Colossians 1:15-23

Jesus is the visible manifestation of God and our eternal Creator and Reconciler, who has supremacy in the universe and the church.

Colossians

Colossians 1:15 HCSB

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

When Paul wrote to the Colossians, he was countering a clever company of false teachers who sought to replace the Colossians enthusiastic devotion to Christ with only mild approval of Him.

Jesus is the image of God.

Jesus is the perfect representation of God.

Jesus is the firstborn over all creation.

Firstborn is a term of rank more than it is a word of time. ()

Colossians 1:16 HCSB

For everything was created by Him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through Him and for Him.

Jesus holds the highest rank in creation because he is the Creator of all things.

Jesus has absolute supremacy over all creation, including any spirit beings who were being worshipped by the local heretics.

Since only God can be the Creator, this means that Jesus, the perfect image of God, is even more than an image, He is divine. He is God.

Colossians 1:17 HCSB

He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together.

His power guarantees that the universe is under control and not chaotic.

Colossians 1:18 HCSB

He is also the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He might come to have first place in everything.

Jesus is sovereign over creation.

He is also sovereign over the church.

Jesus is sovereign over the church because he is the Head.

The church takes its direction from Jesus and is under his authority.

The glorious truth for us is this: Because of his resurrection, we are assured of our own resurrection. ()

Colossians 1:

Colossians 1:19–20 HCSB

For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile everything to Himself by making peace through the blood of His cross — whether things on earth or things in heaven.

Jesus has supremacy over all things because all of God’s fullness resides in Jesus.

Jesus is the full embodiment of God’s attributes and saving grace.

Paul calls for reconciliation making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

What God has done is to move toward us to restore harmony, bury the hatchet, and heal the breach.

Colossians 1:21–22 HCSB

Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds because of your evil actions. But now He has reconciled you by His physical body through His death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before Him —

This concept of reconciliation is not just a universal theory, it is a personal truth

Jesus death allows God’s enemy to become God’s friend.

To be alienated means to be separated. We were alone, an outsider, exiled, shut out, cut off and or locked out. ()

Paul tells us we were once God’s enemies in two ways.

We were enemies in our minds.

Our thoughts and our attitudes were hostile to God.

We were enemies in our deeds, because of our evil behavior.

It’s not just that we thought wrong; we also acted wrong.

Despite our active opposition to God, He reconciled us trough the death of Jesus. Jesus died for a face of rebels to offer them a chance to become his allies.

The slate of sin has been wiped clean, and we look forward to the day we will stand before God holy in his sight, without blemish and free from being accusaed

Colossians 1:23 HCSB

if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.

The IF of verse 23 should not be misunderstood.

This verse is not saying that we will be presented holy and blameless if we remain faithful, as if our eternal salvation depends on our performance.

The Greek construction of the IF is not an expression of doubt but an expression of confidence and is better translated as since.

Paul is confident that because they have understood what it means to be reconciled they will remain faithful to the gospel that reconciled them.

He writes this as an expression of confidence and as a warning to avoid the religious fads of the false teachers of Colosse.