Jesus Part 3… Jesus Is The Image of God

 

“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

In an effort to continually seek Jesus in the whole of Scripture, we must not be content to stop with prophecy. It is one thing to say that The Bible told of Jesus’ coming, but an entirely separate thing all together to say that the whole of Scripture is about Jesus.

However, as early on as the creation of man, we begin to get a glimpse into the mystery of Jesus.

In his account of creation Moses writes that God said, “Let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26).

My first thoughts are what is this? Or better yet, who is this? Who is the “us” that man was made in the image of?

Then again, in Genesis 3, after the fall, we are told that;

“And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” (Genesis 3:8)

At this point, if your mind works anything like mine, there is an issue to be dealt with. You see, I always think of God as this vapor-like presence… Maybe some sort ethereal red & blue fog that permeates the universe… Not as someone, and definitely not as someone who walks in a garden. In fact, this sounds much more man-like than anything I tend to imagine when I think of God.

This then, sets my mind to thinking… Could it be that God can be seen? Immediately, however, my thoughts jump to places in Scripture such as Exodus, where God tells Moses that;

“you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”” (Exodus 33:20)

Furthermore, John wrote that, “No one has ever seen God” (John 1:18a, 1 John 4:12), and even Paul taught that God is the, “Invisible God” (Colossians 1:15), “whom no one has ever seen or can see.” (1 Timothy 6:16) all of which tells me that something is off here.

How is God walking? And why would Adam & Eve think that hiding would work unless they thought that God’s sight was limited, like theirs?

Unless… There is somehow an image of the invisible God… a God-man so to speak… someone, who looks similar to a man, sounds like a man, and can even communicate with men… but who is still fully God.

And this… is where The Bible begins to explode!

You see, when we really start to dig… We truly begin to see Jesus.

Before the incarnation, He is there. Before the Angel speaks to Mary, before she ever feels her son kick inside of her, before Joseph ever sees his virgin wife round with child, before the manger, before the very first Christmas day… Jesus is there!

He is the one who spoke “to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” (Exodus 33:11).

He is the One, “who has made [God] known” (John 1:18).

“He is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15).

You see, Jesus is The Angel of God. The One who, all throughout the Old Testament, appears to men, claims divine authority, exercises divine prerogatives, and receives divine homage.

As Charles Hodge says, “If this were a casual matter, if in one or two instances the messenger [angel] spoke in the name of him who sent him, we might assume that the person thus designated was an ordinary angel or minister of God. But when this is a pervading representation of the Bible; when we find that these terms are applied, not first to one, and then to another angel indiscriminately, but to one particular Angel; that the person so designated is also called the Son of God, the Mighty God; that the work attributed to him is elsewhere attributed to God himself; and that in the New Testament, this manifested Jehovah, who led his people under the Old Testament economy, is declared to be the Son of God, the Logos, who was manifested in the flesh, it becomes certain that by the angel of Jehovah in the early books of Scripture, we are to understand a divine person, distinct from the Father.” [1]

Amazingly, Jesus is the one whom Hagar meets in the desert and declares to be, “The God of seeing” (Genesis 16:7-13).

Jesus is the one who dines with Abraham, promises a son through Sarah, sends His two angels into Sodom & Gomorra, and listens to Abraham’s plea for that very same city (Genesis 18:1-33).

Jesus is the one who stops Abraham just short of plunging a sacrificial knife into Isaac, provides a lamb for the sacrifice, and then promises him an offspring as great in the number as the sand that is on the seashore (Genesis 22:10-19).

Jesus is the one who stands atop the ladder that reaches into the heavens and promises Jacob that through his offspring the nations of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 28:11-17).

It is this same Jesus who later wrestles with Jacob, knocks his hip out of its joint, and then blesses him and tells him he has striven with God. It is this Jesus of whom Jacob later says, “I have seen God face to face” (Genesis 32:24-30, see also Hosea 12:4-5).

Jesus is The Angel of The Lord who speaks to Moses from the burning bush (Exodus 3), a fact further attested to by Jesus Himself when He tells the crowd, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58).

Furthermore, it was Jesus who, time and again, spoke to Moses “face to face, as a man speaks to his friend” (Exodus 33:11).

Jesus is the “Commander of the Army of the Lord” who appears to Joshua (Joshua 5:14).

Jesus is the one who called Gideon into service (Judges 6:11-27), and informed Manoah and his wife that they would have a son (Samson) who would deliver the Israelites from the Philistines (Judges 13:1-25). In fact, in both of cases the men are afraid of dying… having seen the face of God!

It was Jesus who appeared to both the prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 3:19-21) and King Solomon (1 Kings 3:5-14; 9:1-9; 2 Chronicles 7:12-22).

Jesus is the one whom Isaiah saw sitting on the throne, “high and lifted up, with the train of His robe filling the temple,” the sight of which sent the prophet to his knees in anguish as he immediately recognized himself as a “man of unclean lips,” and Jesus as “The King, The Lord of Hosts!” (Isaiah 6:1-7, John 12:41).

Jesus appeared to bring comfort to those being persecuted as He did with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace (Daniel 3:23-25) and Daniel during his time of mourning (Daniel 10:5-6, Revelation 1:12-16).

And finally, Jesus is the one that Daniel sees coming on the clouds of Heaven to receive dominion and authority over all peoples, nations, and languages (Daniel 7:13-14, Matthew 26:64).

You see, before Christmas ever was… Jesus is.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15–17)

The whole of Scripture doesn’t just prophecy about Jesus’, the coming Messiah…

The whole of Scripture reveals Jesus… The Divine Logos… The Angel of Jehova… The Son of God

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^[1] Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997). 485.