Chapter XIII – The Purpose of Christ – The Channel

[Christ] is the Image of the invisible God, Firstborn of every creature, for in Him is all created, that in the heavens and that on the earth, whether thrones, or lordships, or sovereignties, or authorities, all is created through Him and for Him, and He is before all, and all has its cohesion in Him.

ta (THE) panta (ALL) di (THRU) autou (HIM) kai (AND) eis (INTO) auton (HIM) ektistai (HAS-been-CREATED) kai (AND) autos (HE) estin (He-IS-BEING) pro (BEFORE) pantOn (ALL) kai (AND) ta (THE) panta (ALL) en (IN) auto (Him) sunestEken (HAS-TOGETHER-STOOD)

Progressive “created”

In the previous chapter, we noted that the first use of “created” is written in the aorist passive indicative, so as to show that the entirety of the creative act (which precludes no act of creation on God’s part) is inflicted in Christ. We would like to elaborate on this point by introducing the second use of “created,” as well as the later term “cohesion,” in this portion of the study.

It has been noted by our brother Aaron Welch that the second use of the verb “is created” is written in the perfect passive indicative – i.e. the aorist tense is nowhere to be found. Aaron wrote,

While doing some further study to understand why A.E. Knoch chose “is” to translate this verse rather than “was,” I discovered that, in the last part of v. 16, Paul was using what's called the “perfect passive indicative” of the Greek verb ktizō (to create). According to Greek scholar A.T. Robertson, Paul’s use of this particular tense conveys the idea of everything’s “standing created” or “remaining created.” Thus, it seems that what Paul was actually intending to convey here is that all things in heaven and on earth stand (or remain) created “through” and “for” Christ. This understanding is consistent with what we read in Hebrews 1:3, where it’s said that Christ is “carrying on [or “upholding”] all by His powerful declaration.” In other words, the authority that God gave Christ when he made him “Lord of all” after rousing him from among the dead means that the universe “stands/remains created” by virtue of Christ's authoritative declaration that it be so.

This is an instructive example of having the facts, and yet reasoning falsely on top of those facts. It is indeed true that the perfect passive indicative can convey the idea of “remaining created.” Yet the peculiarity of the perfect passive indicative in Greek is that it is resultant upon a prior action. Aaron errs by abrogating the first half of the verse (especially in discarding the first use of ‘created,’) and re-structuring the passage so that the cross (which is not discussed until the following verses) becomes the foundation for Paul’s statement. By re-organizing the passage, the thought is veiled.

*Worse still, Aaron’s commentary seems to suppose that Christ was made Lord of all after His resurrection, when, as we have already discussed, Jesus clarifies that He had all given into His hand before His rousing.*

For those who are not fans of the technical jargon, you may easily note these contrasts by looking at the Concordant Greek Text interlinear. The first use of ‘created’ reads “IS-CREATED,” and the second use reads “HAS-BEEN-CREATED.” There is clear distinction between the two. Again, we ask: why would God differ in His word use if He is merely repeating the same idea?

This is complemented by the third term in the sequence, sunistemi. It is after telling us that all is created through Christ and for Christ that the thought reaches its apex: that all “HAS-BEEN-STOOD” in Him. In order to appreciate this progression, we must also consider the two phrases “through Him” and “for Him.”

All Created Through Christ

When using the perfect passive indicative “has-been-created,” Paul does not use the preposition “in” to advance the thought. This is because the entirety of the act of creating is no longer in view (that is, God’s creating all in the Son before bringing it forth through Him is past.)

Paul is no longer speaking of the creation that was in God and transferred in Christ, but the actual effort of God to craft each and every one of us to the maturity that every creature is destined to attain. The thought progresses from Christ as Firstborn to Christ assuming the role of the visual Placer for creation, being inherently in the form of God.

