We've come to the end of our series exploring the theme of the firstborn.

We started in Genesis, we've worked our way through the biblical story and today, we

land the plane in the New Testament letters.

In Colossians, Paul calls Jesus the image of the invisible God, the first born over all

creation, which is a cool title, but what does it mean?

So when he says the first born of creation, he doesn't have in mind that Jesus was born

that came into existence at some point.

First born here is describing a status or an identity.

He doesn't say Jesus is in the image of God.

What he's saying is when he reads Genesis 1, he sees the pre and carnate pre-human Jesus

as being the image that humans are the image of.

So Jesus, the first born of creation, is the image of the invisible God and the image

humans were made to be.

Which means Jesus shows us who God is and Jesus reveals to us what it means to be truly

human.

Even though he's like a new Adam, he's actually the first real human.

If what it means to be human is to be one with the love of the divine Father, then there

actually wasn't ever any humans before Jesus.

That's putting it provocatively, but I think to say Jesus is the image of God, the second

Adam who is actually like the first Adam.

Paul says that Jesus is the first born among many siblings.

Which means we have the opportunity to claim new identities for ourselves as people who

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