4. He is before all things (Col. 1:17). Since He created all things, it logically follows that Christ preexisted all things. In fact, Christ is eternally existent. In John 8:58 He said, “…before Abraham was, I AM.” There was a point in time when Abraham began to exist. That time has never come for Jesus because He existed before time. There has never been a time when Jesus did not exist, and there will never be a time when He does not exist. “He is before all things, and by him all things consist” (Col. 1:17).
5. He is the head of the church (Col. 1:18a). The church belongs to Jesus (Matt. 16:18). It is His body (Eph. 1:23), which He purchased with His blood (Acts 20:28). Because it is His, He possesses authority over it. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev. 19:16), and all power has been given unto him in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18). Christ rules, guides, and sustains His church.
6. He is the firstborn from the dead (Col. 1:18b). There were others, like Lazarus, who were raised from the dead before Jesus. But it is Jesus who is “the first fruits of them that are asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20, 23). Jesus arose never to die again. He was “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom. 1:4). Because He arose, we too will arise from the grave to be with the Lord in eternity.
7. In Him all fullness dwells (Col. 1:19). The American Standard Version translates this passage, “For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fulness dwell.” The word “fulness” refers to something that is complete with nothing lacking. Thus the fulness of God—all of His qualities, His nature, His essence, etc.—“dwells”, or is permanently at home, in Christ.