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For by him were all things created: he proves Christ to be before and Lord over every creature, more excellent than them all, with a prerogative other princes want, for none of them is a creator of his subjects, who were not made by him or for him, as all creatures without exception were made by and for Christ. The apostle here is as cautious as may be, lest by speaking of Christ as
the firstborn of every creature, he should seem to put him in the order of creatures, which he shows do depend upon him for their creation and preservation, since he brought them out of nothing into being, and therein doth sustain them.
By him; in whom they have their beings, live and move, Act_17:28. Some render the particle in, rather than by. But they disclaim the philosophical notions about Platonic ideas, only conceive all to be made in Christ, as the exemplary cause, whom God had in his eternal decree set up as the pattern of all perfections, being his image, according to which it was agreed, in the council of the Trinity, man should be made, Gen_1:26. But the most do, according to our translation, render it (as a Hebrew phrase) by, ( being of the same import with that in the end of the verse), or through, which is expressive of the principal efficient, not the instrumental cause, for all the things made were produced out of nothing into being immediately by him, Joh_1:3,10 Heb 1:8,10: he might well be Lord over them all, who was the first founder of them, Act_10:36 1Co_8:6; and whatever the adversaries allege, it is plain in Scripture that by is used of the principal cause, Col_1:1 Rom_11:31,36 1Co_1:1 1Co_12:8,9 2Co_1:1 Gal_1:1 1Th_4:2 2Th_3:12.
Were all things created: creation is simply, universally, and absolutely attributed to him; for whatever subtilties some would suggest,
all things created by him is equivalent to he created all things; compare Psa_96:5 102:25, with Isa_44:24 48:13 Jer_10:12 Act_17:24, with Rom_11:36: (like 1Co_1:9, with 1Th_2:12).
That are in heaven, and that are in earth: the apostle speaks extensively of all proceeding from not being into being, both generally and distributively, agreeably to the common expression of
all things that were made at the beginning, Act_4:24: though in Scripture, where mention is made of the creation, heaven and earth be not always expressed, Isa_40:26 Mar_10:6 13:19 Act_17:24 Rom_1:20 2Pe_3:4 Rev_4:11; but here, where all things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, are expressed, it is evident that heaven and earth are together comprehended.
Visible and invisible: these two adjuncts of visible and invisible do divide all creatures whatsoever, there being nothing made that is not one or the other.
Whether they be; all enumeration is particularly made of the latter, which for their excellency (if any) might seem to be exempted (by those in danger of being beguiled to the worshipping of angels) from the state and condition of being created by Jesus Christ; particularly,
thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; those he here names, as elsewhere, Rom_8:38 Eph_1:20,21 3:10 6:12, in the abstracts for the concretes, the invisible inhabitants of the world. I know some would have dignities in human policy to be meant, as Tit_3:1 2Pe_2:10 Jud_1:8; but it is more rational, with the generality of ancient and modern interpreters, as Col_2:15, to expound these titles of incorporeal and angelical creatures, whether by an emphatical synonyme, angels generally, by a metonymy, being ministers of the heavenly state; or more probably, as should seem from the scope of the place, by such a subdivision of invisibles as the apostle did conceive there was, according to the properties wherein they were eminent, and the offices whereunto they were delegated of God, which he expressed disjunctively by borrowed titles from the distinctions of men in dignities and offices here below, as dukes, earls, lords, and other magistrates; the Scriptures elsewhere initmating distinctions amongst the spiritual ministers attending the commands of the heavenly Majesty upon his throne, represented shadowed by the cherubims, Gen_3:24 Exo_25:18,22 1Sa_4:4 2Sa_6:2 1Ch_28:18 Psa_80:1 Isa_37:16 Eze_1:13; denominated archangels and princes, Dan_10:13,21 1Th_4:16 Jud_1:9; which imply some distinctions and orders amongst angelical beings, but what that is we know not, (whatever is disputed in the Roman schools from the spurious Denys), and therefore having no ground from Scripture, account it no better than curiosity to inquire, and rashness to determine.
All things were created by him: after his enumeration and distribution of things created, the apostle doth, for further confirmation, repeat the universal proposition or assumption, with a preposition expressive of the same absolute efficiency of causality that is attributed to God the Father and the Holy Ghost; all created things being made by him, i.e. by Christ, whose works without are undivided from those of the other Persons in the Trinity; they were all brought out of nothing into being by him, not by angels.
And for him; which is more fully proved from his being the final (as well as efficient) cause of them; they all had their being in respect of him or for him, i.e. his glory, Rom_11:36, to manifest his Divine power and infinite goodness, Joh_5:17,23Jo_17:5; he is their end as well as founder, Rev_5:13; the apostle affirms the same of him that is affirmed of the Father, Job_9:8 Pro_16:4 Isa_44:24; he made them all for his own sake. The Socinians, in derogation to Christ’s Divinity, would restrain, limit, and narrow what Christ saith here in this verse to the new creation, or reparation, but against manifest reason. For:
1. The words creature and creation in the foregoing verse and this, are used absolutely, as was before suggested, and so created here repeated twice, and joined with the word all, and therefore to be understood, as elsewhere, absolutely of the old or first creation, Mar_10:6 13:19 16:15 Rom_1:20,25 1Co_11:9 1Ti_4:3 Heb_4:13 2Pe_3:4 Rev_10:6; for when it is used of the second creation, or restoration, the restrictive additament of new is joined with it, Isa_65:17,18 2Co_5:17 Gal_6:15 Eph_2:15 4:24, not left indefinitely as here.
2. In parallel places, the making and founding of the old creation is ascribed to Christ, both negatively and positively, Joh_1:3 Heb_1:3,10; not one thing is excepted, and therefore should not be restrained to men.
3. It is most evident from the context the apostle doth in this verse discourse of creation, in contradistinction to what he speaks of afterwards in, {Col_1:18,20} when he comes to treat of Christ as Head of his church, and we have no reason to charge the apostle with a useless repetition further.
4. The apostle’s significant enumeration and distinction of things created, doth evidence that he understood the subject, the creation, in the most extensive and unlimited consideration of it. He reckons up material as well as immaterial things, and those in heaven, which needed no restoration, as well as those on earth, which did, being polluted with sin. Those angels who had not put off the honour of the first, did not belong to the new creation; having not divested themselves of their original integrity, they needed not to be reinvested with that they never lost: and devils cannot be ranked among new creatures, neither can wicked souls, Mat_25:41 Rev_22:15; neither are there new and old orders of angels; so that the dominion Christ is here (as elsewhere) asserted as founder of, is the whole, not only the new creation, Rev_5:13.