isa 37:16; Eze 1:13; denominated archangels and princes, Dan 10:13,21; 1Th 4:16; Jud 1:9; which imply some distinctions and orders amongst angelical beings, but what that is we know not, (whatever is disputed in the Roman schools from the spurious Denys), and therefore having no ground from Scripture, account it no better than curiosity to inquire, and rashness to determine.
All things were created by him: after his enumeration and distribution of things created, the apostle doth, for further confirmation, repeat the universal proposition or assumption, with a preposition expressive of the same absolute efficiency of causality that is attributed to God the Father and the Holy Ghost; all created things being made by him, i.e. by Christ, whose works without are undivided from those of the other Persons in the Trinity; they were all brought out of nothing into being by him, not by angels.
And for him; which is more fully proved from his being the final (as well as efficient) cause of them; they all had their being in respect of him or for him, i.e. his glory, Rom 11:36, to manifest his Divine power and infinite goodness, Joh 5:17,23; Joh 17:5; he is their end as well as founder, Rev 5:13; the apostle affirms the same of him that is affirmed of the Father, Job 9:8; Pro 16:4; Isa 44:24; he made them all for his own sake. The Socinians, in derogation to Christs Divinity, would restrain, limit, and narrow what Christ saith here in this verse to the new creation, or reparation, but against manifest reason. For:
1. The words creature and creation in the foregoing verse and this, are used absolutely, as was before suggested, and so created here repeated twice, and joined with the word all, and therefore to be understood, as elsewhere, absolutely of the old or first creation, Mar 10:6; 13:19; 16:15; Rom 1:20,25; 1Co 11:9; 1Ti 4:3; Heb 4:13; 2Pe 3:4; Rev 10:6; for when it is used of the second creation, or restoration, the restrictive additament of new is joined with it, Isa 65:17,18; 2Co 5:17; Gal 6:15; Eph 2:15; 4:24, not left indefinitely as here.
2. In parallel places, the making and founding of the old creation is ascribed to Christ, both negatively and positively, Joh 1:3; Heb 1:3,10; not one thing is excepted, and therefore should not be restrained to men.
3. It is most evident from the context the apostle doth in this verse discourse of creation, in contradistinction to what he speaks of afterwards in, {Col 1:18,20} when he comes to treat of Christ as Head of his church, and we have no reason to charge the apostle with a useless repetition further.
4. The apostles significant enumeration and distinction of things created, doth evidence that he understood the subject, the creation, in the most extensive and unlimited consideration of it. He reckons up material as well as immaterial things, and those in heaven, which needed no restoration, as well as those on earth, which did, being polluted with sin. Those angels who had not put off the honour of the first, did not belong to the new creation; having not divested themselves of their original integrity, they needed not to be reinvested with that they never lost: and devils cannot be ranked among new creatures, neither can wicked souls, Mat 25:41; Rev 22:15; neither are there new and old orders of angels; so that the dominion Christ is here (as elsewhere) asserted as founder of, is the whole, not only the new creation, Rev 5:13.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16. ForGreek,“Because.” This gives the proof that He is not included inthe things created, but is the “first-begotten” before”every creature” (Col1:15), begotten as “the Son of God’s love” (Col1:13), antecedently to all other emanations: “for” allthese other emanations came from Him, and whatever was created, wascreated by Him.
by himrather as Greek,“in Him”: as the conditional element, pre-existentand all-including: the creation of all things BYHim is expressed afterwards, and is a different fact from thepresent one, though implied in it [ALFORD].God revealed Himself in the Son, the Word of the Father, beforeall created existence (Col1:15). That Divine Word carries INHimself the archetypes of all existences, so that “INHim all things that are in heaven and earth have beencreated.” The “in Him” indicates that the Word is theideal ground of all existence; the “by Him,” below,that He is the instrument of actually realizing the divineidea [NEANDER]. Hisessential nature as the Word of the Father is not a mere appendage ofHis incarnation, but is the ground of it. The original relation ofthe Eternal Word to men “made in His image” (Ge1:27), is the source of the new relation to them by redemption,formed in His incarnation, whereby He restores them to His lostimage. “In Him” implies something prior to “by”and “for Him” presently after: the three prepositions markin succession the beginning, the progress, and the end [BENGEL].
all thingsGreek,“the universe of things.” That the new creationis not meant in this verse (as Socinians interpret), is plain; forangels, who are included in the catalogue, were not newcreated by Christ; and he does not speak of the new creation tillCol 1:18. The creation “ofthe things that are in the heavens” (so Greek)includes the creation of the heavens themselves: the formerare rather named, since the inhabitants are more noble than theirdwellings. Heaven and earth and all that is m them (1Ch 29:11;Neh 9:6; Rev 10:6).
invisiblethe world ofspirits.
thrones, ordominionslordships: the thrones are the greater of thetwo.
principalities, orpowersrather, “rules, or authorities“:the former are stronger than the latter (compare Note, see onEph 1:21). The latter pair refer tooffices in respect to God’s creatures: “thrones anddominions” express exalted relation to God, they beingthe chariots on which He rides displaying His glory (Ps68:17). The existence of various orders of angels is establishedby this passage.
all thingsGreek,“the whole universe of things.”
wererather, todistinguish the Greek aorist, which precedes from the perfecttense here, “have been created.” In the former casethe creation was viewed as a past act at a point of time, oras done once for all; here it is viewed, not merely as one historicact of creation in the past, but as the permanent result now andeternally continuing.
by himas theinstrumental Agent (Joh 1:3).
for himas the grandEnd of creation; containing in Himself the reason why creationis at all, and why it is as it is [ALFORD].He is the final cause as well as the efficient cause.LACHMANN’S punctuation ofCol 1:15-18 is best,whereby “the first-born of every creature” (Col1:15) answers to “the first-born from the dead” (Col1:18), the whole forming one sentence with the words (“Allthings were created by Him and for Him, and He is before all things,and by Him all things consist, and He is the Head of the body, theChurch”) intervening as a parenthesis. Thus Paul puts first, theorigination by Him of the natural creation; secondly, of thenew creation. The parenthesis falls into four clauses, two andtwo: the former two support the first assertion, “the first-bornof every creature”; the latter two prepare us for “thefirst-born from the dead”‘; the former two correspond to thelatter two in their form”All things by Him . . . and He is,”and “By Him all things . . . and He is.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For by him were all things created,…. This is a reason proving Christ to be before all creatures, to be the common Parent of them, and to have the government over them, since he is the Creator of them. The creation of all things, by him, is not to be understood of the new creation, for whenever that is spoken of, the word “new” is generally used, or what is equivalent to it, or some clause or phrase added, which determines the sense, and is not the case here: besides, all things that are in heaven are said to be created here: which, to say nothing of the sun, moon, and stars, which are not capable subjects of the new creation, to restrain them to angels, cannot be true of them; for as for those who were once in heaven, but kept not their first estate, and quitted their habitation, these find no place there any more; they never were, nor will be renewed and restored by Christ; and as for the good angels, since they never sinned, they stand in no need of renovation. Moreover, all things that are on earth are also said to be created by him, and are, but not anew: for to confine these only to men, all men are not renewed in the spirit of their minds; all have not faith, nor a good hope through grace, nor love to God and Christ, the greater part of the world lies in open wickedness; and all that profess religion are not new creatures, these are a chosen generation, and a peculiar people: wherefore these words must be understood, not metaphorically, but literally; in which sense all things are created by Christ, not by him as an instrument, but as the efficient cause; for the preposition “by” does not always signify the former; but sometimes the latter; see 1Co 1:9; nor to the exclusion of the Father and Spirit, who, with the Son, were jointly concerned in the creating of all things out of nothing: and these “all things” can only refer to the things that are made: eternal things can never be said to be created; this is a contradiction in terms; the Father is not created by him, nor he himself as the Son of God, nor the Spirit; but everything that is made is created by him: hence it follows, that he himself is no creature, otherwise he must create himself, which also is a contradiction, since every creature is made by him; and consequently he must be God, for he that made and built all things is God. These are divided as to the subject of them, or place where they are, into things
that are in heaven, and that are in earth. The things that are in heaven, are the things that are in the airy and starry heavens, and in the heaven of heavens. The things in the airy heavens, the fowls thereof, were on the fifth day created by him; and the things in the starry heaven, the sun, moon, and stars, were on the fourth day ordained by him; and the inhabitants of the third heaven, the angels, were made by him, Heb 1:7; and, as the Jewish writers i say, on the second day of the creation, though some say on the fifth. The earth comprehends the whole terraqueous globe, consisting of land and sea; and the things in it are all that are in the seas, the fishes and other things in it; and all that are in the bowels of the earth, as well as on the surface of it, all metals and minerals, all plants, herbs, and trees, every beast of the forest, the cattle on a thousand hills, the fowls on the mountains, and the wild beasts of the field, and all human creatures. Again, these all things are, as to the quality of them, distributed into
visible and invisible, both in heaven and in earth: the visible things in heaven are the fowls that fly in the airy heaven, the sun, and moon, and stars in the starry heaven, and the bodies of those saints that have been either translated, or raised, in the third heaven; the visible things in the earth are all creatures, animate and inanimate, rational and irrational, all bodies, all corporeal and material beings: the invisible things in earth are not only those that are in the innermost parts of it, but the spirits or souls of men; and those in heaven are not the invisible God, Father, Son, and Spirit, but the angels, who are incorporeal and immaterial spirits, and so invisible: and which,
whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers, are all made by him; by these some understand civil magistrates among men, and the various degrees and orders of them. By “thrones” they think kings, or monarchs, are meant, who sit on thrones; and by “dominions”, little petty kings, or lords, dukes, and earls; and by “principalities”, governors of provinces and cities; and by “powers”, interior magistrates; and indeed, political governors are sometimes called dominions, dignities, principalities, and powers; and there are different orders of them, the king as supreme, and governors under him; see Jude 1:8. But since these seem rather to be said of the invisible things in heaven, and to be an explanation of them, angels may rather be thought to be intended; and are so called, not as denoting different orders and degrees among them, which some have rashly ventured to describe, but because of the use that God makes of them in the government of the world, and the executions of the various affairs of Providence relating to particular persons and kingdoms; though these several names are not so much such as the apostle chose to call them by, as what they were called by others; the three latter are indeed elsewhere used by himself, Eph 1:21; but not the former, “thrones”, which yet are used by Jewish writers, and given to angels. Thus, in a book of theirs, which they esteem very ancient, and ascribe to the patriarch Abraham, it is said k,
“there is no angel in which the name Jehovah is not found, which is everywhere, as the soul is in every member; wherefore men ought to allow Jehovah to reign in all the members, , “and in all the thrones”, and in all the angels, and in every member of men.”
And elsewhere, speaking of the garments of God,
“by these (say they l) ” , “the holy blessed God created the thrones”, and the angels, and the living creatures, and the “seraphim”, and the heavens, and the earth, and all that he created.”
And the thrones in Da 7:9; are interpreted m, of
“the superior princes, , “the spiritual angels”, who sit first in the kingdom; and they are called in the words of the Rabbins, “the throne of glory”; for so is the way of kings, that their princes sit before them, everyone on his throne, according to their dignity.”
Now the apostle’s sense is, that the angels, the invisible inhabitants of the upper world, are all created by Christ, let them be called by what names they will, that the Jews, or the false teachers, or any sort of heretics of those times thought fit to give them, whether they called them thrones or dominions, c. And so the Arabic version, rather interpreting than translating the words, renders them thus, “whether you say thrones, or whether you mention dominions, or whether you understand princes, or whether you say powers” speak of them under what title or appellation you please, they are all the creatures of the Son of God. The apostle seems to have in view, and to oppose some notions of some heretics of his time, the followers of Simon Magus, who held, that the angels were created by his Helena; or, as others, by what they call “Ennea”, and that these angels created the world, and are to be worshipped; but he here affirms, that
all things were created by him, by Christ, even all the angels; and therefore he, and not they, are to be worshipped, a notion he afterwards takes notice of in the following chapter: and as all things are affirmed to be created by him, which demonstrates the dignity and deity of his person, so likewise
for him; that is, for his pleasure, that he may take delight and complacency in them, and in his own perfections displayed by them; and for his service and use, as the angels, to worship him and minister to him and for others, he sends them to: elect men are made to serve and glorify him with their bodies and spirits, which are his; and even the non-elect are made to subserve his mediatorial kingdom and interest; yea, the whole world is built and kept in being purely on his account, until he has finished the great affair of the salvation of his people, in the application of it to each of them, as he has completed the impetration of it; and then he will dissolve the heavens, and burn up the earth and all the works that are therein: all are made for his glory, and that end is, and will be answered by them in one way or another.
i Targum Jon. in Gen. i. 26. Bereshit Rabba, fol. 1. 1. & 3. 3. Menass. ben Israel, Conciliator in Gen. Qu. 12. k Sepher Jetzira, p. 17, Ed. Rittangel. l Tikkune Zohar in ib. p. 127, 128. & Zohar in Exod. fol. 18. 2. & in Lev. fol. 39. 1. & 47. 2. m Abarbinel in Dan. fol. 45. 4. & 46. 4.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
All things ( ). The universe as in Ro 11:35, a well-known philosophical phrase. It is repeated at the end of the verse.
