Colossians 1:15 Archives

Colossians 1:15 and Colossians 2:9 invite us to understand God (and ourselves) by looking at Jesus. Jesus is the core and central revelation of God. If you want to know what God is like, just look at Jesus.

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What does Colossians 1:15 teach about the Character of God?

Colossians 1:15. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

This statement from Paul clearly reveals that he understood the truth of the revelation of God in Jesus. In saying that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, Paul states that Jesus perfectly reveals God to us.

The idea that Jesus is the image of God points the reader back to Genesis 1:26-27 where God creates humans in His own image. This image of God in mankind was marred, however, when Adam and Eve chose to go their own way rather than follow the instructions of God regarding the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. But now, God has sent another image of Himself, the perfect image, Jesus Christ.

On a related side note, since humanity was originally made in the image of God, and now we see that Jesus is the image of God, this means that Jesus not only reveals what God is truly like, He also reveals what humanity should truly be like, and what we will be like when we reach glory.

Jesus shows what it looks like for a human to live and function as the image of God on earth. So Jesus not only reveals God to us, He also reveals humanity to us.

The fact that God is invisible means that we could not have known what God was like unless He revealed Himself to us. But this is exactly what God has done in the person of Jesus. Jesus truly reveals God to us. Jesus makes the invisible God visible. We can see God by seeing Jesus. This is exactly the same truth Jesus said at various times during His earthly ministry (cf. John 14:9).

It is also helpful to talk about the second commandment, in which God said that His people should make any idols, or graven images (Exodus 20:4). One reason for this is because God Himself had an image in mind that He wanted to reveal to the world. And this image is Jesus. Jesus is the image of the invisible God.

The fact that Jesus is called the firstborn over all creation has nothing to do with chronology. Paul is not saying that there was a time in which Jesus did not exist. Just like God, Jesus is eternal, without beginning or end. Yes, His incarnation had a beginning at His birth to Mary, but this is not what Paul is referring to either. The reference to being the firstborn is Jewish terminology for preeminence. The firstborn of a family always received the inheritance of the father. The firstborn was always the heir. This is what Paul is saying. Jesus was preeminent. He is the heir of God.

So Colossians 1:15 invites us to understand God (and ourselves) by looking at Jesus. Jesus is the core and central revelation of God. Jesus is the primary place we should turn to when we seek to understand the nature and character of God. This is extremely encouraging and comforting for us today.

If you are ever fearful of God, just look at Jesus and see if you are afraid of Him. If you ever feel that God is angry about you for something you have done, just look at Jesus to see if He would be angry at you. If you ever wonder if God loves you, cares about you, or forgives you, just look at Jesus to see what He thinks about you.

The image of God in Jesus is what we must cling to as we seek to understand the thoughts and actions of God toward us. A similar idea is taught in Colossians 2:9.

What does Colossians 2:9 teach about God?

Colossians 2:9. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily …

This text clearly states that Jesus not only reveals God to us, but He reveals all the fullness of God to us. This cannot mean that every aspect and fact about God is revealed in Jesus, for God is infinite and beyond complete revelation to the finite minds of humanity. However, Paul seems intent on stating that there is nothing essential about God that was not revealed in Jesus.

To put this another way, every critical and central attribute and characteristic of God was revealed in Jesus during His earthly ministry. This text teaches that if we do not see something in Jesus, then it does not exist in God. Jesus is the fullness of God. That is, as much as is possible for the human mind, Jesus fully revealed God.

The ramifications of this are staggering, especially when it comes to the violent portrayals of God in the Hebrew Bible and the violent imagery of Jesus in Revelation. Since Jesus was supremely nonviolent during His earthly ministry, this means that we must develop new and different ways of understanding these violent portrayals of God in the Hebrew Scriptures, as well as the violent imagery found in the book of Revelation.

If Jesus fully revealed God to us during His earthly ministry, and if Jesus was nonviolent during His ministry, this means that God has never been violent either, has never commanded violence, and never will. It means further that when Jesus returns, He will also refrain from violence at that time. There was no violence in Jesus, and so there is no violence in God, nor will there ever be.

Colossians 2:9 says that Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead. This means that He fully reveals God to us. He didn’t reveal just part of God, or the loving side of God. Jesus did not reveal the loving and gracious side of God while the Old Testament revealed the wrathful and vengeful side of God. No, Jesus reveals all of God. Jesus revealed the fullness of God. If it is not revealed in Jesus, then it is not of God.

So once again, we are left with a choice. If we think that there is a violent and wrathful side of God that is not revealed in Jesus, then we must also think that Paul was wrong when he wrote Colossians 2:9 (and Col 1:15), and that Jesus was lying when He stated that when we see Him, we see the Father also.

