Beginning and Firstborn
In his Letter to the church in Colossae, Paul stresses the exaltation of Jesus following his resurrection. It seems some members of the assembly were confused about his authority over the spiritual powers that remained hostile to God and His people. And so, the Apostle reminds the church of just how highly God exalted the one who became the “Firstborn of the Dead.” Implicit in his statement is the assumption that Jesus did not always possess his present position of preeminence.
The high status of Jesus is the result of his obedience unto death, as well as his
triumph over the hostile spiritual powers achieved by him on the Cross.
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| [Photo by Marko Blažević on Unsplash] |
But the Apostle especially emphasizes that the Son of God achieved supremacy over all such hostile powers on behalf of the church.
- (Colossians 1:18-22) – “And HE is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, firstborn from among the dead, in order that he might become in all things himself preeminent; because in him was all the fullness well pleased to dwell. And through him fully to reconcile all things to him, making peace through the blood of his cross, through him, whether the things upon the earth or the things in the heavens. And you who at one time were estranged and enemies in your mind in your wicked works, yet now has he fully reconciled, in his body of flesh, through his death, to present you holy and blameless and unaccusable before him.”
In the Greek text, the pronoun rendered “HE” in the first
clause is emphatic and stresses what God accomplished in Jesus of Nazareth
- in his death and resurrection. He is now – AT PRESENT - “before
all things” (present tense).
Moreover, in him, all things now “adhere” or “hold
together,” and this includes his subjugation of and rule over all hostile
spiritual powers. For this reason, his people are no longer under the dominion
of the “principalities and powers.” In fact, all such powers were “created”
in the first place to serve him, and since his death and resurrection, they do
so once again.
The Greek term rendered “body” or sōma is applied metaphorically
to the Church (Strong’s - #G4983). In Paul’s view, a physical human
“body” is something that God created; therefore, it is inherently good regardless
of its present mortal state. The problem was never its physicality or that man
is an embodied creature but the body’s enslavement by sin.
THE FIRSTBORN
The term rendered “FIRSTBORN” points to the Nazarene’s
preeminence as the “Firstborn of many brethren.” He is the Firstborn
of the Dead. That is, the Son of God is the first man who has been resurrected
and received a glorious immortal body, but he certainly will not be the last.
And this is why he also is labeled the “BEGINNING.” In his death and resurrection, he began the general resurrection of the dead and inaugurated the “New Creation.” All the benefits that God has bestowed on the church are the direct result of his self-sacrificial death and his subsequent resurrection “from the dead.”
His past resurrection links him to believers, and it is the model
and the “First Fruit” of the future resurrection of the saints.
Moreover, his glorified body is of the same nature as the one that his
disciples will receive when he returns and raises his saints from the dead.
Likewise, the Book of Revelation labels him the “Firstborn
from the Dead,” also in reference to his past resurrection and present
position - “John, to the seven assemblies
which are in Asia, Grace to you and peace, from Him who Is, and Who Was, and
who is Coming, and from the Seven Spirits which are before his throne, and
from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the FIRSTBORN OF THE DEAD, and the
Ruler of the kings of the Earth” - (Revelation 1:4-5).
In Colossians, Paul also uses the term “resurrection”
metaphorically. On some level, water baptism symbolizes the saints being “buried”
with Jesus in his death so that they should live and walk in the newness of his
resurrected life - (Colossians 2:9-14).
HIS VICTORY
One result of his exaltation is the cancellation of the ordinances
from the Law that govern food and the calendar. Such things are not
inherently evil, and they were required by the Torah. However,
their time has come to an end with the death and resurrection of Israel’s
Messiah. Such rituals amounted to “shadows” of the “substance”
that cast them, namely, Jesus - (Romans 6:4-5).
Because of his victory, believers must not allow anyone to enslave
them again to the very “rudiments” to which they have died in Christ (“For
you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God”). Since they have
been raised together with him, they must pursue the things above - “Where
Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.”
And when Jesus is again “manifested,” his people will also “be
manifested in glory.” This “manifestation” refers to his return or “arrival”
(‘parousia’) at the end of the present age. His followers will receive “glory”
when they are raised from the dead.
Paul links this future “glory” to the present glory of
Jesus and the coming bodily resurrection of the righteous. The connection is
especially prominent in the designation “Firstborn of the Dead” - (1
Peter 5:4, 1 John 2:28, 3:2).
As in many of his letters, the bodily resurrection of the saints
is foundational to Paul’s understanding of salvation and the life that
believers will receive in the coming age. And that fundamental hope is based on
the past and bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