In him were created ( ). Paul now gives the reason (, for) for the primacy of Christ in the work of creation (16f.). It is the constative aorist passive indicative (from , old verb, to found, to create (Ro 1:25). This central activity of Christ in the work of creation is presented also in John 1:3; Heb 1:2 and is a complete denial of the Gnostic philosophy. The whole of creative activity is summed up in Christ including the angels in heaven and everything on earth. God wrought through “the Son of his love.” All earthly dignities are included.
Have been created (). Perfect passive indicative of , “stand created,” “remain created.” The permanence of the universe rests, then, on Christ far more than on gravity. It is a Christo-centric universe.
Through him (‘ ). As the intermediate and sustaining agent. He had already used (in him) as the sphere of activity.
And unto him ( ). This is the only remaining step to take and Paul takes it (1Co 15:28) See Eph 1:10 for similar use of of Christ and in Col 1:19; Col 1:20 again we have , ‘ , used of Christ. See Heb 2:10 for ‘ (because of whom) and ‘ (by means of whom) applied to God concerning the universe ( ). In Ro 11:35 we find ‘ referring to God. But Paul does not use in this connection of Christ, but only , , and . See the same distinction preserved in 1Co 8:6 ( of God, , of Christ).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
By him [ ] . Rev., in Him. In is not instrumental but local; not denying the instrumentality, but putting the fact of creation with reference to its sphere and center. In Him, within the sphere of His personality, resides the creative will and the creative energy, and in that sphere the creative act takes place. Thus creation was dependent on Him. In Christ is a very common phrase with Paul to express the Church ‘s relation to Him. Thus “one body in Christ,” Rom 12:5; “fellow – workers in Jesus Christ,” Rom 16:3. Compare Rom 16:7, 9, 11; 1Co 1:30; 1Co 4:15, etc.
All things [ ] . The article gives a collective sense – the all, the whole universe of things. Without the article it would be all things severally.
Were created [] . See on Joh 1:3. The aorist tense, denoting a definite historical event.
Visible – invisible. Not corresponding to earthly and heavenly. There are visible things in heaven, such as the heavenly bodies, and invisible things on earth, such as the souls of men.
Thrones, dominions, principalities, powers [, , , ] . Compare Eph 1:21; Eph 3:10; Eph 6:12; 1Co 14:24; Rom 8:38; Col 2:10, 15; Tit 3:1. In Tit 3:1, they refer to earthly dignities, and these are probably included in 1Co 14:24. It is doubtful whether any definite succession of rank is intended. At any rate it is impossible to accurately define the distinctions. It has been observed that wherever principalities [] and powers [] occur together, principalities always precedes, and that dunamiv power (see Eph 1:21) when occurring with either of the two, follows it; or, when occurring with both, follows both. The primary reference is, no doubt, to the celestial orders; but the expressions things on earth, and not only in this world in the parallel passage, Eph 1:21, indicate that it may possibly include earthly dignities. Principalities and powers are used of both good and evil powers. See Eph 3:10; Eph 6:12; Col 2:15. The passage is aimed at the angel – worship of the Colossians (see Introduction); showing that while they have been discussing the various grades of angels which fill the space between God and men, and depending on them as media of communion with God, they have degraded Christ who is above them all, and is the sole mediator. Compare Heb 1:5 – 14, where the ideas of the Son as Creator and as Lord of the angels are also combined. 187 Thrones occurs only here in enumerations of this kind. It seems to indicate the highest grade. Compare Rev 4:4, qronoi thrones, A. V. seats, and see note. Thrones here probably means the enthroned angels. Dominions or dominations, also Eph 1:21. Principalities or princedoms. In Rom 8:38, this occurs without powers which usually accompanies it.
All things [ ] . Recapitulating. Collectively as before.
Were created [] . Rev., correctly, have been created. The perfect tense instead of the aorist, as at the beginning of the verse. “The latter describes the definite, historical act of creation; the former the continuous and present relations of creation to the Creator” (Lightfoot). So Joh 1:3. “Without Him did not any thing come into being (ejgeneto, aorist) which hath come into being” (and exists, gegonen, see note).
By Him and for Him [ ] . Rev., better, through Him and unto Him. See on Rom 11:36. Compare in Him at the beginning of the verse. There Christ was represented as the conditional cause of all things. All things came to pass within the sphere of His personality and as dependent upon it. Here He appears as the mediating cause; through Him, as 1Co 8:6. Unto Him. All things, as they had their beginning in Him, tend to Him as their consummation, to depend on and serve Him. Compare Rev 22:13; and Heb 2:10; “for whose sake [ ] and through whose agency [ ] are all things” Rev., “for whom and through whom.” See also Eph 1:10, 23; Eph 4:10; Phi 2:9 – 11; 1Co 14:28. The false teachers maintained that the universe proceeded from God indirectly, through a succession of emanations. Christ, at best, was only one of these. As such, the universe could not find its consummation in Him.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “For by him were all things created” (hoti en auto ektisthe ta panta) “Because in him all things were created.” In Jesus Christ existed the cause of the creation. The creation is therefore logically to be subject to the lordship of its creator, Heb 1:2; Heb 3:4; Joh 1:1-2. Jesus was also the agent of creation. 1Co 8:6.
2) “That are in heaven, and that are in earth” (en tois ouranois kai epi tes ges) “In the heavens and on the earth.” The things in the heavens refer to the entire system of the Sun, moon, planets, stars and galaxies, the winds, and powers of magnetism, and all things existing in the third heaven and in the earth.
3) “Visible and invisible” (ta horata kai ta aorata) the visible and the invisible” There are visible things and invisible things both in heaven and on earth, all elements in simplest form, apart from compounds and mixtures, are invisible. In creation objects and creatures were formed from them. Heb 11:3; Rom 1:29. Even positions of Divine angelic service were made by him. Joh 1:1-2; Heb 1:14.
4) “Whether they be” (eite) “Whether,” they exist as,
(a) “Thrones” (thronoi) “thrones,” positions of present Angelic service to God and the redeemed from which good Angels operate.
(b) “Or dominions” (eite kuriotetes) “or lordships,” positions of jurisdictional divine service over which Michael, Gabriel, Seraphims, and Cherubims direct angelic service. Dan 9:16; Dan 12:1; Isa 6:1-7; Eze 1:10.
(c) “Or principalities” (eite archai) or rulers, governments, of the unseen world of angelic service, 1Pe 1:12,
(d) “Or powers’ (eite eksousiai) “or authorities,” existing in the angelic realm of service to God and the redeemed. Heb 1:14.
5) “All things were created by him, and for him:” (ta panta di autou kai eis auton ektistai) “all things through him, and for him have been created” Heb 2:10; Rom 11:36.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
16. Visible and invisible. Both of these kinds were included in the foregoing distinction of heavenly and earthly things; but as Paul meant chiefly to make that affirmation in reference to Angels, he now makes mention of things invisible. Not only, therefore, have those heavenly creatures which are visible to our eyes, but spiritual creatures also, been created by the Son of God. What immediately follows, whether thrones, etc., is as though he had said — “by whatever name they are called.”
By thrones some understand Angels. I am rather, however, of opinion, that the heavenly palace of God’s majesty is meant by the term, which we are not to imagine to be such as our mind can conceive of, but such as is suitable to God himself. We see the sun and moon, and the whole adorning of heaven, but the glory of God’s kingdom is hid from our perception, because it is spiritual, and above the heavens. In fine, let us understand by the term thrones that seat of blessed immortality which is exempted from all change.
By the other terms he undoubtedly describes the angels. He calls them powers, principalities, and dominions, not, as if they swayed any separate kingdom, or were endowed with peculiar power, (305) but because they are the ministers of Divine power and dominion. (306) It is customary, however, that, in so far as God manifests his power in creatures, his names are, in that proportion, transferred to them. Thus he is himself alone Lord and Father, but those are also called lords and fathers whom he dignifies with this honor. Hence it comes that angels, as well as judges, are called gods. (307) Hence, in this passage also, angels are signalized by magnificent titles, which intimate, not what they can do of themselves, or apart from God, but what God does by them, and what functions he has assigned to them. These things it becomes us to understand in such a manner as to detract nothing from the glory of God alone; for he does not communicate his power to angels as to lessen his own; he does not work by them in such a manner as to resign his power to them; he does not desire that his glory should shine forth in them, so as to be obscured in himself. Paul, however, designedly extols the dignity of angels in terms thus magnificent, that no one may think that it stands in the way of Christ alone having the pre-eminence over them. He makes use, therefore, of these terms, as it were by way of concession, as though he had said, that all their excellence detracts nothing from Christ, (308) however honorable the titles with which they are adorned. As for those who philosophize on these terms with excessive subtlety, that they may draw from them the different orders of angels, let them regale themselves with their dainties, but they are assuredly very remote from Paul’s design.
(305) “ Ayent vertu ou puissance d’eux — mesmes;” — “Have power or authority of themselves.”
(306) “ Sont executeurs de la puissance Diuine, et ministres de sa domination;” — “Are the executors of God’s power, and ministers of his dominion.”
(307) See Calvin on John, vol. 1: p. 419.
(308) “ N’oste rien a la gloire de Christ;” — “Takes nothing from the glory of Christ.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(16) For by him . . . all things were created by (through) him, and for (to) him.Carrying out the idea of the preceding clause with accumulated emphasis, St. Paul speaks of all creation as having taken place by Him, through Him, and for Him. Now we note that in Rom. 11:36, St. Paul, in a burst of adoration, declares of the Father that from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things; and in Heb. 2:10 the Father is spoken of as One by whom are all things, and for whom are all things (the word for whom being different from the word so rendered here, but virtually equivalent to it). Hence we observe that the Apostle here takes up a phrase belonging only to Godhead and usually applied to the Father, and distinctly applies it to Christ, but with the significant change of from whom into in whom. The usual language of holy Scripture as to the Father is from whom, and as to the Son through whom, are all things. Thus we have in Heb. 1:2, through whom He made the world; and in Joh. 1:3-10, All things were madethe world was madethrough Him. Here, however, St. Paul twice adds in whom, just as he had used in whom of God in his sermon at Athens (Act. 17:28), probably conveying the idea, foreshadowed in the Old Testament description of the divine Wisdom, that in His divine mind lay the germ of the creative design and work. and indirectly condemning by anticipation the fancy of incipient Gnosticism, that He was but an inferior emanation or agent of the Supreme God.
In heaven and . . . earth . . .Here again there is a reiteration of earnest emphasis. All things in heaven and earth is the ancient phrase for all creation. Then, lest this phrase should be restricted to the sublunary sphere, he adds, visible and invisible. Lastly, in accordance with the general tone of these Epistles, and with special reference to the worship of angels introduced into Coloss, he dwells, like the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, on the superiority of our Lord to all angelic natures, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers. (Comp. Eph. 1:21; Php. 2:9-10.)
Thrones, or dominions . . .Compare the enumeration in Eph. 1:21. The word peculiar to this passage is thrones, which in all the various speculations as to the hierarchy of heaven, naturally represents the first place of dignity and nearness to the Throne of God. (Comp. Rev. 4:4, Round about the throne four-and-twenty thrones.) But it seems difficult, if not impossible, to attach distinctive meanings to those titles, and trace out their order. If St. Paul alludes at all to the Rabbinical hierarchies, he (probably with deliberate intention) takes their titles without attending to their fanciful orders and meanings. Whatever they mean, if they mean anything, all are infinitely below the glory of Christ. (See Note on Eph. 1:21.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
b. His relation to the universe, Col 1:16-17 .
16. For Because, assigning the reason for asserting his priority, namely, the dependence of the creation upon him. The phrase by him occurs twice in the verse, the first being rather in him as the conditional cause. The idea of the creation as conceived by the Father was committed to the Son for its accomplishment and realization: in him (emphatic) did the actual work rest.
All things , the universe, including every thing outside the earth in all space, and everything upon the earth. Thus much as to locality. As to kind, they were things visible, the sun, moon, and stars, the earth, plants, minerals, and animals; and things invisible, human souls, and, in particular, the angels, with their several orders of thrones, etc., for whom the Colossian philosophy was claiming a superiority over him. By him, also, was the entire universe actually created instrumentally, proving his infinite power, and for him, its end, as the sphere of his dominion and the manifestation of his glory. He is its efficient and final cause.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For in (or ‘by’) him were all things created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or power, all things have been created through him and unto him, and he is before all things and in him all things hold together.’
Jesus as ‘the Firstborn’ created all things. Paul is careful to include those beings which existed before the world was created, and to exclude nothing. They were created through Him, and the purpose of their creation was His own benefit and satisfaction (‘unto Him’). Then, to make matters even clearer he says, ‘He is before all things’ (’autos ’estin pro panton). He existed before all things, and takes precedence before all things. He is supreme over all, permanently and unceasingly. And He sustains and holds together all things.