To appreciate the preposition dia, most often translated through, and why this indeed shows that Christ is the Channel through which creation comes into being (cf. John 1:3,) we quote our dear brother Richard Golko explaining the term:

“In Koine Greek, διά (dia) is a versatile preposition meaning “through” or “by means of” when followed by a genitive case word, and “because of,” “on account of,” or “for the sake of” when followed by an accusative case word. It can also be used as a prefix in compound words to mean “passing through” or “completely.”

Meanings based on case

With the genitive case:

Through (of place): Example: “through the city.”

During, throughout (of time): Example: “during the night.”

By, by means of (of means): Example: “by the law.”

Through (causality): Example: “through the prophet” (spoken by).

Out of (materials): Example: “made out of wood.”

With the accusative case:

Because of, on account of: Example: “because of my name.”

For the sake of, for: Example: “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.”

This is, we believe, one of (if not the) best summations of this preposition, and should be shared in every introductory koine Greek course. The point of contention here is the case which follows dia. Given Richard’s examination, we must logically concede one of the following:

1.    If the “Him” which follows “through” in Colossians 1:16 is written in the accusative case, then we have much reason to re-evaluate our position, and consider the Socinian perspective in a more positive light, accounting for the likelihood that their “figurative” take on the passage is more truthful than supposed

2.    If the “Him” which follows “through” in Colossians 1:16 is written in the genitive case, then we have, from the words of our opposing brethren, shown grammatically that Christ is the Simulant, the Visible Channel, through which God alone makes all

Which is it?

To our lack of surprise, the “Him” at the end of Colossians 1:16 is written in the genitive case. This would highlight, as Richard stresses, that all is created – resultant upon the act of God creating all in Christ first – through Christ, as the Means through which God accomplishes His creative act.

With this grammatical fact known by Richard, it is baffling that the conclusion to Richard’s explanation of dia ends on such a contradictory note. Richard continued:

“We take the stand that God created all because of or through what Jesus accomplished. Yes, Jesus Christ is the reason why God created all Himself. It can also be translated as “by means of” (accusative case) which means the same thing.”

When confronted about this clear contradiction, Richard further said:

“Yes, [‘Him’ in Col. 1:16] is genitive, not accusative. Studying Greek grammar, it isn't as cut and dry as you suggest. In the genitive it can mean ‘The instrumental cause.’ The word ‘through’ conveys the idea of an intermediary or an agent. If the ‘word’ is the intermediary or agent, then the word is not the Creator. That is why Jesus attributed creation to his God and not to himself (Mark 10:6; 13:19.)”

Yet Richard gives no reason as to why the facts in the Greek language are to be subject to human whim when the grammar does not immediately align with our view. If the Greek language is not cut and dry, then we have no reason to treat the claims and arguments God makes with that language with any sort of severity. The argument Richard makes – that, sometimes, the genitive case can function as the accusative case wherever an interpretation calls for it – necessitates that the word of God is subject to human judgment. This is extraordinarily shaky ground to stand on. Thankfully, the concordant method, as we have spent years proclaiming, sweeps the leg of human opinion, disabling the premise. When we follow the laws of language, there is no interpretive penalty we must face. We would much prefer to stick to the clear rule Richard first gave, instead of altering it and inviting confusion upon the student.

With that said, we heartily agree with the other half of Richard’s statement, as he affirms what we have been saying: Christ is the Channel, not the Cause, of creation. He is never once said to be the Creator, but to be the One through Whom God creates. Though we are confused by our brothers’ inconsistency, we are grateful that he has made much headway in recognizing the merit to our claims, unlike some of the harsher men among the sect, some of whom lump us in with unbelieving apostate Christendom.

Let no reader mistake our reading: we are not saying that Jesus “is God,” as if the two were the same literal Being. Nor are we treating Christ as the co-operative maker of all. As we have stressed many times, Christ is subordinate to the Father, and has not one creative bone in His body independent of the One Who made Him. The role Christ assumes is, as discussed, one of simulation – God presenting His creative acts through Christ. Christ did not “assist” God in creating; He was not with God during the creative process, but was the Beginning of God’s creative process.

