ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

Pulelulu Sepitema 14, 2022

THE FIRSTBORN OF EVERY CREATURE

KO E ‘ULUAKI ‘I HE KOTOA ‘O E FAKATUPU´

COLOSSIANS 1:15

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation

KOLOSE 1:15

‘a ia ko e ‘Īmisi ia ‘o e ‘Otua ko e Ta‘ehāmai, ko e ‘Uluaki ia na‘e fakatupu, ko e Kimu‘a ‘i he me‘a kotoa pē kuo ngaohi:

 

Solus Christus - Christ Alone - Ko Kalasi pe   

What Christ said of Himself, "Before Abraham was I am” (John 8:58), was very foreign to His humanity. I am not unaware of the cavil by which erroneous spirits distort this passage - namely that He was before all ages inasmuch as He was foreknown as the Redeemer, as well in the counsel of the Father as in the minds of believers. But seeing He plainly distinguishes the period of His manifestation from His eternal existence, and professedly founds on His ancient government to prove His precedence to Abraham, He undoubtedly claims for Himself the peculiar attributes of divinity.

Paul's assertion that He is "the first-born of every creature," that "he is before all things, and by him all things consist" (Colossians 1:15, 17); His own declaration that He had glory with the Father before the world was, and that He worketh together with the Father, are equally inapplicable to man. These and similar properties must be specially assigned to His divinity.

JOHN CALVIN