MY FATHER WAS the first of five children born to his parents; he was the oldest of four boys and a girl. My wife is also the oldest of five siblings, all sisters. Being the firstborn can have its privileges in rank and status, but also its responsibilities. Meanwhile, I was the younger of the two children in my family; I had an older sister. But I was the first and only son, and grew up in a cultural tradition that privileged sons as the ones to carry on the family name. I don’t remember whether they ever said it out loud, but my parents favored me over my sister, and sadly, she knew it. Right or wrong, that was our culture.

Something similar could be said about the Jewish families we read about in Scripture. Their culture was patriarchal, meaning that men generally held the power in society. And it was patrilineal, meaning that the family lineage was traced through the father’s side of the family tree, as we see in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1. In Jewish tradition, families favored the firstborn son. Sons inherited land and status, but daughters did not — unless the family had no sons. And by birthright, the firstborn son would inherit double the portion given to his brothers.

Paul, you’ll remember, has told the Colossians that they should rejoice and give thanks to God the Father. Why? Because through Jesus, God has made it possible for them to share in the inheritance of God’s people. So do we, centuries later. But that’s not because Jesus brokered a deal for us. He himself is the firstborn son, and our inheritance is not just because of him but in him. Listen again to how Paul describes Jesus:

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. (Col 1:15, NIV)

The story of creation in Genesis 1 teaches that all humans were created in the image of God. But Paul is saying much more than that here. No human being has ever shown us the very character of God like Jesus did; he made the invisible visible. As Paul tells the Corinthians, for example, God “made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ” (2 Cor 4:6). Or as the writer of the book of Hebrews says: Jesus is “the heir of all things” and “the exact representation of [God’s] being” (Heb 1:2-3).

Even Jesus himself suggested this. In the Upper Room, when Jesus announced to his distraught disciples that he was leaving them to return to the Father, Philip blurted out, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” Jesus responded, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:8-9).

Did Jesus roll his eyes as he said this, incredulous that Philip and the others could be so dense? Maybe. But I doubt it. God is portrayed throughout Scripture as patient and compassionate, and I like to think that even in that moment, Jesus was the same with Philip.

As they say, like Father, like Son.

And there’s more. Paul not only calls Jesus God’s firstborn, but “the firstborn over all creation.” We’ll see why shortly. But notice that he calls Jesus the firstborn again just a few verses later:

And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. (vs. 18)

This is one of the reasons some interpreters consider verses 15 to 20 to be a poem or hymn; there’s a structured repetition of phrases, like a song that explores its theme from different angles in different verses. The theme, if you will, is Jesus as the firstborn — and not just any firstborn, but the Firstborn, with a capital F. In verse 1 of the song, Jesus is the firstborn over all creation; in verse 2 of the song, he’s the firstborn from among the dead.

What does it mean in verse 15, then, for Jesus to be the firstborn “over all creation”? Paul explains:

For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. (vs. 16)

The Son had a central role in the creation of all things. We might think here of the prologue to the Fourth Gospel. Referring to Jesus as the embodiment of the eternal Word of God, John writes, “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:3).

Paul says that as the firstborn Son, the man Jesus made the invisible God visible. But prior to becoming a flesh-and-blood human, the Son was instrumental in the creation of both the visible and the invisible. This includes what the New International Version translates as “thrones or powers or rulers or authorities.”

Paul doesn’t explain what he means by these four terms, and not surprisingly, interpreters have filled in the blanks in different ways. In general, Paul seems to be referring to visible and invisible powers, as in earthly and spiritual forces — and in Paul’s way of thinking, the two are closely connected. Human leaders may not think there’s a spiritual dimension to the way they exercise power, but that’s because in their arrogance, they refuse to see the bigger picture.

It isn’t necessary, though, to say exactly what these four represent, put them in rank order, or make airtight distinctions between them. That’s not Paul’s point. The terms were probably significant to the Colossians and tied up in the heresy they were tempted to believe. Paul doesn’t waste time trying to convince anyone that such powers or beings don’t exist. What he wants them to know is that they are all created, and Jesus is therefore greater than all of them. Why should the Colossians worship lesser beings when they’ve already put their faith and trust in the Firstborn over all creation?

And not only is Jesus the firstborn over creation, Paul insists, he’s the firstborn from among the dead. Let’s explore that idea next.