Colossians 1:15-20 –
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Introduction
I want to thank Darrel very much for preaching last Sunday. I was able to listen to his sermon on the way home from the conference that Pastor Colin and I attended. It was clear, biblical, hopeful, immediately applicable, and Christ-centered—all the ingredients of a good sermon. I prayed that you all would have been as encouraged by it as I was. In particular, I prayed that the things he commended to us would be our mind and heart whenever suffering comes our way (which, providentially, fits very well with this sermon). Thank you, Darrel. You served us well.
And now, welcome back to Colossians. More specifically, welcome back to Colossians 1:15-20. More specifically still, welcome back to the heart of the letter and Paul’s answer to the question of how the Colossian Christians (and all followers of Christ) are to navigate hardship (persecution and false teaching for the Colossians).
His answer is to make sure that nothing other than the preeminence of Jesus (the supremacy of Jesus; the reality that Jesus has first place in everything; that Jesus is all and in all) is at the center of the story we tell ourselves whenever trials—whatever their form—befall us.
At the same time—and this really is the key, Grace Church—in order to make sure the preeminence of Jesus is truly and helpfully at the center of the story we tell ourselves in times of trial, Paul knew that we must know, in real, concrete terms what it means that Jesus is preeminent; how Jesus is preeminent; what forms Jesus’ preeminence takes.
In other words, it does us no good to believe lies about Jesus’ preeminence. And it is not enough to know true things about Jesus’ preeminence in vague or abstract ways. To find real help through real suffering, we need to know the specifics of Jesus’ glorious preeminence. We need that now every bit as much as the Colossians needed it then.
As I mentioned in my last sermon on Colossians, we’re going to consider the various aspects of Jesus’ preeminent nature (mentioned in this passage), slowly over the next several weeks. We’ll begin looking at them this morning with the first aspect named by Paul and the big idea of this sermon: Jesus is preeminent in that He is the image of the invisible God. The main takeaway is to learn look unto Jesus when life is hard by remembering that He is with us and that one day we will see Him face to face.
What does it mean that Jesus Is the image of the invisible God?
There are two main questions that drive this sermon: (1) What does it mean that Jesus is the image of the invisible God? And (2) How does knowing that help us in our suffering?
God Is Spirit and Spirit Is Invisible
In answer to the first question, there are three key points: God is spirit and spirit is invisible, God made Himself visible at times throughout the OT, and Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God.
In the famous passage recounting Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus taught several significant truths. Among them is the fact that “God is spirit” (John 4:24). By that He meant that God the Father is non-physical. He has no body or parts. He has no size or dimensions.
That God is spirit means that He is not a being. He is being.
Scholars have called this “pure being” or “the fullness or essence of being” (Grudem, ST, 187).
This is why God’s most holy name is “I AM” (Exodus 3:14).
And He is not optional being, but necessary being. He can’t not be. And all other being comes from Him.
And yet, spiritual being is undetectable by ordinary senses. Like wind, spirit is very real and able to bring about very real effects, but it is also invisible. The Father is spirit and He is invisible. That is a key aspect of His nature and our experience of it.
Before we move on, Grace Church, if this aspect of God’s nature does not stir you to worship, you do not yet understand it. For millennia, philosophers and theologians have pondered the question of what constitutes “being” (the fancy word is “ontology”). The greatest human minds recognize the significance of the question, even if they are incompetent to truly grasp it. God is the answer to the question. He is spirit. He is being. He is the purest and highest form of reality. He is the only non-derivative reality.
That’s staggering. That’s amazing. That is worthy of our praise. That is part of what makes Jesus’ preeminent and His preeminence help in times of trouble.
I invite you to pause and pray, asking God the Father to fill you with the awe and peace that will come as you recognize that He is more fully real and present right here, right now than anything you can see with your eyes.
God Made Himself Visible
While it is staggering, amazing, and worthy of praise, the fact that it makes Him undetectable by ordinary senses makes us wonder how we can even know there is a God, much less how we might interact with Him or have a relationship with Him, much less find help from Him when life is hard.
