“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”
What does it mean that Christ is the image of the invisible God? Before Christ was incarnated, God himself had no image. God was beyond form but then with the incarnation Christ left his father’s throne above to take the form of man. (Phlippians 2:5-8) God had no form. The only mention of someone seeing the form of God in the Bible, other than in visions and dreams, was when Moses saw the form of God passing in the wilderness like a great cloud. Why? Because God is beyond form, but then Christ becomes man.
In this passage Paul, begins describing Christ’s deity. The reason Paul wrote a letter to the Colossians is that there was a theological debate over Gnosticism, which he wanted to refute. Gnosticism believed salvation came not just from Christ but a deeper spiritual knowledge. So here, Paul begins a discourse on Christ’s supremacy and preeminence to later set up that he alone is the one who reconciles us to God (verse 21). So the reason Paul writes that “he is the image of the invisible of God,” is to remind the Colossians that Christ is God.
I believe there could be a serious misinterpretation of this verse if one interprets it that Christ was begotten, or created by God before the world. This takes away from Christ’s deity to believe that he was born and seems out of context with verses 16-20, which describe his preeminence in creation. The greek word translated firstborn in this verse is “prototokos.” When I looked up its definition in the Greek-English lexicon, I found that it is used as a metaphor in this verse. So it is not to be taken literally, but as a metaphor to help us understand a principle. The principle to be understood here is that Christ is supreme and preeminent. That he is the one who holds all of creation together, verse 17. So the metaphor is that Christ was born before Creation, so then he is the heir of all creation. He holds the keys to the estate and oversees it, maintaining it. He is Lord and Sovereign. This is the principle that we are to withdraw from this passage. This makes me want to meditate today and the next few days as I study these passages on the Supremacy of Christ in all things. I want to meditate on his deity, Lordship, and sovereignty.
1 comments:
Air,
I think another thing that is significant about this verse in regards to Gnosticism is that Christ is the image of the invisible God and that he is God incarnate, as you have said begotten, not made. The reason that this is significant in regards to Gnosticism is that the Gnostics thought that the material world is evil compared to the spiritual world, thus Christ couldn't be the God - he is a god, what we have is dualism. It's also significant that in verse 18 Paul calls Christ the firstborn of the dead, indicating that Christ actually died. This again is contrary to Gnosticism that believed that Christ was docetic - he didn't really die. The "god" aspect of Jesus left him prior to the cross and only the man Jesus actually died. This is clearly heretical and contrary to Paul's teaching.
Press on brother - I hope to to talk with you soon.
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