He is the image of the invisible God (Col 1:15)
Father, Help us see you by showing us Jesus.
God wants you to know Him. That is a radical thought. It is something like saying that you want this grub worm to know you … only the gap between us and God is greater. Yet it is true. God wants you to know Him. For us to know God, however, He must reveal Himself to us, for if God does no revealing, we shall have no knowledge. God’s revelation comes in at least three forms.
The first form is that of nature. The heavens declare the glory of God (Ps 19:1), and we can learn something of God’s “invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature” (Rom 1:20), by looking at creation. This should not surprise us, for we can infer things about Monet by looking at Water Lilies or Michelangelo by viewing the Sistine Chapel. In fact, the revelation we receive from nature is so plain, that, to God, people who reject Him are without excuse. But the information nature can give us about God is limited; therefore, we need more.
The second form of God’s revelation is the Bible. Nature can tell us of God’s power, creativity and glory, but it doesn’t get specific. The Bible puts God’s communication into words. The advantage of words is that God can go into more detail. He can give specifics about what He likes and does not like, about how He works and does not work. Nature cannot do this just as Water Lilies cannot tell us how Monet treated his wife.
The third form of God’s revelation is that He came to earth. That is what Jesus is about. He is Emmanuel, that is, God with us. Jesus is God’s most specific and clearest revelation of all. It is as if, in the Bible, God sent a personal letter, but in Jesus, He paid a personal visit. The life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus on earth is the centerpiece of God’s revelation. Jesus brings God into focus. He is the image of the invisible God, and in Him the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form (Col 1:15; 2:9). When you look on Jesus, you are getting a glimpse into the heart of God. Therefore, if you want to know God, it is important to look at Jesus. So for the next several months, we’ll take a look at who Jesus is.
