He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Colossians 1:15 ESV
Colossians 1:15-20 is thought to be a hymn of the early church. A hymn magnifying the preeminence of Jesus over all things. And this hymn starts by declaring Jesus to be the image of the invisible God.
Genesis 1:26-27 tells us that God created humanity in his image. We were created to reflect God’s love and care for the rest of creation. But, while we were created in God’s image, Jesus is the image of God. You might say that we were created to be like Jesus.
That image we were created to be was tarnished in the fall. But as we come to faith in Christ and walk with him, that image is renewed in us (Rom. 8:29, 2 Cor. 3:18, Col. 3:10).
This idea of Jesus being the image of God is also expressed in Hebrews 1:3. The author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus is the “radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.”
Jesus, as the radiance of God’s glory, can be partially described by the sun. The light and heat that radiates out from the sun is what we can see and experience of the sun. They are, in a sense, the radiance of the sun’s glory. And they are, in a very real way, a part of the sun.
So, who is Jesus? Hebrews 2:17 tells us that he is fully human in every way. But he is so much more than that. Jesus told his disciples that if they had seen him, they had seen the Father (John 14:9). Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the radiance of God’s glory (Heb. 1:3), the Word made flesh (John 1:1-3,14), one with the Father (John 10:30), the great I AM (John 8:58). Fully God and fully man.
