What Does It Mean That Jesus Is the "firstborn of All Creation"?
1) Direct answer
“Firstborn of all creation” means Jesus holds the place of preeminence and heirship over everything God made. It does not mean He is a created being. He is the visible image of the invisible God, and all things were made by Him, through Him, and for Him.
2) Scriptural explanation
- The Bible says, “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: for by Him were all things created… and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:15–17). If all things were created by Him and He is before all things, He cannot be one of the created things.
- It also says He is “the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence” (Colossians 1:18). So “firstborn” speaks of rank and preeminence—He is Head over creation and Head of the new creation by resurrection.
- God calls the king “My firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth” (Psalm 89:27). “Firstborn” there clearly means highest place, not first one to exist.
- “God was manifested in the flesh” (1 Timothy 3:16). The body is the Son; the Life in Him is God. As to the flesh, Sonship began in time (Luke 1:35). As to the Life, He is the Word by whom all things were made (John 1:1–3,14).
- He is also called “the beginning of the creation of God” (Revelation 3:14)—the One in whom creation has its start and the One who begins the new creation by rising from the dead.
3) Simple clarifying logic
- If He created all things, He is not a creature. Creator and creation are not the same.
- “Firstborn” in Scripture often means the heir with preeminence. Israel was called God’s “firstborn” (Exodus 4:22) as a position, not because it was the first nation.
- So “firstborn of all creation” means He is the supreme Heir over it, and “firstborn from the dead” means He is the first to rise in immortality, bringing in the new creation and taking the Headship.
4) Reinforcing statement
Now notice… it’s not three persons. One God was manifested in flesh. The Son is the body God used, and in that body He took the rights of the Firstborn over all creation and, by resurrection, became the Firstborn of the new creation. That’s the mystery—preeminence, not creaturehood.
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What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
Blind Bartimaeus
55-0818 §1
Good evening, friends. I'm so happy to be here tonight, in the name of our Lord, to serve the Lord Jesus, and enjoy this marvelous fellowship with you people. I am very sure that you have appreciated Brother Bosworth's message. He is a very fine teacher. And I was so glad to have him to teach tonight. Now, I will just speak a few moments. And just in order to kind of feel the spirit of the people. I'm sure you all understand what I mean. And then we'll start praying for the sick. At this time, I wish to have some S...
The Seed shall not be heir with the shuck
65-0429B §24
That's what the church is doing today. For Jesus is the Word, and He is the bridegroom. And the bride is a part of the groom. Therefore the Word that is to be fulfilled this day, is the same part of the Word that was fulfilled in His day. And it's the same Word, same experience, same life. For when God separated Adam, he was both. We find out Adam was spirit to begin with. "He made man in his own image, created he male and female." And then Genesis 2 and on, "He created man in ... out of the dust of the earth." Man...
Victory Day
63-0421 §23
And if He's God at all, He's interested in every human being, because it's his creation. And He's interested in the children, He's interested in the old-aged, and the middle-aged. He's interested in the colors of us---and the white, the brown, the black, the yellow, the different shades of our skins from the country that we come from in our forefather. He's interested in all of us. He's just not interested in the Jews alone, or in the yellow race, black race, white race, whatever it is. He's interested in the whole...
Redemption by judgment
54-1114 §8
Now, the first person I ever turned from my house in my life was the woman. I said, "Don't come up here if you can't come and talk of something different from that, because that's... I believe Jesus Christ to be the Son of God." And, I said, "My faith is built on that." But now, the word---so that you'll understand when you pick it up, lay it away. "Joshua": really, the correct word is "Joshuae," see. Now, I want to say something here. "Ogauvah." I doubt whether anybody, except Billy Paul back there, knows what tha...
Abraham's covenant confirmed
61-0210 §50
Just like it's coming springtime. Your old mother birds will go out here, and lay eggs, and make a nest, and hover over them. And she'll... That's how she brings her little ones. Well, now, if that old mother bird, though... She might lay a nest full of eggs, and if she hasn't been with the mate, they won't hatch. They're not fertile. The blood stream comes from the male sex. We know that. The hemoglobin, the blood, comes from the man because it had to be that way, because the woman produces the egg. She's an incub...