This proclamation of Christ as the creator of all things is found elsewhere, in Heb 1:2 ‘through Whom also He made the worlds’, in Joh 1:3, ‘all things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that has been made’, and in 1Co 8:6, ‘one Lord Jesus Christ through Whom are all things’.
‘In (or ‘by’) Him were all things created.’ Paul does not qualify this, he expands on it. It does not only include earthly creation but the creation of all heavenly beings. Note that He is not said to be the ‘first-created (protoktisis). As the ‘firstborn’ of God He existed before creation.
If we translate ‘in Him’ (the preposition can mean either) he is the sphere in which all things were created, and thus ‘bigger’ than them all. If we translate ‘by Him’ He was the source of that creation. Usually creation is said to be ‘through Him’ (see paragraph above) which may support translating ‘in Him’ here. The verb ‘created’ is in the aorist tense signifying a once for all action. Compare later in the verse where it is in the perfect tense, signifying a creation that endures to the present.
‘In the heavens and on the earth.’ He then expands this to include all supernatural beings and everything, whether visible or invisible. ‘Thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers’ represents all authority wherever it may be, including Satan himself. Nothing is outside His creation or His control. Ancient religions invented many demi-gods and divine beings, probably in awareness of these supernatural authorities, but whatever they be, says Paul, He is over them all.
‘In Him all things hold together.’ All is sustained by Him. He has but to withdraw His hand and the universe will collapse within itself. In the words of Heb 1:3, ‘He upholds all things by His powerful word.’
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Col 1:16. Whether they be thrones, &c. See Eph 3:10. For him, at the end of the verse, means to be in subjection to him,to be created particularly for his glory. This is justified by what is said, Col 1:18 that in all things he might have the pre-eminence.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Col 1:16 . For in Him were all things created , the logically correct confirmation of . . For if the creation of all things took place in Christ, it is evident that He must stand before the series of created things, and be .
] is not equivalent to (Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Erasmus, Beza, Bleek, and many others), but: on Christ depended (causally) the act of creation, so that the latter was not done independently of Him in a causal connection apart from Him but it had in Him the ground essentially conditioning it. In Him lay, in fact, the potency of life, from which God made the work of creation proceed, inasmuch as He was the personal principle of the divine self-revelation, and therewith the accomplisher of the divine idea of the world. A well-known classical usage to denote the dependence of a state of things, the causality of which is contained in any one . See Bernhardy, p. 210; Khner, II. 1, p. 403 f.; from the N. T., Winer, p. 364 [E. T. 521]. Not as if the “causa principalis ” of the creation lay in Christ, but the organic causality of the world’s becoming created was in Him; hence the following affirms not a different state of things , but the same thing under a varied form of conception and designation, by which it is brought out in greater definiteness. The primary ground of creation is ever God, Rom 11:36 ; 1Co 8:6 ; Heb 11:3 . The speculative interpretation of scholastic theology, which found here the “causa exemplaris ,” according to which the idea omnium rerum was in Christ, is indeed followed in the main again by Beyschlag, as earlier by Kleuker, Bhmer, Bhr, Neander, Schleiermacher, Steiger, Julius Mller, Olshausen (the latter saying: “the Son of God is the intelligible world, the , that is, things in their very idea; He bears their essence in Himself”), but is destitute of confirmation from the modes of conception and expression elsewhere in the N. T., and, as denotes the historical fact of the having been created, it would require not , but , by which the coming forth of the real from the ideal existence in Christ might be expressed. Huther finds the inward connection indicated by in the idea, that the eternal essence of the universe is the divine essence itself, which in Christ became man. This idea in itself has no biblical ground; and Paul is speaking here, not of the existence and essence of the universe in Christ, but of the becoming created, which took place in Christ ( , Joh 1:4 ), consequently of a divine act depending on Christ; comp. Joh 1:3 : ; Heb 1:2 ; and Bleek in loc . Lastly, de Wette finds in besides the instrumental agency at the same time something of a telic idea (comp. also Ewald and Weiss, Bibl. Theol . p. 424 f.); but this blending together of two heterogeneous references is not justified by the that follows.
] physical act of creation; Schleiermacher ought not to have called in question the linguistic usage to this effect, with a view to favour the ethical interpretation of the founding of the church . See Wis 1:14 ; Wis 10:1 ; Wis 11:18 ; Deu 4:32 ; comp. Gen 6:7 ; Sir 24:9 , comp. Sir 15:14 ; Jdt 13:18 ; comp. Gen 1:1 ; 1Co 11:9 ; Eph 3:9 ; Rom 1:25 ; Rev 10:6 , comp. Rev 14:7 . The word may have the meaning adopted by Schleiermacher: to obtain its arrangement and constitution (Herod. i. 149, 167, 168; Thuc. i. 100; Aesch. Choeph . 484; Soph. Ant . 1101; Pind. Ol . vi. 116; 3 Esdr. 4:53), and that according to the relative nature of the notion implied in the word condere (comp. Blomf. Gloss, in Aesch. Pers . 294); but not here, where it is correlative with , and where the quite general and in no way to be restricted follows. Throughout the N. T., in general , , , denote the original bringing forth, never merely the arrangement of that which exists; and even in such passages as Eph 2:10 ; Eph 2:15 ; Eph 4:24 , the relation is conceived, only in a popular manner, as actual creation .
Observe, moreover, the distinction of the tenses: , which denotes the act that took place; and then , which denotes the creation which has taken place and now subsists . See Winer, p. 255 [E. T. 340]; Khner, II. 1, p. 143 f., and ad Xen. Mem . iii. 1. 4, iii. 7. 7.
] the collective whole , namely, of what is created. This is then specified in a twofold way, as well in regard to place as in regard to nature.
. . .] the things to be found in the heavens and those to be found on earth . This is certainly a less exact designation of all created things than that in Rev 10:6 ( . . .; comp. Neh 9:6 ; Gen 2:1 , et al .), but does not differ from it, as it does not exclude heaven and earth themselves, the constituent elements of which, in the popular view, are included in these two categories. Comp. 1Ch 29:11 . It is incorrect, therefore, to press this expression in opposition to the explanation which refers it to the creation of the world (Wetstein: “non dicit sed , etc., quo habitatores significantur, qui reconciliantur,” comp. Heinrichs and others, also Catech. Racov . 132, p. 214, ed. Oeder), and to think, with Schleiermacher, of the kingdom of heaven; but it is arbitrary also, especially after , to make the apostle mean primarily the living (Bhr, de Wette) or rational creatures. The expression embraces everything; hence there was neither need for the mention of the lower world , nor, looking at the bipartite form of enumeration, occasion for it (it is otherwise in Phi 2:10 ; Rev 5:3 ). The idea that Paul could not have adduced those under the earth as a special class of created beings, because God had not created them with the view of their being under the earth (de Wette), would imply a reflection alien to the vivid flow of the passage before us.
. ] By the latter is meant the heavenly world of spirits , the angelic commonwealth, as is evident from the more precise enumeration which follows, and not the souls of men (Chrysostom, Theophylact, and others), which, on the contrary, as animating a portion of the , are included among the latter. Theodoret erroneously asserts that even applies to heavenly things (sun, moon, and stars); it applies to everything visible, as in Plat. Phaed . p. 79 A: , , , , .
The are now more precisely specified disjunctively by , sive sive (put more than twice; comp. Plat. Rep . p. 612 A, 493 D; Sir 41:4 ). As to the four denominations of angels which follow whose difference of rank Hofmann groundlessly denies, [35] understanding thereby merely “ spirits collectively, of whatever name they may be ” see on Eph 1:21 ; Rom 8:38 . In accordance with Eph 1:21 , where the grades of angels are mentioned in descending order, the arrangement here must be understood so, that the are the highest and the the lowest class, the and the being two middle orders lying between these two extremes. At Eph. l.c . Paul names also four grades of the angelic hierarchy; but neither there nor here has he intended to give a complete enumeration of them, for in the former case he omits the , and in the latter the . The are not mentioned elsewhere in the N. T. (nor yet in Ignat. ad Trail . 5), but they occur in the Test. Levi , p. 548, in which they are placed in the seventh heaven ( ), also in Dionys. Areop. Hier. coel . 6 ff., and in the Rabbins (Buxtorf, Lex. Talm . p. 1097; Schoettgen, Hor . p. 808). As regards the expression , the last three denominations are to be taken as abstracts , which represent the respective concretes , and analogously the concrete noun is used for those to be found on the thrones (for those enthroned ); comp. Khner, II. 1, p. 11; Ruhnken, ad Tim . p. 190. In this case the very natural supposition that the angels, whose designation by the term must have been in current use , were, in the imagery which gave sensuous embodiment to religious ideas, conceived as on thrones , is not to be called in question (in opposition to Fritzsche, ad Rom . II. p. 226). They were probably conceived as enthroned round the throne of God (comp. Rev 4:4 ; Rev 20:4 ). It is to be observed, moreover, generally that Paul presupposes the various classes of angels, which he names, as well known; although we are unacquainted with the details of the case, this much is nevertheless certain, that the apostle was far removed from the dreamy fancies indulged in on this point by the later Rabbins (see Eisenmenger, entdeckt. Judenth . II. p. 374). But very soon after the apostolic age (comp. Hermas, Past . vis. iii. 4), instruction as to was regarded as teaching for the more perfect . See Ignatius, ad Trall . 5. For the Christian faith there remains and suffices the testimony as to different and distinctively designated stages and categories in the angelic world, while any attempt to ascertain more than is written in Scripture passes into the fanciful domain of theosophy.
With is concluded the confirmatory sentence ( ), so that a full stop is to be placed after . With begins a new sentence, in which and correspond to one another; hence a comma only must stand after . There is no reason for placing (with Lachmann) down to . in a parenthesis.
. . .] a solemn recapitulation , [36] but in such a way that, instead of the act of creation previously mentioned, there is now presented the finished and ready result ( ); the causal relation which was previously denoted by is now more precisely indicated as a relation of mediate agency ( , comp. 1Co 8:6 ); then in a new element is added, and the emphasis which in Col 1:16 lay on , is now laid on which stands at the head of the sentence. We cannot say with Hofmann, that by and the Son comes to stand in contradistinction to what has been created as Creator , after by the creative act has been presented as one that had taken place only not without the Son . By the latter, would become too general and indefinite a thought; while in fact leaves the Father as the Creator, which He is, and predicates of the Son merely the “causa medians ” of the execution of the work, just as predicates the “causa finalis ” of the same.
] in reference to Him, for Him , as the aim and end, “in quo Pater acquiescit,” Beza. Comp. Rom 11:36 ; 1Co 8:6 ; Barnab. Ep . 12: . The more exact purport of this relation is apparent from all that follows down to Col 1:20 . Everything, namely, is created, in order to be dependent on Christ and to serve His will and aim . [37] Comp. on Eph 1:23 ; Eph 4:10 ; Phi 2:9 ff. The final cause of the world, referred in Rom 11:36 to God , is here affirmed of Christ , and with equal right; for He, as He was the organ of God in creation, is the commissioned ruler to whom the is committed (Mat 28:18 ; Php 2:9 ; 1Co 15:27 ; Heb 2:8 ), in order that everything created may have the ethical telic destination of serving Him. [38] More special definitions of the meaning of are without due warrant, and in particular, the often-repeated one: to His glorification (Beza, Flatt, Bhmer, and others); it lays down Christ in general as the legitimus finis (Calvin).
The expositors, who explain the words as referring to the new moral creation, have summoned to their aid all kinds of arbitrary conjectures in detail a remark which applies not merely to Nsselt, Heinrichs, and others, but also to Schleiermacher, who holds (comp. Baumgarten-Crusius) that . . is everything that belongs to the kingdom of heaven, and . everything which belongs to civil order in earthly kingdoms; that and apply only to the latter; that the . . . are magisterial offices , and the like.
[35] See, on the other hand, Hahn, Theol. d. N. T. I. p. 292 f.; Philippi, Glaubensl. II. p. 308 f.; Kahnis, Dogm. I. p. 559.
[36] Ewald well says: “Just at this point the discourse breaks forth as if with fresh force, so as once more to express as clearly as possible the whole in all conceivable temporal relations.”
[37] And, if the world was created not merely but also , conse-sequently in telic reference to Him, it is certain that with the counsel of creation there was also posited, in prospect of the entry of sin, the counsel of redemption. Comp. Thomasius, Christi Pers. u. Werk, I. p. 196 f.; Julius Mller, Dogm. Abhand. p. 121 ff.
