Colossians Lesson 4 week 2

Well, why don't we get started. We are in Colossians. We are on Lesson 4, and we're going over Colossians 1, verses 15 through 17. And we got through Question 1 last week. Is Christ said to be the likeness of the invisible God, or the exact expression and image of God? And what did we come up with on that? What is the image? Was the image like a photocopy? Was it like two eggs that look exactly the same? That was Macaulay's... He's the exact representation of who? God the Father. Exact representation. We went through a lot of verses, too. And actually, as I was reading through John this week, I found some other verses. I've given you a couple of them.

John 8, 19, and John 14, 9, and 10 as ones, if you've known me, you've known my Father, Christ speaking, and then who has seen me has seen the Father. Just going through John this week again, some other ones popped up. In John 14, 7. If you have known me, you would have known my father also. From now on, you know him and have seen him. And then another verse, John 12, 45. He who sees me sees the one who sent me. So, again, the thought being Christ is the exact representation or image of God the Father. So there's no question about if we understand who Christ is. So we're going to move on to question two.

In John 1.1, what does the word, word, mean? I'll read that section.

I'll read John 1.1-4.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

So, from John 1.1, what does the word, Word, mean? The Lord Jesus. It's a living word. Living word? And he explains the Father. Explains the Father? Okay. Others? Huh? That pretty well covers it. We're done. Fair enough.

Yeah, from John 1.1, the word was what? God. The Word was God, which several of the things that people brought out. The Word was God. So what does that mean? He's the Living Word. But, as my usual, using the definition in the definition, that is a penalty. You can't do that. You know, that's like, the color red. Well, it's a reddish color. You can't use the word in a... So, the word was God. What does that mean? I think that verse 14, where it says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld his glory, the Lord and the only begotten Son. It's like a miracle, like lightning bolt of, wow, Jesus is really... He became flesh and dwelt among us. Yeah. A divine person. Fully God, fully man. We'll see that. In him dwells all the fullness of deity. So he's fully man and fully God.

I like what he said. He's the living word. I like that. He's the living word. And as Russ brought out, the word became flesh. In the Greek, the word means Logos, and the important distinction here is the definite article, the, or in the Greek word, ho, for before the word. So, it is the word. So does that change anything? He is the word. What does that mean?

One of a kind? The only one. Fully God. Full of God, but I think the... A long time ago I wrote in here about the word Lagos. It reveals the mind and essence of God. It's a full embodiment of God. But the point being the word. The word. It's an important distinction because it's not a word or one of many. It is the word. How many of there are there? One. One. Yeah. I think the key word there in terms of God is the word was, because in the beginning he was already there, before the beginning, which shows him to be God.

And we'll expand on that as we go on through these verses. And for Wanda, thank you for last week for me to call out with zodiattes when I use these things. No, I'm complimenting you. Okay, but you brought that up. I went over to the used Christian bookstore on South Broadway and got that book and I took it back yesterday. It was all Greek to you, right? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That's fine. And, you know, we can get hung up on the Greek. I think the thing is that this was actually for me when we took the class from how I'm getting the Greek.

He was really good at explaining Greek words and what they meant. In the English, sometimes it doesn't really... kind of explain everything. It's not as full-bodied as the Greek is a lot of times. And Hal was really good at, when we were going through the Greek class, I was just always kind of fascinated by, you know, this word means this, you know, in English, whatever. And then he would say, well, in the Greek it means, and then when I explained it, it would mean a whole lot more than just the English word that we would get. So, you don't have to know the Greek on all this. It just helps sometimes in the explanation of things. It just helps me kind of understand that word when we see the image or things like that.

So I use Spirit of Zodiates is the guy. And as Mike said, he'd probably be the guy running down with his books and pass right by the Lord and not see him because he's so intense he doesn't. It doesn't put all the words together. So, Spiros Zodiatis is a guy I use a lot.

And then the other is, we use Chester McCauley, who was a pastor who knew a lot of identification, a lot of different things, has great resources. And he was Oklahoma City? I can't remember where he was. Kansas City. Kansas City. So, we use a lot for that. And then, you know, a lot of the other ones, we use a lot of old brethren ones who brought out a lot of what we call the identification crews. Diggie Stoney, he was a good one. Darby, William Kelly. There are a whole bunch of people that we use as references. So when I use some of these, I'll try and slow down and say who they are. A colleague. Is he still living? No. Is there anyone that's still living? We are. Yeah, we are. Right here. We are living. Thank you for doing that last week. I do just spew these things out a lot of times, like William Kelly. William Kelly has a lot of good things on Colossians. Just a lot of good references, resources on that, his commentaries on it. So William Kelly is not an old brethren.

