Today we look at a crucial part of Scripture; describing the most important personality in the universe; Christ who is God. The deity of Christ is the very heartbeat of Christianity, the very essence of all that we believe and the very foundation of our faith. The deity of Christ is the battleground over which we stand against the cults and the –isms and anyone who wishes to make Christ, less than He is.
It’s been said that the Bible the “Jesus Book.” If we understand the Bible, we understand that it is the book about Christ. In the Old Testament, there is the preparation for Jesus coming. In the gospels, there is the presentation of Christ; He is come. In the Acts, there is the proclamation. The message of salvation in Christ is announced. In the epistles, we study the personification. That is, “For to me to live is Christ,” or how Christ, who has died and risen from the grave, returns to live in His people. In Revelation, there is the predomination or the Christ on the throne, the reign of the King, the Lamb on the throne.
In every sense, the Bible is Christ’s story. It is the book that tells us all about Him. In Acts chapter 8, that is indicated to us in verse 35 when Philip, talking to the Ethiopian eunuch on the road to Gaza, the Holy Spirit says, “Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same Scripture (Isaiah), and preached unto him Jesus.”
You can begin at any point in the Scripture and teach Jesus. In Luke, a familiar passage, chapter 24:27, Christ, after His resurrection, meeting the disciples on the road to Emmaus, “And beginning at Moses,” or the Pentateuch, “and all the prophets,” or the prophetic books, “He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures,” or, the Hagiographa, the holy writings, “the things concerning Himself.”
The Bible is the book about Christ. It is the book about the revelation of God and the coming of Christ into the world. It is about God becoming a man. In every aspect of the Bible, facets of this are made clear. But of all the statements in the Bible, in the Word of God about God becoming man, none is more significant than the one in Colossians 1:15, for here we have the identification of the Son as God very, very clearly.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
Now that is a tremendous statement, a vital statement to the understanding of the Christian faith and the removal of any confusion over who our Lord Jesus Christ really is.
Why does Paul pen this? Paul understands that there is a certain false system of doctrine being propagated at Colossae, and he understands that because Epaphras has visited him. Epaphras, undoubtedly one of the pastors of the Colossian church and its founder, has come to visit the apostle Paul.
The apostle Paul hears from Epaphras that there are some terrible things going on in terms of propagation of heresy in Colossae. One such heresy relates to the deity of Jesus Christ. The heretics are saying that Christ is not God; that He is not sufficient for salvation; that in addition to Christ, there must be the worship of other spirits, perhaps other angels, if you will. There must be special visions. There must be certain knowledge that is sort of super knowledge beyond that which is attainable in Christ. In fact, the heretics had said that Jesus Christ is only one in a long line of emanating spirits descending from God, and Jesus was one of those good emanations. He is not God. He is not even an adequate Savior. Knowledge beyond Him is the only way to salvation.
The attack of this particular heresy, which apparently later developed into what we know as Gnosticism, the attack was at the deity of Christ and His total sufficiency as Savior. The heresy was pretty well based upon a philosophical dualism that says that matter is evil and spirit is good, and since God is Spirit, He is good. But since all of creation is matter, it is evil. So a good God can’t create an evil creation.
So what happened was God started sending out emanations, or spirits started coming out of God like ripples in a pond. They kept coming and coming and coming, and the first ones were good and good. Then they got neutral, and then they got bad. A zillion emanations down the line, you got some bad emanations, one of whom was bad enough to create the world. Now, Jesus was just one of these process of emanations, a good one to be sure, but nonetheless, one of them. He is equal to an angel, and that is why they worshipped these emanations or spirits or angels.
Paul’s point here is to tell the Colossians Jesus is not an emanation from God. He is not something down the ladder from the character of God. He is God in human flesh. Paul has pretty well dispensed with the opening thoughts. He has greeted them, initially. He has thanked God for them in verses 3 and following. He has prayed for them that they would be filled with all of the knowledge of His will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding, and they would walk worthy.