The Necessity for the Channel

At this point, there should be little doubt in any believers’ mind that there is merit to creating Christ first, making Him the Anti-type on which every other type – all other relative subjectors/placers, lovers, brothers, and created beings – is brought into existence. Christ has been clearly shown to play a role, not be the God He worships. We have seen proofs for His necessity through a presentation of the greatest display of humility, and we have now seen a number of practical and logical hoops for His necessity at the beginning by inclusion of all in Him. We would like to spend the remainder of this chapter connecting dots, showing how, most importantly, the existence of Christ before His physical birth attests to His role as the Kinsman Redeemer, and enforces the salvation and reconciliation of all (the conclusion which Paul is building toward in this very passage – Col. 1:20.)

When God created Adam, He did not merely attest to creating one individual. He praised the fact that He had created humanity (plural) in His Image (Gen. 1:27.) Male and female, He created them. Many have thought this a grave error on the Bible’s part, and has led millions away from the Bible’s doorpost. How does God create all humanity, and then dare to unfold what appear to be contradictory events in Genesis 2? We read of plural humanity, yet we only read of Adam being brought out of the soil. Ten verses later (after notable time has passed,) Adam is brought into a stupor, and the woman is created from parts of himself.

It begs the question: did God create male and female (them,) or did He create one (male,) and the other (female) at different times?

We have already given our answer, in so many ways. For any who bothered to read the first 26 verses of Genesis carefully, prior to supposing God erred on page 1, God had already conveyed the way He is creating – all in one. So that, when Adam is created, it is already known that Eve is in him (for God only created a part He planned to remove from Adam.) The energy, soil, and offspring were already within Adam. God merely moved those elements together to form, with materials that already were, and a spirit that already was. As with the fact of all in God, all mankind was indeed created in Adam.

As we have previously stated, Paul’s arguments in Romans 5:12-19 require an understanding of this principle. We read such statements as, “By the offense of the one, the many died.” And, “The judgment is out of one into condemnation.” Still further, “Through the disobedience of the one man, the many were constituted sinners.” All humanity is contained within Adam, and he is the sole seed from which we have all come forth.

Yet Paul’s arguments in the aforementioned verses carry comparative claims. As with Adam, we read such statements as, “The grace of God, and the gratuity in grace, which is of the One Man, Jesus Christ, to the many superabounds.” And, “It is through one just award into all mankind into life’s justifying.”

We are impacted by two men in all history. The first, Adam, is the one man who brings us all into condemnation by our inclusion and generation in him. So also, the second Man, Christ, is the one Man Who reconciles us all by our inclusion and creation in Him. Romans portrays these two in juxtaposed positions, as if no other men had been established between the two. The number impacted by both men remain the same, particularly in Romans 5:18-19. This is because Christ initially had all creation created in Him, thus making Him responsible for the first soulish man, and all humanity contained within him.

To embed all of these points in our minds, we must consider two major particulars: Christ’s sacrifice, specially how and why it saves and reconciles all (cf. Col. 1:20.) And, because the cross carries so many dualisms, we must more thoroughly confront the role of evil in all of this. We must grasp the genesis of evil, how it was imposed upon creation in a controlled setting, by God, as opposed to some external calamity upending God’s work. In learning of evil’s genesis, we will appreciate its exodus, and by proxy appreciate why Christ must exist prior to evil’s enforcement.

The Cross and its Effects

The cross is the centerpiece of all spiritual doctrine. Even when dwelling upon Christ’s humiliation, the cross is the binding bridge between Christ’s creation and post-resurrection glories. When viewing the cross in Philippians, an in-depth technical analysis of the sacrifice is not necessary. It is not speaking of the salvific aspect, but of the suffering aspect. These two components are complementary, so that it may be difficult to feel the extent of the suffrage without its cause and scope, but at its base, it is easy to recognize the suffering of One who does not deserve it.

Yet with the cross as it is discussed in Colossians 1:20, the emotional core cannot be appreciated. We must dry our eyes and face the technicality of the cross – its premise and its effects. Christ crucified is at the heart of Paul’s doctrine, and must be fairly grasped if we are to learn of its greatest effects in this study.