He was probably 1800s, I think. My colleagues' lessons are online. You can listen to them as he gave them. You can download and listen to it online. He's got a lot of, you know, yeah, audio. He's also got a lot of printed material. McCauley actually taught. retreat 30 some years ago here. Yeah, I thought he was taught here. So again, just resources that we use to help going through these. So thank you for calling it out last week because I do, you know, I always use the thing when I was doing announcements for years, you know, and I still think I say it sometimes.

Is there anything missed or forgotten? you know, missed or forgotten. And I think I told you, some lady came up to me after a long time and said, who is that Mr. Forgotten? She wondered for many, many, many months who that Mr. Forgotten was. I kept praying for him, that Mr. Forgotten. So thank you for clarifying some of that. So getting back to it. You know, the the and the was, as Mike says, from Zodiaty's.

In John 1.1, Jesus Christ in his pre-incarnate state is called Hologos, the Word, presenting him as the second person of the Godhead who is the eternal expression of the divine intelligence and the disclosure of the divine essence. This self-revealing characteristic of God was directed toward and utterly achieved for mankind in the incarnation. So it's basically going back to that image again. It's the image of the Godhead. He is presenting God the Father.

So we can also look at John 1.14, and that was what Russ brought up. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. So, does this agree with verse 1.15 that He is the image of the invisible God? The answer? Yes, yes. Again, pre-incarnate, the was, so from when, eternity past, he's been the word, he's been God, eternal.

I was just saying back to Colossians 1.15, it agrees with Colossians 1.15, he's the image, that's when we started with, that he is the image. I just have thought about what Mike brought out on was, is imperfect in the beginning, which really wasn't the beginning, because he was already there. So it's a perfect tense, which means existence in the past, without a beginning. Isn't that neat?

Well yeah, and we'll get into some of these things too, which are kind of fascinating to me, what that means. as we get into the creation and different things and what that entails. And going along with this, isn't Hebrews 1 a parallel to this? God spoke in various ways through the prophets, but in these days he's spoken to us through his son. Through his son, yeah. And he's sort of parallel to this.

Yeah, I mean, I'm going to be hitting this a lot in all these verses about how important it is. I'll just, kind of the ending, going to the end, jump to the end. Why is it important to know Christ? There are two reasons, I think. Two important reasons.

One is, we get to know who the Father is. We get to know who the Father is. And I'll get into that a little bit more and what that means when you really put your thinking cap on on that and see what that means. The second is, if we know Christ, who do we know? The Father. Well, now that's number one. Number two? The Holy Spirit.

Well, he'll explain that. Who do we know Who we are in Christ. We know who we are. Where are we positionally right now? In Christ. So, there's lots of verses. 2 Peter 3.18. To grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Word of Christ. Why? Because as we know who he is, who do we know? We know who we are in Christ. So I think there are two important things. We know who the Father is by knowing Christ, and then we also know who we are because we're placed into him. Okay, question three.

How are any of the other persons of the Godhead known? The Holy Spirit? Through the Word? Others? The Father and the Son. How do we know about the other? We're talking about Christ. How do we know about the Father and the Holy Spirit? Don't we know them through Christ as the Holy Spirit reveals Him to us? Through Christ as the Holy Spirit reveals to us. Ultimately, I mean, it's through His Word, that's how we get it. But it is through Christ that we know the Father and the Holy Spirit.

You know, we can look into Romans 1 and we can see through Scripture a lot of the attributes of God. We can see lots of different things. Romans 1, in all of creation, we can see His power. We know that there's a God and we know that there's a power. But to know Him as an individual, we know Him through Christ. Holy Spirit, the same thing. We know about the Holy Spirit. Why? Because He told us about Him. He gave us, and I'll get in some verses that say about what the Holy Spirit says about Himself. So, one of the ones, John 6, 46. Not that anyone has seen the Father. So, has anybody seen the Father? No. I'll finish the verse afterwards. Not that anyone has seen the Father.

So, if we haven't seen Him, how do we know about Him? Through Christ. So, all of the Godhead is known through Christ. As we have discussed in question one, Christ is the image of God. And if we have seen Christ, we have seen the Father. all those verses out of John.

