One of the most fabulous quotes in today’s bible reading is the description of Jesus as ‘the image of the invisible God’.
Just think about that phrase for a moment. Jesus is ‘the image of the invisible God’.
God revealed himself. By looking at Jesus we see God.
How amazing is that? The true nature and essence of our Father God, the God of all creation, the God of things past and the God of things yet to come, was revealed.
By looking at Jesus we have the humble honour and privilege of seeing God himself.
So what was revealed?
Love
God’s love was truly revealed through Jesus. Through his acts of love – when he cured the sick, when he prioritised people over laws, when he reached out to the unclean – but also through his teachings. He told us to love and to make this our priority – to love God with our whole mind, heart and soul and to love others as ourselves.
We know that the word love is perhaps our best attempt at describing the true nature of God, thanks to Christ revealing his true nature to us.
Grace
Jesus came both to explain God’s grace and to show God’s grace when he died in our place.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
We are saved from sin, not by our own works but from the freely given blessing of God. He achieved this through Jesus and through our faith in Jesus.
Before Jesus we were getting it all wrong. We thought that through sacrificing animals we could make amends with God for all that we did wrong. We were blind to his grace until it was revealed through Jesus.
Jesus came both to explain God’s grace and to show God’s grace when he died in our place.
Reconciliation
In today’s bible reading we will also be hearing that Jesus revealed that God’s priority wasn’t to condemn us but to reconcile himself to us.
We don’t deserve to have an audience with God. We don’t deserve to be in a relationship with him but that is what he offers us through Christ. Reconciliation.
Sometimes when we read the Old Testament we don’t recognise the God that we know through our experiences of his Spirit and also from the image of God that was revealed through Jesus. God’s priority wasn’t to condemn us but to reconcile himself to us. Jesus truly was the ‘the image of the invisible God’.
This letter begins with a salutation, thanksgiving and an opening prayer.
What is striking is the warmth of this greeting. Paul is unlikely to have met these people but he shares his delight in them. Word has got back to Paul that these were faithful, committed people who are bearing fruit and who love in the Spirit and he has the grace to share those words of encouragement with them.
How quick are we to often focus only on our shortcomings and forget all the wonderful things we do accomplish with Christ’s help. A balancing act between not wanting to inflate our egos but we must encourage others and give thanks to God for what each of us do accomplish in his name.
So it’s a lovely warm and gracious greeting by Paul.
When did you last receive a letter like that? Perhaps we have lost something important in the often very casual greetings in letters we send to family and friends. If a letter is sent at all rather than text.
We all need to feel encouraged on this journey.
Paul also tells them that ‘we have not ceased praying for you’. How wonderful to feel that they are not alone that they are held up in prayer to God by others.
It is a natural human trait to not want to feel alone and our innate longing for reconciliation with God and deepening of relationships with others, testifies to that fact.
And so the warmth continues through this letter as they hear of Paul’s prayers for them. Prayers for them to be ‘filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding’ (v9); prayers for strength, endurance and patience; and with a reminder to give thanks for what Jesus has already done for them. He has rescued them – rescued them from the power of darkness, transferred them into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom they have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.(v13-14)
We will use this prayer later in the service as we pray for each other but for now we reflect on how we need to encourage one another; to not cease praying for one another and we do that in the warmth and love that Paul is demonstrating to us in this letter.
There are many similarities between this section of the letter and the gospel reading from John. They are both declaring who Christ is.
It is packed full of theology and with words that melt like truffles in a Christian’s mouth.
He is the image of the invisible God.
The firstborn of all creation;
all things have been created through him and for him.
He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
He is the head of the body, the church;
he is the beginning
the firstborn from the dead
in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself to all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
This is a poem and poetry can speak to us all in different ways. Different words may have stood out to you as significant and at different times in our lives a poem can speak to us at different levels.
This poem can appear confusing and complex, particularly when it is first read, but it is worth pursuing – the journey of discovery is part of the joy of following Christ. Just in the same way that Jesus’ parables often speak differently to us each time they are read.
This poem celebrates who Christ is.
We live in a society where most people believe that there is a God or some sort of source to the universe. That part is relatively easy to accept without much faith as we are surrounded by the splendour of creation and not everything can be explained through science alone.
But as Christians we need to remember that Christ is at the heart of our faith – A Christian follows Christ. So we need to remember to talk about Christ and not just God.
To do this we need to, and want to, remember who he is and what he achieved.
We need to remember who he is and what he achieved so we can share our faith with others. We need to remember who he is and what he achieved so we can thank him for all that he has done for us.
This poem sums up who Christ is.
He is the image of the invisible God.
‘He is the image of the invisible God’.
During our game of catchphrase we explored how God revealed himself through Christ Jesus. By looking at Christ we see God.
God’s love shone through Christ as God’s heart was literally unveiled. His grace was poured out to us, whilst we were not deserving, and why – because his true nature did not want to condemn us but to reconcile himself to us.
God revealed himself through Christ Jesus and through him God was pleased to reconcile himself to all things. Christ is the image of the invisible God.
All things
Secondly we pick up on those words ‘All things’
all things have been created through him and for him.
He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself to all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
The poem explains the relationship between our Father God and Jesus his firstborn. Jesus was both the reason for all things to be created and through him all things were created.
And the wonderful revelation of the line, ‘and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself to all things’, well to me, that assures us that no one is beyond the reach of God’s love. All can be saved. Salvation is there for everyone who turns to God, and not just for a chosen few.
In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell
And finally, ‘in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell’
The fullness of God dwelt in Jesus. God came down to earth and resided in Jesus. God came down to earth.
We don’t have a God that simply reigns over us like royalty. He came and lived amongst us. He felt our pain, he felt our suffering and, whilst foreknowing what would happen to his only son, he made that sacrifice on our behalf – a sacrifice that no parent would chose to make.
He came and lived amongst us. Residing in Jesus through the moments of joy, the moments love but also in the moments of sacrifice and pain.
Why would God do that? Because he wants us to be in a relationship with him, to be reconciled to him and not just to be worshipped and adored by us.
Colossians 1: 21-23
There are just 3 verses left to cover today that we haven’t yet read or reflected on. Verses 21 -23.
And you who were once estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him— provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.
A further reminder of Jesus’ sacrifice for us. Through his death we have been reconciled to God – holy and blameless and beyond reproach.
Reconciliation came through Christ’s death, a death which wonderfully wiped the slate clean, so that we may be presented to God. But we need to keep steadfast in the faith.
Our final acceptance is dependent not only on an initial commitment, but on remaining ‘steadfast’ and not drifting away before the gospel hope has been realised, the time when we are presented holy and blameless and irreproachable before God.
Conclusion
And this is where we finish today on this journey through Paul’s letter to the Colossians.
So in this first part Paul warmly encourages them; he prays for them without ceasing; he reminds them who it is that is at the heart of their faith; and he reminds them of the sacrifices that have been made for the joy of reconciliation with God.
May we encourage each other, may we pray for each other and may we continually remember, give thanks for and share with others, the one who is at the heart of our faith – Jesus Christ – who made the ultimate sacrifice for all to be saved. Amen.
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