Why Is Christ Called The Firstborn of All Creation?

By Robert M. Bowman Jr. and J. Ed Komoszewski

In Colossians 1:15, the apostle Paul calls God’s Son “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.” Throughout church history, the expression “the firstborn of all creation” has been one of the most popular proof texts against the deity of Christ—perhaps the most popular. But what does it mean?

Competing Interpretations of “the Firstborn of All Creation”

. . . Latter-day Saints believe it refers to Jesus as the literal firstborn of God’s billions of spirit sons and daughters who lived in heaven before becoming mortals on earth. This is the official LDS interpretation of the verse, expressed in a statement published in 1916 by the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve Apostles.

Jehovah’s Witnesses contend that the expression “the firstborn of all creation” means that Christ was “the first creation by Jehovah God.” Specifically, the Watchtower Society teaches that Christ in his prehuman state was the archangel Michael. Historically, Jehovah’s Witnesses have emphasized Colossians 1:15 as one of their main proof texts against the deity of Christ. Danny Dixon, a non-Jehovah’s Witness advocating an Arian Christology, also appeals to Colossians 1:15–16 to defend this position, though without identifying Jesus as Michael.

Unitarians take a radically different approach to the interpretation of Colossians 1:15, while still regarding it, as Kegan Chandler asserts, as “one of the strongest evidences against the deity of Christ.” Since Unitarians do not believe that Christ existed before his human life, they cannot take “firstborn of all creation” to mean the first creature chronologically. Here is how Chandler interprets the verse:

To say that Jesus is “the first born of all creation” (v. 15b) furthermore places him squarely within the realm of created things. The designation “firstborn” means simply that he is preeminent within that group, that he has priority among the other subjects in that category.

Finally, we may briefly mention how Oneness Pentecostal leader and theologian David Bernard interprets the expression “firstborn of all creation.” He also denies that Christ preexisted his human life, and so interprets the expression to mean that Christ is “the firstborn of the spiritual family of God that is called out of all creation” and that he is “first in power, authority, and preeminence, just as the eldest brother has preeminence among his brothers.” This Oneness interpretation of Colossians 1:15 is quite similar to the Unitarian interpretation, despite their theological differences.

Interpreting Colossians 1:15 in Context

Words vary in their precise meaning and connotation depending on context. If we want to understand what Paul meant by the expression “firstborn of all creation,” then, we need to read it in context. This means looking at what the passage says leading up to that expression as well as what it says in the lines following it. Here is the statement in its context (translating very literally):

12 giving thanks to the Father,

who qualified you for the share of the inheritance of the saints in the light;

13 who delivered us from the domain of the darkness

and transferred [us] into the kingdom of the Son of his love,

14 in whom we have the redemption, the forgiveness of sins;

15 who is the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn of all creation,

16 because in him all things were created—

in the heavens and on the earth,

the visible and the invisible,

whether thrones or dominions

or rules or authorities—

all things have been created through him and for him;

17 and he is before everything,

and all things in him hold together.

18 And he is the head of the body, the church

Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,

so that he might become preeminent in everything. (Col. 1:12–18)

This passage strongly emphasizes Christ’s relationship to God the Father as his Son. Note the references to “the Father” (v. 12) and “the Son of his love” (v. 13). Between these references Paul says that the Father has qualified Christians “for the share of the inheritance of the saints in the light.” The idea here is that the Father’s beloved Son is the primary heir of this “inheritance” from the Father, and yet those redeemed in Christ are graciously invited to receive a “share” of that inheritance. The other key theme that introduces our passage is that of kingdom or rule: we have been rescued from the domain or authority (exousia) of darkness and transferred into the kingdom (basileia) of God’s beloved Son (vv. 13–14).

It is in this context of Father, Son, kingdom, and inheritance that we should understand the word “firstborn” (prōtotokos). Although the literal meaning of the word is the first offspring born to a biological parent, the cultural significance of the word is that of the father’s primary heir. In ancient Israel and the ancient Mediterranean world generally, the firstborn son in a family was customarily the father’s primary heir, inheriting the largest or best portion of his estate (and sometimes all of it). In the context of the preceding explicit reference to an “inheritance” and the use of the titles Father and Son, this significance of firstborn as the primary heir is clearly the point of the term “firstborn.” As God the Father’s beloved Son, Christ rules the divine kingdom. Probably the main Old Testament text influencing this reference to Jesus as the “firstborn” is God’s promise to David to establish his kingdom forever above all other rulers: “And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth” (Ps. 89:27). The title “firstborn” thus has clear messianic significance, in which, according to Paul, the Messiah (Christ) rules over all creation.

. . . Paul goes on at the end of verse 16 to say that “all things were created through him and for him.” Now Paul has distinguished the Son from the created things using three similar phrases: all things were created “in him … through him and for him” (en autō … di’ autou kai eis auton). The last part of this statement about the Son closely parallels what Paul says about God in another epistle (translating literally):

… all things through him and for him have been created. (Col. 1:16b)

… through him and for him [are] all things. (Rom. 11:36)

If all things were created in, through, and for the Son, then the Son is not one of the created things. It is that simple. Paul’s statement does not mean that the Son was God’s first creature, as Jehovah’s Witnesses claim. As Murray Harris has pointed out, “If Paul had believed that Jesus was the first of God’s creatures to be formed,” verse 16 “would have continued ‘for all other things were created in him.’ ”

