02 - The Image of the Invisible God
The word translated image is eikon from eiko = to resemble. Matthew 22:20 uses it of the image of Caesar stamped on a coin. The word implies much more than a resemblance as may be seen in Hebrews 10:1 :
‘For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things’. Image, being opposed to shadow, implies the idea of substance and reality.
Firstborn of Every Creature A - How do you understand the title ‘firstborn of every creature’? If Christ be the first of all creatures, He could not be God. No amount of pre-eminence can annul the essential difference between these two categories.
B - The word ‘firstborn’ is prototokos. It is used in Luke 2:7 of the birth of Christ as Mary’s firstborn. The word however contains in it more than birth. It emphasizes the dignity and honour that went with primo -geniture, and some translate the passage ‘Prince and Lord of all created things’. This idea of dignity and pre-eminence is found in the context of Colossians 1:15, ‘He is before all things’ (Colossians 1:17). The title ‘The firstborn of every creature’ is balanced by the words, ‘Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence’ (Colossians 1:18). Speaking of the resurrection, Psalms 2:7 says, ‘Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee’. This is parallel with the title ‘the firstborn from the dead’. Do you understand this passage to teach that on the resurrection morning Christ began for the first time His existence? A - Certainly not, the question is absurd. He took up the life which He had previously laid down for our sakes.
B - Well then, by parity of reasoning, when He first appeared as the firstborn of every creature, it does not mean that He then began His existence, but that He Who was God manifested Himself in the Person of the Firstborn, Who became the Chief, Lord and Heir of the creation that followed. You will find this idea of pre-eminence in Revelation 1:5 :
‘The first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth’.
Passages from the LXX where prototokos is used with the meaning ‘superior’, ‘greater’, ‘most loved’, or ‘exalted’, are 2 Samuel 19:43; Exodus 4:22; Psalms 89:27; Jeremiah 31:9. The nation of Israel is called the firstborn, but it would be difficult to prove that it meant anything more than dignity and inheritance. It is illuminating, so far as the usage of the word is concerned, to know that the Rabbins spoke of God as ‘the firstborn of the world’, and Paul’s usage, ‘the firstborn of every creature’, is parallel. In Colossians 1:16 the apostle shows what he intended by the title by commencing the verse with the word ‘for’. Christ is the firstborn of every creature for He is the Creator. To say that Christ was the firstborn of His own creation is absurd. As to the invisible God Christ is the IMAGE. As to the old creation Christ is the FIRSTBORN. As to the new creation Christ is the FIRSTBORN FROM THE DEAD, and in both creations He is pre-eminent.
God Hath Spoken ‘IN SON’
Let us now turn to Hebrews 1:1-3, our third passage. You will find here an opportunity for observing the presence and the absence of the Greek article:
God in times past spake to the Fathers by the prophets.
God in these last days has spoken to us in Son. A - ‘In Son’? that does not seem to make sense.
B - It is hardly good English perhaps, but a profound truth is here. ‘The prophets’ were messengers used by God, but when Christ walked the earth He was not merely another and greater messenger. It was God now speaking ‘in Son’, God manifest in the flesh. To the prophet the word ‘came’; Christ however was the Word Himself. A - May we not translate the words ‘in a Son’?
B - No, I think not, because the idiom is found in the Hebrew and would be known to the readers of the epistle. Will you turn to Exodus 6:3 : A - (Reads) - ‘And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty’.
B - The Hebrew reads B’EL SHADDAI, literally ‘in God Almighty’. To these patriarchs God appeared ‘in God Almighty’, to their New Testament descendants He appeared ‘in Son’. The one invisible God remains the same, whether for His purposes He is known as The Almighty God, or The Son. This will be more easily understood when we have considered the meaning of the words, ‘the form of God’, as used in Php 2:6. Let us notice what is said of the Son in Hebrews 1:1-14 :
‘Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power’ (Hebrews 1:3). The R.V. reads:
‘Who being the effulgence of His glory, and the very image of His substance’. When we come to Php 2:6 we shall have to enquire into the words ‘Who being’. Let it suffice for the moment to draw attention to the fact that in Php 2:6 we are dealing with the very being of the Lord, while in Hebrews 1:3 we are dealing with the characteristics of the ‘Son’, the Word ‘made flesh’ - two distinct phases of truth which can cause much misunderstanding if they are confused. The Brightness of The Glory The ‘brightness’ (or ‘effulgence’) translates a word (apaugasma) which occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. We may get clearer light if we turn to the typical people Israel. When the ark was taken from Israel, the wife of Phinehas named her son Ichabod-’Where is the glory?’ saying:
‘The glory is departed from Israel: because the ark of God was taken’ (1 Samuel 4:21-22). The Psalmist’s comment is:
He ‘delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy’s hand’ (Psalms 78:61). A - This shows that Israel’s conception of God was very limited, and even though you proceed to show that Christ was the Jehovah of the Old Testament that will not lift Him beyond ‘A God’.
B - Hezekiah may correct your mistake: ‘O LORD God of Israel, which dwellest between the Cherubims’. A - As I said, Israel localized the Deity.
B - You did not allow Hezekiah to finish: ‘O LORD God of Israel, which dwellest between the Cherubims, Thou art THE GOD, even Thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; Thou hast made heaven and earth’ (2 Kings 19:15). The glory of the Lord is ‘above the heavens’ (Psalms 8:1), yet Hezekiah’s prayer teaches that for the purposes of grace that infinite and incomprehensible glory could be attached to the ark of the covenant, even as in the fulness of time it should be manifest in the flesh. Ezekiel says:
‘And upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it ... This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD’ (Ezekiel 1:26-28).
Thus it is that Ephesians 1:17 says that ‘the God of our Lord Jesus Christ’ is ‘the Father of the glory’. The Image and The Substance A further title is ‘the express image of His substance’. ‘Express image’ is the rendering of charakter, from charatto ‘to engrave’. Charagma is translated ‘graven’ in Acts 17:29, which we might render: ‘We ought not to suppose a gold, or a silver, or a stone sculpture of man’s art and device to be like the Deity’. One of the dictionary meanings of ‘substance’ is ‘that which underlies all outward manifestations’. God is invisible. Christ is the image of the invisible God. God’s ‘substance’ is manifested in Him Who is the express image of the unseen underlying substance. Faith is the ‘substance’ of things hoped for (Hebrews 11:1). Works, walk, witness, give expression to the unseen faith (Hebrews 11:1-40). No laws, fasts, feasts or sacrifices, no series of typical men could ever be the express image; Christ alone occupies that place. As I trust you will treat all that is put before you in a true ‘Berean’ spirit, the following comparison of passages may be of service.
A Threefold Testimony
John 1:1-51 Colossians 1:1-29 Hebrews 1:1-14 The Word. The Image. The express Image. No one ever sawThe Invisible God. The Substance.
God.
All things made by By Him all things By Him the ages
Him. created. made.
He is before allHeaven and earth things.also. Angels worship Him. His fulness. All fulness.
By Him all thingsAll things upheld. consist. The Word was God. Thy throne, O
God. The only begottenFirstborn. Firstborn.
Son.
He Who made all things, upholds all things, by Whom all things consist, is no lesser Deity; He is God and no other.