[38] This is wrongly found incompatible with 1Co 8:6 (see, after Mayerhoff, Baur, and others, especially Holtzmann, p. 219), where, in fact, it is said of the ethical existence of Christians that they exist for God through Christ, inasmuch as the subject of (for God) and of (through Christ) is not the universe, but the . The relation of subordination between Father and Son would be only done away with at our passage, in the event of its being said of Christ that were created . But by , and by the more precise definition , it is guarded; and the subordination remains unaffected by the circumstance that the is laid down by God for the world as its telic aim. This is the necessary preliminary condition, on God’s part, to the universal dominion which he has destined for Christ, and which the latter shall one day, at the goal of consummation, hand over to the Father (1Co 15:24 ; 1Co 15:28 ). Moreover, what Paul says of the in Rom 8 is essentially connected with that , which does not go beyond Paul or come at all into opposition to him. The resemblance of our passage to , Rev 1:17 ; Rev 22:13 , rests upon the Christological basis of their common faith, not upon a dependence of our epistle on the Apocalypse, which would doubtless imply a post-Pauline date (in opposition to Holtzmann, p. 247).
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
DISCOURSE: 2168
THE GLORY OF CHRIST
Col 1:16-18. By him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, risible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the Head of the body, the Church: who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence.
THE pre-eminence he must have: the pre-eminence he shall have: his title to it is indisputable: and it is at the peril of our souls to withhold it from him. Do you ask, Of whom we speak thus? I answer, Of the Lord Jesus Christ; of whom the Apostles evidently thought that they could never speak enough. Let the Apostle Paul but touch upon his name, and he launches forth in his praise, and scarcely knows when to stop. Mark the passage before us. The Apostle had informed the Colossians what prayers and thanksgivings he daily poured forth before God, in their behalf. He especially praised God for delivering them from the power of darkness, and translating them into the kingdom of his dear Son: and having thus, accidentally as it were, mentioned the Lord Jesus, he goes on to expatiate on his transcendent excellencies, not only as the Redeemer of his people, but as the image of the invisible God, and the first-born (that is, the Heir and Lord) of the whole creation. And, lest it should be thought that he was speaking too highly of the despised and persecuted Jesus, he proceeds yet further to establish his claim to these high titles, by declaring what he had done for the world at large, and for the Church in particular; and that the preeminence thus given him was no more than his due.
In opening to you this sublime passage, I shall be led to shew,
I.
On what grounds pre-eminence is due to Christ
In all things he must take the lead. This priority is due to him, on account of,
1.
His personal dignity
[He, though born into the world a little infant, after that the world had existed four thousand years, was the Creator of all, the Preserver of all, the End of all. By Him were all things created, both in heaven and earth, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers. Whether they be visible, as the heavenly bodies and the earth, with the things upon it; or whether they be invisible, as the holy angels and the souls of men; he formed them all: whatever rank or order they possess in their respective spheres, (for it seems that in heaven, as well as on earth and in hell, there are beings of different ranks and orders,) from his creating hand they have derived their existence, and from his sovereign will their station. Nor is there any thing in the whole creation which is not upheld by him. He directs the stars in their orbits, and causes the sun and moon to know their appointed seasons. The smallest insect too, which is so small as to be invisible to the naked eye, is as much noticed and supplied by him, as if it were the only work of his hands. For himself too, as the supreme God, he made these things: and all of them, whether wittingly or unwittingly, subserve his glory. If we could suppose that God had delegated to him the work of creating every thing, and of upholding it in its order, (though, as he was the Creator of all things, he could not be himself a creature,) still it would be impossible for God to devolve on him the honour of being the end of all things: that is incapable of being communicated to any creature: it is the prerogative of God alone: nor could he divest himself of it, without giving a licence to his creatures to alienate from him the most essential rights of Godhead.
Behold, then, the Lord Jesus Christ, in this his personal dignity, as the author and end of all; and then say, whether he be not entitled to a pre-eminence above all? The highest archangel has no such claims. In respect of these things, he is on a level with the meanest clod of earth; and must unite with all the rest of the creation in giving glory to our blessed Lord.]
2.
His official excellency
[In his mediatorial capacity he is no less glorious. He is the Head of the Church, which is his body: he is the Head of vital influence, from which every member receives his supply of grace; and he is the Head and Representative of all his members, who at this very moment are risen, as it were, in him, and sitting in heavenly places in him [Note: Eph 2:6.]. This I conceive is meant by his being the beginning, the first-born from the dead. It is true that he existed before all; and that he was the most distinguished amongst those who have risen from the dead; having raised himself by his own power, whilst all others have owed their restoration to life to the miraculous exertion of Gods power. But, as he is called the first-born of the whole creation, not because he was himself created, but because the rights of the first-born all centred in him, and he was, as mediator, the Heir and Lord of all [Note: Heb 1:2.]; so his being called the beginning, the first-born from the dead, imports, that in his risen state the rights of primogeniture still attach to him; and that he is, in heaven, the Head and Representative of all his members, who, in due time, shall participate the glory which he there enjoys. This is what the Apostle elsewhere distinctly states; saying, Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept [Note: 1Co 15:20.].
Consider him, then, in this his mediatorial character; and say, whether he does not in this view, also, justly claim the pre-eminence? To him are all in heaven, and all on earth, indebted for their happiness; even as the moon and stars, no less than this terrestrial globe, are indebted to the sun for all the light which they enjoy. The angels around the throne, no less than ourselves, are all collected under him as their Head [Note: Eph 1:10.]; and, through his all-powerful aid, retain the blessedness, of which we, in due season, are destined to participate. Yes, in heaven, at least, is he glorified as he ought to be; for in that celestial city the glory of God does lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof [Note: Rev 21:23.].]
But as, in ascribing pre-eminence to him, we must be active, let us consider,
II.
In what way and manner it should be assigned him
It is not sufficient that we call him, Lord, Lord: we must honour him, not in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth. We must give him the pre-eminence,
1.
In our regards
[Go up to heaven, and see how he is honoured there. There is he as a Lamb that has been slain; and there, as a Lamb, he sits upon his throne; and all the hosts of heaven, those who never fell, no less than those he has redeemed, are singing day and night, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing [Note: Rev 5:11-13.]. Now, thus it should be on earth. We should be so filled with views of his excellency, and so penetrated with a sense of his love, that the whole creation should be a mere blank in comparison of him. Parents, children, life itself, should be of no account, where his honour is concerned. What the Psalmist said, should be the continual language of our hearts, Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee [Note: Psa 73:25.] As for the poor things of time and sense, we should be ashamed that they have ever been suffered to occupy one single thought, except in subserviency to him. In a word, the Lord Jesus should be to us now, what he will be in a better worldour light, our life, our joy, our All.]
2.
In our affiance
[As God, who created all things, he is able, and, as our living Head, who is interested in our welfare, he is willing, to do all that our utmost necessities can require. Stretch your imagination to the uttermost; and think whether there be any guilt too deep for his blood to expiate, or any corruption too inveterate for his Spirit to subdue. To limit him, either in relation to his power or his grace, or to rely on any other besides him, were to deny his Godhead, and to cast him down from his mediatorial throne. Our whole soul should go forth to him; our every want be cast on him: and fear, except that which is truly filial, should be dismissed, and find no more place in our bosoms than it does in heaven. O, the holy glorying that becomes us! Rise to the occasion, my beloved brethren; and rest assured, that he who created and preserves the universe can new-create and preserve you; and he who redeemed the Church with his blood, and united it to himself as his own body, can redeem, and sanctify, and save, yea, save to the very uttermost, all those who come unto God by him.]
3.
In our services
[That was an unanswerable appeal which was made to the Jewish rulers, Whether it be right to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye [Note: Act 4:19; Act 5:29.]. We should know no rule of conduct but his revealed will: nor, in the execution of his will, is there any limit to be assigned. If we had a thousand lives, they should all be devoted to him: nor, if we could die a thousand deaths, should they be accounted too much to be endured for him. His love should constrain us, and carry us away as a mighty torrent in his service. It is said of the angels in heaven, that they do his commandments, hearkening to the voice of his word [Note: Psa 103:20.]: and so should it be with us: the very first intimation of his will should call into activity our utmost powers: nor should we ever rest, till we can say of the work committed to us, It is finished.]
Suffer ye now, brethren, a word of exhortation
1.
Contemplate the excellency of your incarnate God
[Survey the heavens, with all the diversified and stupendous bodies contained in them: and inspect the minutest insect, which nothing but the greatest magnifying power can render visible: and see, both in the one and in the other, his creating hand, and his preserving power. Then say with yourselves, The Maker of all these things is my Friend, my Beloved, yea, my very Head, one with me; not merely as a subject is one with his political head, the king, but as any member of my body is with my own head. Not any powers which I myself possess are more used for the good of my own members, than all the powers of this Saviour are for me. For me he became incarnate: for me he died upon the cross: for me he rose, and ascended up where he was before: for me he orders every thing in heaven and earth: for me he has prepared a place in the mansions of his Father: and for me is he shortly coming again, to take me to himself, that where he is I may be also. Shall I cease for a moment to think of him? Shall any thing for a moment stand in competition with him? My dear brethren, let him have the pre-eminence: let him be seated on the throne of your hearts: let every Dagon fall before him: and let him be all your salvation and all your desire.]
2.
Awake to the performance of your duties towards him
[Are you not ashamed that this adorable Saviour has held so low a place in your esteem, that even the most contemptible things that can be imagined have had a pre-eminence above him? There is not a base lust which has not more power to sway you, than love to him, or zeal for his glory. There is not a vanity which you have not more desired, nor an object whom you have not more feared, nor a device you have not more relied upon, than he. Would you not have thought it impossible, that a Being so glorious in himself, and so gracious unto you, should ever be so despised by you, as he has been? O! humble yourselves before him; and now set yourselves with all diligence to honour and to glorify his name. Let it no longer be a doubt, either in your own minds or in the minds of any that behold you, who has the preeminence in your souls. Give yourselves wholly to him: live altogether for him: let your daily and hourly inquiry be, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? In short, endeavour to begin the life of heaven whilst you are yet upon earth. When once you are there, you will follow the Lamb whither-soever he goeth [Note: Rev 14:4.]. Follow him now: follow the footsteps which he trod on earth: follow him, in your affections, to the highest heavens [Note: Col 3:1-2.]: and look forward to the time when he, who has ascended as your Forerunner, shall come again to take you to himself, and seat you with him upon his throne, as he sitteth on his Fathers throne.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Ver. 16. For by him were all things ] This is a high praise to Christ, Rev 4:11 . See Trapp on “ Joh 1:3 “
Whether they be thrones or dominions ] i.e. angels with their several degrees or dignities. But what difference there is between these four words, let them tell us that are able (saith Austin), so they prove what they tell us; for my part, I confess I know it not.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
16 .] because (explanatory of the . . . it must be so, seeing that nothing can so completely refute the idea that Christ himself is included in creation, as this verse) in Him (as the conditional element, pr-existent and all-including: not ‘ by Him ,’ as E. V. after Chr. ( , ) this is expressed afterwards, and is a different fact from the present one, though implied in it.
The idea of the schoolmen, that in Christ was the ‘idea omnium rerum,’ adopted in the main by Schl., Neandor, and Olsh. (“the Son of God is the intelligible world, the , i.e. creation in its primitive idea, Himself; He bears in Himself their reality,” Olsh.), is, as Meyer rightly observes, entirely unsupported by any views or expressions of our Apostle elsewhere: and is besides abundantly refuted by , the historic aorist, indicating the physical act of Creation) was created (in the act of creation: cf. on below) the universe (thus only can we give the force of the Greek singular with the collective neuter plural, which it is important here to preserve, as ‘all things’ may be thought of individually, not collectively) (viz.) things in the heavens and things on the earth (Wetst. urges this as shewing that the physical creation is not meant: ‘non dicit . , sed &c., quo habitatores significantur qui reconciliantur’ (cf. the Socinian view of Col 1:15 above): the right answer to which is not with De W. to say that the Apostle is speaking of living created things only, for manifestly the whole universe is here treated of, there being no reason why living things should be in such a declaration distinguished from other things, but with Mey. to treat . . . . . as an inexact designation of heaven and earth, and all that in them is, Rev 10:6 . In 1Ch 29:11 , the meaning is obviously this, . . . ), things visible and things invisible (which divide between them the universe: Mey. quotes from Plato, Phd. p. 79 A, , , , , . The are the spirit-world (not, , Chr.: this, being incorporated, would fall under the , for the present purpose), which he now breaks up by ), whether (these latter be) thrones, whether lordships, whether governments, whether authorities (on , often repeated, see reff.: and Plato, Rep. p. 493 D, 612 A, Soph. El. 595 f. (Mey.)
