Colossians 1:15-20

n the last study we did in verses 10 through 15, we learned several majorly important facts. A quick recap to bring them back to mind.
In verses 10-12, Paul told us much of the results of putting our trust in Christ and then increasing in His knowledge, which leads to several things and ultimately, after death, perfection. It’s important to note here that the Gospel that we believe in isn’t about happiness for human beings. It’s about righteousness for human beings. Our relationship with God and Christ certainly does make us happy and fulfilled, but of foremost importance is righteousness before God and the removal of black sin.
Back on topic, Paul goes on in the next paragraph to tell us of our transferring from Satan’s kingdom of darkness to Christ’s kingdom of light. And this, accomplished through Christ Himself and His death, by his transferring of sin from us to Him. Blessed be His precious name for it! Finally, Paul prepares to launch into some words about God and Creation, and His relationship to it. Which we’re to study…now!

Let’s take a look at Colossians 1:16-20:

“For by Him all things were created, in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”

The beginning of this seems a very simple, blunt statement. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” -Genesis 1:1. There are some who believe that the world came about by a supposed theory called “Evolution,” the only vaguely god-less way to explain the world around us without a God. However, in all seriousness and without exaggerating in the least, I cannot think of a more cracked, lost, confused and entirely unproved theory than that of Evolution. One piece of solid proof has yet to be furnished in defense of that theory, while the mountains of proof that evidence a God-made earth continue to pile up. It takes blind faith indeed to believe foolishness.
That being said, God is the Master and Creator of all heaven and earth, both the visible and invisible aspects of both. Though we see some aspects of the heavens visibly, such as the sky, or the further areas of space, most of what we would call ‘heaven’ is invisible. I personally find it intriguing just how much of our world really IS invisible, and I’m not just talking about microscopic organisms here. For example, both heaven and Hell are invisible to us here on earth, like anything that exists merely in soul and spirit really is. However, the vast majority of the population of the universes exists in one of two places…and probably the majority of those souls, in Hell. The ranks of the angels, the hordes of the demons, the prince of the demons, the spirits of evil and angels…all of this vastly outnumbering our own little 6 billion planet and all invisible.
And therefore, all of it created by an invisible God. At least, invisible to our bodily eyes. C. S. Lewis, one of the greatest Theologians of our time, put it this way. He believed, in theory, that it’s not so much that the spiritual world is ‘hiding’ from us, but rather, our physical, bodily eyes are too, well, physical. “Low-tuned,” “Slow,” “inferior,” are all decent enough words to use. The spiritual world is the REAL world, whereas the physical world is merely a passing shadow. More of this can be found in 1st Corinthians 15:45-55. I highly recommend looking it up for more depth on this.

“Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things have been created by Him and for Him.” Pretty self-explanatory. The thrones of the kinds and their places, the lands they rule, the very rulers themselves are all created by God, and FOR God. As we all know, our end result should be to ultimately glorify Him, and the entire of Creation is going to be brought to this. We as humans beings, and all the rest of Creation is ‘geared’ for that one object. This is something I believe we all, myself included most of all, should bear in mind more often. Though we can and do achieve great reward and benefit by striving to glorify Him now and further His kingdom, remember: The end result in inevitable. It’s going to happen, period. And probably very soon. We WILL glorify Him in the end, in some form or another, indirectly or directly, and all Creation will also be to His glory forever and ever, amen. Even the very souls in Hell will indirectly glorify Him, by testifying to his justice and righteous judgment, whether they like it or not.

“And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead;”

Obviously also God is before and above all things, the first and the last. He is indeed the beginning of all and the end of all, and He will always be so. In fact, as Paul aptly states next, all of Creation is held together by Him, and without Him, none of this would exist. This flies in the face of a older theory called “Deism,” that believes God merely created the earth, and then left it to spin on its own, or tick away like a watch you leave alone on your desk. Our universe requires CONSTANT empowering and supervision from God, His constant life being continually poured into it, to keep it held together.
‘He is also the head of the body, the church.’ Sound familiar?

“For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.” -Ephesians 5:22-24

“…but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” -Ephesians 4:15-16

We are the church, that is, those of us who believe in the Gospel and Jesus Christ as the savior from sins. The church of God, also called the Bride of Christ (a MASSIVE side study in itself!), will be made up of all the human beings who are saved on this earth. Naturally then, Christ is the head of that church, the Leader, the Founder, the Maker and Designer of it. And this goes much deeper than any husband-wife relationship, in fact, probably far beyond. Though they are both very similar relationships, in fact made to be so, Christ being the groom and head of His Church and its Creator.
Furthermore, Christ is also the beginning of the resurrection from the dead and from Hell, the firstborn of God that was also the first to return from the dead, and thus the beginning and an entirely new age and covenant between man and God. This is only natural, since it is the Father’s will to give Him a Name above all names, and a place above all places, the ‘firstborn’ of all.

“For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven.”

This is an interesting passage. Here Paul states that it was God’s good pleasure for all fulness to literally dwell ‘IN Him’ (emphasis added). On this, I am actually not sure what it means. It could mean a couple of things, and the idea interests me. It could be referring to the fact that God does really exist in His Son since Christ is the exact copy in personality and virtue, if you will, of His Father. However, it could also be referring to the fact that God dwelt IN Christ literally when He was here on Earth, in human form. I’m not sure. Check me on it!
And of course, God, through Christ, has reconciled all things to Himself, that being the earth and its sins. This does not mean that everyone will go to heaven or that God reconciled ALL men to Himself, sadly. He HAS made peace with us, fallen humanity, through the blood that was so horrible shed on Christ’s cross, as Paul says, but this doesn’t imply that literally all men will be saved. It does, however, mean that since God’s righteous wrath and justice has been satisfied, He no longer has to hold a man’s sins against Him…except for one. That what is that ONE thing that God will ask us on Judgment Day? The all-important question. “Did you believe in My Son, or not?” It’s a yes or no question, and that indeed will be the really only defining thing for all eternity when all is said and done. God has reconciled all things to Himself, but even still, if we reject the reconciliation, it will be pointless, and really leave God little choice but to throw us into judgment. Finally, this doesn’t just to apply to humanity, as Paul states at the end. Both heaven and earth will be held to this fact, and all heaven and earth has been reconciled to Him through His Son’s death.
Wow, another long study! Questions? Comments?

~Alex
Phil. 4:13