Christ Is … God Personified

He is the image of the invisible God.

Colossians 1:15

Ladies, join me this week as we celebrate the absolute supremacy of Christ. Strange things were going on in the world of the new believer, in Colosse and beyond. Instead of a growing understanding of the character of the God of the universe, heresy had crept in. The Holman online commentary tells us that false teachers declared Jesus just one of a “vast number of emanating spirits”, prominent but certainly not preeminent. So Paul wrote to his Colossian friends saying: we need to talk!

Colossians 1:15-20 has a certain rhythm to its prose, suggestive of the hymns of the day. It has even been called the Christ Hymn. There is much debate as to Paul’s writing it to make his point concerning Christ’s supremacy, or to his interjecting it for the same effect. I see it as worthy of careful meditation. If not a hymn, it should be!

Paul begins: He is the image of the invisible God.

Was God invisible? After all, men of old actually caught sneak peeks of the Almighty. Moses did several times, most famously in that burning bush (Exodus 3:4). Isaiah too: seated on a throne, high and exalted (Isaiah 6:1). And Amos: I saw the Lord standing by the altar (Amos 9:1). The list goes on, but who has really seen all of God?

The answer is obvious—only Jesus, who was in very nature God (Philippians 2:6). In stepping down out of the throne room into our world, Jesus pulled back the veil of deity and revealed God as only the Son of God could.

God’s character is indelibly stamped on Jesus, like the image on a coin. When you and I study Jesus, we see the glory of God develop fully, as a photograph fully develops the image on which it is based. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being (Hebrews 1:3).

John the Baptist said it: No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only (Jesus), who is at the Father’s side, has made him known (John 1:18). Jesus said it: “I have revealed you (God) to those whom you gave me out of this world” (John 17:8). Thank You Jesus.

Nancy P