These distinctive classes of the heavenly powers occur in a more general sense in Eph 1:21 , where see note. For there, we have here. It would be vain to attempt to assign to each of these their places in the celestial world. Perhaps, as De W., the Apostle chose the expressions as terms common to the doctrine of the Colossian false teachers and his own: but the occurrence of so very similar a catalogue in Eph 1:21 , where no such object could be in view, hardly looks as if such a design were before him. Mey. well remarks, “For Christian faith it remains fixed, and it is sufficient, that there is testimony borne to the existence of different degrees and categories in the world of spirits above; but all attempts more precisely to fix these degrees, beyond what is written in the N. T., belong to the fanciful domain of theosophy.” All sorts of such interpretations, by Teller and others, not worth recording, may be seen refuted in De W.): the whole universe (see above on , Col 1:16 ) has been created (not now of the mere act, but of the resulting endurance of creation leading on to the below) by Him (instrumental: He is the agent in creation the act was His, and the upholding is His: see Joh 1:3 , note) and for Him (with a view to Him: He is the end of creation, containing the reason in Himself why creation is at all, and why it is as it is. See my Sermons on Divine Love, Serm. I. II. The fancies and caprices of those who interpret creation here ethically , are recounted and refuted by Meyer): and He Himself (emphatic, His own Person) is (as in Joh 8:58 , of essential existence: might have been used, as in Joh 1:1 ; but as Mey. well observes, the Apostle keeps the past tenses for the explanatory clauses referring to past facts, Col 1:16 ; Col 1:19 ) before all things (in time ; bringing out one side of the above: not in rank , as the Socinians: of which latter Jas 5:12 , 1Pe 4:8 , are no justifications, for if – be taken as there, we must render, and He, above all, exists,’ ‘He especially exists,’ being adverbial, and not to be resolved. For the temporal sense, see reff.) all things (not ‘ omnes ,’ as Vulg.), and in Him (as its conditional element of existence, see above on Col 1:16 ) the universe subsists ( ‘keeps together,’ ‘is held together in its present state:’ , , Chr. On the word, see reff.: and add Philo, quis rer. div. hres. 12, vol. i. p. 481, , . , . ).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Col 1:16 . Paul now gives the ground for the designation of the Son as . . . In Him were created. From this it follows that the Son cannot be a creature, for creation is exhausted by the “all things” which were so created in Him (“omnem excludit creaturam,” Bengel). : this does not mean “by Him”. The sense is disputed. The schoolmen, followed by some modern theologians, explain that the Son is the archetype of the universe, the , the eternal pattern after which the physical universe has been created. So Philo held that the Logos was the home wherein the eternal ideas resided. But it is by no means clear that Alexandrian influence can be traced in the Epistle. Further, the notion of creation is not suitable to the origin of the ideal universe in the Son. If the Son was from eternity the archetype of the universe, then ought not to have been used, both because the aorist points to a definite time and the idea of creation is itself inapplicable. But that the ideal universe was at some time created in the Son is an highly improbable, if it is even an intelligible, idea. Again, the sense of is controlled by that of , which does not refer to the ideal universe. It must therefore refer to the actual creation of the universe. If Paul had intended to speak of the realisation in creation of the ideal universe which had in the Son its eternal home he would have said . Others (Mey., Ell., Moule) take to mean simply that the act of creation depended causally on the Son. This is perhaps the safest explanation, for Haupt’s interpretation that apart from His Person there would have been no creation, but with His Person creation was a necessity in other words, that creation was “given” in Christ seems with the aorist and the choice of the word to be inconsistent with the eternal existence of the Son. , i.e. , the universe in its widest sense regarded as a collective whole. . . . . As Lightfoot points out, “a classification by locality,” while . . is a “classification by essence”. The two do not precisely correspond, for the divisions cross each other to some extent, though some confine the things in heaven to the world of spirits, and the things on earth to the world of men, in which case they would correspond to things invisible and things visible. Against this see above on . . . . . This is not an exhaustive definition of , for Paul selects for mention those creatures to whom worship was paid by the false teachers. The names, as in similar lists, denote angels and not earthly powers. For some of them occur in Jewish angelology, and a reference to earthly dignities would be irrelevant to the polemical purpose of the passage. These angels, Paul insists, so far from being superior or equal to Christ, were as inferior to Him as the creature is to the Creator. They owed their very existence to Him, and could not therefore be allowed for one moment to usurp His place. Lightfoot thinks that Paul is expressing no opinion as to their objective existence, but is simply repeating subjective opinions; and that both here and in Col 2:18 he shows a “spirit of impatience with this elaborate angelology”. But in face of the detailed proof that he accepted the doctrine of various orders of angels (given most fully by Everling), this cannot be maintained, nor is there any polemical reference in Eph 1:21 . It may be questioned whether any inference can be drawn as to the order of the ranks of angels. The order in the parallel list, Eph 1:21 , is , , , , on which Godet remarks that in Col. the question is of creation by Christ from whom all proceed, hence the enumeration descends; but in Eph. of the ascension of the risen Christ above all orders, hence the enumeration ascends. But it must be urged against this not merely that only three out of the four titles coincide, but that the order is not fully inverted. Possibly Paul employs here the order of the false teachers (so Kl [8] ). The order apparently descends, but it is questionable if this is intentional, for if the highest orders were inferior to Christ, a fortiori the lower would be. : taken by some to be the angels of the throne, that is angels who, like the cherubim, bear the throne of God. But it is more probable that they are those seated on thrones ( cf. Rev 4:4 ). On these orders, cf. the Slavonic Enoch , xx. 1. In the seventh heaven Enoch saw “a very great light and all the fiery hosts of great archangels, and incorporeal powers and lordships and principalities and powers ; cherubim and seraphim, thrones and the watchfulness of many eyes”. Also Enoch , lxi. 10, “and all the angels of powers and all the angels of principalities ”. Test. , xii., Patr. Levi. , 3, , , . : apparently inferior to . usually occur together and in this order. : thrown in as a parenthesis. . The Son is the Agent in creation ( cf. 1Co 8:6 ); this definitely states the pre-existence of the Son and assumes the supremacy of the Father, whose Agent the Son is. . That the Son is the goal of creation is an advance on Paul’s previous teaching, which had been that the goal of the universe is God (Rom 11:36 ; cf. 1Co 8:6 , ). It is urged by Holtzmann and others as decisive against the authenticity of the Epistle as it stands. But in 1Co 15:25 sq. all things have to become subject to the Son before He hands over the kingdom to the Father. We find the same thought in Mat 28:18 and Heb 2:8 . And, as Oltramare and others point out, in 1Co 8:6 , is said of Christ, but of God in Rom 11:36 . Yet this difference is not quoted to show that Romans and Corinthians cannot be by the same hand, and it is equally illegitimate to press . as inconsistent with Pauline authorship. . The perfect, as distinct from the aorist, expresses the abiding result as distinct from the act at a definite point of time ( cf. Joh 1:3 , followed by ).
[8] Klpper.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
For = Because.
by, App-104.
in. App-104.
earth. App-129.
visible. Greek. horates. Only here.
dominions, &c. See Eph 1:21.
for. App-104.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
16.] because (explanatory of the . . .-it must be so, seeing that nothing can so completely refute the idea that Christ himself is included in creation, as this verse) in Him (as the conditional element, pr-existent and all-including: not by Him, as E. V. after Chr. ( , )-this is expressed afterwards, and is a different fact from the present one, though implied in it.
The idea of the schoolmen, that in Christ was the idea omnium rerum, adopted in the main by Schl., Neandor, and Olsh. (the Son of God is the intelligible world, the , i.e. creation in its primitive idea, Himself; He bears in Himself their reality, Olsh.), is, as Meyer rightly observes, entirely unsupported by any views or expressions of our Apostle elsewhere: and is besides abundantly refuted by , the historic aorist, indicating the physical act of Creation) was created (in the act of creation: cf. on below) the universe (thus only can we give the force of the Greek singular with the collective neuter plural, which it is important here to preserve, as all things may be thought of individually, not collectively)-(viz.) things in the heavens and things on the earth (Wetst. urges this as shewing that the physical creation is not meant: non dicit . , sed &c., quo habitatores significantur qui reconciliantur (cf. the Socinian view of Col 1:15 above): the right answer to which is-not with De W. to say that the Apostle is speaking of living created things only, for manifestly the whole universe is here treated of, there being no reason why living things should be in such a declaration distinguished from other things,-but with Mey. to treat . . . . . as an inexact designation of heaven and earth, and all that in them is, Rev 10:6. In 1Ch 29:11, the meaning is obviously this, . . . ), things visible and things invisible (which divide between them the universe: Mey. quotes from Plato, Phd. p. 79 A, , , , , . The are the spirit-world (not, , Chr.: this, being incorporated, would fall under the , for the present purpose), which he now breaks up by ), whether (these latter be) thrones, whether lordships, whether governments, whether authorities (on , often repeated, see reff.: and Plato, Rep. p. 493 D, 612 A, Soph. El. 595 f. (Mey.)
These distinctive classes of the heavenly powers occur in a more general sense in Eph 1:21, where see note. For there, we have here. It would be vain to attempt to assign to each of these their places in the celestial world. Perhaps, as De W., the Apostle chose the expressions as terms common to the doctrine of the Colossian false teachers and his own: but the occurrence of so very similar a catalogue in Eph 1:21, where no such object could be in view, hardly looks as if such a design were before him. Mey. well remarks, For Christian faith it remains fixed, and it is sufficient, that there is testimony borne to the existence of different degrees and categories in the world of spirits above; but all attempts more precisely to fix these degrees, beyond what is written in the N. T., belong to the fanciful domain of theosophy. All sorts of such interpretations, by Teller and others, not worth recording, may be seen refuted in De W.): the whole universe (see above on , Col 1:16) has been created (not now of the mere act, but of the resulting endurance of creation-leading on to the below) by Him (instrumental: He is the agent in creation-the act was His, and the upholding is His: see Joh 1:3, note) and for Him (with a view to Him: He is the end of creation, containing the reason in Himself why creation is at all, and why it is as it is. See my Sermons on Divine Love, Serm. I. II. The fancies and caprices of those who interpret creation here ethically, are recounted and refuted by Meyer): and He Himself (emphatic, His own Person) is (as in Joh 8:58, of essential existence: might have been used, as in Joh 1:1; but as Mey. well observes, the Apostle keeps the past tenses for the explanatory clauses referring to past facts, Col 1:16; Col 1:19) before all things (in time; bringing out one side of the above: not in rank, as the Socinians: of which latter Jam 5:12, 1Pe 4:8, are no justifications, for if – be taken as there, we must render, and He, above all, exists, He especially exists, being adverbial, and not to be resolved. For the temporal sense, see reff.) all things (not omnes, as Vulg.), and in Him (as its conditional element of existence, see above on Col 1:16) the universe subsists (keeps together, is held together in its present state: , , Chr. On the word, see reff.: and add Philo, quis rer. div. hres. 12, vol. i. p. 481, , . , . ).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Col 1:16. , because) The second part of the 15th verse is hereby explained.-, in) denotes something prior to and , which presently occur. There is here noticed the beginning, the progress, the end. The same is summarily repeated in the following verse.-, by Him) He Himself, often used here, signifies His great majesty, and excludes every creature.-, were created) It is evident from the enumeration which immediately follows, that the discussion here relates to that creation which is described, Genesis 1; comp. Col 1:23.- , those things that are in the heavens) and the heavens themselves. But those things which are in the heavens are rather named, because the inhabitants are more noble than their dwellings.- , the visible things) There follows by gradation, and invisible, of which the species are subjoined. [Since visible things, such as the sun, moon, stars, are named first, invisible things subsequently, in succession, it may not be unworthy of consideration, whether the visible things may not have been created during the period of the six days, and the invisible things on the seventh day? Gen 2:1-2; Exo 31:17.-V. g.]- , whether thrones or dominions) The former greater than the latter. The abstract for the concrete.- , whether principalities or powers) The former stronger than the latter. Both of these two express an exercise of an office in respect of the creatures; but thrones and dominions seem rather to have their appellation in their exalted relation to God, in so far as they are , the chariots, on which He displays His majesty, Eph 1:21.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Col 1:16
Col 1:16
for in him were all things created,-This certainly means that Jesus is the Creator of the whole universe. All the laws and purposes which guide the creation and government of the universe reside in him. He stands at the head above all created things. God the Father is represented as originating and providing all things; the Word as creating; the Spirit as organizing, giving law, and guiding forward to the accomplishment of the ends.
in the heavens and upon the earth,-The heavens refer to the material heavens around the earth. [According to this division the heavens include all the universe except the earth, and include all the heavenly bodies and their inhabitants. The declaration, then, is that all things that are in the worlds above us were the work of his creative power. The earth includes all the animals, plants, minerals, waters-in fact all the earth contains.]
things visible and things invisible,-This includes the whole under a new principle of division. The visible includes all persons and things within reach of the human eye; the invisible includes all objects beyond its reach.
