Colossians 1:15-20

15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,

16 for through him God created everything

in the heavenly realms and on earth.

He made the things we can see

and the things we can’t see—

such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.

Everything was created through him and for him.

17 He existed before anything else,

and he holds all creation together.

18 Christ is also the head of the church,

which is his body.

He is the beginning,

supreme over all who rise from the dead.

So he is first in everything.

19 For God in all his fullness

was pleased to live in Christ,

20 and through him God reconciled

everything to himself.

He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth

by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

New Living Translation

This passage is generally understood to be a hymn of the early church. It includes some very important statements of what the early church members, and we, believe about Jesus.

First, it is clear that they believed Jesus was divine. Critics of Christianity claim that Jesus never said He was God, and the early church never believed this. They are wrong. Jesus clearly said He was God, and from this hymn it is clear that Paul believed so as well.

Is. 44:24 says: "The Lord, your Redeemer and Creator, says: 'I am the Lord, who made all things. I alone stretched out the heavens. By myself I made the earth and everything in it.'"

If Isaiah says that God created the world by Himself, and Colossians says that He did it through Jesus, than Jesus must be God Himself!

This passage also says that Jesus is the head of the church, first to be resurrected, first in everything. The biblical concept of "head" is not ruler or boss, as we would think. Instead it means the first, the leader, the one who shows the way. Of course Jesus is also our ruler, our Lord. But the point being made here is that Jesus is the first to raise from the dead, and the One who provides reconciliation for all sinners with God. He is the source of our salvation, and the very source of our life.