Resurrection in Colossians

(avg. read time: 12–25 mins.)

Paul references resurrection in Colossians at multiple junctures in chs. 1, 2, and 3. Each time, it appears in proximity to Paul referencing other major events in the gospel story that is the foundational story for the community. The references are important for the various christological statements in the letter, and they are also important for their theological-ethical function because of Paul’s fundamental emphasis on union with Christ, which extends to our union in resurrection. Each chapter further supplies eschatological connections for the resurrection references.

Colossians 1:18–20

As I have already written about the first reference in 1:18, I will reiterate what I said here. As I noted, the parallel uses of “firstborn” in 1:15 and 1:18 establish a correlation between protology and eschatology, as does the preceding description of Jesus as “the beginning” in v. 18. He is “the beginning” in relation to creation in his act of creation and he is “the beginning” in relation to the Church in his act of redemption, as he thereby established the Church. The resurrection is mentioned first in the gospel sequence to maintain the parallelism of him being “firstborn,” and because it is the effective link between his reconciling death and his exaltation, whereby he makes his salvific work effective for others and makes them like him. Paul’s point here is also related to why he notes in this context that Christ is the head of the body, the Church. On the one hand, it is through the gospel story that this union is established. As the exodus was the defining event for the covenant community in the OT, the gospel story is the defining event for the new covenant community, as the community is defined in relation to Christ and what he has done. On the other hand, this union has as its purpose our redemption and transformation. The eschatological purpose of this union is to make us more like Christ, eventually culminating in our conformity to his resurrection to everlasting life. This is the outcome of God’s work in making the gospel story our story.

The most relevant clause in question here is specifically related to his resurrection “from the dead.” And given how the eschatological resurrection is related to new creation (as noted elsewhere), as well as given Paul’s teaching on Jesus as the first fruits of the eschatological resurrection, he is also the “firstborn” in the sense of others being made like him in resurrection, and he is the beginning and firstborn of the new creation, being the prototype thereof in his resurrection. Elsewhere, this language is used to stress a family relation, as in Rom 8:29 and Heb 12:23 (as well as, I will suggest, Rev 1:5). But even in those cases, the description also stresses Jesus’s prominence in the family of faith, since he is the one through whom God has made the family.

The point of him being “firstborn” in this sense, in addition to the preeminence it establishes that is upheld by the parallel in v. 15 and the context of referring to his exalted status here in v. 18, is conveyed by referring to him as the firstborn “out of the dead” (ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν). This description of resurrection refers specifically to resurrection that separates one from the rest of the dead. A similar phrase appears in Acts 26:23, wherein Paul describes Jesus as the “first out of the resurrection of the dead” (πρῶτος ἐξ ἀναστάσεως νεκρῶν). Luke 20:35 uses the phrase τῆς ἀναστάσεως τῆς ἐκ νεκρῶν to specify that Jesus is referring not to how everyone will be at the general resurrection, but how the righteous will be, since they are the ones who partake of “the resurrection that is out of the dead.” This same sense of separation appears again in the summary of the Sadducees’ problem with the apostolic proclamation, which is that it proclaims in Jesus “the resurrection (ἀνάστασις) that is out of the dead” (Acts 4:2). That is, the resurrection of the righteous specifically is tied to Jesus’s own resurrection, which has this same description attached to it (Acts 3:15). In his own letters, Paul uses such a phrase to refer to what he hopes to attain: “the resurrection [ἐξανάστασιν] that is out of the dead” (Phil 3:11). As with compound verbs, the compound noun here combined with the preposition creates redundancy, in this case for the sake of accentuating the link with Jesus and his resurrection that distinguished him from the rest of the dead in that it is resurrection to everlasting life. Such a sense would fit a context in which Paul talks about knowing the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his suffering, as well as being conformed to his death (3:10–11), meaning that he also hopes to be conformed to his resurrection out of the dead. Finally, the construction also appears in 1 Pet 1:3 as a description of Jesus’s resurrection. The eschatological hope behind this description is of being conformed to the image of Jesus by being conformed to his resurrection to everlasting life. And in light of what we have seen in the theological-ethical force of making the gospel story our story, this eschatological purpose is linked specifically to those who are made like Christ and can thus receive a resurrection like his.