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;-This list is meant to be exhaustive that no portion of the celestial hierarchy may be exempted from essential dependence on Christ. Paul makes no attempt to give the real rank of these orders.
all things have been created through him,-All things is solemnly repeated, but beside the fact of creation we have here the permanent result-have been created and continue to be. This result has him as its end.
and unto him;-He is the end of creation, containing the reason in himself, why creation is at all, and why it is as it is. [He is the medium and instrument of the divine energy, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. All things come from and through him, and tend to him. (Rom 11:36).]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
by him were: Col 1:15, Psa 102:25-27, Isa 40:9-12, Isa 44:24, Joh 1:3, 1Co 8:6, Eph 3:9, Heb 1:2, Heb 1:10-12, Heb 3:3, Heb 3:4
in heaven: Col 1:20, Deu 4:39, 1Ch 29:11, Eph 1:10, Phi 2:10, Rev 5:13, Rev 5:14
thrones: Col 2:10, Col 2:15, Rom 8:38, Eph 1:21, Eph 3:10, Eph 6:12, 1Pe 3:22
by: Pro 16:4, Isa 43:21, Rom 11:36, Heb 2:10
Reciprocal: Gen 1:1 – God 2Ch 2:12 – that made heaven Neh 9:6 – thou hast Psa 33:9 – and it stood Psa 78:69 – earth Psa 146:6 – made heaven Pro 8:27 – he prepared Isa 37:16 – thou hast Isa 40:26 – who hath Jer 10:12 – hath made Jer 27:5 – made Jer 32:17 – thou Jer 51:15 – hath made Mat 28:18 – All Joh 5:17 – My Joh 5:19 – for Rom 9:5 – who is 2Co 5:18 – all 2Co 8:9 – though Phi 2:6 – in 2Th 1:7 – his mighty angels 1Ti 3:16 – God Heb 1:3 – image 1Pe 4:19 – a faithful 2Pe 1:3 – his Rev 4:11 – for thou
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
CHRIST AND CREATION
For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him.
Col 1:16
A very narrow notion of the functions of Christ is afloat, according to which our Lord is virtually regarded as limited in work, and even in nature, to the mission of redemption. In the Bible an infinitely larger range is given to the work and nature of Christ. If there had been no sin Christ would still have visited the world in some way of Divine goodness. He came in the creation before the birth of sin.
I. The relation of Christ to creation.The relation of Christ to creation is threefold:
(a) In Christ is the fundamental basis of creation. All things were made in Him.
(b) Christ is the instrumental agent of creation. All things were made through Him.
(c) Christ is the end of creation. All things were made unto Him.
II. The scope and range of Christs work.The scope and range of the work of Christ was universal in creation. It included:
(a) All things, visible and invisible, i.e. physical and spiritual existences, or things within our observation and the infinite population of the regions of space beyond.
(b) All orders of being, thrones, etc., none too great for His power, none too small for His care.
(c) Every variety and every individual. Different classes are specified. Creation is not a work merely of general laws, it implies individual formation under them. All this vast and varied work is ascribed to Christ as its foundation, its efficient instrument, and its end.
III. We learn
(a) As regards Christ. (i.) His pre-existence. It is eternal (Heb 13:8). (ii.) His glory. All that is great and beautiful in creation glorifies Him through Whom it came into existence.
(b) As regards the creation. (i.) This must be in harmony with Christ, (ii.) We should endeavour to trace indications of the spirit and presence of Christ in nature.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
(Col 1:16.) , . The conjunction assigns the reason of the preceding statement. He is first-born of the whole creation, for by Him all things were created-and He is the image of God, for as Creator He shines out in the brightness of His Father’s glory, so that we apprehend it to be a narrow and confined view to restrict the reference of to the last clause of the previous verse. The phrase means the all-the universe, the whole that exists. Winer, 18, 8. The aorist characterizes creation as a past and perfect work. Creation is here in the fullest and most unqualified sense ascribed to Christ, and the doctrine is in perfect harmony with the theology of the beloved disciple, Joh 1:3. The work of the six days displayed vast creative energy, but it was to a great extent the inbringing of furniture and population to a planet already made and in diurnal revolution, for it comprehended the formation of a balanced atmosphere, the enclosure of the ocean within proper limits, the clothing of the soil with verdure, shrubs, trees, and cereal grasses-the exhibition of sun, moon, and stars, as lights in the firmament-the introduction of bird, beast, reptile, and fish, into their appropriate haunts and elements-and the organization and endowment of man, with Eden for his heritage, and the world for his home. But this demiurgical process implied the previous exercise of Divine omnipotence, for in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. It is not, therefore, the wise and tasteful arrangement of preexistent materials or the reduction of chaos to order, beauty, and life, which is here ascribed to Jesus, but the summoning of universal nature into original existence. What had no being before was brought into being by Him. The universe was not till He commanded it to be. He spake and it was done. Every form of matter and life owes its origin to the Son of God, no matter in what sphere it may be found, or with what qualities it may be invested. In heaven or on earth. Christ’s creative work was no local or limited operation; it was not bounded by this little orb; its sweep surrounds the universe which is named in Jewish diction and according to a natural division-heaven and earth. Every form and kind of matter, simple or complex-the atom and the star, the sun and the clod-every grade of life from the worm to the angel-every order of intellect and being around and above us, the splendours of heaven and the nearer phenomena of earth, are the product of the First-born.
-The visible and the invisible. This distinction seems to have been common in the Eastern philosophy: the latter epithet being referred to the abode of angels and blessed spirits. The meaning is greatly lowered by some of the Greek Fathers, who thought the term was applicable to the souls of men, and by not a few of the moderns, who include under it the souls of the dead. The meaning is, what exists within the reach of vision, and what exists beyond it. The object of which the eye can take cognizance, and the glory which eye hath not seen, are equally the handiwork of Jesus. The assertion is true, not only in reference to the limited conceptions of the universe current in the apostle’s days, but true in the widest sense. The visible portion of the creation consisting of some myriads of stars, is but a mere section or stratum of the great fabric. In proportion as power is given to the telescopic glass, are new bodies brought into view. Nothing like a limit to creation can be descried. The farther we penetrate into space, the luminaries are neither dimmer nor scarcer, but worlds of singular beauty and variety burst upon us, and the distant star-dust is found to consist of orbs so dense and crowded as to appear one blended mass of sparkling radiance. Rays of light from the remotest nebulae must have been two millions of years on their inconceivably swift journey to our world. The nearest fixed star is twenty-one billions of miles from us, so that between it and us there is room in one straight line for 12,000 solar systems, each as large as our own. From the seraph that burns nearest the throne, through the innumerable suns and planets which are so thickly strewn in the firmament, and outwards to the unseen orbs which sentinel the verge of space-all is the result of Christ’s omnipotence and love.
It is probable, however, that the apostle thought of heaven proper when he spoke of things invisible, for he adds, as if in special reference to its population-whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers-
. These epithets refer to celestial dignities. In Eph 1:21, he says- . The arrangement is different-the two last terms of the one are the two first in the other, and , which is second here, is last in Ephesians. occurs here, but is excluded. The thrones appear to be the highest,-chairs of state in humble and distant imitation of the Divine imperial throne. We need not repeat our remarks made on this subject under Eph 1:21. If we may credit Irenaeus, the Gnostics held that another power than Divine created the celestial hierarchy. Simon Magus said-Ennoian generare angelos et potestates, a quibus et mundum hunc factum. The object of the apostle is to show that Jesus is the creator, not simply of lower modes of being, but of the higher Essences of the Universe. Yes, those Beings, so illustrious as to be seated on thrones; so noble as to be styled dominions; so elevated as to be greeted with the title of principalities; and so mighty as to merit the appellation of powers: these, so like God as to be called gods themselves, bow to the Son of God as the one author of their existence, position, and prerogative. As no atom is too minute, so no creature is too gigantic for His plastic hand. What a reproof to that worshipping of angels afterwards reprobated by the apostle-beings who are only creatures, and who themselves are summoned to do suit and service to the First-born. The sentence is at this point concluded, but the apostle reiterates-
-All things by Him and for Him were created. Already the apostle had said- . The change of preposition and tense can scarcely be regarded as accidental, or as introduced for the mere sake of varied diction. Chrysostom, indeed, and many after him, regard and as synonymous. Indeed, this Father says, , ; and Usteri repeats the blunder; while De Wette finds compacted into the double sense of and . The old school of Jewish interpretation, represented by Philo and some of the Kabbalists, held a theory which was adopted by several of the Fathers, as Origen, Athanasius, and Hilary; by the mediaeval divines; and virtually by Neander, Bhr, Bhmer, Kleuker, Olshausen, and Khler. Their notion is, that in the Logos, and by Him, was the world created-the idea was in Him, and its working out was by Him. He is both causa exemplaris and causa effectiva. In Him, says Olshausen, are all things created, i.e. the Son of God is the intelligible world, the , i.e. things themselves according to the idea of them, He carries their essentiality in Himself; in the creation they come forth from Him to an independent existence, in the completion of all things they return to Him. We cannot, with Cocceius and others, take as bringing out the idea that the universe was created by the Father, in the Son. No mention is made of the Father in the context. We rather hold, with Meyer, that the act of creation rests in Christ originally, and its completion is grounded in Him. He is not simply instrumental cause, but He is also primary cause. The impulse to create came upon Him from no co-ordinate power of which He was either the conscious or the passive organ. All things were created in Him-the source of motive, desire, and energy was in Him. He was not, as a builder, working out the plans of an architect-but the design is His own conception, and the execution is His own unaided enterprise. He did not need to go beyond Himself, either to find space on which to lay the foundation of the fabric, or to receive assistance in its erection. On the other hand, the extrinsic aspect is represented by -the universe is the result of the exercise of His omnipotence, or as the Syriac renders, by His hand. It still stands out as having been brought into existence by Him. The aorist carries us back to the act of creation, which had all its elements in Him, and the perfect tense exhibits the universe as still remaining the monument and proof of His creative might. The first clause depicts creation in its origin, and the second refers to it as an existing effect. In the former, it is an act embodying plan and power, which are alike in Him-in the latter, it is a phenomenon caused and still continued by Him. Winer, 50, 6.
. Not in ipso, as the Vulgate renders, but and for Him. This clause marks out His final purpose in creation. It means not for Him as the middle point of creation, as Bhr and Huther imagine; nor simply for His plan, as Baumgarten-Crusius holds; nor merely for His glory, as Bhmer explains it; nor with a main view to His Incarnation, as Melancthon regards it; nor yet with an express reference to His Universal Headship, as Grotius and Storr have maintained. The phrase for Him seems to mean for Him in every aspect of His Being, and every purpose of His Heart. He is, as Clement of Alexandria says, as well as . Not only is the universe His sole and unhelped work, but it is a work done by Himself, and especially for Himself,-for every end contemplated in His infinite wisdom and love. A man of taste and skill may construct a magnificent palace, but it is for His sovereign as a royal habitation. On the contrary, Christ is uncontrolled, meeting with no interference, for His is no subordinate agency defined and guided by a superior power for which it labours and to which it is responsible. No licence of this nature could be permitted to any creature, for it would be ruinous to the universe and fatal to himself. Such a path of uncurbed operation would astonish all heaven, and soon surprise all hell. He only of whom, to whom, and for whom are all things, can have this freedom of action in Himself and for Himself.
Had the Divine Being remained alone, His glory would have been unseen and His praises unsung. But He longed to impart of His own happiness to creatures fitted to possess it-to fill so many vessels out of that fountain of life which wells out from His bosom. Therefore Christ fitted up these all things for Himself, in order that He might exhibit His glory while He diffused happiness through creatures of innumerable worlds, and enabled them to behold His mirrored brightness and reflect it; that He might occupy a throne of supreme and unapproachable sovereignty; and show to the universe His indescribable grace, which, in stooping to save one of its worlds, has thrown a new lustre over the Divine holiness, and proved the unshaken harmony and stability of the Divine administration. For this Creator is He in whom we have redemption, and this noblest of His works was in certain prospect when for Himself all things were created-a platform of no stinted proportions prepared for Him and by Him. Creation in itself presents an imperfect aspect of God, opens up a glimpse of only one side of His nature-His brightest and holiest phase lying under an eclipse; but redemption exhibits Him in His fulness of essence and symmetry of character. And did not Christ contemplate such a manifestation when He brought into existence so vast an empire to enjoy and adore the august and ennobling spectacle? Thus His all-sided relation to the universe is depicted-it is in Him, by Him, and for Him. Let no one say, He is an inferior agent-the universe was created in Him; let no one surmise, He is but a latent source-it is by Him; let no one look on Him as another’s deputy-it is for Him. In every sense He is the sovereign creator-His is the conception, and Himself the agent and end.
Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians
The Great Creator
Col 1:16-29
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We are entering upon a most wonderful portion of Scripture. It has several very vital things to say, both about Christ, and about us, the servants of Christ. It magnifies redemption through the Blood of Christ, and places emphasis upon Christian living, and its final glorious consummation.
1. By Him were all things created. If we were to ask the question, “Who created the heavens and all things?” some would doubtless say that God created them. That would be correct, for the Bible says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” However, the word God (Elohim) is in the plural, and refers to the Triune God.
It is correct to say that God the Father created all things; it is also correct to say that God, the Spirit, created all things. Have you not read “Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created”?
