#DailyDevotion Jesus, The Firstborn of Creation & The Dead
Col. 117He was before everything, and He holds everything together. 18He is the Head of the Church, which is His body. He is the Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead to become alive that He may be first in everything. 19God decided to have His whole Being live in Him 20and by Him to reconcile to Himself everything on earth and in heaven in a peace made by the blood on His cross.
Paul continues to glorify Jesus showing how he is truly God. This Jesus was before everything and holds everything together. Before creation was, Jesus is, not as Jesus of course but as the Son of God, the Word of God. As the Son and Word of God Jesus holds all of creation together. All of existence has its being in him. Yet this Son and Word of God takes on human flesh, becomes part of his own creation, becomes the man Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Now as Jesus, he is the Head of the Church, which is his body. In baptism we all are joined to Christ, his crucifixion, his death, his burial and his resurrection. We are one spirit with Jesus. Paul often refers to the Church as a body in his letters. This body is the temple of God even each of our bodies is also a temple of the Holy Spirit with Jesus dwelling in our hearts as the Holy of Holies. As every body had a head so the Church. Jesus is that that head which glorifies the Church. Has a husband and wife have one flesh, so Christ and his Church have one Spirit.
Jesus is the Beginning of the Church, the fountainhead so to say. Our origin as the Church starts in him. For even as Jesus is the Firstborn of creation, he is the Firstborn from the dead that he might be the first in everything. Jesus is the first human to be raised immortal, imperishable and in a glorified body from the dead. Others have been raised from the dead only to die again. Jesus is raised never to die again. His resurrection from the dead causes all the dead to rise on the Last Day, either to everlasting life or everlasting perdition, but all the dead are raised bodily by his resurrection. His resurrection also brings about the renewal or resurrection of all creation which has been corrupted by the sin of Adam. So the originator of all creation become the restorer of all creation by his death and resurrection.
This Jesus, “God decided to have His whole Being live in Him.” All the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Jesus. This is just another way of saying, Jesus is God. For Jesus is not just a part of God, Jesus is God. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all One God. While they are distinct persons they all share one divine essence. You can read the Athanasian Creed for further elucidation on the subject. So the flesh that is born of the Virgin Mary, the flesh suffering in the courts of the Sanhedrin and Pilate’s court, the flesh hanging on the cross suffering and dying, the flesh dead and buried and the flesh risen from the dead is nothing less than the flesh of God, God the Son that is.
It is in this flesh God the Father reconciles all creation in heaven and on earth to himself. He reconciles it by the peace won shed by blood of Jesus. The shedding of Jesus’ blood brought about a peace between God and man and all creation. Everything is restored in the blood of Jesus. This is because, not only is this innocent blood, but it is the blood of person of the Son of God. It is therefore God’s blood. Only by the shedding of blood, i.e. the death of Jesus, the Son of God, as truly Man, could peace be made. Even as by the sinful act of one man, Adam brought about enmity and corruption, so the righteous act of one man, the man Jesus Christ, the God-Man, could all creation be restored and glorified in him. Jesus Christ of Nazareth therefore is now your peace with God. Jesus is your resurrection to eternal life. In Jesus we now stand as God’s children and the body of Christ.
Almighty God and merciful Father, in your Son Jesus Christ, you have restored all things and made peace with us through his blood. Grant that we may have faith in this work of Christ so that this peace may be made manifest in our hearts and in our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.