There are two answers to this question. First, God made us with spirits. While that’s a different sermon for a different day, it’s important to note that there is “some communication from God to us of a spiritual nature” (Grudem, ST, 188)—His spirit to ours. In other words, and this is all I’ll say about it, as Romans 1 teaches, even though the fact that God is spirit means we can’t perceive him with ordinary senses, we are made with more than ordinary senses such that everyone knows there is a God through conscience and creation—through His effects in us and around us.
The second answer, which I’ll say more about since it’s more relevant to this sermon, is that God has, at times, made Himself detectible by our senses. He has chosen to allow people to hear and feel and even see Him through created means.
Have you ever heard the term “theophany”? It’s a combination of two words, “God” and “appearance”. Combined, as I imagine you can imagine, they refer to an appearance of God. Theophanies are all over in the OT. God made Himself felt, heard, and seen to His creatures through various aspects of His creation (wind, fire, light, etc.). Let me share a few examples.
The first is found right at the beginning of the Bible. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve, still in the Garden of Eden, “heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’”
As we just saw, God is spirit. Which means, again as we just saw, that He has no body to walk with, much less rustle leaves or grass as He walked (“the sound of the Lord walking in the garden”). Likewise, He has no mouth with which to speak (“He called to the man and said…”). And yet Adam and Eve heard and saw God because God made Himself audible and visible through ordinary (even fallen) eyes and ears by means of the things He made (grass and twigs and pebbles and vibrating molecules/atoms?).
Another early OT theophany is found in Exodus 3. There we Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law when, unexpectedly, he encountered “the angel of the Lord” (which is God Himself). God “appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.” And there, “the Lord saw that [Moses] turned aside to see [Him].” God “called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ … ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’”
The invisible, God of spirit made Himself seen and heard for the benefit of His chosen spokesman.
A bit later in Exodus (24:7), God appeared to all the Israelites. This time, “the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel.”
Maybe the most famous OT theophany is found in Isaiah 6:1. There, Isaiah “saw the [invisible, spiritual] Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.”
Ezekiel (1:26-27) saw God seated on something like a throne “with a human appearance. 27 And upward from what had the appearance of his waist [Ezekiel] saw as it were gleaming metal, like the appearance of fire enclosed all around. And downward from what had the appearance of his waist [he] saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him.
There are, once again, many more such examples throughout the OT. The point for us to see is that although God is spirit and spirit is invisible, God made Himself visible and hearable because He loves His people, made us for a relationship with Him, and was continually working out His plan to reconcile us to Himself and make Himself “forever visible” to us.
Again, Grace, this is, rightly understood a truly awesome aspect of God’s nature and work. That is worthy of our praise. That is part of what makes Jesus’ preeminent and His preeminence help in times of trouble.
Having sinned and rebelled against God, all we deserve is His judgment. Mere silence or undetectability would be a gift. Once again, then, let us pause and pray, asking God to help us appropriately appreciate His kindness in spreading breadcrumbs of grace through the theophanies, throughout human history, all pointing to and preparing us for the great and ultimate Theophany to come.
Jesus Is the Ultimate Revelation of God
The third, final, and most explicit aspect of the answer of what it means that Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, is that Jesus is the ultimate Theophany of God! He is the true and full revelation of God.
Grace (another bit of theology), do you know that all three persons of the godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—eternally existed as spirit prior to Creation? Likewise, do you know that Father, Son, and Spirit remained that way from Creation until Jesus was conceived. And do you know that at the incarnation, and eternally forward, the second person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, Jesus experienced the hypostatic union of human and divine nature, of body and spirit?
Conceived by the Holy Spirit in the virgin Mary, the true and great Theophany was born! Each previous theophany revealed some aspect of Jesus’ nature. And they all pointed to, were shadows of, and subtly promised something fuller; Someone much fuller.
At the beginning of his Gospel (1:1, 14), John said it this way, “In the beginning was the Word [Jesus, the Son of God, entirely spirit], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God…14 And [then!]the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Grace, as I hope you know, that is no small thing! The God of all spirit became a God of flesh!
