CHRIST–THE PRE-EMINENT ONE (2)
“He is the image of the invisible God…” (Colossians 1:15 NKJV.
Paul did not only reveal the undying desire and unchangeable demand of the Father that Christ should have pre-eminence in all things, but he also went ahead to outline for us in Colossians chapter 1 and elsewhere compelling reasons to justify that demand. The very first reason he gave is that Christ was “the image of the invisible God.” The word “image” means “an exact representation and revelation.” To say that Jesus is the image of God means that He is the exact representation and manifestation of God. He embodied the very essence of God and was everything God is. Being the image of God means more than His “likeness.” He is not just like God, or merely resembles God; He is completely and intrinsically God. God lived and expressed Himself in Jesus. Therefore, the Bible affirms “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9 NKJV). The devil fights with all his might to keep people away from believing the truth that Christ is the express image of God. Paul testifies, “But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them” (2 Corinthians 4:3-4 NKJV). People who perish are those who allow Satan to prevent them from beholding the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. None can be saved who does not accept the deity of Jesus; “who being the brightness of His (the Father’s) glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3 NKJV). He is to be pre-eminently regarded and revered because He is the exact representation of God in all His fullness.
Jesus is the exact image of God, embodying His essence and fullness! He’s not just like God, He is God. Knowing Jesus is knowing the Father.
Our Lord affirming the truth that He is the visible manifestation of the invisible and incommunicable God, declared with unquestionable clarity, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30 NKJV). This statement has weighty attendant connotations and implications. First, “I and my Father are one” connotes absolute sameness in nature and essence with the Father. The two have common interest, common focus, and common interpretation of reality. They can never be at variance to each other, but rather will be in perfect harmony in all things and at all times. Again, “I and My Father are one” connotes indivisibility. No wedge can ever be forced between the Son and the Father. Wherever one is, the other is present. Whenever one is honoured, the other is honoured. They have never stayed apart before because their oneness cannot accommodate any separation. Even during His suffering and death on the Cross, the Father was with Him, because He had earlier told His apostle that even when they would have all abandoned Him, He would still not be alone because the Father would be with Him (John 16:32). At the height of His suffering on the Cross He felt as if the Father had abandoned Him and cried “My God, My God why have You forsaken Me” (Matthew 27:46 NKJV). But assured of the fact that the Father was still with Him He “cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, ‘into Your hands I commit My spirit.’ Having said this, He breathed His last” (Luke 23:46 NKJV). It was to His Father, who was always with Him, that He committed His Spirit. God does not reveal Himself to any person except in the Person of Jesus.
The significance of Jesus being the exact image of the invisible God to us is that it provides us the best opportunity of knowing God –what He likes and what He does not like. All we need to do is to look at Jesus and consider His reaction in a similar situation. What He did in any given situation is exactly what God would do. Everything Jesus did while on earth was a reflection of what the Father was doing (John 5:19). When Philip pleaded to know the Father, our Lord’s reply was quite revealing, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:9 NKJV). To know the Father, is to know the Son. If you have the Son, you have the Father. If you love the Son, you love the Father. If you obey the Son, you obey the Father. The Son and the Father are mutually inclusive. You cannot have one without the other. The universe only declares the glory of God and testifies to His wondrous works but never embodies His Person (Psalm 19:1, Romans 1:20). Human beings, in our original creation, were made in the image and likeness of God, but all those were lost when they came short of the glory of God as the aftermath of sin (Romans 3:23). If the God you believe is not like the Jesus of the Gospels, then you must be believing a false God. The True God looks, acts, and relates like Jesus! May God grant you grace, through the Holy Spirit, to see Him in Christ in Jesus name.
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