Through Him and For Him

The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Colossians 1:15-17

What does it mean that Jesus is the image of the invisible God? It is much like the little boy who was drawing pictures on the floor one day as his mother was working. She said to him, What are you drawing? He said, I'm drawing a picture of God. But no one knows what God looks like, she said. They will when I get through! the boy replied.

There is a rather profound truth in that story when it is applied to Jesus. It is as though that baby lying in the manger in Bethlehem is a picture being drawn for us. It would be proper to say of that baby that when he finishes his life's work, people will know what God is like. That is what Jesus did. Today, if you come to Jesus, you discover that in a remarkable way you have come also into the presence of God; you know God personally and intimately.

Paul also calls Jesus, The firstborn of all creation. Some say this phrase proves that Jesus was a created being and not God. But the word translated firstborn is used in the sense of the heir, the owner, the possessor of creation. This is certainly the meaning it conveys here. Carl Henry says this should be translated, the Primeval Creator of all created things. Jesus is the one who possesses, as heir or owner, all other things. The next verse clearly reveals that Jesus could not be part of God's creation, for all things were created by him. He is, then, not a part of that all. Notice the words through him and for him. He was the agent of creation and the purpose of it as well. The whole of the cosmos was made for him! That includes more than merely the material universe around us. It includes that, but it also includes that which is invisible. It would also include all forces, things like electricity, radiation, magnetism, and the peculiar and mysterious dance of electrons within the atom. All this was the design of the Eternal Son.

But creation is not only through him, it is also for him. It all operates for his honor and glory. Decades ago Albert Einstein announced a new view of space to the world. He declared that space is not, as we had thought for centuries, a linear concept, extending outward in a straight line, but that it was curved upon itself. This is what this passage is proclaiming as well. Though creation originated with the Eternal Son, it also converges again toward him in a great concentric cosmic cycle. Thus it is totally under his control. He is the reason why all things have been made. Eventually all the cosmos and all the events of history will find their place in the great purpose of the Father to honor and glorify the Son.

Lord Jesus, I worship you as the Creator and Sustainer of all things, both visible and invisible. Enlarge my view of you as the image of the invisible God. Amen.