SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON PLAN 9 - Col. 1:15-23 - HE IS BEFORE ALL THINGS
INTRODUCTION: Last week in Col. 1:1-14, we heard Paul speak in positive terms about the Colossian Christians' faith, love, and hope and that the Good News of Jesus Christ was bearing fruit and growing in them. At the same time, however, we know that this letter was prompted by an in-person report from Epaphras, founder of this church, that the congregation was in grave danger of being led away from the true gospel by false teaching. This false teaching, known as the "Colossian Heresy," was a synergetic religion combining ideas from Judaism, Greek Hellenism, and eastern mysticism that regarded Jesus Christ as just one deity among many other deities. This kind of thinking-i.e., we believe "everything," we accept "everything,"-is as much a threat to the true gospel today as it was in Paul's time. Today, in Col. 1:15-23, we will see how Paul deals with this problem. He starts by seeking to ground these Colossian Christians in the basics of the faith, namely, that Jesus Christ is at the center of that faith. If these Colossian can better understand (1) the nature and mission of Christ and (2) who Christ is and what He came to do for them, this understanding will give them the firm footing needed to entirely refute the garbage the false teachers had been feeding them. Paul's strategy, as we shall see, is filling these Colossian Christians with so much true belief about the person of Christ that their hearts will have no room left for falsehoods. In doing this, Paul is giving us the model-the standard-of how we should be nurturing the faith of new Christians in our own churches today. This is why discipleship, one-on-one and as a group, is vitally important to us and every other evangelical church across this land. I warned you last week that in this study, we would re-learn the ABCs of who Jesus is and why He came so, today's lesson will be "A."
Read Col. 1:15-20 - CHRIST: CREATOR AND RECONCILOR
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation: 16 for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities-all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 He is also the head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. 19 For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
NOTE: The six verses which follow are considered by Bible scholars to be a hymn or poem composed by Paul in praise of Christ. They contain a very succinct declaration of Paul's Christology-that Jesus Christ is exalted as preeminent over creation, the church, and the new creation.
v. 15a: "He is the image of the invisible God" - There's a good reason for this: You can't see God in His glory and survive (Ex. 33:20)-instantaneous obliteration! The word for "image" (Gk. eikón [eye-kone], lit. a replication) means likeness in terms of both person and character. Thus, in Jesus we have a perfect picture of the person and character of God, described by the writer of Hebrews as the "radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature" (Heb. 1:3). Importantly, Jesus represents someone who is real, unlike the empty, human-conceived images of false gods.
v. 15b: "the firstborn of all creation" - We must carefully notice what Paul does and doesn't say here. He doesn't imply that Jesus was created but is first in rank-preeminent in all of the creation.
v. 16: "for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities-all things have been created through Him and for Him" - Here, Paul tells the Colossians that Jesus is supreme over all the creation because all of it was created by Him and for Him, including the visible things of earth and the unseen things in the spiritual realm. The point that Paul drives home is this: Because Christ is superior to the created order, all worship should be focused solely upon Him and none on anything or anybody else.
v. 17: "He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together" -Christ is eternal, existing before the created order. Christ was not only present at the creation but has held it together ever since. Without Christ's continuing divine administration, it would all come apart in an instant. John the expressed the same principle this way: He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being (John 1:2-3). We now live in an age when a majority of people don't know who the creator is. And the main reason people choose to deny the creation is moral, not intellectual; at the base of it, they want to be lords of their own live rather than submit to a higher power.
v. 18a: "He is also the head of the body, the church;" - In his various letters, Paul refers to the "church" (Gk. ekklesia, lit. means an assembly) using the metaphor of a "body" (Gk. sóma [so-mah]). Jesus is the head of the body and we, as members, form all the integral parts. Like human body parts, we have different roles but are interconnected and dependent upon one another, and all subject to Christ, who is our head and our king.
v. 18b: "and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead" - Again, as in v. 17, Christ is the "beginning" (i.e., eternal and everlasting) and is preeminent even among the dead, because He died and rose again, which demonstrated His authority over death. Elsewhere in his writings, Paul says that Christ "became the first fruits of those who are asleep," telling us that Christ's resurrection was to be the first of many (1 Cor. 15:20-23).
v. 18c: "so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything" - Paul earlier explained this in Philippians with reference to Christ's sacrifice on the cross, when he said, "For this reason also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Phil. 2:10-11). The point Paul makes here is that Christ is preeminent in honor as well as in service and sacrifice.
v. 19: "For it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him" - Jesus has preeminence in everything because He has "all the fullness" of God in Him. This means that Jesus not only bears all of God's glory but that all that dwells in God also dwells in Him. In particular, he possesses the wisdom, the power, the Spirit, and the glory of God, which is to say that He is fully God. Scholars suggest that Paul made this point here to contradict the dualistic belief that God and man cannot exist together in human form.
