Chapter 4 · Deep dive
The Son as Creator of All Things
Firstborn, creation through the Son, and Psalm 102 applied in Hebrews.
Everything around us has received its existence from God. But where does the Son belong: among the things God made, or with the God who made them? John, Paul, and Hebrews answer by showing that all creation depends on Him. He is not simply the greatest being in a world made by someone else.
The Son exists before creation, brings it into being, and continues to sustain it. Paul also says that all things were made for Him. These claims help explain why Colossians calls Him firstborn: the title speaks of His place over creation, not His beginning as a creature.
Genesis, John, and the one work of creation
Genesis begins with God creating the heavens and the earth. He speaks, and what He commands comes into existence; His Spirit is present over the waters. Genesis does not name Jesus here. John takes us back to that beginning and tells us that the Word was already with God. Everything that came into being came through Him, and nothing created came into being without Him. The Son cannot be one of the things whose existence depends on His own work.
In 1 Corinthians 8, Paul addresses eating food offered to idols. Whatever gods and lords people may worship, believers confess one God, the Father, from whom all things come, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things come. Paul does not add a lesser god beside Israel's God. He places the Son within the work of creation itself. From the Father and through the Son distinguish their relationship without dividing that work. The Father and Son are not competing creators, and Paul does not describe God first making the Son and then using Him to make everything else.
Colossians 1:15: what does 'firstborn' mean?
Greek detail: firstborn
πρωτότοκος prōtotokos — firstborn
A firstborn son normally had a leading place in the family and its inheritance. The title could therefore describe special honor and authority, not only who was born first. In Psalm 89:27, God gives the king firstborn status and places him above other kings. The Greek word prōtotokos means firstborn; it does not simply mean first-created. Colossians explains the Son's title through His relationship to everything made. The English line above is a literal gloss, not an NLT quotation.
Does firstborn mean the Son was the first creature? That question is understandable, since a firstborn child belongs to a family. But Paul immediately explains the title: all things were created in the Son, through Him, and for Him. Verse 16 gives the reason for His place over creation. He is not firstborn because He was made before everything else, but because everything made depends on Him and exists for Him.
Psalm 89 helps us understand this use of the title. David was not his father's oldest son, yet God speaks of making him firstborn, the highest of earthly kings. Here firstborn describes a position God gives him. That example does not settle Colossians by itself; Paul's own explanation does the main work. The Son is before all things, and all things depend on Him. Verse 18 then calls Him firstborn from the dead: the risen Christ also holds the leading place in the new life He brings.
Colossians 1:16–17: visible, invisible, through Him, for Him
Paul includes heaven and earth, everything visible and invisible, and even heavenly rulers and authorities. No spiritual power stands outside the Son's creative work. This matters because someone might imagine Him as the highest heavenly creature, who then made the rest. Paul says all things, not all other things. Reading other into the sentence assumes the very idea the surrounding passage challenges.
The three expressions belong together. Creation has its foundation in Him, comes into being through Him, and exists for Him. Interpreters differ over the precise force of in Him, but the whole sentence makes creation dependent on the Son. He does not merely help make the world and then leave it alone. It continues to hold together in Him. Paul goes on to describe His work of reconciliation through the cross: the one who gives creation its existence also acts to restore peace.
Hebrews 1:2–3: the Son sustains what He creates
Hebrews opens by recalling how God spoke through the prophets and then announcing that He has now spoken through His Son. Through this Son God made the universe; the Greek expression can also be rendered the ages. The Son shines with God's glory, perfectly expresses His being, and sustains all things by His powerful word. His work is not finished when creation begins. Its continuing existence depends on Him.
The same Son cleanses sins and takes His place at God's right hand. The Creator is also the Savior. The one who sustains our lives has acted to rescue us from sin. Hebrews then contrasts Him with angels: they serve within God's creation, while the Son reigns and brings the world into being.
Hebrews 1:10–12: the Creator of Psalm 102
In Psalm 102, a suffering person asks the LORD for help. Human life is short, and even the earth and heavens will wear out, but the LORD remains. Hebrews applies the psalm's words about the maker of earth and heaven to the Son. Verse 8 introduces what God says concerning the Son, and verse 10 continues with and. The Son is addressed as the Lord whose work creation is and whose years never end.
The psalm does not itself explain the relationship between Father and Son. Hebrews brings that fuller revelation to its words: the Son shares the identity of the enduring Creator, yet is distinct from the God who addresses Him. Creation changes and passes away; He remains. This is more than saying that He lived before the world. He belongs with the Creator, not among the things created.
The Creator enters His own creation
John says nothing created came into being without the Word. Paul says all things were made through the Son and for Him, and continue to hold together in Him. Hebrews addresses Him as the Creator who remains when the heavens wear out. Together these passages explain why Christians confess the Son as eternal and uncreated. No single meaning of firstborn carries the whole argument. The one who became human is the Lord on whom His own creation depends.
Key takeaways
- Firstborn can express royal supremacy; Colossians explains its use by Christ's creative role.
- All things includes invisible powers; the Son is not one of those created powers.
- Hebrews applies the enduring Creator language of Psalm 102 to the Son.