What is the connection between the two
parts of this [Col 1:18] verse? How is his supremacy connected to the church?
Jesus’s resurrection from the dead establishes his supremacy because his resurrection
life animates his body-the church. His victory constitutes a new people, since
he is the firstborn from among the dead—many must surely follow. This
extraordinary, cosmic act of reconciliation involves the Colossians themselves,
as Paul explains in verses 21 to 23. They were once in a state of alienation and
outright enmity from God. This was a condition that had come about because of
their evil behavior. It was, in other words, a matter of deliberate rejection of
the divine moral will. The process of atonement thus involved both the
justification (“free from accusation”) and the sanctification (“present you
holy in his sight”) of the Gentile Colossian believers, which they take hold of
by faith (1:22-23), having heard the gospel that Paul serves. And this gospel,
which the Colossians have believed—is preached “to every creature under heaven”
(εν
παση
κτισει τη υπο των ουρανον).
It is, this is to say, an announcement not simply to the individual human
beings whose sin is atoned for, but to the entire created order. This seems to
be a similar thought to that which Paul expresses in Romans 8, where the creation’s
temporary subjection to futility is linked to the redemption of human beings.
This is not a doctrine of universal
salvation. Reconciliation and peace, presumably, involves the repudiation of
that which is evil. It is, however, a doctrine of cosmic redemption of that
which is evil. It is, however, a doctrine of cosmic redemption in the blood of
Christ. The whole of the creation is the object of his work in dying for sin
and rising to new life. All of creation has suffered the effects of human sin;
now, in the blood of Christ, since sin has been atoned for, the creation has
been reconciled to the Creator just as it was made in hum, through him, and for
him. Jesus Christ completes the mission of humanity as God’s true image and
becomes for the created order the presence of the fullness of God. he becomes
firstborn twice: once over all creation, and again as the “firstborn from among
the dead.”
Pal does not
here, or elsewhere in Colossians, make any direct connection between his
theology the cross and “the common good.” He only mentions “outsiders” in
4:5-6, when he enjoins Christians to “be wise in the way you act towards
outsiders.” However, the cosmic scope of his work on the cross surely invites
us to consider the implications of the atonement for social ethics. The reconciliation
of all things—and the declaration of peace—is a reality established by the
blood shed upon the cross. What might be infer here? The gospel is the declaration
that God’s peace has been established by means of the cross. It is an invitation
for every creature under heaven, including every human being. The peace of God
is a reality in which the whole creation now stands, by the power of the cross.
The powers and authorities have been disarmed by the cross (2:15)---not just as
an exposé, but as a triumph. Thus the community of believers—renewed in God’s
image (3:10)—are called to practice this cross-shaped peacemaking with one
another, since all earthly distinctions have been eclipsed in Christ (3:11—see also
Gal. 3:28; Eph. 2:11-22). Their perfect unity, stemming from love, is to be an expression
of the peace of Christ ruling in their hearts (3;14-15). They know peace with God
and so they practice reconciliation with one another, forgiving as the Lord forgave
them (3:13-14). (Michael Jensen, “The Significance of the Atonement
for the World: The Cross of Christ, the Church, and the Common Good,” in Unlimited
Atonement: Amyraldism and Reformed Theology, ed. Michael F. Bird and Scott
Harrower [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Academic, 2023], 227-28, comment in square
brackets added for clarification)