He thanks God for the salvation that they enjoy in verses 12 to 14; the redemption, the forgiveness. Then he moves right in from there to make his point that this one, who has redeemed us, who has forgiven us, who has delivered us from the power of darkness; this one who is the dear Son, who possesses the kingdom, this one is the image of the invisible God. That’s vital to his message.
As we look at verses 15 to 19, we want to see Jesus Christ in relation to five things. We’ll see Him in relation to God, in relation to the universe, in relation to the unseen world, in relation to the church, and in relation to anything else that might be left.
The false teachers had tried to show that Jesus was simply an emanation, that He was just some ripple from the character of God; one of an infinite series of lesser beings that finally reached to evil and were able to create the world. But Paul says, “Christ is God.” In fact, in verse 16, he says, “He created everything.” He’s the one that did it. The heretics went so far even as to teach that God could never enter a body, because if God entered a body, then good God would be in evil matter. A good emanation could never have a body, because a good emanation couldn’t take on a bad matter body. So they taught that Jesus didn’t have a body, that He was a good emanation who was a phantom.
So Paul wants to make it clear that Jesus is God, that He is God in flesh, and that He is the Creator of the universe. He says in 15 that, “He is the image of the invisible God. He is the image of the invisible God.” To begin with, God is invisible. In 1 Timothy, it tells us that God is invisible. It tells us in the Old Testament that God is invisible, that God cannot be seen. God is not visible to the human eye. God is a Spirit and “A Spirit,” said Jesus, “hath not,” what? “flesh and bones.” God is invisible, but God became visible. God became a man, and Christ was God made visible. He is the image of the invisible God.
In Genesis 1:27, we have the use of the term “image.” It says, “God made man in His own image and likeness.” 1 Corinthians 11:7 says, “Man is the image of God,” again, repeating the same truth, but we need to remember man is not a perfect image of God.
We are certainly not made in the moral image of God: He’s perfect; we’re not. Adam was created innocent, but failed the first test. We are not created in God’s image morally. Also, we are not omnipotent, omnipresent, or omniscient, or immutable.
Who is the only really, true, graphic, perfect, flawless, absolutely accurate image of the invisible God? Were it not for Him being in the image of God, none of us would ever be able to approximate it.
Hebrews 1:3, “He is the express image of His person,” the exact image, the perfect image. The substance is the same. Jesus is the exact reproduction of God; nothing missing, altered, nothing changed. In John 1:18 it says, “No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.” “And when we saw the Son,” John says, “we beheld His glory, and it was the glory of the only begotten of the Father.”
It was just obvious that He was manifesting God. In Philippians 2:6, “Who being in the form of God,” Christ having all of the character and form of God, became a man, “made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant,”
Christ is the identical thought and expression of God. That’s why Jesus said in John 14:9, “He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father.”
In Matthew 17, Jesus even let them have a little glimpse of the fact that He was God. This should end for all time any speculation or argument about it, where we find the Lord Jesus Christ revealing Himself. Matthew 17, a transfiguration. Verse 2, “He was transfigured before them: His face did shine like the sun, and His raiment was as white as the light. And a voice out of the cloud, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased said God, “hear Him.”
The Son, then, is the only perfect representation of God. Men are not. They are a marred image.
Going back to Colossians 1 and looking at that word “image”, it means a precise copy, a replica. Christ is the perfect, unblemished replica of God. He’s not just a sketch; He’s all filled in. Colossians 2:9, “In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Colossians 1:19, “It pleased the Father that in Him should all fullness (Pleroma) dwell.” Jesus is the full, final, only revelation of God with nothing missing.
To think that God became a man, God invaded the world in human form is a staggering thought.
