Jesus: Firstborn Over All

December 17th, 2025
by Lance Waldie

Luke 2:7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, since there was no room for them in the inn.

In v. 7, without any fanfare, Luke calls Jesus Mary’s “firstborn” (Gr. prototokos). This implies other children born later to Joseph and Mary (8:19-21; cf. Matt. 13:55-56). If Jesus was Mary’s “only” son, as Roman Catholicism espouses, Luke would have used the Greek term “monogenes”—only begotten. Jesus was thus Mary’s firstborn; He was God’s only begotten (John 3:16)—the Logos who has existed from all eternity (John 1:1-2) who became flesh in order to die for the sins of mankind and redeem us from the power, penalty, and presence of sin.

According to the laws of logic, there is a first cause to every effect, for every effect demands a cause. God, however, is not an effect. God, being eternal, demands no cause. By definition, that which is eternal demands no cause, for it exists outside of time and space. Logic would demand that since there is clearly a material world currently existing that came into being, the First Cause would have to be God who is uncreated and eternal. Hence, one reads, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). God created all things, for all things that have come into being demand a cause for their existence. After all, they are an effect from a cause. God is the ultimate cause, and the universe and all it contains, including mankind, are the effects.

In Colossians 1:16 Paul writes that Jesus is “the firstborn of all creation,” the same term Luke used in Luke 2:7. Luke used prōtotokos in a literal sense, as a child born before any other (cf. Gen. 10:15; 46:8; Exod. 12:23, 29). In the NT, it is only used this way twice, once in reference to Jesus being Joseph and Mary’s firstborn son (Luke 2:7), and once in reference to the tenth plague of the exodus where the firstborn of every family died (Heb. 11:28). The other six times it is used theologically in reference to the preeminence of Jesus Christ, “the firstborn.”

Theologically, “firstborn” refers to one who is first in rank, not first-created. It refers to one who is preeminent. For example, in the OT, King David was the last son of eight boys born to his father Jesse (1 Sam. 16:10-11), yet he is called “firstborn” (Ps. 89:27). This is because David was Jesse’s preeminent son, the one who became the king over all Israel. As a firstborn son was the inheritor of his father’s possessions, the firstborn in a theological sense is the legal heir (Ps. 89:27; Col. 1:15-18; Rev. 1:5) to all God possesses. That is the firstborn status of Jesus Christ.

As the “firstborn of all creation,” Jesus is preeminent—He is distinguished from all others. Paul explains this by saying, “For by Him all things were created…” John says likewise: “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:3). Also, the writer of Hebrews says, “…[God’s] Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:2-3). Therefore, everything has its being and its sustenance through Christ who holds the creation together by the “word of His power.” Recalling that it was God’s “word” that created the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1-2, by that same word it is also perpetually sustained.

Food For Thought
The Jehovah’s Witnesses (JWs) do not recognize Christ as God but as the archangel Michael whom they believe was the first angel created by God. They further believe, per Colossians 1:16, that Michael created all the other angels. As a result, they worship Michael and call him Jesus! Yet that’s not what a Colossians 1:16 says. It teaches that Jesus Christ is preeminent and is the Creator of all things, even Michael and the rest of the angels. Therefore, Christ cannot Himself be a created being, for He created all things! Note what God says about Himself in Isaiah 44:24: “I, the Lord, am the Maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself and spreading out the earth all alone.” Previously God said, “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me” (Isa. 44:6). Clearly there is only one God (Deut. 6:4). In the NT, God is revealed through Jesus Christ of Nazareth who did not have His beginning when Mary gave birth to Him but has existed for all eternity. The Lord, Yahweh, is the Creator of the universe. So if Jesus is also called the Creator—and there is only one God—then Scripture clearly equates Jesus with God.