In Romans 1, we see the power of God through nature, but we have not known the Father through nature. We can see his attributes of God throughout scripture, but the person of God, the Father, is known through Christ. And we'll look back at John 6, 46, that I just read. Not that anyone has seen the Father, completing the verse, except the one who is from God, he has seen the Father. Who is the one who is from God? Christ, okay. So, we'll look at John 8, 19 also.

So they were saying to him, where is your father? Jesus answered, you know neither me nor my father. If you knew me, you would know my father also. I knew, yes. What makes the three persons of the Godhead different? The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I mean, my thought was that you can't know the Father without the Son.

But they are three distinct persons. You and I and Donna, not only are we different persons, but there's a lot of differences in us. But it seems like the Godhead is unified in some aspects, but different because they're different persons. Yeah, different. And I think, yeah, different persons, which is why we have the, you know, it's one of those very hard to explain, you know, what is the Trinity, the Godhead?

Three distinct individuals, but all fully, full deity. But they're distinct in what they do and, you know, Christ coming and becoming fully man. We'll get into what the Holy Spirit is in the next few minutes here. And His purpose, was His the same as Christ, or is His function? No. No. To reveal Christ. Right, to reveal Christ.

My point is this, that I could say, people could say about you and me, that like you're a more compassionate person than I am. I agree. You can't say that about the Father. You can't say that he's more loving than the Son or he's more compassionate than the Son.

No, but they express themselves in different ways. That's why there's three persons, fully God-filled, but they have different functions, or manifestations maybe, I don't know, kind of, but they're three distinct individuals, but all equal. Same nature. Same nature. And, you know, the best way I'm always trying to explain the Trinity is, you know, I'm a water guy, you know, water can be as ice, water, and vapor. It's all the same water, but it's three different forms. That's the best I can come up with, with some explanation. It's all the same basis or essence, but it's expressed in three different forms. So that's my best shot at what the Trinity is. Okay, so how do we know about the Holy Spirit? Does the Holy Spirit ever speak of himself? Yes? No. No. So if he never speaks of himself, how do we know about him?

Through Christ. Christ again. Christ tells us about how the Spirit will be given to believers after his ascension and what the work of the Holy Spirit is in John 14, 16-26. In John 16, 7-15 are some good verses to look at explaining who the Holy Spirit is, when, where, what, what his job is, what he's going to do, what his function is.

Is that where he's the comforter? Yeah, the helper or the comforter. So I'll read those. John 14, 16 and 17. And again, just remember that Christ is the one that reveals the Father and reveals the Holy Spirit. So again, how important it is for us to know Christ. Again, that's kind of the underlying thought here as we describe the Father and the Holy Spirit. So John 14, 16, and 17.

I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever. That is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you." Again, the world doesn't see or know Him, so how do we know about Him? Because Christ reveals Him. In John 16 and 13-15, When He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth.

For He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak. And He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me. For He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said, He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you."

So, what do we know about the Holy Spirit? Does He speak about Himself? So he doesn't do that. So what does he speak of? The Father and the Son. The Father and the Son? He takes of the Father, and who's that also, of Christ, and that's what he speaks of. Nothing of his own. He doesn't speak of himself, doesn't do anything.

The only way is he takes of Christ and of the Father, reveals and then as we've been through a whole class last year of all what the Holy Spirit does and Amazing all the things he his functions but convince convict all those different things that he does and And if we just let the Holy Spirit do more of it, we'd be a whole lot better off than trying to do it ourselves it's his job, so One of the verses that struck me about the Holy Spirit.

When the Lord Jesus is talking to Nicodemus and he tells him he must be born of the Spirit, he says to him that the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the wind and the sound of the wind but you can't tell where it came from or where it's going. So is everyone who's born of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit, you can see the effects of what he does But he's always in the background. You can see the wind go through the trees and the leaves, but you never see the wind.

And that's kind of what I think the Holy Spirit, the way he operates. Yeah, the way he operates, but how he's revealed is through Christ. I mean, that's how he functions. He's unseen. I mean, has anybody seen the Holy Spirit? No. But you see his effects, as Mike said. What His function and how He was revealed and how we know about the Holy Spirit is through Christ.

He told us about what His job was in these John verses. He said what He was going to do. And there are a lot of other verses. He'll bring all things to remembrance. There are a lot of different verses that come up with the Holy Spirit. But we know about the Holy Spirit because Christ informed us about Him, told us about Him, what He was going to do. He was going to take of His and the Father's and reveal it. So, again, Christ is the one who tells us about the Father and the Holy Spirit. That's how we know about them.

