Supremacy of Christ: Firstborn From The Dead
Colossians 1 v 18
And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
Head of the Church
Jesus is the Head of the Body or otherwise known as the Church. He is ultimately in charge, not the Pope, a bishop or a local pastor. It is Christ who has that honour.
Christ is enthroned in Heaven. So, the Head and Body spans both the Highest Heavens and the Earth. He rules the Body and the Church carries out God’s work on the Earth and in the Heavens; both the Seen and Unseen realms are touched by the Body of Christ.
Beginning And Firstborn From The Dead
In my last post, I discussed what is a firstborn. It isn’t necessarily a first born child, but a position within a family. A firstborn of a family may be the second child or even an adopted child.
Some think ‘firstborn’ means Christ was a created being. But if this true, then the phrase, ‘Firstborn from the dead’ doesn’t make any sense. It would mean Jesus was the one created from among the dead.
I think St Paul was explaining how Jesus is the one who leads the dead out of Hell. He is the beginning or first one to do this.
He frees the captives held by death. And as the Firstborn, He is the one who inherits the dead.
He Has Supremacy
Christ is called by many names, and some of these cause paradoxes. For example, Jesus is the Lamb of God (John 1 v 29), but also the Lion of Judah (Rev 5v5). Lion and lambs are very different animals. One is a predator and the other is prey.
He is the King of Kings (Rev 19 v 16), but a servant who washes feet (John 13 v 1-17). Emperors don’t lower themselves to act like servant.
These feel like contradictions. How can Jesus be both?
Another way to conceptualise these paradoxes is, Christ is ‘inhabiting the edges’.
For example, in His ministry on Earth, He went up to the temple at Jerusalem, but also to the lowly disenfranchised. He was raised to die on the Cross, and then taken down and buried in the tomb. He descends to Hell, but also ascends to Heaven.
Christ is the highest as well as the lowest at the same time. This is completely expressed in the Incarnation. Where He is fully God and fully man. He is concurrently the Infinite and the finite.
And this is what St Paul means by Christ having supremacy. He is both the Firstborn of all Creation and the Firstborn from among the dead.
His reign and rule stretches from the Highest to the Lowest. From the Highest Heaven to the Abyss of Hell.