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COLOSSIANS - Christ in you, the hope of glory!
Studies in the Letter of Paul to the Colossians

Part 1 - The Foundations of Christian Faith (Colossians 1:1-29)

5. Christ, the Image of His Father and the Creator of the Universe (Colossians 1:15-17)


Colossians 1:15-17
15 who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.

Christ – the Mirror-Image of God

Paul had seen Christ in His glory and might on the road to Damascus. Since that encounter, his thinking and his theology had been thoroughly transformed by the radiance of his heavenly Lord. Jesus had previously dwellt on earth as man in veiled majesty. Before the gates of Damascus, however, the missionary to the nations was confronted with His splendid glory, which amounted to the breaking in of eternity into our time and age. Paul understood this majestic radiance to be the image of the exalted Almighty.

God Himself, in His sublime glory, remained hidden. The sin of mankind separated Him from His creation. His radiant manifestation would otherwise have penetrated and annihilated everyone. His majesty and elementary power, however, became visible in the risen Jesus.

Jesus Himself had assured His disciples: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father!” (John 14:9). His self-testimony was, above all, based upon the holy love of the Father, on His merciful truth, and on His patient humility. In Jesus, the creation of man reached its full purpose and significance (Gen. 1:27). The Father had become visible in Him.

The apostle John had, together with Peter and James, seen Jesus in His divine glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. He never went on, however, to report of it in detail, but only alluded to it: “…and we beheld His glory” (John 1:14). In old age, while in banishment on the prison island of Patmos, He looked upon the Risen One as the Lord and Judge of mankind: “And having turned I saw …One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and His hair were white like wool , as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death” (Rev. 1:12-18).

The Firstborn over all Creation

God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). One who loves knows very well the person he earnestly loves. Since God is love, He was never alone, but always had an equal Partner, whom He loved from the very beginning. Christ is the firstborn Son of God. He existed before all creation as the One who is eternal. He is no creation, but proceeded forth from God before all time. His birth in Bethlehem was not the beginning of His existence, but the beginning of His becoming man (incarnation). All of the eternal characteristics of His Father, His Spirit and His glory, reside in Him. He lived and lives with His Father in serene harmony, meekness and humility.

He said: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34).

All churches recognize with the Nicene Creed that Christ is: “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father”.

Islam, however, confesses that Christ was created, and never born of God! By claiming this, it becomes an antichristian power, along with the early church elder Arius and his followers. All those that say “Christ was created by God” are not true Christians, for then Jesus would only have been a slave of God. Christ, however, is the only begotten son of God, and no creation of God. The Eternal One is His Father. He is His image. If Christ had been created, all of His followers would only be slaves of God. But since Jesus is the Son of God, all of His followers are also called to be sons and daughters of God. For them God is no inconsistent despot, but their Father through Jesus Christ, the firstborn Son.

Prayer: Holy Father, we thank You that Your Son Jesus appeared to Paul before Damascus in Your and in His glory, and that His disciple John could testify: And we have seen His glory!” We worship the Son of Mary, for He is Your image and lived out on earth Your holy love as an example for us. We rejoice that as You remain in Him, He remains in us. Amen.

Question 21: What does the word of Jesus mean: “He who sees Me sees the Father”?

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