The same was in the beginning with God, (3) All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.
These words throw a further light upon the verse before, and considered in conjunction with it, very blessedly explain the whole, as far as a subject of such mystery is capable of being explained to our present unripe faculties. This Word, this Logos, was not only in himself essentially God, but together with the other persons of the Godhead, was in all the council, will, and purpose of Jehovah. So that when Jehovah went forth in acts of creation, in his threefold character of person, he was engaged in the same Almighty agency. To this grand point the Holy Ghost by the Apostle bears testimony, when he saith, God created all things by Jesus Christ. Ephesians 3:9
And in farther confirmation of this unquestionable truth, we learn from the same authority, that, by Him were all things created that art in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible; whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for him, and he is before all things, and by him all things consist. Colossians 1:15-19. Here we have ascribed to the Lord Jesus the works of all creation, comprehending from the highest created being to the lowest. And not only created by him, but for him; and not only giving him the precedency of being before all things, but declaring that as he is the Creator, so he is the upholder and preserver of all things; for their consistency, or very being, is in him and by him. And that these things are spoken of the Son of God, not as God only, but as the Word here described, subsisting in the Son of God, as God, in consequence of those ancient decrees between the persons of the Godhead before all worlds, in relation to the Church, is evident from hence, that it is in this very character, as the Head of his Church, he is here considered, and who, hereafter, in the fulness of time, was openly to tabernacle in our nature. See Revelation 5:6-10. explained by Psalms 2:7
I must not detain the Reader. But I cannot dismiss the subject opened to us by those verses, before that 1 have first desired of him to consider what is said in the passage just quoted, of the Image of the Invisible God. Not surely an image, or resemblance, of what is invisible. For the Reader need not be told that God is invisible. 1 Timothy 1:17. and 1 Timothy 6:16. But the Holy Ghost hath explained the sense of it in this very chapter, (John 1:18.) No man hath seen God, (that is, hath seen him in his essence and glory as God; Father, Son, and Holy Ghost), at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him; that is, the Son, in this begotten character, set up in the infinite mind of Jehovah as making manifest all the purposes of God concerning the Church, he hath laid open the mind of God, and as such is the brightness of his Father's glory, and the express image of his person. Hebrews 1:1-3. See my further observations on this subject in the Poor Man's Commentary, on Colossians 1:15. And is it not in this sense (I only ask, not determine the question), we are to understand that Scripture at the creation, when the first earthly man was to be formed; Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Genesis 1:26. Was not this likeness to be in reference to Christ, as Christ, subsisting in covenant engagements? How, otherwise, can it be said, that in all things he might have the pre-eminence? Colossians 1:18. And is it not in the same sense, (I again ask the question, but do not decide), that scripture hath respect, when it is said, Behold! the man is become as one of us! Genesis 3:22. Who was thus become? Not Adam, surely! For, by transgression, he had lost all knowledge of God, and was spiritually dead in trespasses and sin. And the whole passage that follows with his expulsion from Eden proves it, But I must trespass no further,