Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
They who have experienced "redemption" (Colossians 1:14) know Christ in the glorious character here, as above the highest angels for whom the false teachers (Colossians 2:18) claimed worship. Compare the two other passages as to Christ's person (Ephesians 1:20-23; Philippians 2:6-11). Paul describes Him-
(1) in relation to God and creation (Colossians 1:15-17);
(2) in relation to the Church (Colossians 1:18-20).
The former regards Him as the Creator (Colossians 1:15-16) and Sustainer (Colossians 1:17) of the natural world; the latter, as the source and stay of the new moral creation.
Image - exact likeness and perfect Representative. Adam was made "in the image of God" (Genesis 1:27). The second Adam perfectly reflected visibly 'the invisible God' (1 Timothy 1:17), whose glories the first Adam only in part represented. "Image" [eicon] always supposes a prototype, from which it is drawn: the exact counterpart, as the reflection of the sun in the water: the child the living image of the parent. "Likeness" [homoiosis] implies mere resemblance, not the exact counterpart and derivation; hence, it is nowhere applied to the Son, while "image" is (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:7 (Trench); John 1:18; John 14:9; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Timothy 6:16; Hebrews 1:3). Before His incarnation He was the image of the invisible God, as the Word (John 1:1-3) by whom God created the worlds, and by whom God appeared to the patriarchs. His essential character as always "the image of God" --
(1) before the incarnation,
(2) in the days of His flesh, and
(3) now in His glorified state-is, I think, contemplated by "is."
First-born of every creature (Hebrews 1:6) - "the first-begotten:" 'begotten of His Father before all worlds' ('Nicene Creed'). 'God, of the substance of His Father, begotten before the worlds; and man, of the substance of His mother, born in the world' ('Athanasian Creed'). Priority and superlative dignity is implied (Psalms 89:27). The English version seems to make Christ a creature. Translate х proototokos (G4416) pasees (G3956) ktiseoos (G2937)], 'Begotten before every creature,' as the context gives the reason why He is so designated: 'For,' etc. (Trench), Colossians 1:16-17, "He is before all things." Thus, pasa (G3956) ktisis (G2937) has not to be taken 'the first-begotten of all creatures,' but in its strict sense, 'before every creature.' "First-begotten" marks at once His eternal priority and His condescending to brotherhood with us (Romans 8:29). "Only-begotten" marks His relation to the Father by generation from everlasting. This expression is used by Origen (so far is the Greek from favouring Arian views) to mark Christ's Godhead, in contrast with His manhood, (B. 2:, contra Cels.) Since He was before "every creature" [the genitive of the point of view, 'in comparison to' far or long before: John 1:15; John 1:30, protosmou; John 15:18, etc.], He cannot be a creature Himself, but the Creator. The Greek is against Alford's translation, 'the first-born of all creation.'