A CHRISTOLOGY BASED ON COLOSSIANS
Introduction
The person of Christ and who He is is a pertinent subject of conversation. If Jesus is who He says He is then to believe in Him would be a reasonable step of faith. If the scriptures can be trusted and the words that make up the scripture inspired, then forming a Christology from what they say should be the way in which one goes about “seeking” Jesus. Many have denied the inerrancy of scripture and made up their own Jesus on the basis of false presuppositions. Their beliefs are unfounded and heretical because they do not reflect the true teachings of Jesus as found in the Bible.
The life of Jesus is a life that is 2000 years removed from the present day. No one on this planet has ever actually seen Jesus, though many have purported to have done so. His life, just like the life of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther, is a life in the history books. No one has ever seen Him, so what is written about Him, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is the only thing one has today so as to study Him. After all, no one questions the historicity of George Washington and the like, so why should the life of Jesus be questioned either? The fact remains where Jesus is concerned... no other life and/or death in antiquity is so well attested to as the life of Jesus Christ. He lived, died, and was resurrected -- seen by over 500 people at one time following His resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:6) -- and has been hailed as God for almost 2000 years now.
Who is this man? Was He or is He God? The Epistle to the Colossians answers these questions and leaves no doubt. For those who do not hold to the authority of the scriptures, this letter won’t help much. But to those who do reverence the scriptures and know Jesus personally, the Holy Spirit reveals the person of Jesus Christ in this small letter written by the Apostle Paul. For anyone seeking to defend the person of Jesus, this book of the Bible is a great place to start.
The Deity of Jesus Christ
In the very first chapter Paul says more than a mouthful concerning the person of Jesus Christ. Following his usual greeting pattern, giving thanks, and stating his purpose, Paul begins, in verse 13, an incredible exposition about the person of Jesus Christ.
Right from the beginning Paul speaks of God transferring believers (for that is who is writing to) from a life of darkness (in their former state) to the kingdom of His beloved Son. It is noteworthy that the text calls Jesus God’s beloved Son because this is a picture of God’s love for those whom also transferred. If God expresses His love for His Son and then transfers wicked sinners to that kingdom then it must mean that He loves them too as beloved children.
Verse 14 gives greater insight into who this beloved Son is by speaking of a redemption through that Son for the forgiveness of sins. This great word “redemption” has the same meaning as that of Romans 3:24 in that it is a release on payment of a ransom for a slave or debtor (cf. Hebrews 9:15). This means that Christ has set sinners free from the debt they have incurred for being sinners. So it can be seen here that Jesus is the Redeemer in this verse.
Verse 15 adds more to the thought from 14. Jesus is the actual image of the invisible God, something Paul says again in 3:10. Since God cannot be seen by human eyes (Exodus 33:20), Jesus is the visible form of God made in the likeness of man so that man can see God. As “image” points to “revelation,” so “first-born” points to “eternal pre-existence.” Jesus Christ is not the first of the created beings because that is contradicted by the following words: “in Him were all things created.” The true sense is, “born before the creation.” All of this and the priority of Christ speaks of His sovereignty over and above all things.
Verse 16 speaks of Jesus as being the creator of all things. This powerful statement means that Jesus was actually the one creating in the Book of Genesis! Genesis calls the one creating God, and this passage says God is Jesus. He created all things, including the universe which is immeasurably big. He is obviously bigger than the human mind can comprehend, but He is the one who created it and had the mercy and grace to make Himself known to His creation and to be known. Going further, He created all things for Himself. This means that all was created to bring about His glory. Jesus Christ is the Creator.
When the text says, “He is,” both words are emphatic, and what it speaks of is Christ’s absolute existence. The precedence of Christ in time and the preeminence as Creator are both stated sharply. But Christ not only creates, He “maintains” in continuous stability and productiveness. This verse means that He holds life together, marriages, faith, nature, etc. Athanasius said, “He, the All-powerful, All-holy Word of the Father, spreads His power over all things everywhere, enlightening things seen and unseen, holding and binding all together in Himself. Nothing is left empty of His presence, but to all things and through all, severally and collectively, He is the giver and sustainer of life.... He, the Wisdom of God, holds the universe in tune together. He it is who, binding all with each, and ordering all things by His will and pleasure, produces the perfect unity of nature and the harmonious reign of law. While He abides unmoved forever with the Father, He yet moves things by His own appointment according to the Father's will.”[1] Jesus is the sustainer of all things.