v. 20a: "and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven" - Since the fall of man (Gen. 3:1-8), humankind and spiritual forces of darkness (Isa. 14:12-15) have been in rebellion against God, with the result that all of creation has been infected with the consequences of human sin (Gen. 3:14-19) and subjected to futility and decay (Rom. 8:20-21). In order "to reconcile," there must be a change in relationship from bad to good-a change from hostility to friendship. In the context of nations, it means establishing peace in place of war.
v. 20b: "having made peace through the blood of His cross" - When Jesus died on the cross, He took upon Himself all the consequences of human sin, so that all things could be made new and brought back to their rightful place under His lordship. This reconciliation was not something that we humans could have accomplished for ourselves; it required God's initiative because our sinful nature was incompatible with God's holiness. God accomplished this reconciliation-"made peace" (Gk. eiréné [i-ray'-nay], lit. to join together)-with us through the Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Christ. So, now, Christ has made peace between God and humans by removing the stain of guilt which previously made it impossible for humans to approach God's divine throne.
APPLICATION 1: Jesus Christ is preeminent in all of the creation because he is:
Read Col. 1:21-23 - COLOSSIANS: PREVIOUSLY ALIENATED, NOW RECONCILED
21 And although you were previously alienated and hostile in attitude, engaged in evil deeds, 22 yet He has now reconciled you in His body of flesh through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach- 23 if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.
v. 21a: " And although you were previously alienated" - The "you" in this sentence is a direct reference to the Colossian church. The Colossians, like the rest of humanity before coming to Christ, were enslaved to sin and therefore alienated from God and subject to His righteous wrath. Before this time, since most of them came from Gentile backgrounds, they were not only separated from Christ, but also "excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world" (Eph. 2:12)-i.e., were spiritually ignorant non-Jews.
v. 21b: "and hostile in attitude, engaged in evil deeds" - It wasn't just their "evil deeds" that alienated them from God in times past, but also the way their minds worked. Evil deeds grow out of evil thoughts, and thoughts are the starting point. As Paul explained elsewhere, "God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done" (Rom. 18:28).
v. 22a: "yet He has now reconciled you in His body of flesh through death" - This is a huge "yet": it tells the Colossians (and us) that despite their alienation, that despite their hostile attitude and evil deeds, they are now "reconciled" (Gk. apokatallassó [ap-ok-at-al-las'-so], lit. a complete change of feelings) because Jesus' death on the cross was a sufficient sacrifice for all their sins, so that NOW God sees them as holy and without blame, freed from the guilt of their sins
v. 22b: in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach-" - In short, since Christ himself was sinless, i.e., "holy", "blameless," and "beyond reproach," the substitutionary sacrifice He made on the cross was perfect and acceptable to God in every way. In simple language, this tells the Colossians believers that when Christ brings His followers-them-before God for final inspection, that they will pass muster in every way.
APPLICATION 2: As Christians we are reconciled to God because Christ's for us sacrifice was acceptable. The "yet" in v. 22 represents one of God's great reversals. Because Christ was perfect and sinless, His sacrifice on the cross for us was perfect and acceptable to God's righteousness in every way. When we accept Jesus as Lord, we will appear holy and without blame before God. In simple language, when Jesus brings us as His followers before God for inspection, we will pass!
v. 23a: "if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you have heard" - The conditional "if" in this verse can be confusing and must be understood in the context of what Paul has been teaching throughout this chapter about the preeminence of Christ. Paul isn't implying that your salvation will be lost unless you "continue in the faith." That would wrongly imply that works were needed to maintain faith (Gal. 3:3). What he means is that in order to be truly saved in the first instance, your saving faith must be "firmly established" and "steadfast" and based on the "hope of the gospel which you have heard." The NT makes it clear that the moment a person truly believes in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, he or she is saved and secure in that salvation (Eph. 2:8-9; Heb. 7:25; and Rom. 8:29-30). Because of the heresy that had infiltrated the Colossian church, Paul knew there were very possibly people in the church who had not been saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ but had heard and believed things about person and role of Jesus that conflicted with what he was teaching.
v. 23b: "which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven" - When Paul says "all creation," he's referring to the Roman Empire in his time, which spanned most of Europe, North Africa, and eastward through Asia to the western part of present day Iran.
v. 23c: "and of which I, Paul, was made a minister" - Paul, who held the highest office as an apostle ("one who is sent"), viewed himself as a "minister" (Gk. diakonos, lit. a servant who waits on others) in his service to the cause of the gospel.
APPLICATION 3: Saving faith must be based on the hope of the true gospel. In v. 23, Paul referred to this as the "hope of the gospel which you have heard," in other words, what he was teaching them in this chapter. The true gospel proclaims that Jesus Christ is preeminent in all of the creation, and any teachings contrary to this are false. Paul said this because he was concerned that some of the people in the Colossian might not been saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ but had heard and believed things about person and role of Jesus that conflicted with what he was teaching.