If Paul was right and if Jesus was telling the truth—and they were—then Jesus truly is the full revelation of God, and God acts just like Jesus in all of His love, grace, patience, forgiveness, and mercy, without a single act or word of violence against anyone.

If you want to see what God is like, just look at Jesus. In Him all the fullness of Godhead dwells in bodily form.

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Christians are always encouraged to become more “Christlike.”

But we rarely do.

Or at least, not to any significant degree.

Over the centuries, pastors and theologians have proposed dozens of explanations as to why this happens. Some say we just need to be more “filled with the Spirit.” Others say that the problem is that people who don’t live like Christians were never really Christians in the first place, and they won’t be until they truly “get saved.” A few proclaim that the problem is a lack of Bible knowledge, and that if we can just “renew our minds” with the Word of God, renewed lives will follow. And on and on it goes.

Can I propose something radical?

Maybe the reason many Christians are not very Christlike is because the God we worship is not very Christlike.

In the minds of most Christians, God is sitting in heaven with His arms crossed and a scowl on His face about all the sin in our lives. In the minds of most, the primary activity of God is to judge sin, point out our failures and weaknesses, and decide who is truly righteous enough to be part of His family.

He is controlling to the point of determining who lives and who dies, and He is to blame for tsunamis, earthquakes, diseases, famines, and wars.

He manipulates countries, pulls strings to govern human affairs, and demands the people follow and obey Him “or else.” And although He says He loves humanity, He does not seem to like us very much. At least, not until we fix ourselves up a bit. After all, “God cannot even look upon sin. He loves the sinner, but hates the sin.”

And since humans become like what we worship, when we worship this God who doesn’t look much like Jesus, we become more like God and less like Jesus.

Just like God, we sit around with our arms crossed and a scowl upon our faces at all the sin in other people’s lives.

Just like God, our primary activities seem to include judging sin, pointing out the failures and weaknesses in others, and deciding who is truly righteous enough to be in God’s family.

Just like God, we seek to control the lives of others, telling them what they can and cannot do, can and cannot believe.

And since our God seems to be at war against “wicked people,” we feel it is our duty and responsibility to also wage war against people we think are “wicked.” You know, the Muslims, the gays, and the abortion doctors.

Just like God, we try to manipulate rulers and leaders to do what we want. We try to pull the strings behind the scenes to get others to follow our ideas and our teachings.

And just like God, while we say that we love everybody, we don’t seem to like other people very much. We do not hang out with “sinners,” because they might pollute us. We say that we “love the sinner, but hate their sin.”

We have become images of the God we worship.

And since our God is not very Christlike, neither are we.

But in recent decades, a growing number of people are beginning to see what it really means for Jesus to be God incarnate.

An increasing number of people are beginning to recognize that one of the primary reasons Jesus came was to reveal God to us.

People are beginning to see that Jesus is not like God; God is like Jesus.

And God has always been like Jesus. God has always been with us and among us, sharing our pain, taking our blame, and redeeming our shame. He heals, He comforts, He restores. He hates nobody, kills nobody, and condemns nobody. He knows all, loves all, and forgives all.

And though many among Western Christianity are just now coming to understand that Jesus reveals God to us, this view is not new. It was the dominant view of the church for over 1000 years, and has always been the view of Jesus in Eastern Christianity. It is only in the West, where we allowed economics and empire to guide our theology, that God came to look more like a king on a throne than Jesus on the cross.

But that is all changing now, and I cannot wait to see what happens in the church and in the world as a result.

To become more Christlike ourselves, we need a more Christlike God, and to see a Christlike God, we simply need to look at Jesus.

And when we look at Jesus, and recognize the truth … that He is the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15) and the exact representation of God (Heb 1:3), we will discover that we start to become more Christlike as well.

We will bless those who curse us.

We will pray for those who persecute us.

We will serve those who wish us only harm.

We will love those who seek violence against us.

We will hang out with those that religious people label as “sinners.”

We will see all people as our brothers and sisters, rather than just those who dress like us and believe like us.

We will no longer judge and condemn others, but will freely forgive them instead.

And we will do all these things because this is how Jesus treated others and how our Heavenly Father treats us.

When we see that God is Christlike, we will become Christlike as well.

Does Jesus FULLY reveal God to us? Or just one side of God? (Colossians 1:15; Colossians 2:9)

What does Colossians 1:15 teach about the Character of God?

What does Colossians 2:9 teach about God?

God is not very Christlike … or is He?

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