Christmas #6: He is the Expression of God

He is the Image and the Word of God


Colossians 1:15  He is the image of the invisible God.

John 1   In the beginning was the Word ... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.


The first chapter of Colossians is the inspiration for this whole blog series, and I'm very excited to dive more into it soon.  Today I want to simply address these two passages and their connotations, especially when linked together


We worship an invisible God, and we don't pretend otherwise.  To speak very basically, the fact that He is invisible to our eyes is what makes our faith "faith."  But we believe that this God of ours communed with His people, the Hebrews, throughout their history in the Old Testament and spoke to them through prophets.  He loved His people and was feared by His people.  He was also quite mysterious to His people.  As we read the Old Testament, we might often be a little confused at why God seemed distant, serious, and strict.  Well, God gave His people the law that they may understand the gravity of holiness, purity, and sin.  They were given the law, and they broke the law, continually wavering in their trust and obedience.  They were sinful before the law, but the law made them aware of it.  God was giving them a chance to try to make it on their own (but STILL with grace from Him! --see footnote), not because He thought they could, but because He knew they couldn't.

I'm giving all this background because it's important to realize that Jesus was not plan B, nor was He a separate, superhero being that was sent here to fix things for God.  First, God's people needed to be aware of their need for Him.  Then, He came to save them.


Why is it "Jesus" that came to save mankind, and not "God" or "the Father."   Well, simply put, Jesus is God.  But it's even more beautiful than that when unpacked...

When I speak, I speak sounds and you hear sounds.  When God speaks, He speaks Jesus and we only hear Jesus.  When God revealed Himself, it was Jesus.  God Himself came to Earth to pay for our sins, and when He came, we got Jesus.  Jesus is the expression of God (the Godhead, the Trinity).  He is the Word of God and the image of God.  When we look at God, we only see Jesus.  You take away Jesus, you have nothing.  There is no God apart from Jesus.  We were made in the image of God, and the image of God is...Jesus!  He encompasses all.

Jesus was not just a man, nor is He a separate God.  He is God to us.  Imagine if you took away all my mediums of expression -- I would no longer be able to play piano, speak, sing, write, draw, make faces, or even physically move much for that matter.  Would it be possible to know me?  Would it be possible to know anything about me?  No!  Those forms of expression are what make relationship possible, and in the same way, Jesus is every form of expression of the Father and the Spirit.  And Jesus has been the image and expression of God since creation.  He's not an afterthought.  His identity was kept hidden -- shrouded in a mystery until He was born as a man -- BUT He was there the entire time.  When God spoke creation into existence, He spoke it through Jesus.

It's so difficult to not go into the countless off-shoots of this huge message, the identity and eternal Godhood of Jesus.  So I have to make myself stop :)

Just remember that Jesus Christ is the way God expresses Himself.  Christ is all, and there is nothing without Him.



*footnote: the fact that the Israelites were made clean by "transferring" their sin to a pure animal and sacrificing it is nothing but the grace of God.  It was their temporary way out, preparing their hearts for when He would become THE Lamb.