Colossians 1:18

It is interesting to see two very distinct firstborns. He is firstborn of all creation, because He is the Creator. And He is firstborn from the dead — a new, plain and weighty fact. So Christ is not only the Head of creation as man, but He is firstborn from the dead as risen. It is in connection with this that He is Head of the Church. He was not in this relationship on earth. He was not Head simply by becoming man. Becoming man is a completely different truth from His headship of the Church, which brings in the further truth of union. Many confuse union with His becoming man. Union is not His taking flesh and blood here below. It is our being made members of His body, now that He is risen and glorified. There could have been no union with Him until death and resurrection, and the Holy Spirit was given to unite us with Him in that risen condition. Then, and not before, we have the body, the Church.

It is God's new start, after the failure of the first man and his end under judgment in the cross of Christ. When He was on earth, Christ was the Second Man from heaven. But in God's purpose He was not in the condition of the Second Man until after He was risen and glorified. So it is as the Firstborn from among the dead that He is the beginning of the new order of things. God is working to that pattern now, and He will bring all His redeemed into it, made fully like Him who is glorified at God's right hand.

He is "the firstborn from the dead," and so He is "the beginning." Everything that forms part of that new creation finds its origin in Him and takes its character from Him.

As the apostle comes to speak of Christ as the Head it becomes clear that death was needed in order for Him to become the Head. This was not the case with the first series of glories: He did not need to die in order to be the Creator, but He could only be the Head of the body if there was a body, and this could only be formed when the Holy Spirit came to dwell on the earth which, in turn, could only happen after Christ had died.

Christ is the head of the church (Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18), and He is head over all things to the church (Ephesians 1:22; Colossians 2:10). As head of the church, Christ completely removes every other controlling or guiding authority. As the head of a man guides and controls his body, so Christ has complete control over His church.

If the Creator Himself steps into His own creation, He must take the first place. This is one of the glories of His supremacy. Then the apostle brings us into the new circle of the Church, and reminds us that He has the first place there too. He who is the head of His body, the Church, is the Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead. So wherever Christ is, in the first creation or the new, He is first. He holds absolute pre-eminence in His personal and acquired glories.

Is it not striking that the only other reference in Scripture to this word "pre-eminence" is in 3 John 9? Diotrephes sought the place for himself, and wanted to cast his brothers "out of the church."

The young believers at Colosse were led astray because they were "not holding the Head." That left them open to false teaching: the worship of angels, ritualism, and philosophy or rationalism. To hold the teaching of the Headship of Christ is one thing. To hold the Head Himself, in the faith and affection of our hearts, and so be in communion with Him, is another.