There is no one else that images God like Jesus Christ does. There is no guru that you can follow like you can follow Jesus. There is no business leader, self-improvement tycoon that you can trust like you can trust Jesus. There is no human mentor that you can trust like Jesus. There is no person that you should devote yourself to as wholly as you should Jesus. He alone matches all the criteria necessary to be Savior and Lord.
What Christianity calls us to is radical. It’s radical faith and allegiance to one man, putting all our eggs in the one basket of Jesus Christ. So it’s good to regularly refresh our understanding of who this man is if we are going to be that serious about following Him.
This is just one element of who Jesus is: “He is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15a). This notion of the “image of God” strikes a rich vein throughout the Bible of a lot of theological truths. There are four aspects of Jesus being the image of God that we’ll be considering: manifestation, representation, resemblance and communication.
Manifestation
One part of Jesus being the image of the invisible God is manifestation – meaning that Jesus is making the invisible God visible among us. Jesus is the physical representation of the one, true, invisible God. And humans were also meant to (in some way) be little, image-bearers of God.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
– Genesis 1:26
Representation
Mankind was designed to represent God here on earth, but failed. Yet Jesus represented God, and He did it perfectly.
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life …
– 1 John 1:1
John is talking about Jesus. He was here, He was physical – people could touch Him. He was here as a physical representation of the invisible God.
Resemblance
Closely associated with the idea of Jesus being the representation of God is His resemblance. Jesus being the image of God means that He is the perfect resemblance of Him.
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high …
– Hebrews 1:3
If you want to know what God is like, look at Jesus Christ.
Communication
Jesus is God’s clearest communication to the world. This is what John was getting at in his Gospel.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
– John 1:1, 14
A modern way of understanding this communication aspect of Jesus being the image of God is emojis. If you use emojis, you might find that they can convey what it would take many words to convey. That little image conveys a good deal of communication. In Jesus Christ is communicated all of God’s attributes.
There is no one else that images God like Jesus Christ does. There is no guru that you can follow like you can follow Jesus. There is no business leader, self-improvement tycoon that you can trust like you can trust Jesus. There is no human mentor that you can trust like Jesus. There is no person that you should devote yourself to as wholly as you should Jesus. He alone matches all the criteria necessary to be Savior and Lord.
Without Christ, there would be no way to know God. Without Him, we would be left to build our lives around the puny, temporary pleasures of this world until it passes away. But with Christ, we can know God Himself. He is the image of the invisible God.
This sermon was preached on Communion Sunday.
Discussion Starters
- Who would you say Jesus is?
- Why is it important to regularly remember who Jesus is?
- What are the four aspects of Jesus being the “image of the invisible God” and what do they mean?
- Brainstorm some ways in which humans are “manifestations” of the image of God?
- What does it mean that Jesus was the representative of God?
- How should this truth apply to us?
- What has God communicated to us through Jesus Christ?
- If Jesus is the image of God, does that mean He is not God? Why?
- Why is Jesus the only one who could pay the penalty for our sin?
- Are you following Christ?
