Need help exegeting Bavinck

[sotzo]

In chapter 6 ("The Holy Trinity") of Bavinck's Reformed Dogmatics, he says:

"'Firstborn' is in comparison with every creature but must be understood as existing before every creature; in other words, as firstborn and not just created first."

Two sentences later he says,

"The expression 'firstborn' does not include Christ in the category of creatures but excludes him from it."

My question is how to intepret the second sentence in light of the first. In the first Bavinck makes a statement about Christ as it pertains to Him being called 'firstborn'. Bavinck sets this up to be understood in comparison to every other creature, to wit, that in comparison He is ontologically / metaphysically prior to every other creature.

However, in sentence 2 he excludes Christ from the category of creatures, thus seeming to nullify the comparison made in the prior sentence since that comparison, in order to make sense, requires some extent of similarity. between Christ and creatures.

Let me know where I am going wrong here.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

The term "comparison" is flexible enough to accommodate the idea of "contrast" if the second term is not present to narrow the definition of the first. In other words,, it is possible to bring two largely dissimilar things together for the purpose of comparing them, not necessarily for the purpose of finding commonalities.

I assume the text at interest in Col 1:15, where Christ is the "firstborn of all creation," where "all creation" is simply in genitive relation to the noun. It is the genitive that sets up the notion of comparison, or of bringing two concepts into a relation with one another and a common observer--you.

Think of it this way:
X ~ YYYYYYYYYYYYYY...
X = Christ
Y = creatures
both sets X & Y contain at least one "being"

The first sentence amplifies the "first" aspect, placing the X definitely ahead of Y in every sense.

The second sentence seems to explicate the distinction between that which is "born" versus that which is "created." The concepts are not synonymous.

Hope this is helpful.