Hebrews 1:3 says it like this, “[Jesus] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature…”
Indeed, as Paul wrote at the end of our passage (in v.19), in Jesus “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” And he’s even more specific in 2:9, “…in [Jesus] the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily…”
The invisible God became visible. Spirit, took on physicality, body, parts, size, dimension, and limitations. He became detectible by ordinary senses. For the first time, mankind really could see, hear, smell, and touch God.
Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God, the great Theophany.
We might think that all the earth would gather to Him in awe and wonder. Certainly, it should have. God again came to dwell among man. What a glorious day, right?
I wonder, have you ever thought that if you could only see and hear from Jesus, things would be better/easier? Does it seem to you that if only your ordinary senses could detect Him right now, you’d follow Him more faithfully? As you contemplate your struggles in your life and faith, do you imagine that being in the presence of the image of the invisible God is all you’d need?
Grace, as awesome as the incarnation is, it has always been the case that mere senses are not enough.
Jesus’ closest followers, His very disciples, chosen by Him, were able to interact with Him just as we are able to interact with one another. Even more so, they lived with Him, traveled with Him, ate and drank with Him, and received inside instruction from Him. They were literally in the presence of the image of the invisible God. They were able to see Him. They heard Him speak the eternal, powerful, good, beautiful, and true words of God—the words God promised will never return void (Isaiah 55:11).
And yet, they were usually more confused than amazed. Over and over they failed to grasp what they witnessed and heard to the point that Jesus questioned them, “Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear” (Mark 8:18).
And so, the deeper problem of the human heart was revealed.
As we consider why Paul offered this revelation as help to a suffering people, we are right to first remember Isaiah’s promise concerning the ultimate revelation of God, “[He would have] no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He [would be] despised and rejected by men, [and] a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men [would] hide their faces he [would be] despised, and [mankind would esteem] him not.”
Indeed, as Jesus Himself promised of Himself, “[I] must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation” (Luke 17:24).
In just a moment, we’re going to turn our attention to the second and final question of this sermon (how does knowing that Jesus is the image of God help in our suffering?), but hear now the simple fact that apart from some additional grace of God (beyond merely making Himself accessible by ordinary senses), it won’t help at all.
In just a minute, I’m going to name (and commend to you) two ways that Paul meant this revelation to strengthen the Colossian believers through their trials. And yet, I promise they won’t help at all if we don’t first recognize that simply being able to see and hear God as we see and hear one another is not enough.
That God, in love, sent His Son into the world to save the world, is no small measure of grace. However, until we are born again, until our spirits are made alive by God, “we cannot see the kingdom [or King] of God” (John 3:3). Apart from God’s regenerating grace, being in the presence of the image of the invisible God (as Isaiah and Jesus said,) will be as thoroughly unimpressive and underwhelming and unhelpful to us as not being in His presence. Seeing and hearing Jesus with our ordinary eyes and ears will not make a bit of difference if we aren’t first given spiritual eyes and ears to go with it.
And so, we pray. We ask God to give us eyes to see and ears to hear. We ask Him to lift the veil that sin and Satan have put over our eyes keeping us from seeing the “light of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:4). We pray that God would help us to recognize Jesus for who He really is, “the image of the invisible God,” God made flesh, “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature,” and the One in whom “all the fulness of God was pleased to dwell…bodily”
And as He hears and answers our prayers, we will know, inescapably, of our need to turn from our sin and trust in Him for forgiveness. And as He gives repentance and forgiveness, we will be in a place for this aspect of the preeminence of Jesus to strengthen us in our every trial.
How, then, does knowing that Jesus is the image of God (in all the ways we just considered) help in our suffering?
How Does Knowing that Jesus is the Image of God Help in Our Suffering?
Are you burdened? Are you heavy laden? Are there elements of your life that feel overwhelming; perhaps even crushing? Are you being persecuted and bombarded with false, heretical teaching? Are you suffering?
