Please open your Bibles this morning to Paul's letter to the Colossians, Colossians chapter 1. In the pew Bibles you'll find that, in most of them, on page 1142, Paul's letter to the Colossians. Brothers and sisters in Christ, before we submit ourselves to the care of a doctor or the advice of a lawyer or entrust our home to a contractor or our car to a mechanic, we expect to see their credentials. Now, credentials may include a diploma or a license or the recommendation of a trusted friend, but whatever the recommendation or the credential is that serves to promote trust in us, that the authority, ability, and the right of the person to do that which they promise to do, we gain that trust. We submit to them. Well, credentialed teachers had come to Colossae. Their credentials were that they had heavenly visions, the source of higher spiritual knowledge, they said. They worshipped angels, manipulating spiritual beings to help them overcome the material world, they said. They displayed religious self-denial and severity to the body, advertising a superior holiness that set them apart not only from the world, but from others. And their credentials were very appealing, evidently, very spiritual. But what they were offering was something other than the gospel of Jesus Christ. And whether they denied the gospel and were offering something else, or they were taking the gospel for granted and offering something more, in either case, they were saying that Christ is not enough. Well, Paul opened his letter in chapter 1, verse 1, trumping their credentials with his own. Their authority was self-generated. His was granted him authority, ability, and right by Christ Jesus, by the will of God. And with apostolic authority, he reminded the saints there in verses 13 and 14, which we considered last time, of what God the Father has already accomplished once and for all in Christ. He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. And it's to this proclamation that Paul now adds our text today in verses 15 to 20, in which he backs up this pronouncement concerning the Son God loves by laying out Christ's supreme credentials that testify to his unique authority, ability, and right to accomplish this great redemption that encompasses not only the Spirit, but the body. Not only for people, but for all of creation. Christ is enough. Not only is he supreme over and sufficient for the circumstances of this life, he's supreme over all things and sufficient for eternal life. There's no need for something else or something more for living the Christian life here and now. And we will read together this morning verses 9 through 23 for context to our text, which is verses 15 through 20. Hear now the word of God. Since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together, and he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood shed on the cross. Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight without blemish and free from accusation. If you continue in the faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. Here ends the reading of God's word. Well, Christ's supreme credentials in our text this morning are presented in a very structured way, hymn-like, in two stanzas with a connecting refrain. a structure that is entirely hidden in your English translation there because it's written as a paragraph rather than for the poetic form that it is. And so I've attempted to reveal that to you on the back of your insert. Following the NIV translation, I've substituted a few words within brackets so you know where I've done it to reveal some of the clues to how this hymn is put together, how this set of credentials is presented. And it's in two stanzas that I said. The first stanza, verses 15 and 16, bears witness that he is God eternal, the Lord of creation. The second stanza, beginning with the second clause of verse 18 and continuing through 20, testifies that he is God incarnate, the Lord of the new creation. And the refrain in the middle, verse 17 and the first clause of 18, serves to close the first stanza, introduce the second stanza, And at its center, the very center of our text, is the central point of these credentials. Because Christ is the God-Man in Him, all things hold together. All who believe the gospel of Jesus Christ alone for salvation are assured by these credentials that our rescue from the dominion of darkness, our transfer into the kingdom of light, Our redemption, the forgiveness of sins, is certainly accomplished and eternally enduring. God the Father has accomplished our present justification, our progressive sanctification, and our ultimate glorification, body and soul, materially and spiritually, in none other than his only begotten Son, the God-Man, Jesus Christ. Now, as we consider this revelation concerning Christ, we must remember, We must remember and bear in mind that the one person, Jesus Christ, consists in two natures. One divine and the other human. This first stanza, Christ's first credential, focuses on his divine nature that eternally exists. That it exists even now in his humanity, in his incarnation, of which the second stanza speaks. So, echoing the Athanasian Creed, we confess in this church, in the Belgic Confession, Article 10, what we believe scripture teaches, that Jesus Christ, according to his divine nature, is the only begotten Son of God. He is the Son of God, not only from the time that he assumed our nature, but from all eternity. Therefore, it necessarily follows that he who is called God, the Word, the Son, and Jesus Christ, did exist at the time when all things were created by Him. He therefore is that true, eternal, and almighty God whom we invoke, worship, and serve. And I offer that reminder this morning because in this first stanza we're going