Lesson 6 of 8 · Passage study · Knowing Jesus
Jesus, the Image of the Invisible God
The answer “I am Jesus” opens into the breathtaking confession of Colossians: the one invisible God has made Himself known in Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh.
“Who is the image of the invisible God… and by him all things consist.”8 minute study
Jesus is not another divine person alongside God. He is the bodily revelation of the one invisible God, and in Him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells.
01
The invisible God made known
God is beyond the reach of human discovery by our own wisdom, yet He has not remained unknown. Colossians calls Jesus “the image of the invisible God.” The Son is not a second deity; He is the Word made flesh, perfectly revealing the God we cannot see.
To ask what God is like is therefore to look toward Jesus—His holiness and compassion, authority and humility, truth and grace, cross and resurrection. We do not move past Christ to find a deeper version of God.
02
Creator, not creature
The title “firstborn of every creature” speaks in a paragraph that immediately declares all things were created by Christ, through Christ, and for Christ, and that He is before all things. The language announces supremacy and inheritance, not that Jesus belongs to creation.
Everything visible and invisible depends on Him. Powers, structures, histories, and our own breath are not self-sustaining. “By him all things consist.” The One who met Paul is the One in whom creation holds together.
03
Preeminent in creation and new creation
Jesus is also the head of the body, the Church, and the firstborn from the dead. The Creator has entered His creation, passed through death, and risen as the beginning of new creation.
His purpose is preeminence—not one respected place among the many interests of life, but first place in everything. A Christ-centered life is simply a life coming into agreement with reality.
04
All fullness dwells in Him
Colossians 2 warns against systems rooted in human tradition and spiritual principles “not after Christ.” The answer is not a better philosophy but the fullness already present in Jesus: “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”
The knowledge of Jesus cannot be reduced to admiration for a teacher or representative. Jesus is not a second divine person alongside God or a portion of deity. No fullness is missing from Him, and no deeper version of God waits beyond Him. Those joined to Christ are called to remain rooted and built up in Him.
Study the Word
Read these passages in context.
Read the whole paragraph together: image, Creator, sustainer, head, resurrection, preeminence, fullness, and reconciliation.
Paul contrasts human tradition with the fullness of God dwelling bodily in Christ.
Jesus directs those who would see the Father to His own person, words, and works.
Respond
Questions for reflection
- Is Jesus central to my understanding of God, or merely one part of it?
- What would it mean for Christ to have first place in the practical structure of my life?
- Where am I searching for spiritual completeness outside of Him?
Jesus, image of the invisible God, let me behold the Father revealed in You. Take first place in every part of my life. Root me in Your fullness and free me from every substitute that is not after Christ.