Colossians 1:15

Colossians chapter 1, reading verses 12 to 15, our focus on verse 15, giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and have translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. May God bless to us the reading of His sacred and holy word this morning. You recall that David, was not a soldier when he went forth to fight Goliath, the Philistine Giant. He was too young for military service, and so he wasn’t in Saul’s army at the time. He was busy taking care of his father’s sheep. However, his father sent him to Saul’s army with supplies and to check on his older brothers who were there, and at that time he heard the challenge. of the giant Goliath. And so he was only on the battlefield because he was obeying his father. Oh, Israel was amazed at such a youth, with no military experience going out on the battlefield and defeating the giant Goliath and cutting off his head. King Saul said to his army commander, “‘Whose son is he?’ and Abner, the army commander, says, I don’t know King. I don’t know who his son he is. I’ll have to find out. Here is Israel’s great Savior, and nobody knows who he is. Inquiries have to be made. The Apostle Paul in our text has been describing the wonderful redemption that has been provided by Jesus Christ, our Savior. We talked about this last week in verse 14. And now he proceeds to explain who Christ is. And we come to a very important section of Colossians explaining the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Like David of old, the son of David, is, is the great Savior of His Jesus. people, but there are many people who do not know who he is. So Paul provides here a very true and accurate description of the Redeemer that he has just spoken about in verse 14. If you were to place all your hope and your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for the salvation of your soul, it behooves you to know exactly who he is. Our text here provides two very important aspects concerning Christ. First, what is Christ’s relationship to his father? And secondly, what is Christ’s relationship to the creatures? And this is an important section of scripture for us to consider. Let me begin by saying You should understand Christ’s relationship to his father. He is the image of the invisible God. Jesus Christ is the image of God. Now, what does it mean when the scripture speaks here about image? The Greek word here, icon, signifies generally anything that represents something else or someone else. It could be. be a picture, it could be an image, it could be a figure, but some type of representation. Interestingly enough, we get our English word icon, I-C-O-N, from the E-I-K-O-N of the Greek here. So when you go to your computer and you look on the desktop and you see all those little symbols on there, they’re called icons. icons, their representations of where you’re going to go and what you’re going to do, whether you have Firefox or something and it takes you to the internet connection, whether you have a symbol there that represents your virus protection or whatever the case may be. In scripture, the word image is used in a variety of ways. When you look at Caesar’s image on a coin, we have this. the same word used in Matthew 22. The image of a man or a bird or a beast in Romans chapter 1 is spoken of with regard to those who would make idols. Adam’s descendants who bear his image in 1st. Corinthians 15, they bear something about his spiritual image. The Old Testament sacrificial system is said to be a shadow but not the image of the good things to come, to the book of Hebrews. There’s something very murky and obscure about those Old Testament sacrificial symbols. The Christian is said to be renewed in the image of God in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 10 and we’ll be looking at that later in our study Lord willing. But here we’re talking about the spiritual image, the knowledge and the holiness and the righteousness of God. Some Some images are perfect images. In other words, they have some entire exact, full resemblance to the subjects that they represent. Some, however, are imperfect images. Some perhaps just express a particular thing about the subject, but it’s defective in conveying all the features and aspects of the original. For example, when Jesus held up a coin, a Roman coin, and said, whose image is on this coin? Of course, it provided Caesar’s image on the coin, but it was a physical likeness. It didn’t convey anything about the character of Caesar, so it was not a complete representation. Adam, we said, it was created according to Scripture, in the image of God. God. And there were spiritual qualities he had, such as knowledge and righteousness and holiness. He was made master over all creation. In some ways, he represented God’s image. But at the same time, it wasn’t a perfect representation because he was not all powerful, all-knowing, and so forth. He wasn’t omnipresent. He didn’t have authority over everything in heaven and earth. So this is what is meant by the word image. Now, in what says, is Christ said to be the image of God? Now, obviously, as the son of God, as the second person of the Holy Trinity, he would have a perfect image of God. However, Paul here is speaking about Jesus Christ as the mediator. As the one who came to die, as the one who is the God man, How about this situation? How should he be viewed? Well, surely the apostle here speaks of our Lord having the image of God is much different than we would talk about man alone having the image of God. There’s got to be a difference between them. Christ, of course, has a perfect image of God. An exact representation of the Lord. While human beings in our even now in our fallen state, in a worse condition than Adam was in his unfallen state, are not even close. We have some remnants that we have. And as believers, we still have a renewed image in us, but it’s not perfect. Did not our Lord say that he that has