It is also true that God the Son created all things. In the Book of Hebrews it is written, “Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands.” When we think, therefore, of Jesus Christ, we must think of Him as the Creator. Have we not read that man was created in the image of God? It is for this reason, that the Bible says we have borne the image of the earthy.
2. By Him were all things created, that are in Heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible. Here we have the marvelous scope of creation. It includes not only those things which we see with the naked eye, such as the sun, and the moon, and the stars, but it also includes innumerable heavenly bodies which lie far beyond the naked eye, yea, far beyond the strongest telescope.
Under the things created by Jesus Christ, unseen by man, are dominions, principalities and powers. These have to do with things heavenly. They include angels, and their ministrations; they include Satan, and his whole regime. Back of them all is Jesus Christ, and all things were created by Him,
3. All things were created for Him. Not only were all things created by Him, but they belong to Him. The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. So also are the sun, the moon and the stars His, and all their fullness.
4. He is before all things. This statement (Col 1:17) only emphasizes and enforces the statements of Col 1:16. He is, of necessity, before the things which He created. To the Jews, Christ said, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” In the Old Testament we read, “Yea, before the day was I AM.” Thus it is that we might say, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
5. By Him all things consist. The word “consist” means “held together.” We are accustomed to calling it “gravity.” It is, supposedly, gravity that keeps all of the countless myriads of worlds in their place. However, what is gravity? We plainly state, Christ is gravity. He once said, “I am the Resurrection, and the Life.” We say that He is gravity, because God says in effect, “In Him all things are held together.”
I. CHRIST, THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH (Col 1:18)
1. The Church is an organism. Some people think of the Church as an organization, that it is man-made and isolated from any contact with God. The Bible conception is entirely different. The Bible describes Christ as the Head of the Church, and each of us as members of the Body.
We cannot operate apart from Him, nor can He operate apart from us. We are, therefore, as stated in First Corinthians, “Labourers together with God.” In Ephesians there are these words, “That we * * may grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, even Christ: from whom the whole Body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth.”
2. Christ is the Head of this organism. The head stands for headship. Headship stands for authority, and power, and for control. Every one of us, as members of the Body, are under the authority and guidance of the Head. We are to act and move as the Head directs.
We would that the church of today would recognize the supreme Headship of Christ. Headship in our day has been too often taken away from Christ, and vested in an individual, or in a group of individuals.
3. The Head of the Church is He who is the First-born from the dead. How wonderful is the One who holds authority over us! We can almost see John, on the isle of Patmos, as he hears the voice of the Lord Jesus, saying: “I am the First and the Last! I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”
With such a living and victorious Head, the Church has nothing to fear. Christ, the Head of the Church, is the Conqueror of death and of hell. We, too, shall live, because He also lives.
II. THE PREEMINENT CHRIST (Col 1:18, l.c.)
1. Christ is preeminent in Heaven. He is one with the Father in this preeminence. How marvelous are the magnificent scenes of Rev 4:1-11 and Rev 5:1-14. There we behold the throne and He who sits upon it. There we see the Lion of the tribe of Judah, standing before the throne, as the Lamb who had been slain. Around and about the throne, were the four living ones, and the four and twenty elders.
Beyond them, were an innumerable number of angels, ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; and they were saying: “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.”
In all of this, we see the preeminent Christ in the glory and preeminence which He had with the Father before the world was.
In the fifth chapter of Revelation, the same group surrounds the throne. They ascribe an added glory to the Lamb, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.”
2. Christ is preeminent on earth. Our verse says that in all He must have the preeminence. We grant you that for the time, the men of this world have revolted against Him. There are thousands, yea, millions, who blaspheme His Holy Name. We read, however, in the Book of Philippians, these words: “That at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” All of this is written because “it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell.” Thank God that of His fullness have we all received, and grace for grace.
III. THE CHRIST OF THE CROSS (Col 1:20-21)
1. Christ made peace through the Blood of the Cross. Here is a wonderful statement, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God.” When Jesus Christ died upon the Cross, He brought us back to God.
In Ephesians, it is written: “At that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the Covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the Blood of Christ. For He is our peace.” The result of the peace made at the Cross, we mention next.
2. Christ reconciled us by the Blood of the Cross. Our sins had separated us from God. The Lord, however, on Calvary, suffering, the Just for the unjust, settled the sin question. We who were enemies, became friends. We who were alienated, were bought back and given access to God. Thank God for this blessed truth. We now may approach the Father upon the basis of the Blood of Christ.
3. The time when all things will be reconciled. Col 1:20 says, “By Him to reconcile all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in Heaven.” What a wonderful perspective there is here. Jesus Christ will reign until He hath put all things under His feet.
When every unrepentant and unbelieving foe of God shall have been cast out into everlasting darkness; when Satan and all his hordes shall have been delivered into chains of darkness, even to the lake of fire and of brimstone, then, without a vestige of sin or rebellion left, there will be perfect peace, perfect reconciliation, and perfect comradeship between God and man.
All things in Heaven, and all things in earth, through the Blood of the Cross, will be reconciled. This is the perspective which lies before us; as we consider it, we rejoice.
IV. THE PRESENTATION OF THE SAINTS (Col 1:20-23)
1. A presentation which awaits the saints of God. Col 1:22 reads: “To present you * * in His sight.” There is a time coming when we must all appear before Christ. This time is described in Thessalonians, where we read: “Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.”
In the Gospel of John, Christ said, “If I go * * I will come again, and receive you unto Myself.”
Paul tells us of how the Lord shall descend from Heaven with a shout; of how the dead in Christ shall arise first, and of how we who are alive and remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.
This will be a marvelous hour. It is the hour of our Rapture. It will be wonderful to us. It will be wonderful to Him. Wonderful to us as we behold His face, and enter into His glory. Wonderful to Him as He beholds the marvelous heritage of His Cross.
2. A presentation, holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. To be so presented we must continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel, which we have heard. This Scripture does, in no wise, offset the fact that in Christ, clothed with His imputed righteousness, we shall be saved from wrath and made inheritors of the saints in light.
In Second Corinthians it is written, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, * * whether it be good or bad.”
V. REJOICING IN SUFFERINGS (Col 1:24-25)
1. Saints are called to minister. Paul, in the last clause of Col 1:23, says: “Whereof I Paul am made a minister.” Col 1:25 opens with the same words: “Whereof I am made a minister.” The Holy Spirit evidently wanted to emphasize the fact of Paul’s Apostleship. A minister is one who serves.
Paul was a minister who served in a very large way. He speaks of how, in his day, the hope of the Gospel had been heard by the Colossians, and had been preached to every creature which is under Heaven.
2. Saints are called to suffer as they minister. So far as Paul was concerned, he rejoiced in his sufferings, desiring to fill up that which was behind of the afflictions of Christ. Paul did not mean that the Calvary work of Christ was not a finished work. He did mean exactly what Christ meant when He said, “If they have called the Master of the House Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of His Household?”
The soldier of his country dare not expect to be forever free from fighting; nor need he expect to escape the deprivations, the dangers, or even the death that belongs to war.
3. Saints should suffer for the body’s sake. If we suffer for the Church, we suffer for Christ. It is still true, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” The Lord thus showed that He and His Church are one. Therefore, if we suffer for the body, we suffer for the Head of that body.
VI. THE HIDDEN MYSTERY (Col 1:26-27)
1. The Church itself was a mystery hidden from the ages past. The time came, in the mysteries of God, in His dealings among men, that it was necessary for Israel to be broken off, temporarily. God set her aside, as His agency to make Himself known to men.
The eleventh chapter of Romans discusses this matter. It shows, however, that not only was Israel broken off, but that the Church was grafted in.
The Old Testament Prophets prophesied Israel’s downfall. They also prophesied Israel’s final restoration. They did not see, however, that during this age, which has now spanned twenty centuries, God would be making Himself known by the Church, which was the Body of Christ.
2. The glory of the mystery concerning the Church is Christ in us, the hope of glory.
(1) Christ and the individual possess one life. This is true for the simple reason that Christ and the individual believer are indissolubly linked. An earthly parent may die, and his son may live. Or, the son may die, and the father live. Their lives are two lives.
We, however, cannot die because Christ is our life.
It is the analogy of the vine and the branch. No one can say, the branch begins here, and the vine ends there, because the two are woven and interwoven, linked and interlinked. As a result, the life of the branch is in the vine.
(2) Christ and the Church, which is His Body, possess one life. The head cannot live apart from the body, nor the body, apart from the head. The one is subject to the other, and joined to the other.
Ephesians tells us that we are “fitly joined.” It is for this cause that Paul writes that the mystery of the Church, a mystery hid from the ages and generations of the past, is “Christ in you, the Hope of Glory.”
VII. THE PREACHER’S MESSAGE AND AIM (Col 1:28)
1. The preacher’s message. After we read in Col 1:27, of “Christ in you, the Hope of Glory”: we continue reading in Col 1:28 : “Whom we preach.” In other words, Paul preached Christ, and he preached Him as the One who died for sinners, and as One who indwells saints. He preached Him as the Hope of Glory.
Christ should always be the theme of the pulpit. On a certain church, there were words written on the corner stone, “We preach Christ.” Some vines, however, had grown up, which covered the word “Christ,” and caused the inscription to read, “We preach.”
Alas, alas, how often is this true in these days of apostasy! Let us cease to preach ourselves, our own reasonings, and let us begin to preach Christ.
2. The preacher’s warning. Here is the way it reads: “Warning every man.” He who would be faithful to his flock, must warn them of the dangers which lurk in their pathway. He must warn them lest they succumb to the tempter, and miss those marvelous rewards which await the faithful.
3. The preacher’s teaching. Our verse speaks of “teaching every man in all wisdom.” The preacher must do more than the evangelist; more than the exhorter. He must be a teacher. He must teach those things which concern the victorious life, the glories of his Lord, and everything which concerns the Gospel once delivered.
4. The preacher’s preaching, warning, teaching, should have one thing in view. He does all of these things, according to our Scripture, that he “may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” God pity the pastor who can do no more than present newborn babes to his Lord.
Babyhood, in Christ, should present but the beginning of our work. The passion of the pulpit should be the perfecting of saints.
AN ILLUSTRATION
In this study the Cross holds a vital place. Our Creator is our Saviour; His Blood is our ransom.
Shed for many for the remission of sins (Mat 26:28).
Dr. George L. Robinson in his book concerning the archaeological discoveries in the land of Edom about the City of Petra, tells of visiting a hot spring called the Bath of Pharaoh, near Tafila, south of the Dead Sea.
The native men, he says, sacrificed a kid and a lamb, cutting the throats and allowing the blood to flow into the bubbling water. Then after much shouting and emotion, they leaped into the bloody mixture and plunged beneath the reddening flood.
The idea of propitiatory sacrifice still lives in these lands of hallowed memories. Dr. Robinson said that as he watched the proceedings, there came to him the old lines of that great hymn,
“There is a Fountain filled with Blood,
Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that Flood,
Lose all their guilty stains.”
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Col 1:16. The existence of Christ before all other things in the universe (God, of course, being excepted) is still the subject under consideration. Paul is dealing thus particularly with this matter because of the pretensions of philosophy that were being injected into the Colossian community. (See the comments in “general remarks.”) This verse is more specific, mentioning things both material and spiritual, and both visible (to man) and invisible.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Col 1:16. Because (more exact than for, giving a reason for Col 1:15, in him (the emphatic phrase), as the conditional element of the creation, preexistent and all-including, were all things (taken collectively as a whole = the created universe) created. The reference here is to the past fact, in the last clause of the verse the present is emphasized. Since all things is expanded in what follows, the verse abundantly sustains the view taken of Col 1:15. The Person there referred to cannot be a part of the creation.
That are in the heavens, etc. (The article is omitted in this pair, according to the best authorities.) On the terms themselves, comp. Eph 1:10. Obviously, the heavens and the earth are themselves included, as part of the creation.
Things visible and things invisible. To the distinction of place, that of nature is added. There is no necessity for making this pair correspond exactly with the last, although things invisible refers mainly to the heavenly world of spirits, which are classified in what follows: whether thrones, etc.
In Eph 1:21, where, however, different terms are used, the order seems to be from the higher to the lower rank of angels. Hence it has been inferred that thrones here points to the highest grade of created spirits, a view confirmed by Rabbinical usage.
Dominions. According to Meyer, these form the lowest class, principalities and powers, the intermediate classes (comp. Eph 1:21, where dominion comes last); if indeed all such distinctions are not to be deemed precarious and presumptuous (Ellicott). Whether suggests that there may be other classes, but that all are meant, whether named here are not. There is no reference to bad angels, who were not created as such. Earthly empires, civil orders, etc., cannot be meant. Many other fanciful interpretations have been suggested.
