Scripture: “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.”
Observation: God is invisible. But the Son is visible—in His earthly life He ate, walked, spoke, slept, laughed, wept. People saw Him work miracles and heal the sick. They heard Him preach and teach. It makes no sense to attempt a drawing of God the Father because He is spirit, not flesh. But the Son had a body of flesh. All artistic representations of Him may fail to accurately portray His physical body—He never sat for a portrait. But the notion of creating drawings, paintings, iconography, etc., is sensible because it is rendering a being who walked the earth in a physical body. Jesus—God the Son—is the visible window into the Invisible One—God Himself. Remarkable.
And in Genesis 1, God created humanity in His image for the purpose of governing creation on His behalf and reflecting His goodness and faithful care into the world. It was to be a stewardship. Yet, the image was and is marred. Jesus not only makes the invisible God visible since the Son of God became a man, Jesus of Nazareth. He also makes God’s intent for humanity visible—perfectly “imaging” the Creator with His faithful shepherding, stewardship, and governance over God’s creation.
So, Jesus the Son, who “is the image of the invisible God,” makes both true divinity (which we can’t see) and true humanity (which we’ve never seen) visible to us. Remarkable indeed.
Application: How is my understanding of God illuminated by the Jesus I meet in the New Testament? How is my understanding of what humanity is meant to be informed by seeing and hearing Jesus in action?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for making yourself visible and known to me in Jesus. Thank you for making your calling for humankind known in Jesus too. May your Spirit work within me, that I may imitate Christ and bear your image faithfully in the world. Amen.
**Bible/Theology Nerd Alert** Let me make an aside about the role of the historic creeds of the church in bible reading and this particular scripture as an excellent example. A heresy early in the church’s life held that Jesus was not “co-eternal” with God the Father, but was the first creature. Therefore, He held a place of privilege in the creation, but was not equal with God the Father. But the early church theologians held that the whole witness of scripture pointed to the full divinity of Jesus, God the Son, as well as His full humanity, and they canonized that doctrine in the Nicene Creed. A practical difference that makes for the ordinary Christian who knows the Nicene (or also Apostles’) Creed is that we are more likely to intuitively read the phrase, “the firstborn over all creation” not in the sense about the order of coming into existence, but rather as a familial metaphor and poetic way to express Christ’s place of primacy and authority over the creation. This is the reading that resonates with the whole witness of scripture, summarized and clarified for us in the historic creeds. Make sense?
“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)
If you liked this post from Seeds of Faith, why not share it and/or subscribe?
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™
We were abysmal failures in God’s creation. Time and time again He have humankind a way to self-correct. He sent Christ his son in human form, not only to redeem us, but as a perfect example of how to live. Thanks for the bonus lesson on the Creeds!