He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.   (16) For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.  All things were created through Him and for Him.  (17) And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.  (18) And He is the head of the body the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

The Apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians and in the verses we study today Paul emphasizes the centrality of Christ, the supremacy of Christ, the divinity of Christ and the incarnation.  Paul did not found the church in Colosse and may never have visited it – it was primarily a Gentile church with its culture steeped in Greek mysticism and customs.  Apparently Paul had been notified that the church there was threatened by heresy concerning the true doctrine of the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ – Paul responded to the news with this letter.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.”    This sentence overwhelms me.  Without knowledge from the Bible I wouldn’t be so quick to notice the sharp line between people rhaphsodizing over the beauty of nature without mentioning that this also is the image of God in His work in the world.  Where do all these naturalists think this amazingly complex world/universe comes from?    The invisible God means that God is not capable of being seen – this has always been a part of Jewish theology and this thought runs through all of the Old Testament.  But Jesus Christ has been seen and Paul is saying that Jesus is the image of the invisible God – the perfect representation of God the Father – Christ is the essence of the eternal God made visible in the flesh.  Just think about that.

God is and has been intimately involved in mankind. I believe that man was created with a need in his heart that can only be filled by God.   God has spoken to us in the written word of the Bible –  He has given us His son to reconcile sinful man to Himself.  Man could do nothing to become righteous on his own – it all comes from God through Christ Jesus and man has to say yes to God.  What Paul is telling us here is in essence,  that in Christ all things were created in the past, all things hold together in the present and all things are reconciled in the future.

My favorite,C.S. Lewis, writes in his brilliant Weight of Glory,  “At present we are on the outside of the world, the wrong side of the door.  We discern the freshness and purity of morning, but they do not make us fresh and pure.  We cannot mingle with the splendours we see.  But all the leaves of the New Testament are rustling with the rumour that it will not always be so.  Someday, God willing, we shall get in.”