All things have been created through him and unto him. All things is solemnly repeated, but besides the fact of creation we have here the permanent result (have been created and continue to be). This result has Him as its end; hence unto Him is added. All three phrases are needed to indicate the relation of the Son to creation. Comp. Rom 11:36, where the same terms (through and unto) are applied to the Father; but of Him is never applied to the Son. To interpret the passage of a new moral creation is forbidden by the single statements as well as by the connection of thought Col 1:17-20 set forth more fully that all things have been created unto Him, and the new moral creation is part of the fulfilment of this design. Comp. Rom 8:19-23.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Mark the connection: The apostle affirms Christ to be the first-born of every creature, namely, because by him were all things created, and by him all things consist: Now if all things were created by him, surely he himself cannot be a creature.
And thus the sense of the apostle’s words runs easy; Christ is the image of the invisible God, the Heir and Lord of the whole creation, for by him all things were created; he that created all creatures, cannot himself be a creature; for it is impossible that any creature should create himself.
Mark futher, Christ is here represented as Creator of the universe; all things were created by him in heaven and in earth, all the angels in their several orders, degrees and dignities.
2. As he is represented the Creator, so likewise the upholder of every creature: as by him were all things created,, so by him do all things consist.
3. He is set forth as the last end of all the creatures; all things were created for him, as well as by him, for the manifestation of his own glory, as God; he that was the first cause, must be the last end: And accordingly, all the creatures throughout the whole creation do give glory unto Christ, some in an active way, as angels and saints; some in a passive way, as damned men and devils; some in an objective way, as sun, moon, and stars, giving us occasion to glorify the power and wisdom of their great Creator.
Learn, 3. That seeing the whole creation was at first made, and is still upheld by the power of Christ, it proves him to be evidently and undeniably God: He that created all things, and upholdeth all things by the word of his power, is and must be God.
Vain here is the Socinian evasion, who, by creation, understand a renovation of the mind, and a reformation of the manners of men by the gospel; for Christ is here said to create all things in heaven, that is, particularly the angels in heaven; but they having, kept their first station, wanted no renovation, so that it must be understood of the first creation of the natural world, and not of the renovation of the moral world.
God forgive these men’s perverting and bold practising upon the scriptures. Can any sensible man persuade himself, that when St. Paul says, that all things were created by Christ in heaven and earth, thrones, dominions, principalitites, and powers, that the apostle should mean no more than the moral renovation of the world below by the preaching of the gospel, in which the angels were not concerned? For though Christ was an Head of confirmation to them, yet had they no need of a renovation, or being made new, having always kept their first station.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Col 1:16-17. For by him were all things created, &c. The casual particle , for, or because, with which this verse begins, refers to both parts of the preceding verse. The Son is the image of the invisible God, as well as the firstborn of the whole creation, because by him were all things created. See the note on Joh 1:3, where the creation of all things by Christ, Gods eternal Word and Son, is explained at large. That are in heaven And heaven itself; but the inhabitants are named, because more noble than the house; and earth; visible The material fabric of this world, with all its inhabitants, called, (Heb 11:3,) , the things which are seen, including the visible splendour of the celestial luminaries, the sun, moon, and stars, even all the hosts of these lower heavens; and invisible The different orders of angels, both those that stood and those that afterward fell; called, in the following part of the verse, thrones, dominions, &c. Because, in after times, false teachers would arise and affirm, some, that the world was made by angels; others, that it was made by an evil principle; the apostle may have been directed by the Spirit to declare, in the most express manner, that all things were created by Gods beloved Son, that the sincere might be preserved from these pernicious errors. All things were created by him and for him They are the productions of his unsearchable wisdom and almighty power, and were made by him, that he might possess and govern them, and be glorified in and by them. To interpret this, as the Socinians do, of the new creation in a spiritual sense, is so unnatural, that one could hardly believe, if the evidence were not so undeniably strong, that any set of learned commentators could have imbibed such an opinion. And he is before all things In the duration, as well as in the dignity of his nature; or, as Micah expresses it, (Mic 5:2,) he is from everlasting; and by him all things consist Or subsist in that harmonious order of being which renders this universal system one beautiful whole. For the original expression, , not only implies that he sustains all things in being, or, as it is expressed Heb 1:3, upholdeth all things by the word of his power, but that all things were, and are, compacted in him into one system, and preserved therein; and that he is the cement, as well as support, of the universe. This description of the Son, as the first Maker and continual Preserver of all creatures in earth and heaven, even of the various orders of angelic beings, was most pertinent to his purpose of showing the Colossians the folly of the false teachers who were endeavouring to seduce them from their reliance on Christ for salvation, and to persuade them to confide in and worship angels, as more powerful mediators with God than his own beloved Son, by whom these angels were all created.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
ARGUMENT 5
GOD CREATIVE IN THE SECOND PERSON
16. Because in Him were created all things in the heavens and upon the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or lordships or governments or authorities. All things were made by him and unto him.
18. Himself is the head of the body, the Church; who is the beginning, the first-begotten from the dead, in order that in all things he may be pre- eminent.
19. And in him all fullness was pleased to dwell.
20. And through himself to reconcile all things unto himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, through himself, whether things upon the earth or things in the heavens. We have wonderful and, to the unspiritual, paradoxical revelations in this prolix quotation. The transcendent intellect and liberal culture of Paul well adapted him to the instrumentality of the Holy Ghost in the evolution of these inscrutable mysteries. The singularity of the word heaven in your translation is due to the astronomical incredulity of the translators, as the Greek is uniformly in the plural number, corroborating astronomy in its revelation of an infinite plurality of worlds, constituting the celestial universe. Already one billion and one hundred and seventy millions have been discovered, which in all probability constitute but a fraction of Gods universe, as the telescope rests upon vast fields of nebulae, which are evidently systems of worlds so infinitely distant as to be unindividualizable by the most powerful telescopes. We are here informed that the Son of God, our wonderful Christ, who lay in the Bethlehem manger, and hung on the Cross of Calvary, created all of these stupendous worlds, as many of them are of tremendous magnitude. Saturn, our neighbor, is eleven hundred times as large as this world, and Jupiter, a still nearer neighbor, fourteen hundred times as large as the earth. Hence, after all, we find that our great world is but a speck floating in the ethereal firmament of Gods boundless universe. How glorious it will be when I get my immortal pinions to wing my flight from world to world, exploring with adoring admiration the stupendous works of God, and cultivating an acquaintance with the unfallen intelligences occupying millions of immortal worlds. Yet your Savior and mine, as here we have clearly revealed, created every one of these worlds. Not only did he create the multiplied millions of worlds, flaming suns, and wandering comets, which speed their flight through the void immense, but he created the human race, every angel that shines and shouts, the melodious seraphim, the adoring cherubim, the tall sons of God whose triumphant shout answered the anthem of the morning stars which sang together at creations birth, the mighty archangels and the heavenly hierarchies who fill the responsible offices in the perfect organizations, principalities, and powers which characterize the heavenly universe. If the Son executed the stupendous work of all creation, where were the Father and the Holy Ghost? What did they do? You must bear in mind there are not three Gods, but one only. Hence, as we see in the next chapter, In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead. Hence, the Father and the Spirit are in the Son in creation, redemption, and administration. You must not differentiate the Divine persons indefinitely, lest you run into tritheistic heresy of three Gods instead of One, which is the first departure into pagan polytheism. This one God manifests himself to our finite senses, and accommodates himself to the plan of salvation in three distinct persons. How are other worlds besides ours affected by the mediatorial work of Christ? The revolt of this world from the Divine government was calculated to jostle the loyalty, and wield an alienating influence on the inhabitants of other worlds, so many as are still on probation like ours. Hence, all worlds as here revealed are reached by the mediatorial administration, culminating in the complete restoration of this world to its celestial loyalty and the perfect reconciliation of all other worlds, and their final and complete fortification against all liability to apostasy, thus in the grand and triumphant finale sweeping the last probability of defection forever from the celestial universe, and eternally establishing all worlds in their Divine loyalty. It is here said that our Savior is the beginning; i.e., he existed alone in the universe before a solitary star had twinkled, or a sun had shot forth one cheering ray. Doubtless the work of creation is still in progress, omnipotence in his glorious majesty tossing other mighty worlds, and populating them with immortal intelligences. We also have it here stated that Himself is the head of the body, the Church. In Eph 1:23, we have the climacteric affirmation that the Church is the fullness of him that filleth all things in all things. O the unfathomable depths, the immeasurable altitudes, the infinitesimal latitudes and longitudes of the Divine benefactions in behalf of poor, fallen humanity! With adoring wonder we will sing the song of redemption forever! How paradoxical when we contemplate the ineffable glory of the unfallen angels, the inconceivable grandeur and sublimity, splendor and beauty, radiant from the immortal visage of cherubim, seraphim, archangel, and heavenly hierarchies, undimmed by a solitary cloud of sorrow through all the long tread of eternal ages! Lost in unutterable bewilderment while contemplating these matchless splendors, glories, and triumphs characteristic of the mighty unfallen intelligences, who wing their flight through celestial ether! Is it possible that in the wonderful dispensations of grace and glory, the blood-washed, fire-baptized Church of the First- born is destined to stand upon the topmost pinnacle of the universe, and outshout Gabriel and Michael?
Lord, shine on us from heaven, and illuminate us with a glimpse of the glories awaiting the Bridehood of Christ! While all the angels, archangels, cherubim, seraphim, and heavenly hierarchies rank as servants of God, the Bride of Christ will certainly enjoy an honorary pre-eminence and a participation of royal favor utterly staggering the loftiest flights of human imagination. If the human intellect could only apprehend these peerless glories, there would be a universal stampede into the kingdom. But, alas! they are only spiritually discerned.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 16
By him; by his agency or instrumentality.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:”
All things were created – all things – all thrones – all authorities. There is nothing that He did not create – how comforting is that? It has to be quite comforting to those under the thumb of dictators. God sets up and takes down governments – this is quite clear in the book of Daniel. All governments are there by His dictates. He will remove them at his discretion. America in all its splendor and power is in existence only at the good pleasure and in my opinion longsuffering of Almighty God.
Hitler bit the dirt, Mussolini bit the dirt, Tojo bit the dirt, and all sorts of others have gone by the wayside even though they seemed to be terrors that were in place forever. Imagine the Colossians – under Rome – under rule from outside – this message had to have been an encouragement to them.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] {k} thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
(k) He sets forth the angels with glorious names, so that by the comparison of most excellent spirits, we may understand how far surpassing the excellency of Christ is, in whom alone we have to content ourselves with, and let go of all angels.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Christ is the originator of creation ("in Him," Col 1:16 a). All things-in every place, of every sort, and of every rank-originated with Him. God mediated the life of the entire universe through His Son (cf. Joh 1:3; Joh 1:10; Heb 1:2). He is the architect of creation. Paul listed various ranks of angelic beings, namely, invisible rulers and authorities. He may have been using the terminology of the false teachers who taught many gradations within the angelic sphere. [Note: Vaughan, p. 182.] Or these gradations really may exist. In Gnosticism, and in its primitive development in Colossae, angels received veneration depending on their supposed rank. Probably ranks of heavenly powers are in view here (Col 1:16). [Note: Dunn, p. 92.] Thus Paul claimed that Christ is superior to all angelic beings (cf. Heb 1:1-14).
"If it is asked whether the spiritual forces which Christ vanquished on the Cross are to be regarded as personal or impersonal, the answer is probably ’both.’ Whatever forces there are, of either kind, that hold human souls in bondage, Christ has shown Himself to be their Master, and those who are united to Him by faith need have no fear of them." [Note: Bruce, 564:299.]
Christ is the agent of creation ("through Him," Col 1:16 b). He accomplished creation (cf. Joh 1:3; Heb 1:2). He is the builder of the creation.
Christ is the goal of creation ("for Him," Col 1:16 b). History is moving toward a goal when the whole created universe will glorify Christ (cf. 1Co 15:25; Php 2:10-11; Rev 19:16). [Note: See Handley C. G. Moule, Colossian Studies, p. 78.]
"Several steps are involved in the construction of a substantial building. First, an architect is obtained to design the building and prepare plans and specifications in accordance with the expressed desires of the owner. Then the plans are submitted for bids by builders or contractors, and a builder secured. After the completion of the edifice, it is occupied by the owner and devoted to its intended use. Our Lord is not only the builder of the universe; He is also its architect and owner. All things have been created in Him (the eternal plans for the creation abide in Him), by Him (He acted as builder), and for Him (the creation belongs to Him and is to reflect His glory)." [Note: Johnson, 473:15.]
"For centuries, the Greek philosophers had taught that everything needed a primary cause, an instrumental cause, and a final cause. The primary cause is the plan, the instrumental cause the power, and the final cause the purpose. When it comes to Creation, Jesus Christ is the primary cause (He planned it), the instrumental cause (He produced it), and the final cause (He did it for His own pleasure)." [Note: Wiersbe, 2:116.]
Paul used the verb "created" twice in Col 1:16. In the first instance it is in the Greek aorist tense and refers to creation as an act. In the second it is in the Greek perfect tense picturing ". . . the universe as still remaining the monument and proof of His creative might." [Note: John Eadie, Commentary on the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians, p. 56.]