. . . In verse 17 Paul again distinguishes the Son from the created order, stating, “and he is before everything.” Paul uses the word translated here “before” (pro) eleven other places in his epistles, always with the temporal meaning of “before” (Rom. 16:7; 1 Cor. 2:7; 4:5; 2 Cor. 12:2; Gal. 1:17; 2:12; 3:23; Eph. 1:4; 2 Tim. 1:9; 4:21; Titus 1:2). For that reason, virtually all commentators agree that “he is before everything” expresses primarily the idea that the Son existed prior to everything that was created as well as secondarily the idea that he has priority of rank over all creation, with this second idea being entailed or implied by the first. The Unitarian claim that Paul means only “supremacy of rank rather than priority in time” is not a tenable interpretation. We have here, then, yet another clear statement of the Son’s personal preexistence before creation. This finding is not only a problem for Unitarianism; it is also a problem for Oneness Pentecostalism, which regards the Son as strictly the human manifestation of the Father.

. . . The near consensus view among scholars now is that Paul means that “the firstborn” has, as the Father’s heir, dominion or rulership over “all creation.” This “genitive of subordination” is found in other places in the New Testament, as when Christ is called “the ruler over the kings of the earth” (Rev. 1:5 NET, NKJV), where of course Christ is not one of the earthly kings, or when God is called “King over the nations” (Rev. 15:3 NET). A good Old Testament example is the statement that the king of Egypt made Joseph “ruler of all his possessions” (archonta pasēs tēs ktēseōs autou, Ps. 104:21 NETS). Conceptually, Paul’s description of the Son as “the firstborn of all creation” parallels the statement in Hebrews that the Son was “the heir of all things” (klēronomon pantōn, Heb. 1:2), which also uses the genitive of subordination.

Based on such considerations, a large number of contemporary English versions translate the second part of Colossians 1:15, more traditionally translated as firstborn “of all creation” (ESV, NABRE, NASB, NJB, NRSV), as firstborn “over all creation” (CEB, CSB, LEB, NEB/REB, NET, NIV, NKJV, NLT).

— Robert M. Bowman Jr. is the President of the Institute for Religious Research. He has lectured extensively in biblical studies, theology, and apologetics at Biola University, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and elsewhere. Rob is the author or co-author of fourteen other books including Putting Jesus in His Place, Jesus’ Resurrection and Joseph’s Visions: Examining the Foundations of Christianity and Mormonism, and the Gold Medallion Award book Faith Has Its Reasons: Integrative Approaches to Defending the Christian Faith.

— J. Ed Komoszewski is the Equipping Pastor at Reformation Church in McKinney, TX, and the Advisor to the CEO at the Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts in Plano, TX. His previous works include Reinventing Jesus, Putting Jesus in His Place, and Jesus, Skepticism & the Problem of History.

image: Stained Glass Jesus

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Excerpted from The Incarnate Christ and His Critics: A Biblical Defense by Robert M. Bowman Jr. and J. Ed Komoszewski (Kregel Academic, 2024). Used by permission.

The central theological claim of Christianity, that Jesus is God incarnate, finds eager detractors across a wide spectrum—from scholars who interpret Jesus as a prophet, angel, or guru to adherents of progressive Christianity and non-Christian religions and philosophies. Yet thorough biblical scholarship strongly supports the historic Christian teaching on the deity of Christ.

Authors Robert M. Bowman Jr. and J. Ed Komoszewski follow the approach of their landmark 2007 study on the same topic, Putting Jesus in His Place. They focus on five pillars of New Testament teaching, using the acronym HANDS, and demonstrate what both Jesus and the earliest believers recognized, namely, that Jesus shares in the

• Honors that are due God

• Attributes of God

• Names of God

• Deeds that God does

• Seat of God's eternal throne

The Incarnate Christ and His Critics engages objections to the divine identity of Jesus from Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, progressive Christians, Muslims, Unitarians, and others. Bowman and Komoszewski show how biblical scholarship cannot reasonably ignore the enduring, wide-ranging, and positive case for the deity of Christ.

“Not only is the deity of Christ rigorously defended through the helpful H-A-N-D-S acronym, the true teaching of Scripture is defended against the competing and fallacious Christologies offered by Mormonism, Islam, Progressive Christianity, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Unitarianism. It is no overstatement to affirm that The Incarnate Christ and His Critics is a monumental piece of scholarship that will long serve the true church in her defense of and worship of Jesus Christ, as Lord and God!”

— Douglas Groothuis, University Research Professor of Apologetics and Christian Worldview, Cornerstone University

“In this panoramic book Bowman and Komoszewski marshal the full range of arguments that have convinced scholars that the New Testament and, indeed, the primitive Christian church out of which it came believed firmly in the full deity of Jesus Christ.”

— William Lane Craig, Emeritus Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology

“Only once in a generation or so do we come across a theological work that makes such a compelling argument that it renders virtually all other treatments on the topic obsolete. Such is the case with The Incarnate Christ and His Critics. The industrial-strength exegesis in this volume provides a solid foundation on which the edifice is built. The years of assiduous labor that went into its production, the integrity, almost superhuman comprehensiveness, and penetrating persuasiveness of its arguments (no straw-men here!), the clarity of its case, the charity of its interactions, and the obvious devotion of these two scholars put The Incarnate Christ and His Critics in a league of its own.”

— Daniel B. Wallace, Senior Research Professor Emeritus of New Testament Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary

Find The Incarnate Christ and His Critics at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Christianbook.com.

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