Verse 18 places Jesus over the church body. The church, in Paul’s theology, is likened to a human body with all its functioning parts (1 Corinthians 12:13-14). Paul even states in 2:19 that He holds the body together like the joints and ligaments of the human body function -- and He causes it to grow. Christ is the head of that body signifying His position is supreme. He is the beginning, meaning He is not the beginning of the Church, but of the new life which subsists in the body -- the Church. Now being the first born from the dead defines Jesus as being the beginning of the new spiritual life, namely, by His resurrection. Jesus was the first to rise from the dead in bodily form. Those whom Jesus brought back to life in the Gospels were merely restored because Jesus was the firstborn from among the dead. This is so that Jesus might have first place in everything -- literally, “might become being first.” This states a relation into which Christ came in the course of time and to His absolute being. He became head of the Church through His incarnation and passion, as He is head of the universe in virtue of His absolute and eternal being.[2] Jesus is the head of all things.
Verse 19 should literally read, “God was well pleased that in Him fullness to dwell.” This phrase brings together a full climax of all the attributes of Christ up to this point, namely, “image of God, first-born of all creation, Creator, the eternally preexistent, the Head of the Church, the victor over death, first in all things.”
There must also be taken into the account the selection of this word “fullness” with reference to the false teaching in the Colossian church, the errors which afterward were developed more distinctly in the Gnostic schools. “Fullness” was used by the Gnostic teachers in a technical sense, to express the sum total of the divine powers and attributes. From this word they supposed that all those agencies issued through which God has at any time exerted His power in creation, or manifested His will through revelation. These mediatorial beings would retain more or less of its influence, according as they claimed direct parentage from it, or traced their descent through successive evolutions. But in all cases this word was distributed, diluted, transformed, and darkened by foreign admixture. They were only partial and blurred images, often deceptive caricatures, of their original, broken lights of the great Central Light. Christ may have been ranked with these inferior images of the divine by the Colossian teachers. Hence, the significance of the assertion that the “totality” of the divine dwells in Him. (NOTE: See Lightfoot's note on this passage, p. 328; Ellicott on <Gal. 4:4; Eph. 1:23>. Macpherson, "Expositor," second series, iv., 462).[3]
All of this “dwells” with Christ. In other words, all this fullness of who God is actually finds its home and abode within Jesus Christ. In this sense Jesus is equal with God Himself, and portrays Him as the fullness of Deity (cf. 2:9).
Verse 20 continues on with the thought of verse 19 speaking of the Son’s purpose as reconciliation. This word “reconcile” is only used three times in the NT -- all of which speak of being at war with God but being made right with God through a treaty of sorts, or simply “reconciliation.” But this act was not merely a peace treaty between man and God, rather, it was an act of grace, mercy, and kindness on the part of God Himself, and God alone, through Jesus. This reconciliation brought peace following the shed blood of Jesus on the cross, and it did so for all things -- just as all things were created by Him and for Him in verse 16. So Jesus is the peacemaker between God and man.
Verses 21-23 have the same basic meaning as the previous verse, and they sound just like Paul’s argument in Ephesians 2:11-14. Paul also makes this point once again in Colossians 2:13-14. Once man was separated from God due to a sinful hostility towards Him and incurred the problems that this condition brings. Now, through Christ’s death on the cross in His own fleshly body sinful man has been reconciled to God and made holy. Once sinful, now holy -- through the act of Jesus shedding His blood bringing about peace between God and man. Man is now actually above reproach, holy and blameless. Only an act of God could do this and cause man to be thrust into this state of being. Certainly no human act, albeit “good,” could make man holy, blameless, and above reproach! But there is a qualifier with regard to good deeds on the part of man in verse 23. Good deeds must continue in faith as evidence that they are truly reconciled to God in Christ. This is not teaching a works maintenance for salvation to continue, it simply teaches that those who are truly reconciled to God through Christ through faith in the atonement will stay with what they have believed, remaining seated, so to speak, and continue on in what was given to them. Jesus’ parable of the seeds and soil rings clear here and illustrates that point (cf. Matthew 13). A true believer stays with what he started, and though he may stray away, he never abandons what God has given to him.
The specifics of what those reconciled to God must stay with is also specified in verse 23, namely, the “gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.” So these three verses speak of Jesus as the one who reconciles and makes permanent peace between God and man.
Conclusion
It can be clearly seen that just in the opening chapter of Colossians alone Jesus is God and all of God’s fullness dwells in Him. He is the Redeemer, He is sovereign, He is the creator, He is the sustainer of all things, He is the head of all things, He is the fullness of Deity, and He is the peacemaker between God and man. Paul later speaks of Jesus as being the “true knowledge of God’s mystery...in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (2:2-3). Jesus has triumphed over all rulers and authorities (2:15), He sits at the right hand of God (3:1), and He is all in all; He occupies the whole sphere of human life and permeates all its developments.[4] The identity of Jesus is unmistakable in Colossians, and though He is distinguished from God He is equated with God. In this sense the Triune Godhead is unmistakable.
WORKS CITED
MacArthur, J. 1992. The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Colossians & Philemon.
Moody Bible Institute: Chicago.
New American Standard Bible.
Tom Constable’s Notes on Colossians.
Vincent’s Word Studies of the New Testament