seen me has seen the Father. That is an astounding statement, isn’t it? He that seeth me, seeeth him that sent me. There’s another thing that he said. The writer of Hebrews in chapter 1 says about Jesus Christ is the mediator that he has the express image of God, of the Father. He has a perfect representation of the the Father found in him. These statements are so exceedingly elegant and expressive that they convey to us some type of perfect representation that Christ provides for us. When you think about the nature of Christ, he perfectly represents the Father. Is he not the true God? Does not Scripture say that He was God manifested in the flesh? Does not He say the Scripture? say that he’s our great God and Savior. Overall, God blessed forever. And so forth. Jesus Christ is the proper object, therefore, of your worship, the Scripture indicates to us, and your adoration. All men ought to honor him even as they honor the Father, Jesus said about himself as the Son of God. John chapter 5. The same honor you give the Father, you ought to give me. The very angels worship him, according to the book of Hebrews. So God alone is to be worshipped. and Jesus Christ, the mediator, is called God and demands the same worship as God because he is the exact image, spiritual image, of God. Think of the attributes God. Is the Father eternal? So is the Son, according to Scripture. Before Abraham was, I am. The Father is immutable. He never changes. Neither does the son. His character is the same yesterday, today, today, and forever, the Bible says. The Father is infinite. So is the Son. As the Father fills heaven and earth, Scripture says about Jesus Christ when he talked to Nicodemus, he actually talks to Nicodemus on earth. And yet speaks about the Son of God being in heaven. at the same time in John chapter 3. The father is omniscient. So as the son. What is He, Revelation 223, Jesus says, I am he which searcheth the reins in the heart. The son so perfectly knows the Father that he can declare and reveal him like no one else according to Scripture. Jesus could read hearts. He knew what was in man, the Bible tells us. The Father is Almighty, and so is Christ. All power is given unto me. In heaven and earth, the Scripture indicates. There is no attribute of the Father, which is lacking in the Son. Look at the works of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ represents the Father perfectly in this aspect. John 519. What thing soever the Father doeth the same, doeth the Son likewise. Whatever the Father does, the Son does. does the Father preserve the world by his providence? Well, don’t we not read that Jesus Christ upholds all things by the word of his power? does the Father love us and deliver up his son to save us? does not Jesus say that he lays down his own life to save us? the Father elected us. elected us. But so does the Son. I know whom I have chosen, he indicates to us. Now, the problem. The problem we have is if we’d had an imperfect image of God, then we wouldn’t be able to have God properly represented. Suppose in a certain country, there existed a village of blind men. And these blind men had heard about an amazing animal called an elephant. But they didn’t know anything about an elephant. Now, these men wanted to form an idea of what an elephant was. like. And here one day, an elephant wanders into their village. And several of the men go up and they grab hold of the elephant. One grabs the tail, one grabs the trunk, one grabs one of the legs, one grabs one of the ears. And then afterwards they get into a council and they say, okay, what is an elephant like? And the one that grabbed the trunk said that the elephant seemed to him to have the body of a plankton tree. The man who felt the ear said it felt like the fan with which the Hindus cleaned their rice. The man who had the tail said, well, the elephant was more like a snake. And the man who sees the legs said, it must be like a pillar, because that’s what it felt like to me. In the end, they were still completely confused because they didn’t have a perfect image of what an elephant was like. Respecting God’s image, man needs a perfect representation. representation. And Jesus Christ provides a perfect representation of the true and living God. Look at Colossians 2, if you would, in verse 9, just a page over. For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the fullness of the godhead bodily. There it is. Completely. Jesus Christ is the image of God. Jesus Christ reveals the envisible. Jesus Christ reveals the invisible. Jesus Christ reveals God. We talked about the fact that God is the spirit. You can’t see God. You have no way to view him with your physical eye. No man has seen him or can see him, according to 1 Timothy 616. The Eternal Father has a nature that’s so sublime that he dwells in in approachable light, the Bible says. Who can approach him? But God, has stooped to manifest himself to us through the person of Jesus Christ, the God, man. And so we have the fact that the scripture says the word, eternal word, Jesus Christ, was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory, as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. No man has seen God at any time, the scripture says in John 1118. The only begotten of the father, the only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father, he hath declared him. So Christ’s glorious and excellent Godhead shines through the veil of his flesh to reveal to us in some way a perfect representation of the true and living God. even in the state of abasement, even in a state of suffering, Christ reveals the Father perfectly. The essential glories of the Son of God are there. You see his omnipotence. He’s in the ship on the Sea of Galilee, when the winds of the storm is up and the rains pouring in and the waves are coming into the ship and he gets up and says peace, be still and all of a sudden everything’s gone. You see it in the fact of his