“He is the Image“

a sermon by
Thomas L. Jenkins
Text: Colossians 1: 15-22

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.


Dear Sisters and Brothers, yes, we need to pray, asking God to speak God’s Word to us, help us to hear it, understand it properly, and talk with each other about it.  Here is something we need to continually say to ourselves: “Do not abandon your confidence in what God has already accomplished for you in Jesus Christ.”  

Our own personal involvement in Christianity often begins with the kind of faith that responds to God by praying “Yes” about a truth revealing who is Jesus Christ.  Then, after saying yes to God, in our hearts, regarding what we have been told about Christ, we want to keep on learning and understanding more of our Christian faith.  Who is Jesus Christ?  What became of him?  What does all this have to do with us?

This is what the Christian Church calls “faith in search of understanding.”  The first chapter of Colossians teaches some of the most fascinating truths about Christ.  That is where we are in our faith; we want to learn more about it.    

The first word in Colossians 1: 15, “He,” means the “beloved Son of God the Father.”   The very first verse in the Hebrew Bible, Genesis, reads: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  Obviously, through these Holy written words, we are being informed and taught, probably for first time, about the infinitely powerful Being who created the universe, every thing in the universe, every thing above the universe [heaven], and every thing bellow the universe [hell].

In the first chapter of Genesis, God is presented with, when, what, and how things were created.  In each of the first five verses, God would speak, saying, “Let the … [happen].”   And, it certainly would happen.  It was the Word of God that created every thing.  That is still true today.  You, I, and every one of us, were created by, through, and in the Word of God.

Then, the sixth verse in Genesis presents us with wording that quickly brings into our minds some important questions: “Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind^* in our image, according to our likeness;”

What does it mean that we were created in the image of God?  And, who was God speaking to as the words “us” and “our” were recorded in Genesis 1: 6?

In its basic form humanity is fellow-humanity. Humanity is in relationship, humanity is in communion and therefore being in relationship, is the image of God in which we are created.  The image of God that humans bear is not to be found in some capacity or capability naturally theirs that is the same as some element within the nature of God.  We do not look for something in ourselves, some part of us that is God-like so that we can know what God is like.  Humans do not possess the image of God; humans are the image of God.  We are the image of God in that we are persons in communion, persons made and known as such in personal relationships.  The person cannot exist without having communion with other persons.  And, if we take this to be true for humans, then in human worship, when we as human beings, persons created in the image of God, come together in real fellowship, it is there that we most mirror God.

Sometimes when we are confronted with very serious and important situations in our lives, we often talk to ourselves.   For example: “Tom, we need to do this, not to do this, trust in this … Tom, this is what we need to accomplish.”  And, now that we believe in the Trinity, we probably, because of our image of God, really imagine, in a verse like this one, the Father and the Son talking.

Possibly, when Genesis was being written, during the time of Moses, and maybe by Moses, similar interpretations of these verses, about talking to ourselves, might have been expressed and accepted.  Today, possibly 9,000 years after Genesis was written, we are being given a more detailed revelation of Christ’s reality in creation, written by the Apostle Paul to Colossians’ Christians, about 1,950 years ago.

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16 for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers--all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

This passage in Colossians is one of the most wonderful explanations of who the Son of God, our Savior, and Jesus are, what became of them, and what that has to do with us. 

Religion developed within Christianity is based on the belief that when we are born on this Earth, to begin with, we are separated from God at a certain level, because of human sin.  So, with this kind of understandings, religions make up programs, belief requirements, and certain kinds of devotions, so that we can bring ourselves to God or God to us.  Religion tries to earn salvation.

The Gospel of God is not a religion.  If we were hearing God speaking to God, we would hear the Father thanking his Son and the Holy Spirit for bringing his adopted children home. The Son would be telling his Father that he could hardly imagine the pain he felt when his Son died.  Then the Son thanked the Holy Spirit for raising him from being dead.  The Father, then told the Holy Spirit to find a way to reveal to their adopted children that they have already been saved in Jesus Christ.  You, and I, and all of us have already been saved in the Holy Trinity.

Let us pray …                Amen.

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