The Image of the Invisible God

No one has ever seen God. Not with their eyes. So how could we ever know what he is like? Paul's answer fits in a single word. Look. Look at Jesus.

Colossae was a small town in the Lycus valley, in what is now western Turkey, close to the bigger cities of Laodicea and Hierapolis. Paul had never been there. The church had been started by a man called Epaphras, who heard the good news from Paul and carried it home. Now Epaphras has come to Paul, who is in prison, with news. The church is growing. But some people are teaching that Jesus is not quite enough: that to really reach God you need special rules, secret knowledge, the worship of angels. So Paul writes to them about Jesus.

He is the image of the invisible God, Paul says, the firstborn of all creation. An image is a likeness. When you see the image, you see the one it shows. God cannot be seen, but in Jesus he can. And firstborn here does not mean Jesus was the first thing God made. In Paul's world the firstborn son was the heir, the one with the highest place. Jesus holds first place over all creation. Because, Paul says, by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, thrones, dominions, rulers, powers. Everything was created through him and for him.

And he is before all things, Paul goes on, and by him all things hold together. Think of that. Every atom, every sunrise, every heartbeat, held together by him. The baby lying in the manger in Bethlehem, held by his mother, was at the same moment the one holding the universe together. He is also the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, the first to rise to a life that never ends. So that in everything, he might have first place.

Then comes the line at the heart of Christmas. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell. All the fullness of God, living in one person. Not part of God. Not a messenger from God. God in all his fullness, pleased to live in Jesus. And through him God was pleased to reconcile all things to himself, to bring them back to peace with him, making peace through the blood of his cross. The one who made everything came to mend everything.

Paul's word image, eikon in Greek, was an everyday word. It was used for the emperor's image stamped on a coin. When Jesus was asked about paying taxes, he held up a silver denarius and asked, whose image is this? And they answered, Caesar's. Every coin in the Roman world carried the ruler's face. Paul says Jesus carries the very likeness of God.

The Image of the Invisible God. You'll find it in Colossians chapter one, verses fifteen to twenty. At Christmas, Christians remember that in the child of Bethlehem, the invisible God made himself seen. So here is a question to carry with you. If you want to know what God is like, what do you learn by looking at Jesus?