We can see, again, some of the effects, as Mike said, about the Holy Spirit. We can see throughout all the Old Testament how God the Father and how a lot of different attributes, but no one has seen the Father, and so he is revealed through Christ. And a lot of the verses, I think Mike's going to go through some of the verses actually in the main service about John 17. We get a lot of that about the union and a wonderful, wonderful passage in John 17 about that. Again, that unity, so if you know Christ, you know the Father. Beautiful part is we're invited, we're placed into that union too.

Clear as mud? All right. This one is an interesting one. Question 4. The Greek word for firstborn says something about Jesus. What? It says in verse 15, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. This also will answer this in question 8. How could Christ, so late in His birth below, be said to be the firstborn? So what does this say about Christ? He is the firstborn.

Well he was the first to die and then come back. Okay. First to die and come back. He's a new kind of creation. No one else was created that way. Okay. Very different than what has been said. In relation to all creation is before all things created, all things consistent. We use the word prototype for this Greek word. I actually have the word coming up, yes. He was the mediator to whom all creation of existence.

Okay. Others? It's a spin-off of his, isn't it? What the firstborn was and what his own heritage is. Okay. That is another. Other thoughts? Do you think it means he's first in rank, in position, in sovereignty, in everything? And as Steve said, over all creation. Over everything. Okay.

I won't give you mine until I hear everybody or as many people want to step forward into the crossfire. Others? Other thoughts? When I went into this I had an idea what it was and through all the commentators I got a different spin on it. So that's why I thought I would ask where everybody else. Were you going to say something, Mike?

No. Oh, okay. I'm not walking into that. So, we'll look at the, you know, first we'll look at the English definition. And this is Webster's. So, Webster's Dictionary. That one I love. Okay. I want to make it clear where this is coming from. So, preceding all others in time, order, or importance. Now what Joanne was saying, time, order, or importance. So does verse 15 refer to time or rank? Versus prototype, first of the new creation? The first in rank. First in rank. But no one else is in the rank. No one else is in the rank. I mean, he's pretty much his own rank. I mean, he's a rank made of one.

Okay. Eternal son. Eternal son. Okay. I am that I am. I am that I am. Okay, we'll get into the Greek from Spiros Zodiaris. Proto-ocus. This word, proto-ocus, also is in relation to God's creation, referring to Christ's supremacy over it. Jesus Christ cannot be both creator and creature. Interesting twist.

In Colossians 1.15, he is placed above his creation when he is called the firstborn of every creation, or better still, the one preeminent over all creation. The next verse makes it adequately clear. Or by him were all things created. Meaning that he himself is not part of creation. Interesting.

So does that change your thoughts? Of what this means? I'm sorry, what did you say before that? That last thing? That he, the meaning that he himself is not part of creation? That part? Yeah. I insist that part of it, part of him was, he didn't get his body back before time began. Right, he was not... So being a man is a new creation. But is that what this verse is saying? Some place else it says, body thou hast prepared me, so the father It seems like. And gave him the body. He didn't create himself.

Okay. In some way. He was present from the beginning with God and was part of the creative planning and producing of all things. Okay. Well it's like, if you look at Psalm 29, 27, it's like an appointment. I will make him my firstborn. The highest of kings on earth. Which is one of the verses I'm going over. You guys are sharp. I'm not sure I agree with Zoriades in that reading that you gave. Why? Because he became part of creation. He revealed himself as part of his own creation as a man. And that's hard to understand. Fully God, fully man? Fully God, fully man. So he became, like she's saying, part of creation. The reason why I'm doing this is because before I had really started studying this, I was much more of kind of Carol and where this was the firstborn of the new creation. That's what this was going over. After looking at a lot of commentaries, a lot of people, a lot of stuff, and then actually looking at these verses, it really goes back to what Steve and Joanne are saying. At least from most of the commentators.

This is first in time or rank. This doesn't specifically call out being the firstborn of the new creation. I'll get into some verses that do go into that. Of us being the new creation. Because that was what I had thought this verse was. But most of them say this is first in time or rank.

And when you look at the verse it says, let me go back to it. firstborn of all creation so this is going back firstborn before this is before all creation before pre-incarnate this is before this is first in time and rank this means position he was before all creation so it wasn't as much about the new creation I tried to read into it. First of all creation. I kind of put in first of the new creation. It's not. This is firstborn of all creation. So, when you look into it again, it's the rank or timing of where this means, the firstborn.

