Firstborn over all creation

To a church where Christ's supremacy is being threatened, Paul writes a letter in which Christ's supremacy is firmly established.

In verses 15-20 of chapter 1, he declares Christ as head of both the first and the new creation.

The second phrase in v15 is a declaration not of his nature, but of his status: 'the firstborn over all creation.'

There is an error which we must avoid (without denying Christ's proper humanity, he must never be relegated to the level of a mere creature, nor have his eternal divinity denied); there is a truth which we must grasp (that here Christ is explicitly assigned the supreme place over all creation, nothing excluded from the sweep of his primacy); there are implications that we must embrace - that Christ Jesus wears the crown over all things made, that he sustains a unique relationship to creation which no-one and nothing else can rival, and which we must defend, that such an understanding humbles man and teaches him who is the sun and centre of the universe, and that none other than this glorious person is the Redeemer of God's elect.