If so, and if God has cause you to be born again into a new and living hope in Jesus, and if (as Paul said earlier,) you have been “delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of His beloved Son, [having been redeemed and forgiven of your sins],” then the preeminence of Jesus, expressed in part through His divine image-bearing, is help indeed.
Above all, that Jesus is the image of God is the fulfillment and guarantee of two promises that are sweet indeed for all who are suffering.
I Am with You
First, God has always covenantally promised to be present with His people. There were times (as was the case in the theophanies I mentioned earlier) when that was apparent to all. But there were other times, the majority of the time for the majority of His people, perhaps, in which it was unapparent.
In the incarnation, however, in Jesus becoming the image of the invisible God, God proved, once and for all the truthfulness of His promise to be with His people. Jesus is Immanuel, God with us!
Jesus’ life on earth was a living demonstration of God’s perfect keeping of His promise of continual presence with His faithful followers. Jesus echoed this in His final earthly words, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
Guys, you know how helpful it is to “have a guy,” right?
If you are in legal trouble, you want to know that you have a good lawyer. If you are in medical trouble, you want to know that there’s a good doctor set to take care of you. If you are in relational trouble, you want to have a good friend with you. If you are in car trouble, you want to be in the shop of a good mechanic.
We want to be in the presence of someone well-equipped to help us with whatever difficulty we have (anyone know a good transmission guy?).
But more than any “guy,” we need the help of the One who is the image of God. Grace, whatever your trial, if your trust is in Jesus, God is with you in your trial to bless you and keep you. The Colossians needed to know that there was nothing they’d encounter apart from God, no matter how difficult. And we need to know that there is nothing we will encounter apart from God, no matter how difficult. God is always with us—and especially in times of trial! That Jesus was born as the image of the invisible God proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt.
As I’ve told most of you, I fell through the ice as a kid while ice fishing on Lake Erie. I didn’t have a lot of time to think as I flailed around, but I do know that I was desperate in that moment for someone to be with me and help me get out of the mess. I knew that my life depended on it.
A million times more than the presence and help of my cousin (as great as that was), there is great help, right now, in reminding ourselves of Jesus’ perfect presence in our hardships.
And so we pray, asking God to make us aware of His perfect and unwavering fulfillment of His promise. Ask God, right now, whatever you are going through, Christian, to remind you that you really, truly are not alone in it.
That is part of what makes Jesus’ preeminent and His preeminence help in times of trouble.
You Will See Me
Finally, the second promise that was guaranteed in the incarnation of the image of the invisible God is of a future grace. It is certainly helpful to know that we always have an omnicompetent Helper with us in every time of trouble—present grace. But it is, perhaps, even more helpful to know that even if the worst comes, it merely shortens our journey and hastens us home to the time in which God’s greatest promise will be fulfilled: that we will see Him face to face forever!
In 1 Corinthians 13:11–12 Paul tells his readers (of Jesus) that, “For now we see in a mirror dimly…” That’s the first promise and it really is good news. Jesus is with us in a real and helpful way, but for now we can only experience that in part, dimly. But that will not always be the case. One day, with glorified eyes and ears, perfectly tuned to behold the limitless glory of Jesus, we will see Him “face to face…”.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Imagine standing in His presence, fully aware of His presence, with your will so free that nothing separates you from grasping how awesome that is. That Jesus is the image of the invisible God is the unbreakable promise that it will be so forever and ever.
Revelation 1:7 Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him…
O, Grace, what help it is in our present trials to know that the preeminence of Jesus as the incarnate image of God did not end with His 30 years on earth. What a promise it is that all who hope in Him now will do so forever. What a day it will be when we can see the beauty of the image of the invisible God ourselves!
Pray and ask God to fill you with knowledge of and hope and longing for that day, such that you are able to see your present trials in light of that unimaginable glory.
That is part of what makes Jesus’ preeminent and His preeminence help in times of trouble.
Conclusion
Jesus is preeminent in that He is the image of the invisible God. The main takeaway is to learn look unto Jesus when life is hard by remembering that He is with us and that one day we will see Him face to face.