Advent 09 – The Image of God Part 2

“He is the image of the invisible God…”  Colossians 1:1

It’s an amazing thing to watch your child or grandchild literally “morph” before your eyes into a person like you.  Your “spitting image,” as some might say.  Children mimic some of your facial expressions and your language (watch out!).  They look and sound like you over time.  But in other ways, determined by their DNA, they become just like you (and, for good or ill, act like you too).

One of the most staggering claims made concerning Jesus of Nazareth was this first statement in Colossians 1:15 “He is the image of the invisible God.”  We remember from the creation account in Genesis that mankind was made “in the image of God.”  Every person bears something of the characteristics of our Creator.  His image is stamped in us.

But Jesus bore this image of God in an unusual way.  This was more than just reproducing a few facial characteristics and vocal inflections.  Jesus was the “eikon” of God, the “exact representation of His being.”  The word “eikon” was a reference to a stamp used in transferring the image of an emperor onto coins.  Their “eikon,” or likeness, was seen in the coin.

In a much greater sense, the “likeness” of God was stamped on Jesus.  Jesus said to Phillip, one of His disciples, “He that has seen Me has seen the Father.”  When we see Jesus, we see the invisible God.  The more we learn of Jesus, the more we “see” Jesus with eyes of faith, the more we are seeing God.  How He responds to us.  How He cares for us.  How He thinks.  How deep is His love for us.   We see this clearly displayed in our Savior.

It can rightly be said that you will never know God until you know Him in the face of Jesus.  Jesus came to reveal God’s character, God’s likeness, and God’s love to us.  Without Jesus, we are left to grope in the darkness.

But in His face is the Light of Life!