As we read in Colossians 1:20, the blood of the cross establishes peace among all creation – both those in the heavens and those on the earth. Not one is excluded, save by improper interpretation (for example: so as to limit those affected to “authorities,” or “powers,” instead of all.) This statement, apart from its context, may sound shocking. How does the murder of an innocent Guy effect the reconciliation of the universe to Love?

Paul’s solution is as we have been noting. God is Love, and the Son of His Love is the One in Whom all is created! God created in love. So also when He saves, it is because He loves. God is bound to creation – not as a distant Beneficent, or some Divine Cheerleader, but in and through and for Love. It is only through Christ that sinning creation cannot be crushed under the weight of righteousness, but saved by it. God is not obligated to us on account of our wrongs; He is obligated to us on account of His relationship to Christ, in Whom He makes and to Whom He grants all.

Of the “all” created in Christ, so too was Satan created in the Son (Col. 1:16.) The Son is just as obligated to be the Kinsman Redeemer of Satan by Satan’s inception in Him. He was created to be the chief of the jurisdiction of the air (Eph. 2:2,) which has been titled since then the jurisdiction of darkness (Col. 1:13,) and the reign of Sin in death (Rom. 5:21.) God created Satan exactly as intended – to accomplish havoc upon His creation.

When we let go of the falsehoods concerning Christ’s absence as the Beginning of creation, we see the true love Christ has for His enemy. Though He knows full well of the Adversary’s inevitable actions – that he would alienate practically all of creation from God, so much so that even He would feel the sting of the Adversary’s strongest weaponry in the lowest of positions, and not withhold his inception is astounding! That this One is so confident in His Father’s plan that He was willing to represent the Father Who would so boldly create the opposing heart!

It is, of course, argued that Satan’s fall was not foreknown by God. Instead, many suppose, Satan held a free will, which God gave Satan in the hopes that Satan would magically be good of his own volition, even with the strongest of destructive impulses rooted within him, and this free will is what truly established evil instead of God. Most have supposed that God simply fought a battle with his created Satan, and He continually loses billions to the enemy He made, permanently.

Indeed, when it is framed like this, the creative work of God through the lens of Christendom appears incoherent and incompetent. To illustrate this, let us propose an image. Say you are taking part in a government experiment. The government first gets you extraordinarily drunk – the drunkest you have ever been in your life. The scientists then place you in the center a tight, confined room. You are told to stand absolutely still, for the rest of the floor, the walls, and even the ceiling of the room are filled with giant red buttons. If you step on one, or touch one, a giant laser will immediately blaze through every bone in your body, incinerating you.

That insane, ridiculous premise, in which you are practically destined to fail, is still more sensible than God creating all from within Himself as a gamble. At least, in our scenario, the giant laser mercifully ends you. With God’s failure, here, you suffer eternally at the hands of a sadistic angel, who, ironically, gets to burn all the people God couldn’t save!

Let us not endorse such silly reasonings any further. We are thankful to know, now, the truth – that God did not fail to create a “perfect angel named Lucifer,” but created an Adversary who sinned from the beginning (1 John 3:8.) In truth, even as God brought woman out of man, God brought all out of Christ. Creation, when brought forth, was not able to recognize the love with which they had been brought forth – shown, most notably, in Satan. This is further typified in Adam, who was surrounded by lavish scenery, continual appetizing fruit, no allergies or pain, the surrounding animal kingdom, and, of course, the most beautiful woman God ever painted. Yet Adam could not appreciate this, for he had no knowledge of good or evil.

With the knowledge of evil came the knowledge of good. If God so desired, He could have withheld the tree so that Adam never found it. It would have been easy to leave the tree in a cloud somewhere! Perhaps on Jupiter or Mars, where it would never be seen. If God had given Adam a free will, God would have directly been tempting Adam in the most divinely toxic way by withholding knowledge that would help him follow His command, while placing the fruit so near to himself and Eve.