Eternal. Prior to all creation. And when you look at the verses that come up, He is before all things. And it will back this up what the context of this is, that it is more his first in time and rank. So let me read from William Kelly. He states that the next glory is that he is the firstborn of all creation.

This seems obviously contrasted with his being the image of the invisible God. Christ truly became a man and He was and is God. He was made flesh. He is never nor could be said to be made God. He partook of flesh and blood and time but from the everlasting He is God. Having shown that he is the image of the invisible God, the Apostle then speaks of him as the firstborn of all creation.

How could this be? Adam was the prototype. We might have thought he was first. But here, as elsewhere, Psalm 89, 28, the title as firstborn is taken in the sense of dignity rather than of mere priority in time. OK? So does that help? Muddy? Yeah, Steve. And this whole thing kind of prompted another question for me. It's how does that how does his position engage our position? It's pretty amazing. Our position is totally hinged on the fact that the father gave him position.

Yeah. And we'll get to a couple of the verses that actually talk about the firstborn or new creation. We'll get into a couple of those. But yeah, all these things, when you put, these are tremendous verses. Let me tell you, I love this section, 15 through 17, just some amazing truths. And I get to the one that I said had a lot of mind-changing things to me from years and years ago and then with the identification really, like I said, put it on steroids. So, let me look. Yes?

Steve, in verse 15 and 16 and 17, I think it talks about the Lord Jesus himself and does not include us until you get to verse 18. Because then it starts to talk about the body of Christ and that kind of thing and the new creation. And so him being creator and first born of the first creation is uniquely him.

I think he was saying because of that in our position in him what that means. I think that's kind of what... to this position, which gives him total access to the Father. Well, that's our whole thing as far as position in Christ. If he hadn't had that position assigned to him, where would we be? Well, I think his total access to the Father has to do more with resurrection than assignment.

Because when he's on the cross, he's made sin for us and the Father turns away from him and he dies. And we die in him. And then when he's resurrected, he's resurrected to newness of life. And we're in him at that point. And so at that point, he's the new resurrected, the new man who has access to the Father. The access to the Father prior to the cross, we're not included in, I don't think. But we are in verse 18, Mike, that it says he's the firstborn from the dead. From the dead. Right. That's what I mean.

Well, I guess my interpretation, Steve, is that, again, through all that and where we are today, positioned in Christ, all this was because Christ was positioned above all creation. And what that means to us now, being placed into Him, and I get into a lot of that, what these verses mean, you know, the so what, I think is the answer to that. So what? What does that mean to us? I think Steve's right in the sense that when you are baptized by the Holy Spirit into Christ, your history is eternal at that point.

Before that time your history goes back to Adam in the garden and not before that. Something I read was with the two imposing titles of image and firstborn points all Christians to a Christ adequate for all men's needs. That's good. Good. I like that. It says to praise Christ about the universe, about creation, regardless of how the universe came into being, Christ was there in the power.

Yeah, we will look, actually a lot of the verses about in creation, all these different things, and these verses blow my mind when you start really thinking about this and where we are in Christ, and that's I think the link that we'll get to. is the so what's.

Look quickly at what Steve brought out, Psalm 89, 26 and 27. He will cry to me, you are my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. I also shall make him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth. Again, positioning right, he is, and we'll get to this, he's before all, before all creation. And we'll get into the next ones about into, before, through, all these things.

So, yeah. Can you sort of summarize that then, that firstborn is used two ways in these verses maybe? You know, I looked at it, but originally thinking of being firstborn like the firstborn of the dead, which comes back in 18. But this one is firstborn of all creation, which I think is specific to time and rank. And then the second one? The second one will be the firstborn of the... So there's two uses of the same word? Right. I think we get, or at least I do, I get off on this firstborn thing that makes you think it has something to do with a birth or something. But it's not at all. Their culture had this fixation with firstborn. And they got all the goodies. They have all the power. And that's why they keep alluding to firstborn.

It's so people would understand. It really has nothing to do with what they use for their point of reference. It just means preeminence. Yeah, the rank and timing in this is that, but I understand your point. Firstborn meant, you know, all the inheritance, all these different things. And this one, it basically is a preeminence or the before all things. He existed and he is before all creation because he was before creation. So the firstborn in this instance is just time rank or preeminence.