to give a lot of attention to the divinity of Christ. And it would be a mistake for us to project backwards to eternity His humanity. We will focus on what He has done by taking humanity to himself when we consider the second stanza. But as we go through this first, we must bear in mind not to import Jesus Christ the man back before time. We're speaking of the Son of God when I speak of Christ. And in the interest of time, we will consider only the first point this morning. And to help move us along, I offer two sub-points for you as we consider that Christ is God eternal. That's first its declaration and secondly, it's clarification. I must say this is probably the richest soil I've been asked to till as a minister of the gospel. This particular text is overwhelming. I will do my best to unpack the surface for you to get you oriented to it, but the mysteries here and the grandeur here is spectacular in all of scripture. Well, Paul begins stanza 1 with the declaration that Christ is God eternal, emphasizing the eternal and divine nature of the Son of God. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. And he reinforces this truth in verse 17 when he says, He is before all things. And when Paul begins, he is the image of the invisible God. Our minds may jump to Genesis chapter 1 where we're told that God created man after his image, in his likeness. And of the many interesting connections that we might draw between that creation and the nature of Christ eternal, we want to focus on one. And that one is by way of contrast. Man bears the image of God by way of analogy, meaning that when we consider man, we can learn something about God. But Christ is the image of God. It is his identity. And when we behold him, we behold God. That's an important distinction. God is, as Paul says, the invisible God. The Son of God is God revealed, made manifest. Now the apostles beheld him in the flesh, in his incarnation. And John makes this point in John 1, verse 18. No one has ever seen God, but God the only one, God the only begotten, who is at the Father's side, has made Him known. They beheld Him in the flesh. And how are we to behold Christ today? We behold Christ in the witness that they bear to Christ in the gospel. That's how He comes to us, that we might know Him. And in knowing Him, we might know God. Now, the Son of God's eternal existence precedes His incarnation. It precedes the creation. And John acknowledges this also in his Gospel, beginning in verse 1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He is the image of the invisible God. But Paul continues, He is the firstborn over all creation. Now, by this expression, Paul appeals to our experience as mortal men to help us try to understand something about the immortal Son of God. It's analogous. In our human experience, the firstborn is the first one born. In Scripture, the firstborn is generally referring to the first son born. And the firstborn son was appointed a unique birthright, a unique privilege, and a unique authority. by which he was set apart from and exalted over all of his brothers. And by virtue of this status, he enjoyed a double portion, a double share in the father's inheritance. While the firstborn son will always be the one who was born first, he can lose his birthright. Children, you know the story of Esau and Jacob. Esau had the birthright, and he sold it for a bowl of soup. Reuben, the firstborn of Jacob, had the birthright and he forfeited it by sin so that it was given to the sons of Joseph. You see, with the firstborn comes the birthright, but the two can be separated and what's important here is the birthright. Christ, the Son of God, is the firstborn over all creation in the sense that Israel was God's firstborn son. They were not the first nation established. They weren't the first to be established in the world. But in Exodus chapter 4, verse 22, God set them apart and exalted them over all the nations of the world. He granted them a birthright. And Christ is the firstborn over all creation in the sense that David was God's firstborn. He was not the first king established in the world, not the first king established in Israel. But in Psalm 89, verse 27, God promised to appoint him his firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth. He granted him a birthright. A promise ultimately spoken of of David's greater son, Jesus Christ, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. With regard to his divine nature, Christ is the firstborn over all creation. his is an eternal birthright that sets him apart from and exalts him over all creation. That's what Paul is saying here. But this distinction was lost on a man by the name of Arius. Perhaps you've heard of him. Arius, a priest in the 4th century, denied that Christ was God eternal and that, in fact, he was the first creature, that firstborn met first made. And this heresy continues with us today, particularly the Jehovah's Witness who teach that before his earthly life, Jesus Christ was a created spirit. A God, small g, not the God, capital G. So this verse is important that we understand it. This is not about his precedence as a being in terms of creation. He exists. His is the birthright. And Paul sharpens this point when he adds in verse 17, he is before all things. When he says he's before all things, this can have a double meaning. To be before all things can mean to be the first with respect to rank, which is certainly his as the firstborn. He's before in a sense of rank. But it also can mean the first with respect to time. His existence stands apart from all things, all creation, including the creation of time. This one's a hard one for us to fathom. We don't know what it is to be without time. But God stands apart from time. The Son of God