power over the grave and death. You see him rising Lazarus from the dead. Come forth, Lazarus, he says. We see his moral glories in the fact that he’s full of grace and truth. It is the son who appeared in the Old Testament. saw God in the Old Testament, it’s always the sun that is actually being seen. When Abraham saw the Lord and talked with him, when Moses and the elders of Israel went up on Mount Sinai and saw some representation of the Lord, when Isaiah did in Isaiah 6 or Ezekiel, even Nebuchadnezzar, when he looks into the fiery furnace, he sees the fourth man there with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abedigo, one like the son of the son of God, the Bible says. It was Christ in that sense. So Jesus Christ is the living image in which the majesty, the nature, and the goodness of God appear in all their fullness. Now, two observations I’ll make from this. The first is this. You see here the evil of idolatry. God is invisal, therefore he cannot be worshipped by something. It’s imperfect image of himself. It’s foolish to think that a lifeless idol can somehow capture the image of the true and the living God. Idols undermine Christ’s purpose. Christ is the image of the invisible God. That’s Christ’s duty. And when we are looking at idols, we’re not looking at Christ, who is the perfect representation of the Lord. So if you want a visible representation of God, study Jesus Christ, for He is God manifested in the flesh. The second observation. We see this as the blessing of heaven. God is invisible to you and I. And yet our happiness would be to see God. Remember Moses said, I want to see you. I’ll let you see my hindered parts. I can’t see me. No man can see me and live. this ought to make a sigh and long for the life to come because what does the Bible say? What did Jesus tell us in the sermon of the Mount? Blessed are the pure and heart for they shall see God. There will be a day when we’re made perfect and we’ll be able to see God as he is. To that end, it behooves us to follow peace and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Do we have a pure heart? Only Christ can provide that. and coming to him by faith is the only way we will ever see God. For Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes under the Father except by Him. So you should understand Christ’s relationship to the Father. Secondly, this morning, you should understand Christ’s relationship to the creature. The firstborn of every creature. Now, there is a person. has been a heretical teaching that has come from this particular passage of scripture. It’s been misused. If you talk with some of the cults like the Jehovah Witnesses, they resurrect the old Aryan doctrine and claim that Jesus Christ is a created being based upon this particular passage of scripture. They believe that Jesus Christ is the first created angel. And because he is spirit like God, he resembles God in some way. He’s a God, but he’s not the God. He’s mighty, but we’re told he’s not almighty by the Jehovah Witnesses. They believe when Christ came to earth that he was purely man, that he had shed any type of angelic or spiritual image. Since Christ is said to be the creator of all things. If you look at verse 16, for by him, were all things created, this is the mediator of the God man, leads us to realize this must not be correct. Christ didn’t create himself, did he? If he created all things, and he’s a created being, then he would have had to create himself. That cannot be what it means in this text of scripture when he talks about the first point. Think about this for a moment. Jesus went around telling people that he forgave their sins. I forgive you your sins. You remember the woman taken in an adultery, for example. Now, it’s quite natural for a man to forgive someone or forgive someone for doing something wrong to them, forgive someone who perhaps, to cheat you out of somebody. Suppose somebody cheats me out of $50. It’s quite possible to say, well, I forgive him and we’ll speak no more of the matter. I could do that. But what would you do, however? Someone cheated you out of $50 and I said, that’s all right. Forget about it. Don’t bring it up again because I forgave him. What would you think? Who are you to forgive this person? Hey, he owes me to money, not you. You could understand someone getting upset with that. If Christ is not fully God, if he is not God, but only a creature, even an angel of the highest order, then he would have no right to forgive the sins of others. That’s God’s prerogative. That’s not his prerogative. If he’s just a creative being. Only if he’s the God man. Only if he’s fully divine. Does it make sense for him to go around forgiving sin? So we see the heretical misuse of this passage. Let’s understand this passage. Let’s get to the true meaning of Christ being the firstborn. Two thoughts have come out of this passage that we could consider. Both of these, I think, are valuable, and both of them carry weight. We should look at the first board here in the sense of he is first, in the decree of God, or first in the design of God. We’re going to have to look at this later as we go through this section of Scripture. This passage deals with the work of God in creation and regeneration. It is seen from the viewpoint of God’s eternal good pleasure, as he tells us here in verse 19, for it pleased the Father to do this or do that. Thus, you shall see it completed only when the work of God is a He’s carrying out a plan and he’s going to accomplish that plan. For it’s plain that in time, Christ, but Adam is the first born of all creatures, right? Adam was the first man that was created. And it should be obvious that Christ is being considered here as the mediator of the covenant. The sun, as the second person of the Holy Spirit, or the Holy Trinity, is the mediator. not called the firstborn of every creature. As the son of God, he doesn’t belong among the creatures. But as the God man, we