Are we talking about him as a man or as a second person? Second person of the Trinity. That's a good point. This is what it's saying. It's because he's before all creation. It wasn't talking about the incarnate one. This is talking before all creation. Before he became a man. He was before all creation. So it's talking about him as the second person of the Trinity. We're not talking about the part two about how in him all things are held together. Well I'm going to get to that one. I'm going to get to that one. So Chester McCauley states it this way.

The word first has two distinct senses, both in the Greek and the English. It may mean first in time, it may mean first in rank, as in, she is the first lady of the land, referring as to the wife of the president. The word firstborn, as applied to Christ, means first in rank. So I thought that was good, like first lady. You know, that's a position, a rank.

And then I did bring out in verse Colossians 118. He is also the head of the body of the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself will come to have first place in everything. That's again a different position. It's talking about the firstborn of the dead, not like in this verse that says firstborn of all creation. So, you know, I went into, you know, I looked at a bunch.

Firstborn among many brethren. And the other ones, in Hebrews 12, 23, we are referred to as the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. Again, kind of that firstborn aspect, but we are the church of the firstborn. So we're the church of Christ. Christ being the firstborn of the new creation, the first one. And it's like Adam being the federal head. Who is now our federal head, or who represents us? Christ. The old man is Adam, the new man is Christ.

Alright, I don't know, I guess we can start to get into this one in verse 5. How is, or is everybody okay on that, on the other, on that verse? pushed around and said, he isn't me, he is a created being. Well, and that's, what is it, Colossians 3, 9, 23?

That in him dwells all the fullness of deity. Right. So when somebody says he's just a man? Yeah. In verse 19 of this chapter. What is it? Verse 19 says, for he's the prophet that in him should all fullness. Oh. Is that, oh I thought it was 3, so yeah. In him dwells all the fullness of deity. So when somebody says he's just created or a man, that one knocks it completely out. He is fully God and fully man. Which is just, when you think about it, that's amazing.

So, but there's no question about his deity. He himself cannot be created. Right, and that was what I think Zodiatis, or one of those, was saying. He's the creator, not the created. But his body was created. Yes, the father gave, the father created for him the body. He needs to be distinguished sharply from the creation. Yes, exactly. And that's again, and that's why I think he brings this out, is that he's before all creation. He was before it all. you know, before any of us were created, before all of what Genesis goes through on the creation, He was.

Interestingly, in Phoenix, when I was with Barbara, we had a Jehovah's Witness sitting in bed next to her, and we went all round and round on this, and every verse, she willfully ignored the truth of the Scriptures. Just willfully. Yeah, you know, and that's... Again, when you look at these verses, and the next couple verses are just powerful to me, when you look at it.

And it all fits in context with what this is going through before creation. Then we're going to get into the to, by, through, from, all those words and what those mean. And then, in Him all things hold together. I'll give you a clue. That's the one that really had an impact on me. And when you really think about that, start contemplating that one as we go for next week. I think I'll hold off. We'll just stop. We'll start in question five. How is this relation to creation expressed in the verses by the prepositions by, for, before, and in? So look at that one, and we'll hit those next week.

So any other questions before, or last thoughts? Yeah, I read something interesting about the word. First of all, there are cults, maybe more than one who teach that Christ was created. But they pointed out that if that were true, there would have been a different Greek word used. in that sense, he was created. So there's the importance of the Greek, I think.

You know, you can still get it out of the context when you start looking at this, because of the very thing of getting to 18, where he's the firstborn of all creation. So he's firstborn for all creation. He's before it. But then when he gets the firstborn of the dead, It's a difference.

So you can see that there's a difference already in the text itself. In the English, if you look at it, it means two different expressions. Right, yeah. Yeah, you know, and again, Greek helps a lot, but even through the context, you can look and see that there are differences. So, other thoughts? Alright, let's close.

Heavenly Father, we thank you again. We thank you for this time. We thank you anytime we can just open up your word. We thank you for these powerful verses in Colossians. Again, we thank you for what you've revealed to us in your word. We just thank you that you were the firstborn of all creation. You are an eternal one who was before anything was created and we thank you that, as we'll get into next week, what that means as you were before creation and yet you went ahead with creation. and what that means and we just thank you again just for the Holy Spirit who is the one who leads us into these truths and we just thank you that you've left us with your word and the Holy Spirit to just to see these incredible truths about you and about as we'll see and who we are in Christ. So we just thank you for that. We do pray for Mike as he gives us the word in the next meeting. We just pray to prepare our hearts to receive it. Father may we honor and glorify you this day in Jesus name we pray. Amen.