When you remove the allegations of “free will,” the plot becomes clear. God did not will for Adam to eat of the tree, for this is against His righteousness. But He did intend for Adam to do so, and this for the sake of educating Adam of Himself. This experience is contextualized by our apostle, who says in Romans 5:12, that “through one man, sin entered into the world.” We see, again, the preposition dia followed by the genitive cases “one man.” This shows us, similarly, that Adam is the channel for sin’s entrance. Thus sin existed prior to humanity.

When we zoom back even further, we see its beginning, in Genesis 1:2, where the former heavens and earth God made were disrupted (“DOWN-CAST,”) made a chaos and vacant. This is review from the first three chapters of “God’s Timeline.” “The first three eons are devoted to the development of sin, the last two to its retirement.” (Knoch, Substitution or Inclusion?)

As with Adam, God did not will for Satan to transgress the Headship of Christ, and revolt against God’s Image, but He did intend for Satan to do so. Evil needed to disrupt this way – by placing creation, first and foremost, in rebellion toward God. Without apprehending evil, neither can good be appreciated, thus providing the need for Love to employ evil. The word of God tells us that evil exists for a temporary amount of time (an experience, Ecc. 1:13, 3:10,) for a season. Evil is not an endless mishap, some eternal wound God is never able to heal. A specific amount of time – the eonian times – are allotted to deal with both evil and sin, fully examining and repudiating them once the arguments have concluded.

Hence the disruption of the world. In the prison epistles, the disruption is first referenced in Eph. 1:4, contrasted later by Paul in 1:10. Where the Adversary was purposed to “cast down all,” the Christ was purposed to “head up.” For this reason, Satan’s efforts were graciously limited by God. Satan got as far as Genesis 1:2. He could devastate the first heavens and earth, decimate its inhabitants, and dislodge the confidence of creation in its Head. But what he has not done, and will never do, is dismantle the relationship between Father and Son, between God and the Idol of His Love.

The deepest roots of creation – that all was in God, and later created in the Son, and, as a result, was brought forth through the Son, to make Him the Beginning of all – are first found in the Image of God. It is most clearly stated in Colossians 1:17. All has its cohesion in Christ. All has together stood in Him, and has never been disturbed. Whether regarding His creation, His death, His entombment, or His rousing, all has been together stood in Him.

God does not give an intermediary state. There is no moment where creation is said to have lost cohesion in Him. Even in death, all stands with Christ (2 Cor. 5:14.) Scripture does not state a time when creation did not initially have cohesion in Him. Such claims argue from the negative, and could not be argued rationally, since infinite research which we could not conduct in our limited means would be required. At every point in history, creation is vitally bound to the experiences and effects of Christ.

In this sense, creation and Christ are inseparable. When a child acts rebellious and hateful toward his parents, the parents cannot throw their child on the street without being perceived as callous by many. Moreover, parents disowning their child in such a way does not erase the birth certificate. The child is the progeny of the parents, whether legally or by generation. If the child becomes a terror, it is the parent’s obligation to take necessary measures for rehabilitating or reforming them.

So also, Christ, the Kinsman Redeemer, is obligated to take the necessary measures to rehabilitate creation from its rebellion. Creation is the progeny of Christ, in a figurative sense, since all is created through Him. For sin to usurp Christ’s authority does not erase this intimate bond between Christ and all. All creation is still His, and He has the right to all because of this bond.

The overwhelming argument for the eon is that the hurt and evil of all our lives is unnecessary. It is argued that Christ didn’t need to die at all. That, when the Adversary entered into rebellion against God, Christ could have strong-armed Satan into giving creation back. “Was He not strong enough?” These men ask. The irony, of course, is that this question was also asked by the Pharisees who placed Christ on the cross to begin with. To ask such a question is to agree with those who are shown to lack understanding. Christ showed, well before the crucifixion, that He could cast out demons, that He held authority over the invisible powers of the land, because He is Lord of all. He indeed could have bound Satan immediately!

