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Topical Scriptures 1 Corinthians 9:11 |
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the The second thing Paul said about Jesus in Colossians 1:15-16 was that He is the firstborn of all creation. Some people try to say this proves Jesus had a beginning, that He was created just like you and I. It is true that Jesus’ humanity had a beginning. This is clearly recorded for us in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. But Jesus the Logos, God, did not have a beginning. Besides the fact that the very context of this statement, “...before all things,” contradicts this interpretation, we must understand that in Hebrew culture the word firstborn has a much deeper meaning than to mean the first child to be born in a family. When a son was called the firstborn in Hebrew culture, it had nothing to do with whether he was the firstborn physically or not. The term was used to mean preeminence. For example, Jacob in the Old Testament would be called the firstborn even though His brother Esau was the actual firstborn physically. This was because Jacob was the one who received his father’s inheritance. Jacob had preeminence over Esau when it came to their father’s inheritance. David was the youngest in His family, but God declares in Psalm 89:27 that He places him as the firstborn, firstborn meaning preeminence in position, as the king of the earth. Therefore, when Paul tells us that Jesus was the firstborn of all creation he means that Jesus has preeminence over all creation. He further clarifies this when he tells us in this same passage following this statement, “For by Him all things were created.” He further clarifies it in the next verse when he says, “And He was before all things.” Note the word all. The word all, pantwn in the Greek in verse 17 is without the article and is therefore all inclusive. Jesus was not created and therefore existed before all things that were created. This is why he is the firstborn of all creation or rather has preeminence over all because He existed before anything created existed. Jesus is not a created being, He is from all eternity. Several Old Testament passages in the Bible also confirm Jesus’ Deity and eternal pre-existence:
“But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, little to be among the clans of Judah. From you One will go forth for Me to be ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity.” (Micah 5:2)
The prophet Micah, writing in Micah 5:2, recording Yehovah’s words, gives not only the birthplace of Christ (which the Jews affirmed as being the City of David, Bethlehem), but he gives a clue as to His identity—namely God in human form. The term goings forth can be rendered origin. The only one who fits this description, whose origin is “from everlasting” is God Himself. This is because He alone is the eternally existing One (Isaiah 44:6, 8). Isaiah prophecies about Jesus when he says in Isaiah 9:6,
“For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty-El, Father-of-Eternity, Prince-of-Peace.”
Here again Isaiah confirms Jesus’ Deity and eternal existence by telling us that Jesus is the Father of Eternity.
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