Christ in his relations to God and to the world.
This Epistle to the Colossians is conspicuous among the writings of St. Paul for its enthusiastic assertion of the supreme glory and divinity of Jesus Christ. In opposition to an incipient Gnosticism which would lose the solitary rank of the Son of God in a crowded hierarchy of angels, it exalts that rank with an elevation and a distinctness not to be met with in any previously written portion of the New Testament. It is impossible to read the words of the apostle impartially without seeing that he taught the full divinity and pre-existence of Jesus Christ. The old unitarianism that appealed to scriptural authority for confirmation was simply blind with prejudice. Modern unitarianism is more consistent when it rejects the inspiration of the book which plainly contains the doctrine it repudiates. It is true that the ideas of St. Paul are expressed in accordance with the notions of his times, especially in relation to the "Loges" doctrine of Alexandrian philosophy, and therefore that if we interpret them into the language that fits our modern conception of things, they may appear to change their form. But however expressed, the truths taught by the great apostle concerning the Divine, pre-existent, and supreme Christ are essential to the gospel of the New Testament.
I. CHRIST IN HIS RELATION TO GOD. He "is the Image of the invisible God." This implies two facts.
1. Resemblance. The likeness is not external and accidental, "as one egg is like another"—the "homoiousion" of the semi-Arians. The image is produced by the prototype as the seal by the die; it is "the impress of his substance," as the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews describes it (Hebrews 1:3). The language of the apostle refers to the Divine nature of Christ. But it remains true after the Word has been made flesh. Thus we may see that, as at the creation man was made in the image of God, so in the Incarnation the perfection of humanity is identical with the exact likeness of God. Christ became no less human because he was the Image of God, but, on the contrary, just perfectly human. Our highest conception of divinity is our ideal of manhood.
2. Expression. Christ is the Image of the invisible God. "No man hath seen God at any time," etc. (John 1:18). God is invisible because he is pure spirit. No change of place and no change of state will ever enable us to see God with our physical eyes. The light which suffuses the air is invisible except where it shines on some object and is reflected to us. God's universally diffused presence requires such reflection for us to see it. We have this in some degree in the works of nature—star, sea, and flower reflecting God's glory. But it is only in Christ the perfect Image that we can have the perfect manifestation of God. He only can say, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9).
II. CHRIST IN HIS RELATION TO THE WORLD. He is "the Firstborn of all creation." That this expression refers, not to the Incarnation, but to the Divine pre-existence of Christ, is plain if only from the language of the following verse (verse 16). It expresses two facts.
1. Pre-existence. We have no reason for thinking that the human soul of Christ existed before the Incarnation. But it is plainly taught by St. Paul that that which is Divine in him did so exist. Our Lord said the same of himself (John 8:58). Without attempting to understand the mystery of the nature of God, we may gather this important lesson—that all those Divine characteristics which are so beautifully revealed in Jesus of Nazareth were not produced for the first time in the New Testament days. Though less known, they were as really existing in the age of Moses and even at the first creation of the world. Therefore the very scheme of nature and the whole government of the world must be in accordance with what we know of Christ. As Christ will finally judge the world, and all that we know of his Spirit will lead us to be thankful that such a one is the Judge, so we may rejoice that the same Spirit of love and gentleness has been from the first eternally pervading all things.
2. Pre-eminence. The firstborn has the chief honour. Christ's rank is not only above that of the highest archangels; it is distinctive in kind. He is not the first creature of many creatures, but the first born of all creation, in the deepest sense the only begotten Son of the Father.