stands apart from time. God Eternal stands apart from time. There was never a time when He was not. He is, even as He was, even as He will be. Jesus Himself told the Pharisees in John chapter 8 that before Abraham was, I am. And they rightly understood Him to claim eternal existence and they wanted to stone him for blasphemy. But his claim is affirmed here by Paul as he does in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 4 where he writes that God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world. And following Paul, the church responded to the Arian heresy with the Nicene Creed. We say this from time to time in the church in which we confess our belief in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. That's why we confess that. So there's no confusion. Christ is eternal God. And therefore we confess in our Belgic Confession, Article 19, that the divine nature of the Son of God has always remained uncreated without beginning of days or end of life filling heaven and earth. And we confess in Heidelberg Catechism, answer 30, that Christ alone is the eternal, natural Son of God. That's what Paul has declared in verse 15. And he follows that declaration with some clarification in verse 16. There he offers evidence that Christ is God eternal by explaining his relationship to the creation. For by him all things were created, all things were created by him and for him. That's how that verse begins and ends. For by him all things were created, all things were created by him and for him. And using the language of Genesis, things in heaven and on earth, Paul encompasses the whole of creation which includes the visible and the invisible. The totality of the created universe stands apart from its creator, both the material and the spiritual. And the Colossians were being confused on this point. And perhaps you have been confused in this day and age. False teachers were introducing aspects of pagan religion and Jewish mysticism that set apart and exalted the spiritual above the material. the invisible above the visible the heavenly above the earthly the soul above the body they wanted to cut creation in half and exalt that which was unseen as though it were something higher than that which is seen and that's an error all of these are created everything in heaven and on earth visible and invisible is creation and set apart from the Creator. They were being tempted to pursue spiritual experiences, heavenly visions, and the worship of angels comprised in the hierarchy of thrones and powers and rulers and authorities. I believe they must have had charts to keep track of them all. And they were being encouraged to master and put away the material, to press down the material through strict ritual discipline and checklist religion. They were precursors of what the monks became in the Middle Ages. Just run and hide from that which is visible, material, bodily, earthly. There's a strong deception. And this is a strong answer. But this deception didn't end in the first century. It continues today. And I thought about examples I could give you. And I have a couple here, but I'm going to spare you the particulars because I think they'll cloud the real issue. The challenge that we have in Christian media today, in much of it, whether it be radio, TV, magazines, books, is that they are calling the people of God to focus on creation. Some manner in which we can get a handle on our lives and make it better. Some way in which we can engage the spiritual realm to find reliefs or escape or empowerment. But all these things that come at us come at us like they came to the Colossians. They want to draw us to limit and to redirect our focus in this life to that which is created rather than to the creator. And scripture testifies against both of these extremes, whether it's management of the material or over-interest in the spiritual. It's not those who look to the creation, whether material or spiritual, but those who look to Christ, the creator, who are more than conquerors through him who loved us. John writes in the letter 1 John, he writes, this is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. The Colossians had a difficult life like we can have a difficult life. The circumstances are changed and the names are changed, but the experience is the same. And we want to get a handle on it. But Christ comes to us today in his word and says, I have the handle on it. Trust me. I made it all. I manage it all. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, stands apart from and exalted over all things as God eternal because all things were created in Him and through Him and unto Him. I want to unpack that for you a little bit. Created in him, through him, and unto him. What does it mean that all things were created in him? That's a difficult word to translate in the sense of its precise meaning. Therefore, you find it in your NIV as translated by, that it was made by him, which is repeated at the end of the verse, even though they're two different words. And I want to attempt to give you some insight into what it means that it was created in him. Perhaps Paul is speaking spatially, like in something, spatially. The creation, materially and spiritually, is encompassed within a created space. Like time, this is hard for us to imagine that there are limits to space. But there are. And the pre-incarnate Christ who created it is immense. That's the theological word that means that he's beyond the constraints of space. And that's beyond my understanding. but he exists beyond the creation, even though he exists throughout the creation. So in him, all things were created. Things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities. The commentator Hendrickson suggests that in him, all things were created