DAY 243
CHALLENGE
“Jesus is a created being. Paul describes him as the ‘firstborn of all creation’ (Col. 1:15).”
DEFENSE
Without knowledge of the relevant context, the phrase “firstborn of all creation” could suggest Jesus was the first created being. However, context makes it clear this isn’t the case.
The term “firstborn” had a special meaning in Jewish society. A first-born male was sacred to God (Exod. 13:1, 11–15) and had special rights (Deut. 21:15–17).
With time, “firstborn” became a title of privilege that didn’t necessarily indicate a literal firstborn male. Thus God says he will make David his firstborn (Ps. 89:20, 27), though David was the last son in his family (1 Sam. 16:10–11). In context, the reference to David as God’s firstborn is clarified as “the highest of the kings of the earth,” indicating a position of preeminence, not of age. Similarly, God describes Israel as his firstborn (Exod. 4:22), though Israel was not chronologically the first nation. God also describes Ephraim as his firstborn (Jer. 31:9), though Ephraim was not the chronologically first tribe.
It is as a title of preeminence that the term “firstborn” is used for Jesus in the first-century hymn to Christ that Paul records in Colos- sians 1:15–20. In the ancient world, hymns were sung to deities, and this hymn puts Christ in that class. He is the firstborn “of” creation in that he is preeminent over creation, the same way David was king “of” Israel—i.e., king over Israel.
That Jesus is not a created being is indicated by what the hymn says next: “For in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things. . . . He is the beginning . . . that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell” (Col. 1:16–19).
If all things were created through Christ, if he existed before all things, then he is not a created being. (Jehovah’s Witnesses put the word “other” between “all” and “things” to avoid the implication Christ isn’t a created being, but that’s not what the Greek says.) Jesus possessed “the fulness of God” and thus had equality with God (John 5:18, Phil. 2:6).