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.
Ask a Follow-up Question
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.
The deity of Jesus Christ
49-1225 §21
And God in the beginning made His first man. He made him out of spirit. And spirit is the invisible part of man that you don't see. Now, God made man in His Own image. Are you listening to me? [Congregation says, "Amen.".] All right. God made man in His Own image. "And God is a Spirit," says the Bible. And the first man that was made had the government over all the creation, just like the Holy Spirit has government over the Church today. He led the creation. He led the animals. But there was no man to till the soil...
Identification
64-0216 §36
When you receive eternal life (is only one form of eternal life, that's the Greek word "Zoe." Is that right, brother? Zoe, God's own life), so you---being a son---you become part of that life. So the life that's in you never did begin, and it never can end. Think of it. It can't end, because anything that's eternal never began. The life that's in you never did begin, that is, if you've got eternal life. And that's God, for you was in his thoughts on the eternal. And now it's expressed here in a human being for his...
The Mighty God unveiled before us
64-0629 §32
So God, in the beginning, was life, the Eternal One. In Him was attributes, and those attributes became words, and the Word became flesh. Jesus was a redeemer. And to redeem means "to bring back." And if it has to bring it back, it had to be somewhere to be brought back to. So, you see, all people will never be able to see it, because all people wasn't in the beginning in God's thoughts, see.
Identification
64-0216 §27
Now, this reflected his loving, noble character: God reflected in a man called Christ. He was only one that could do this. There was no other character in heaven could do it, see. It was God. He was the sinless nature. He was the Word---sinless nature of God. He was the Word expressed, which, the Word was the beginning. And if you are in the Lamb's book of life, you was God's expression from his thought. He seen you, and seen your desire, before there even was a atom or anything else. And you're his thought made wo...
Questions and Answers on Genesis
53-0729 §10
Now, if God created man in His own image and in His own likeness, what kind of a man did He create? A spirit man. Now, if you'll notice, after He had made all the creation and created a spirit man, and close reading of this now (to the one that asked the question) we'll find this, that God gave dominion of the cattle and the fishes and everything to the man. But, in His making up there, He made man in His own image to lead the cattle, lead the beasts of the field, just like the Holy Spirit leads the believer today,...