Moreover, in terms of articulating the gospel narrative, which will then be matched with our being made like him according to this pattern in 3:1–4, Paul also notes his exaltation. As we have noted in posts on 1 Cor 15:20–28 and Phil 3, Jesus’s resurrection is inherently connected to his exaltation. This is not only because the resurrection is his vindication and the exaltation is connected with vindicating who he is, though that is part of it. This is also the case because Jesus’s resurrection is connected with the establishment of the kingdom and with his reign over the same. Indeed, Jesus’s resurrection enables and ensures all of his action that brings about the future salvation, not least because his resurrection is connected to his exaltation to ruling over the world. The future is in his hands. The believers simply must persevere in faithfulness to inherit that future. That future is their inheritance because of their participatory, identifying, and incorporative union by faith with the one who was crucified, resurrected, and exalted for us.

Verse 19 tells us that “all the fullness” (πᾶν τὸ πλήρωμα) was pleased to dwell in him. In context, this is referring to the fullness of “God” as is seen in the following verse in which the subject acts “through him” to reconcile all things “for him.” The use of the noun in the parallel of 2:9 further demonstrates that it is the fullness of “God” in question here (cf. Eph 1:23; 3:19). This puts him on the Creator side of the Creator/creature distinction and thus stresses his supremacy over creation as the Creator. In this context, this description of Jesus is related to his exaltation, but it is not a result of his exaltation. That much has been made clear from the rest of Col 1, especially since v. 15. Indeed, grammatically, since v. 19 is a causal/explanatory clause, this text is logically prior to the exaltation. It is the fact that he is fully God, particularly in that the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in him in his incarnation, that was vindicated in his resurrection. As his crucifixion, on the level of human decision, was a matter of his identity claims, the resurrection vindicated his identity claims, thereby confirming that he was indeed God Incarnate and the anointed executor of God’s will. Likewise, the exaltation is confirmation of who he already was.

Finally, to this point in the three-stage gospel narrative Paul has referenced Jesus’s resurrection and exaltation, and thus it is fitting that he should also reference Jesus’s death here. After all, it was God’s will through him to reconcile all things for him, specifically “by making peace through the blood of his cross, whether the things on earth or the things in the heavens.” That is, God’s reconciling work has cosmic scope in Christ even as his creative work obviously had cosmic scope in Christ. Here we find quite possibly the largest-scale statement about what God accomplished through Jesus’s crucifixion. The cross is not only key to human salvation and reconciliation; it is key to new creation as well. The power behind creation is the same power behind new creation. The one who holds all things together is the one who offers universal reconciliation and restoration of God’s creative purpose. It was the painful climax to the birthing process, eventually giving way to the beginning of new creation: the resurrected Jesus. It was the reparation needed for the broken relations in order to create a renewed relations between God and his creation. Of course, while the work is universal in scope, reconciliation entails that forgiveness meets repentance, and so the point is that reconciliation is opened to all, but it will come to fruition for those who meet God’s universal offer of forgiveness with personal repentance. And repentance is both a way to life and a way of life, meaning that it is a life-orienting response.

Before we move on to the next text, we should summarize some of the implications of this text for a theology of resurrection. First, as in Paul referring to Jesus as the “first fruits” of the eschatological resurrection, the reference to Jesus as the firstborn out of the dead signifies that he is the first of the resurrection to everlasting life and his resurrection has a direct causal link with our own. Second, on the theological-ethical plane, this is so because of our union with Christ and his larger story, meaning that his resurrection is the proper end goal to our union. Third, Jesus’s resurrection makes the sense that it does in the gospel story summarized here. It was never simply for his own benefit, and it has its meaning as part of his larger mission. Fourth, the reference to him as “firstborn” in terms of his resurrection is linked with his exaltation and thus his reign, meaning that the linkage of resurrection and God’s kingdom that we have seen throughout the NT is also implied here. Fifth, as the resurrection is linked with his exaltation and his exaltation is linked with who he was all along, the resurrection also represents the vindication and confirmation of his identity. Sixth, the reference to him as “firstborn,” as it is connected with v. 15, also has the sense of his being the “heir,” namely of the new creation to which his resurrection is linked as the first fruits and prototype of the same. The project of reconciliation, after all, is creation-wide and thus it is a project of new creation. Seventh, the fact that the “firstborn” of creation is the “firstborn” of the resurrection out of the dead is the fundamental assurance of continuity between creation and eschaton, protology and eschatology, which is an important set of theological links in the Bible that I explore in my series on the subject.