“For by Him [Jesus] all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.” Colossians 1:16-17.
Again Jesus Christ’s preeminence and authority are shown to be over everything without exception.
All things were created through Him, they were created for Him, and in saying that He is before all things shows that He was not only preexistent but His authority is again, “over all creation” as seen in Colossians 1:15 shown below.
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” Colossians 1:15.
Finally, in Christ, all things consist, meaning all things are held together by Him.
In saying, “…all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth”, this passage does not exclude heaven and earth from being created by Him; they are merely being used as focal points, the beings in them being of more importance.
When we consider the things, “visible and invisible” it would appear that the main emphasis is upon the invisible spirits and the visible beings. And we will get to them, but first let us examine the invisible things around us briefly.
“By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” Hebrews 11:3.
The worlds, everything, were created out of nothing when God spoke, and they were created from things which are invisible. So, first there was nothing and then God created out of nothing, visible things out of invisible things.
“By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” Psalm 33:6.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Genesis 1:1.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” John 1:1-3.
“Then God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also.” Genesis 1:16.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” Psalm 19:1-4a.
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they [unbelievers] are without excuse…” Romans 1:20.
But of course the stars are visible, not invisible, this is true. Consider this though; we cannot see all of the stars, even with the most powerful of telescopes which do indeed show many other galaxies.
Some of these billions of galaxies are hundreds of millions of light years away.
A light year is the distance that light would travel in one year at 186,000 miles per second; at the end of that year the distance traveled would be 5.88 trillion miles.
For example our own home galaxy is called the Milky Way which looks a bit like a spiral of stars. Our solar system is not located in the center of this spiral, nor is it on the outer edge, but it sits inside by quite a ways; however if we were to travel at the speed of light from the outer edge of this spiral to the extreme opposite edge, it would take 100,000 years to cross to the other side.
These distances are huge; it even takes a photon of light 8 minutes to travel from our sun to earth a distance of 93,000,000 miles.
Before I go completely incoherent here I had better make my point. Our verse says.
“For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible…” Colossians 1:16a.
We can see that God created everything without exception by speaking it into existence. While Scripture is speaking here of the invisible angelic hosts and of visible mankind, this subject certainly includes these things.
“… [a mighty angel standing on the earth] raised up his hand to heaven and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that that are in it, that there should be delay no longer…” Revelation 10:5a-6.
The invisible are certainly atoms which make up everything, even microbes and virus; some of which are still invisible to modern science.
How about the planets and stars which are visible to telescopes, with some like the largest star VY Canis Majoris, which if it were placed where our sun is its outer circumference would reach as far as the planet Saturn.
Yet, with the incomprehensible distances in space, there are stars which are invisible to everything man has.
Then there are pulsars, quasars, black holes and dark matter, some of which are invisible. The conclusion can only be that only an Almighty God could create a universe so huge, that generates so much power, and runs like a fine Swiss watch.
There can be many reasons for God to have created a universe so huge, one of which is to remind us of our insignificance apart from God in Christ.
“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor.” Psalm 8:3-5.
“For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.” Colossians 1:16.
There is a hierarchy in the invisible angelic world as well as the visible one. “…thrones or dominions” referring to lordships, thrones being superior to dominions, and “…principalities and powers” being rulers or authorities, with the principalities as superior to the powers.
All of this then, indicates a descending order with thrones over the dominions, which are over the principalities, and the powers at the bottom of the governmental structure.
While it can be said confidently that there are hierarchies within the world of both the righteous angels and the fallen angelic world, very little is known from Scripture, so we cannot be dogmatic how the thrones, dominions, principalities and powers work.
What we can say is that Satan is most likely on the throne above all fallen angels, because he started the rebellion that caused a third of them to join him.
“And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads [Satan]. His tail drew a third of the stars [angels] of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child [Jesus] as soon as it was born.” Revelation 12:3-4.
There are angelic dominions. An example of both the fallen and good angels is seen in the book of Daniel who, after three weeks of fasting, is visited by an angel (messenger) from God, who said the following.
“Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia [fallen angel with greater authority] withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes [the great prince standing watch over Israel, Daniel 12], came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia [fallen angels over this nation].” Daniel 10:12-13.
The following is an example of the dregs of the fallen angels.
“Then they sailed to the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee. And when He [Jesus] stepped out on the land, there met Him a certain man from the city who had demons for a long time. And he wore no clothes, nor did he live in a house but in the tombs.” Luke 8:26-27.
As you can see there are verses that give us a view into these thrones, dominions, principalities and powers, but nothing that says “this is how it works”. If you want to learn more, using a Strong’s Concordance will help, or go to www.eliyah.com/lexicon.html.
Always remember, the first rule of warfare is to know your enemy. But what is more important is to know the Prince of peace, Jesus, study Him.
The last phrase in Colossians 1:17 is this, “…and in Him all things consist” which is again restated in Hebrews 1:3, “…and upholding all things by the word of His power”; it is meant by these two statements that Jesus Christ holds all things together at all times.
Not only were all things created through Him, but Jesus continues to hold them together physically.
The physical cosmos are made up of atoms and atoms consist of a nucleus made up of protons and neutrons with electrons whirling around them at speeds that again, are unimaginable.
The protons are positively charged, while the electrons have a negative charge; since like charges repel each other and opposite charges are attracted to each other we have a rough understanding of how they stay together.
Atoms differ from each other in the number of electrons whirling about the nucleus, which will have the same number of protons within the nucleus, they also differ in how they link together to make different elements.
What has not been mentioned so far is this; while the nucleus has a certain number of protons which are positively charged, it also has the same number of neutrons in it which have no charge at all.
Bringing up the question; if like charges repel each other, why does a nucleus which has more than one positively charged proton, not explode, what holds it together?
In fact they are nearly impossible to break apart as anyone operating an atomic collider will tell you. While men have broken the atom down to yet smaller particles, they still do not know what holds them together. But we do.
“And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist [are held together].” Colossians 1:17.
“…upholding all things by the word of His power…” Hebrews 1:3b.
“But the heavens and the earth which now exist are kept in store by the same word, reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Peter 3:7.
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” 2 Peter 3:10-13.
Would you consider this a good description of atoms exploding into nothing; all things are held together by Christ, you, me, and the cosmos. It is a comforting thing that God says this of Himself.
“For I am the Lord, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.” Malachi 3:6.
Therefore none of us is consumed.
Sin and its ally, demonic lies, have blinded even the Christian to the absolute power of the God of the universe in Christ.
Colossians 1:16-17 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 12-5-13, updated on 2-15-20.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.