means they were created in reference to him. He presents the analogy of laying brick for a wall. like laying the brick out here for the cadet building. The bricks are laid in reference to a reference point. In the scriptural age, it was a cornerstone from which they drew the lines. In our day, it was probably a laser pointer. But either way, they had a reference point from which the lines were drawn, directions were given, and the placement was made. And in like manner, when all things were created out of nothing, which has no reference point, They were created in reference to Christ. He's the eternal point of reference for all things created. Well, Paul continues to say that all things were created through him and unto him. The Son of God stands at the beginning and at the end of creation. Jesus Christ in the flesh at the right hand of the Father told the Apostle John in Revelation 22, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. The same thing God Eternal revealed to Isaiah before the Incarnation in Isaiah 44. I am the first and I am the last. Apart from me, there is no God. Christ is God Eternal. He is the Alpha, the first, the Son of God who stands at the beginning as the agent of creation, that through whom creation is made. We find allusions of his agency in the Old Testament. We see pictures of it there. In Psalm 44, the psalmist declares, How many are your works, O Lord? In wisdom you made them all. And Solomon declares in Proverbs 3, By wisdom the Lord laid the earth's foundations. By understanding he set the heavens in place. Speaking of creation. And he went on to personify wisdom and her role in creation in Proverbs 8, an extended section there, which is beautiful. But all of those glimpses are analogies. They're innuendos. They're suggestions of what is fully revealed in the New Testament. According to 1 Corinthians 1, verse 24, Christ is the wisdom of God, in whom, Paul says, are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He is the agent of creation through whom this world, this universe, was made. He stands apart from it, but he was active in it. Christ is God eternal. He is the Omega, the last, the Son of God who stands at the end of the creation as the goal of creation. All things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, were created unto Him, or for Him, as the NIV says. All things were created to give glory to Him and to serve His purposes. But He's eternally stood as that goal of creation. And Paul gives praise to God for this in Ephesians chapter 1, beginning in verse 7. Speaking of God, he said, He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ to be put into effect that one of the times will have reached their fulfillment, but he purposed it in Christ to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. He purposed it before the creation of the world. It will be realized at the end. And this goal is ultimately achieved by the Son of God incarnate, who secured it by his perfect life, his sacrificial death, his powerful resurrection, and his glorious ascension, which we will consider in the second stanza. But in this language that Paul's been using here in making the case that Christ is God eternal, he is speaking of Christ, the Son of God, in the same way he speaks about God the Father. In his doxology of praise in Romans chapter 11, praising God, he exclaims that from Him and through Him and unto Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. And in his letter to the Ephesians in chapter 4, verse 6, Paul is clear, there is one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. And he mentions them together and in parallel in 1 Corinthians 8, verse 6. Write that one down for sure. 1 Corinthians 8, verse 6. There he says, For us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live. And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live. He sets the Father and the Son together in a way that we must confess the doctrine of the Trinity. We must confess that there is but one God, but that he has made himself known in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We've not given any attention to the Spirit today. he's focusing on Christ, the Son. This morning, from the Word of God, we have considered Christ's first credential, which assures us that he is God eternal. Next time, we will consider his second credential, which assures us that he is God incarnate, God come in true humanity. His two natures in one person qualify Jesus Christ alone to accomplish redemption. Not only ours, but of all of creation. He alone has the authority, the ability, and the right to accomplish it. He is the God-man, sovereign over all, over every circumstance, so that nothing, whether wars or rumors of wars overreaching government, unemployment challenges, financial shortfalls, housing distress, sickness, not even death, can separate us from his love. We have no need for something else or something more than Jesus Christ the Lord. His credentials show us that Christ is enough. Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, we praise You and thank You for this window into the reality that is beyond our grasp. The revelation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who stands apart from time and space, beyond categories which we can comprehend. And we thank you for this revelation today, Lord God. That we might know that when we behold Christ, we behold God. That he is the image of the invisible God. The firstborn of all creation. We pray, Lord, that we would find assurance and confidence in this revelation. For us who have trusted in Christ that he is indeed able. with authority and right to grant the redemption that he has promised to give through faith in him. Thank you for this revelation, Lord, in Christ's name. Amen.