And *he* is the head of the body, the assembly; who is [the] beginning, firstborn from among the dead, that *he* might have the first place in all things
Paul has just called Christ the Creator of all things. Now the focus narrows to one small circle — a body, a church — where the same Person is first, leaving no sphere where He comes second.
The verse gives Christ a second "firstborn" title, and the two are not the same.
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.
The word "beginning" here is not a date but a starting point for a whole order of things. Commentators tie it to what the cross did to the old order.
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.
The new creation has its source in a Person.
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.
Being Creator cost Him nothing; being Head cost Him His life. One writer notes the difference between the glories listed before this verse and the glories listed after it.
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.
The word "head" is not honorary. It carries the plain sense the word has in everyday life.
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.
The last clause gives the purpose behind every title in the verse.
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.
In the church, that first place can be stolen.
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 Colossians show what is at stake when this truth is held only on paper.
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.
- First by creation. Christ steps into the creation He made, so first place there is His by right.
- First out of death. "Firstborn from the dead" is a second, separate title. He gained it by dying and rising. It is a new fact, not an extension of His becoming man.
- First as Head. A head needs a body. The body came only after His death, when the Spirit was given. So His headship rests on resurrection, not on His life on earth.
- First in control. Head means what it says. Your head governs your body, and Christ removes every other controlling authority in the church.
- First in the heart. Colosse drifted because it did not hold the Head. Holding the teaching is not the same as holding Him in faith and affection.
for in him all the fulness [of the Godhead] was pleased to dwell,
This verse gives the reason behind everything Paul has just said about Christ's supremacy. The whole fulness chose Him as its home. Two questions follow: who was "pleased," and what does "all the fullness" cover?
Older English Bibles supply the word "Father" in this verse, which the Greek does not have. One writer explains why they may have done it, and what the passage itself shows:
The passage has an unusual wording. It may have led the English translators to put in "Father" in verse 19. If that guess is right, the reason was not this verse so much as the next one, verse 20 — "to reconcile … to himself." They could not see how it could be to Him unless it were the Father. But I think the context is framed on purpose to show us that all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt in Christ. No one Person of that divine fulness acts to the exclusion of the rest. They all had one counsel — not merely similar counsels, as so many creatures might have, but one and the same.
Commentators differ on how to read "the fulness" here. Some follow the pronouns through verses 19 and 20. They take the Fulness itself as a personal reference to the Son:
"Dwelling" and "reconciling" are both personal acts. The verse states plainly that all the fullness is pleased to dwell in Him, and also to reconcile all things by Him to Himself. Notice how the run of pronouns in verses 19 and 20 keeps pointing to the same Person: "in Him"; "His cross"; "by Him"; "to Himself"; "by Him."
Paul does not define the term here. Chapter 2:9 fills it out as the fullness of deity. One writer traces how far the phrase reaches:
It sums up first all the varied glory of verses 15-18. But the words "All the fulness" go beyond even that expression of His glory. So we can think of nothing in the Godhead as revealed that did not find its revelation in Christ Himself. For instance, Christ revealed the Father so fully that He could say, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." … Again, besides creatorship and redemption glories, the Father dwelt in Him, John 14:10, and He was in the Father, verse 11.
Verse 19 and chapter 2:9 sound alike. But they speak of two different times:
There is a strong likeness between Colossians 1:19 and chapter 2:9. Only 1:19 refers to what was true of Him in the days He lived on earth, while 2:9 states it as true of Him today. It is hard to imagine a stronger statement of His deity. Yet the word "bodily" plainly implies that He is still Man.
Paul's sentence runs on into verse 20. The dwelling had an aim: reconciliation. Only a Person of this greatness could carry it out:
The question is no longer how to create a world, or how to form a sphere for the display of glory. It is how to reconcile, where sin has entered and defiled. The creation must be cleared of the defilement of sin, so that God can have rest in His own creation. And man must be brought back to God, in keeping with the righteousness as well as the holy love of His own blessed nature. None could do this but that One in whom the Godhead fulness was pleased to dwell. There lay the value of that work of expiation, and the blood of His cross was its witness.
Because the whole Godhead is behind the plan, the outcome is not in doubt:
Verse 19 tells us that all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in the Son when He came to do His mighty work… And we may safely add that what the Godhead aims at, the Godhead always accomplishes.
This is not only a truth about Christ. It also settles what His people already have:
Here then is the grand antidote! The fullness of the Infinite One dwells in Him, and in Him we are complete. He came down beneath all for our salvation. He is now above all in exaltation. He is the glorified Man who glorified God on earth and is now crowned on high. In Him the Godhead fullness dwells bodily, and we too are filled full in Him.
- Pleasure — The verse starts with God's own good pleasure. The fulness chose Christ as its home.
- Person — The wording holds every Person of the Godhead in one counsel, with none acting apart from the rest. Commentators differ on whether "the Fulness" points to the Son Himself.
- Fulness — Chapter 2:9 fills out the phrase. Nothing of God as revealed lies outside Christ, and "bodily" shows He is still Man.
- Purpose — The dwelling looked ahead to reconciliation. Only One of this greatness could clear a defiled creation and bring man back to God.
- Provision — What dwells in Him now fills His people. They are complete in Him, and need nothing added.