SOME PARTS OF COLOSSIANS SEEMS TO BE CONFUSING.
Why does Paul seem to say that Jesus is not God but a created being and that believers fill up His sufferings?
Contents
THE SUPREMACY OF
THE LORD JESUS
The Meaning of
Firstborn of Creation
THE AFFLICTIONS
OF THE LORD JESUS
The Continuation
of the Lord’s Afflictions
Prolegomenon
If Colossians actually taught
that Jesus was not fully God or that His atonement was not complete, the book
would never have been accepted as part of the Bible. Yet, there are verses in
Colossians that, when read out of context, might lead to those wrong conclusions.
Let’s examine what Paul actually teaches about two of these troubling issues.
THE SUPREMACY OF THE LORD JESUS
The Deity of the Lord Jesus You ask why Paul writes that Jesus was a created being? This question refers to Colossians 1:15b which calls the Lord Jesus “the firstborn of all creation.” Before even discussing what this phrase means, we need to observe the context.
First, Paul is
clearly stating that Jesus is fully God. To begin, the very same verse just
mentioned begins by saying that Jesus “is the image of the invisible God” (Col.
1:15a). The word image means “an exact representation.” The Lord Jesus knew He
was the exact representation of God. This is demonstrated by what He told
Philip the disciple: “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
The rest of this section in
Colossians describes the Lord Jesus with attributes of deity. He is the creator
of and sustainer of all things (vv. 16-17) and He existed before all creation
(v. 17), demonstrating His eternal nature. Not only is He the head of the
Lord’s universal congregation (the church) but He has “supremacy” (v. 18, NIV)
over everyone and everything. Above all, “God was pleased to have all his
fullness dwell in him” (v. 19 NIV). The word translated fullness means
completeness. Paul is saying that deity, fully and completely, is permanently
present in the Lord Jesus.
This whole paragraph clearly states
that the Lord Jesus is fully God and not a created being. In the next chapter
in Colossians, we see another clear statement about the full deity of the Lord
Jesus. It states, “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form”
(2:9). This simple sentence is filled with several important truths about
Jesus. First, the phrase “fullness of Deity” uses the strongest words possible
to say that Jesus is completely God.
Second, the word
dwells can be translated “lives” and is in the present tense. This means that
deity did not come to reside in Jesus temporarily but it is His permanently.
The deity of the Lord Jesus did not come upon Him at the incarnation and leave
at His crucifixion. He existed from eternity past to the forever future, the
eternal God, the Son.
Third, the deity
of the Son lives “in bodily form, indicating the full humanity of Jesus. In
Colossae, the false teachers were denying the full deity of Jesus, presenting
Him as merely an important angel. They also said His body was not real but only
appeared to be so. So, in Colossians 2:9, Paul sharply repudiates both of those
false ideas and establishes that the Lord Jesus is fully God and fully man, the
eternal God-Man.
The Meaning of Firstborn of Creation
Now, in light of Paul’s clear
teaching in Colossians that the Lord Jesus is fully God, how should we
understand the phrase “firstborn of all creation” (Col. 1:15b)? Although the
word firstborn can mean “first in order of birth,” it can also have a
figurative sense of “preeminence” or “superior,’* indicating “supremacy in
rank.“
This is how the word is used in
Psalm 89:27, describing the future Davidic (messianic) king as “My firstborn,
the highest of the kings of the earth.” The phrase “of all creation” should
really be translated “over all creation,” and the entire verse (Col. 1:15) is
saying that the Lord Jesus, as the exact representation of God, is preeminent
over all creation. The context supports the idea of this phrase indicating the
supremacy of the Messiah Jesus.
The following three verses all
express the supremacy of the Lord Jesus, showing that “all things have been
created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things
hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have
first place in everything” (vv. 16-18, italics added). Far from teaching an
inferior view of Jesus the Messiah, Paul’s letter to the Colossians presents
the Lord Jesus as exalted above all and the supreme ruler over all creation.
THE AFFLICTIONS OF THE LORD JESUS
The second part of the question
raised about Colossians is whether the atonement of Messiah Jesus is sufficient
or do His followers, like Paul, need to fill up “what is lacking in Christ’s
afflictions” (Col. 1:24)? Some have understood Paul to be saying that the
suffering of the Lord Jesus was deficient or incomplete. It is impossible for
Paul to have meant that because it would contradict the rest of Colossians and
the entire teachings of Scripture.
The
Sufficiency of the Lord’s
Atonement In the next chapter, Paul
describes the death and resurrection of Jesus as making us “alive together with
Him” and that He forgave us “all our transgressions” (Col. 2:13). Then, Paul
says that Jesus “canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees
against us . . . having nailed it to the cross” (v. 14).
These verses clearly demonstrate
that the Lord Jesus atonement for us is utterly and completely sufficient to
provide forgiveness. We have no need to add to His offering for us. This
squares with the rest of Scripture concerning the atoning offering of Jesus.
The author of Hebrews declares that the body of Jesus was offered as a “once
for all” (Heb. 10:10) sacrifice and its provision is “for all time” (Heb.
10:12; cf. 7:26-27).
The
Continuation of the Lord’s Afflictions
When Paul speaks of the Messiah
Jesus’ “afflictions,” he uses the Greek word thlipsis, a word never used to
refer to the death of Jesus. It generally means “troubles,” “distress,” or
“oppression” and refers to the trials and tribulations in His life, not the
suffering of His death.
We should understand that when Paul
says “Christ’s afflictions,” he is not referring to His priestly suffering and
death on our behalf but to His earthly sufferings, identifying with our
humanity. Isaiah described the Messiah as being “despised and forsaken of men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3).
The afflictions of Paul, or of any
follower of Jesus on the basis of our union with Messiah Jesus, continue the
earthly afflictions of the Lord Jesus, and in that sense, complete them. The
body of the Messiah (the church) is so identified with the Lord Jesus that He
asked Saul on the Damascus road, “Why are you persecuting Me?” (Acts 9:4), not
“Why are you persecuting My people?”
So, in what sense were Jesus’
earthly afflictions lacking? Only in the sense that the people for whom He
suffered don't understand His afflictions and may not even be aware of them. So
Paul is saying, his own suffering for the Colossians and others is done so that
they may begin to grasp Jesus’ identification with their affliction and pain.
Simply put, Paul’s point is that because of his union with Messiah Jesus, his
own afflictions mimic and continue what the Lord Jesus had done, and extend
and communicate the Messiah's sufferings to others.
FINAL THOUGHTS
What do these teachings in
Colossians about the supremacy and afflictions of the Messiah Jesus have to do
with us today? First, we need to adopt a daily commitment to worship the
Lord Jesus, our exalted and supreme Lord of all the earth. Second, we
should not fear affliction or suffering because it identifies us with the
sufferings of Jesus in life. Moreover, it extends a living example of the
sufferings of the Lord Jesus to those who need to know it most.
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* Colossians 1:15
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