Christ is God revealed in the world. If you want to know what God’s like, look at Christ. He’ll tell you what God is like. If God were man, we would expect Him to be sinless. Jesus was. If God were a man, we would expect Him to speak the greatest words ever spoken. He did. If God were a man, we would expect Him to exert a profound influence on human personality like no other being that ever lived, and He did. If God were a man, we would expect that He would do miracles with ease, and He did. If God were a man, we would expect Him to love, and He did, because He was God, and God cannot be known other than through Jesus Christ.
Secondly, in verse 15, “The firstborn of all creation.” That particular phrase has caused people a lot of trouble, because they don’t understand what He’s saying. The first begotten, or the “firstborn of all creation.” This is a reference to position, not time. He is not the first created being in terms of time.
There are two good reasons for that. Number on reason, He never was created. He said, “Before Abraham was,” what? “I am,” in John 8:58. Revelation calls Him “the One who was, and is, and is to come.”
What does “firstborn” mean? Prtotokos the Greek term refers to position. It refers to rank; it refers to right of authority, to primacy; not to chronology. The firstborn is the one who has the rights of inheritance. In the Jewish context, everybody knew that. Even in the Gentile context, everybody understands that. They had no question in Colossae about what he was referring to; that Christ was the honored One, the privileged One, the prestigious One, the Father’s heir.
Back to Hebrews 1 again. He says, “In these last days, God has spoken unto us by His Son.” AND, “His Son whom He has appointed heir.” The heir was appointed by the Father. Normally it was the firstborn, but if the firstborn was disqualified for some reason, the father wanted to give it to another he had the right to do that. But he had to be appointed by the father.
In Revelation chapter 5, God is on the throne and the scroll is in His hand, the title deed to the earth, sealed with seven seals, as was customary with Roman law. For sealing a will, it had to be sealed seven times so you couldn’t unroll it without it making an obvious distraction. “And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to open the scroll and loose its seals?’” Who is the possessor of the earth? Who is the heir to take over the world? Who has the right to control the earth, to take it back, to inherit it? “And no man in heaven and earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the scroll or even to look at.” John says, “I cried a lot because nobody was found worthy.”
Where’s the firstborn? Where is the prtotokos? Where is the primary one? Where is the heir? “‘Weep not,’ one of the elders said to me, ‘The Lion of the tribe of Juda, the root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll, and loose its seven seals.’ And I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood the Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him that sat on the throne.”
Here is Christ, taking the title deed to the earth as the prtotokos to take over and reign as King of kings and Lord of lords. From chapter 6 to chapter 19 is the takeover of the earth until He finally reigns in chapter 20. Verse 13 echoes the sentiments of heaven. “Every creature that is in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them heard I saying, ‘Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sits on the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever.’” You see, all the universe echoes in, chiming in, that this One is worthy.
The sad fact is, that the one thing Satan wants to do is make sure nobody understands that, make sure nobody really believes Jesus is God, make sure nobody really believes that He is not a creature, but that He is the primary one of all personalities. So in 2 Corinthians 4:4, “In whom the god of this age,” who’s that? Satan, “has blinded the minds of them who believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
Satan doesn’t want people to know He’s the image of God. Satan doesn’t want people to know He’s the only one who has a right to rule in the world. Satan doesn’t want them to know, so their minds are blinded by unbelief. That’s a good verse to show somebody when they tell you, “Christ isn’t God.” You can explain to them why they believe that.
In John 10:33, the Jews answered. Jesus made a lot of claims, but the Jews got the message. People say, “Jesus never claimed to be God.” Rediculous! Jesus never claimed to be God? The Jews answered in John 10:33, “For a good work we stone you not; but for blasphemy; and because you, being a man, make yourself God.” They got the message. They knew exactly what He was claiming. He had claimed divine authority over angels. He had claimed divine authority over men. He claimed, in fact, divine authority over everything when He said, “All authority is given unto Me in heaven and earth,” Matthew 28:18. He claimed divine authority over the law, over the Sabbath, over the tradition of the elders, every bit of it. He claimed power to forgive sin, power to raise Himself from the dead, and He proved it!
Jesus is God. Do you know it? Do you believe it?
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