could see something different. So it’s not Jesus Christ is not the firstborn of every creature according to his divine person, but Jesus Christ is the firstborn of every creature in his human nature. As a man. As the New Testament tells us in Romans 8, he’s the first born among many brothers. What am I saying here? The man Jesus Christ, to his human nature that is now united to his divine nature, which is eternal. But the human nature is a nature that had to be brought in the being. Christ is not first in time, but he’s first in eternal decree. And we’re going to see that Christ is as the God man is the very first thing. that God had purposed and to bring glory to His Son in this way. And then everything else that he creates is going to be related back to that original purpose. So in God’s design, the first thing that he had in mind was the idea of glorifying his son son through a mediator, the God man, the God man, Jesus Christ himself. in his human and divine nature locked together. So he is the first in the order of decree here. Creation exists for Christ is what he’s going to tell us in the rest of this chapter. Everything about creation relates to Christ. He, in God’s father’s good pleasure, he is what everything is going toward. Everything is going toward. is moving toward Christ as the head of all things as the God man and everything being subjected to him. So the end here is not Adam. The end is Christ as the God man. All things in heaven and earth are united to Christ, reconciled to God. That’s the end that we’re going to look forward to. And this means that God willed all the other creatures, Adam, the angels, even Satan, every man, animal, plant, tree, whatever. afterwards, after he first planned Christ as the God man, for the sake of Christ, as verse 16 will indicate to us. And God set his good pleasure on Jesus Christ and his eternal purpose. This implies that’s not just Christ himself, as we’ll see, but the church connected with Christ as well. This implies that God decreed, Jesus Christ is the man with whom he would establish the covenant with his church. He was chosen first, and then we were chosen in him, as he talks about in Ephesians chapter 1. I don’t want to boggy down in a lot of details, but this is the idea, first in design or first in decree. But then we should understand this also, in the second sense, and first in dominion. In the scripture, the person who is the first in the first, for becomes the head of the family or the responsible one in the family. All the value is weighted on him. You recall that he is the heir of all things. He is the leader of the family. Isaac says of Jacob, behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brother have I given to him for servants. Esau, when he got cheated out of the birthright, the birthright went to Jacob, he says, Lord, can’t you bless me? He says, I’ve already made him Lord over you. And all his brothers are going to be servants to him. Thus that the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn. We read in Exodus chapter 4. God’s people are all heirs of God, and therefore they stand superior to all the other nations on the earth. John Gill, the Baptist commentator, says that the Jews make the word firstborn synonymous with the word king or prince or great one and thus we read in Psalm 89 27 also I will make him the Messiah my firstborn higher than the kings of the earth what does Daniel 9 speak about but Messiah the prince again we’re talking about the mediator here the God man so Jesus Christ is the God man is the God man is the king the Lord the governor of all creatures So being God’s firstborn, an heir of all things, and having the right to govern over all, is what is viewed here. He’s higher than the kings of the earth. He’s higher than the angels of heaven. He is higher than the highest rank of any creature. And so the firstborn doesn’t necessarily have to relate to creation at all, but expresses Christ’s position as the master and Lord of all. So Jesus Christ is the Lord overall. He bears dominion over the realms of the earth and therefore he is the king of kings and the Lord of Lords, as the scripture indicates to us. One observation, and I’ll close. You should draw confidence when you come to a passage of scripture and you understand it properly like this because we live in a troublesome world. There’s a lot of evil going on. There’s a lot of things happening. There’s hatred. There is, we see, forces in this world that are against the Christian, against the believer, against the church. Remember that Jesus Christ sits on the throne as our resurrected Lord. He reigns over all. And therefore, our confidence must be in him. Will not your king govern in such a way that will ultimately benefit his church? Will he not preserve his church? Will not the end that God? has purposed come to pass. Yes, it will. And so Christ tells you not to fear, not to be disheartened, not to be downcast. Why do we tremble in fear? Why are we so timid when we’re to speak for Christ? why are we always troubled? It all seems to be lost. Christ still reigns. He’s on the throne. So never for a moment think Christ has forgotten about you. and that all things are against you, and man, there’s just no hope. Of course, things may look bad, but Christ is still reigning. And all things were created by God to be put under his feet. And he reigns over all. Everything’s for his purpose. So look to the heavens. From whence comes your help in your time of difficulty because Christ reigns on hell. Hi. Well, When David won that tremendous victory, everybody’s asking, who is this guy? We look at Christ in the New Testament who came to die. Who is he? Who is this Savior that we speak so highly of? Why, he is the express image of God, the Father, and he is the firstborn among all the creatures of this earth. So we have relationship to his father and his relationship to every creature. Let us close with the world. Thank you.