Of course, that would defeat the purpose of the crucifixion, which was not solely to cause suffering, but to demonstrate the love of God. Yet, with the Christ as the Origin of creation now presented, the love of God is seen to be intelligently unfolded to us! Jesus Christ, in the form of God, emptied Himself of all that He was in that form, and was instead adapted to a body of humiliation – one in which He, like everyone else, appeared to be a slave to sin and death. He did this as the Kinsman Redeemer, not a kinsman conqueror. We see the cause of Christ’s unselfish love for creation. He loved when all was included in Him.

It is, then, on the premise of the inclusion of all in Christ, having been created and having cohesion in Him, that we gain the solution to the method of the salvation. He is a willing Saviour, not a mere scapegoat (as is theorized in memetic theory,) or worse, an unwilling or selfish Sufferer. He is the Firstborn of all, and this is His universe. Since all is created in, through, and for Him, and He is before all, both in time and station, we must include this same all on the cross with Him.

In every way, this conveys the heart of God. We no longer need to see Christ as a distant Victim of circumstance, Prey to an inattentive Father. He is as close as could possibly be – the One Whom we are modeled after. When the human frame became mortal, He prepared to dress in a mortal frame as well. In being the sacrifice of God, He assumes the mediatorial role we have been meditating on. By dying representing God, He assures the close union of every creature with God, fulfilling God’s desire to have the most intimate companionship with all. By dying representing man, He assures the greatest welfare for all creation.

The Foundation for the Cross

The three prepositions – all being created in, through, and for Christ – aptly surround the cross. “For” (“into”) Christ refers to the carrying out of the cross. Like Philippians 2:8, the cross is the center for Christ’s blessings, standing at the midpoint of all prior and effectual glories. This is elaborated on in verses 18-20.

“In” and “through” Christ, however, cannot refer to the cross. Whereas “for” Christ may, in part, attest to the effects of the cross, the creation of all in the Son of His love contrastively serves as the foundation on which the evangel becomes a resounding success. What gives God the right to impart a measure of Christ’s faith to we, the died ones (2 Cor. 5:14?) If we are dead, how may we have faith?

The answer is given us when we acknowledge the highest truths in the scripture. Since all are included in Christ from the very beginning, anything that happens to Christ will ultimately be imposed upon all who are in Him. Thus we see how the doctrine of the “Inclusion of all,” or perhaps the “God’s Creative Original” or “The Origin of the Creation” the ultimate foundational argument in favor of the salvation and reconciliation of all through Christ. The issue was never whether Christ possessed the right to rule; we may safely grasp that a rebellion would not occur unless His rule were already apparent. The goal with Christ’s descent was to reveal  that right to be revealed, vindicated, and embraced through faith.

When we apply what we have considered in Paul’s earlier epistles in regards to Adam, and the principles laid out in Genesis 1, Paul’s argument in Colossians is vindicated. For a visual illustration, any introductory biology course will explain that no living thing transmits acquired characteristics given by our experiences or environments. For example, when “Adam” is formed in Genesis 2:7, his two defining characteristics – soil and breath – are transmitted to all mankind which follows. The DNA he held decomposes; therefore, in Adam (not through or for Adam,) all are dying (Rom. 5:12, 1 Cor. 15:22.)

Let us briefly chase this train of thought, which A.E. Knoch has also conveyed in his study, Substitution or Inclusion. We may backtrack, here, and suppose that sin never made its advent. We may also suppose that Adam already knows of good and evil, and is thankful. Let us further suppose that Adam were still created, and had the capability to give birth with Eve.

In such a hypothetical, Adam would be called “the firstborn of every human.” He is not literally “born,” of course, but he would be the first created. He would be the one in whom mankind is created. He would further be the one through whom mankind is unfolded. Though other men are born after him, and he would not literally be “giving” each individual a body and a spirit of his own volition, he would be the channel of mankind. I.E. without Adam, there is no Enosh, or Mahalalel, or Noah, etc.

