A friend of mine once posed this question to me: Jehovah Witness's refer to Colossians 1:15 where it says that Jesus is "the firstborn over all creation" to show that Jesus is not God, but rather a created being. What's up with this passage? How can we show that Jesus is not a created being, and show that he's really God? Why should we care about this in the first place?
It was a good question, one that had me stumped for a while. But here is what I came up with, and I hope it can help you if faced with the same verse.
To start, let's take a look at Colossians 1:15 "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation." If we look at that verse in passing we might get the idea that yes, Jesus is less than God with the word "firstborn" alluding to his creation.
But really if you take the verse apart its quite clear that He isn't. Firstborn is in no way first-"created". By just looking at the wording, "over all", we can see that he's the firstborn *over* Creation. Ancient Near East culture had the firstborn as a status not necessarily a birth order; thus Jesus would be the preeminent being over Creation which is certainly not counter-Biblical.
Scripture that shows Jesus is God:
John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The "Word" being Jesus.
John 17:5 says: "And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began." Which clearly shows us that Jesus existed before Creation.
Why should this matter? Because if Jesus is in some way less than God, or even a created being; then he is quite plainly not God. If He wasn't God then He wasn't perfect (All have fallen short of God's glory) and if He wasn't perfect than His sacrifice was worthless. So yeah, its pretty important for us that Jesus is God :)
Greetings Zach
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I am not a JW!
Now neither John 1.1 nor 17.5 say anything about Jesus being Almighty GOD!
Rather:
a) John 1:1 is speaking about the word of GOD through which all things came into being.
That is, GOD spoke and it came to pass.
(Compare Psa 33.6,9)
It is not until verse 14 that GOD's word became flesh resulting in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, GOD's human Son.
The mistake you are making in reading
Jesus into John 1.1 is nicely summarized by Colin Brown of Fuller Seminary, to quote:
"It is a common but patent misreading of the opening of John's Gospel to read it as if it said: 'In the beginning was the Son, and the Son was with God and the Son was God' (John 1:1).
What has happened here is the substitution of Son for Word (Greek logos), and thereby the Son is made a member of the Godhead which existed from the beginning."
b) Jesus in 17:3 clearly identifies his Father
as the only true GOD.
So, verse 5 says nothing about Jesus somehow being equally GOD, otherwise that would make 2 Gods which is an impossibility
In verse 5 rather, Jesus is asking GOD his Father, for the glory that he had with the Father before the world was;
i.e. glory in prospect, foreordained, promised glory;
the same glory which Christ in turn ordains for his disciples
(verse 22 - So did the disciples preexist as well??)
In similar fashion, the church has been chosen (Eph 1.4), grace has been given (2 Tim 1.9), before the world was; and the saints now have! - a building of God (2 Cor 5.1).
How? In what sense? Answer: these things were foreordained for the saints before the world was; things promised in prospect; which the saints will literally receive at Christ's coming.
Just as Christ literally received his promised glory at his resurrection.
Therefore Zach,
for more info on John ch. 1 and ch. 17,
and who Jesus truly is,
I recommend this video:
The Human Jesus
Take a couple of hours to watch it; and prayerfully it will aid you in your quest for truth.
Concerning Colossians 1:15, I also recommend this article:
COLOSSIANS 1:15-20 PREEXISTENCE OR PREEMINENCE?
Yours In Messiah
Adam Pastor