. . . the passage certainly would
entail the pre-existence of Jesus if it is saying that Jesus is the creator, or
agent of creation. All things were created “through” (dia) him, but also
“in” (en) him and “for” (eis) him, not “from” (ek) him,
the role 1 Cor. 8:6 ascribes to God. if the “all things” that are created
through Jesus are the elements of the world then this passage presupposes that
Jesus was present at that creation. Dunn asserts that “’all things’ (ta
panta) was a familiar way of speaking about ‘everything, the universe, the
totality of created entities’” (Dunn, Christology in the Making, 267)
citing 1 Cor. 15:27-28, Eph. 3:9 and John 1:3. However, the “all things . . .
in heaven and on the earth” that Jesus creates (Col. 1:16) are, presumably, the
same “all things . . . whether in heaven or on earth” that Jesus reconciles to
God (Col. 1:20). Since it is believers that are reconciled to God, it may be
creation referred to is not the Genesis creation, but the new creation in
Christ. (As per Whitely, Theology of St. Paul, 110)
Though it may seem a little strange to
a modern reader, it is clear that in both Paul’s undisputed and disputed
letters, creation language is used to talk about the spiritual re-birth of the
believer (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; Eph. 2:10, 14-15; 4:24; Col. 3:10). In fact,
this passage is more easily understood as referring to the new creation. Gen.
1:1 describes God creating the heavens and the earth; Col. 1;16 refers only to
things “in heaven” and “on” earth, not heaven and earth themselves. “Thrones or
dominions or principalities or powers” are not the sort of thing that Genesis 1
talks about God creating, but these very terms are used in the New Testament to
talk about the new creation, that is, the community of believers (cf. Eph.
3;10; 6:12; Col. 2:10). The phrase “all things” (ta panta) is also used
by Paul in the context of spiritual regeneration (2 Cor. 5:17-18; Eph. 1:22-23;
Col. 1:20), as is the phrase “in heaven and on earth” (Eph. 1:7-15; Col. 1:20).
Believers are created “in” (en) Christ (Eph. 2:10, 15) and created by
Christ (Col. 3:10) (Thomas Edmund Gaston, Dynamic Monarchianism: The
Earliest Christology? [2d ed.; Nashville: Theophilus Press, 2023], 257-58)