He would also have to be the one for whom humanity exists. God would have accomplished His goal, in creating fellowship for Adam. All men would be his family, without exception. All honor he receives would be entirely dependent upon this family which sprang forth from him.

Suppose we extend this figure to incorporate sin. Yet let us not impose it upon Adam, but, say, Cain. Suppose that, after Cain, a daughter were born – “Abella,” for fun. Suppose dear Abella were persuaded by the serpent to eat the fruit, and all that transpired in the garden was an effect of Cain and his sister, as opposed to Adam and Eve.

If we view such a scenario from Adam’s perspective, Adam would indeed be sickened and dismayed by his son’s revolt against himself and his El. Knowing good, Adam would naturally begin taking any measure to reverse the effects brought upon Cain and his sister, recognizing good and evil. If Adam knew or discovered a way to reverse those effects – likely at any cost – why wouldn’t he seek to resolve the problems established, to bring his progeny to his understanding of good and evil, and thus revitalize the strained fellowship he desires? Even if he needed to use the rod, would he not follow this up with conciliation for the sake of restoring the problems?

Let us drop this figure, now, yet apply the pattern to the true order of affairs. The reality is that Adam was not incorruptible. Through him, sin entered into the world. Though he is indeed the “firstborn of every humanity,” he is a weak kinsman redeemer. Of his own volition, he was unable to reverse his own actions. He needs the Firstborn, the true “Kinsman Redeemer,” to reverse the havoc unleashed upon the race.

As we have studied, all is created in Christ. Long before Adam was formed, the Image of God was first crafted. Christ already knew of good, being the Simulant of the invisible God (Col. 1:15,) and acted toward God (cf. John 1:1-2.) Christ is more than the firstborn of every human. He was the Firstborn of every creation. He is not literally “born,” of course, but He is the first created One.

He is the One in Whom all is crated. Though other creatures are created after Him, specially by generation on the earth, and He does not literally “give” each individual their own body or spirit of His own volition, He is the Channel of all. I.E. without Christ, there is no Satan, no Michael, no Adam, etc.

He is also the One for Whom all creation exists. God had accomplished His goal by creating Christ, yet by placing creation in Christ, God further establishes a fellowship for Christ. When God created the heavens and the earth, all who populated it were brought into being through Christ. All – heaven and earth – are His progeny, without exception. All honor He receives is entirely dependent upon this family which is crafted through Him.

In reality, sin has infected all of Christ’s progeny. Christ has expressed being quite sickened and dismayed by creation’s revolt against Himself and His El. Knowing good, Christ, in obedience to His Father’s will, has taken every righteous measure to reverse the effects brought upon all, whether those in the heavens or those on the earth. He knew the burden of His position before sin’s entrance (1 Pet. 1:20,) and the burden of His role after (Rev. 13:8.)

With His vital relation to every living thing in the universe, Christ stands as a Firstborn which Adam could never have effected. Though we humans are indeed suffering the effects of the firstborn, Adam, who brought the race under sin and death, there is a deeper bond which our firstborn maintains to the One he was created in.

All maintain this cohesion in Christ. Creation did not begin with a single cell, or some intangible, abstract idea. It began with Him, is brought forth through Him, and is resolved for Him. If Christ is absent from the creation that finds its cohesion in Him, then the analogy we have drawn is subverted. Indeed, Adam would be the stronger “firstborn,” for he would at least be there for the havoc he caused. All would not “have-been-stood” in Christ, but attached to Him as some collateral after the fact. This would make Him an absent or distant Saviour, in contrast to Adam and Satan being a present and operative source of destruction.

May it not be coming to that! The roots of creation are in God, brought out of Him and established in and through Christ, nowhere else. Christ’s absence would indicate malfeasance at God’s hand, and His crucifixion apart from all being created in Him could only end in God’s inability to reconcile those who had no representation/mediation in Christ’s absence. Let us thank God that all the potentials of creation were brought through Christ before any debacle which would strain the proceeding relationship between God and man.

- GerudoKing