What Image of God Works for You?

As God, Jesus Christ has a unique relationship to God the Father. Through his incarnation this unique relationship is shown in his making visible the invisible God.

This is what Paul means when he says in Colossians 1:15: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation..

Obviously the key term here is Image. The word translated image is Eikon which means image or likeness. We get our similarly sounding English word icon from it, meaning statue. Eikon is used this way in the NT, specifically depicting the portrait or image of Caesar on a coin (Matt. 22.20) as well as in Rev. 13.14 in depicting the statue of the Anti-Christ.

Jesus, being the image of God has revealed and demonstrated the very nature and character of God. That which is invisible, has now been made visible. God’s character has been disclosed.

God has intentionally disclosed himself in and through Christ. He has revealed himself in clear, authoritative, final terms. As a result, you can imagine I was a bit exercised when I saw this sign on a church in Omaha, just a day after preaching on Colossians 1:15.

This is surely a sign of the times. God is whoever we want him to be. He is marginalized and relativized into utter obscurity. Sadly, the church today has become the spiritual equivalent of the plastic surgeon’s office. There have been attempts to recast, redefine, remold and remix God at every turn.

There is a grave difference between receiving and rejoicing in the image of the invisible God as manifested by Christ, and updating and recasting him in our image.

It is a deadly perversion to chisel a God in our image and call him Jesus. And this is the great idolatry of our day. The Colossian heretics denied Jesus’ humanity, today many, in practicality, deny Jesus’ divinity.

Sadly too many think of a Jesus as designed by artists and painted in murals; rather than seeing him as he is as articulated in Scripture.

See, God sent a man, in his image, and called him Jesus. In light of this, we ought to be thinking clearly and biblically when we aim to represent Jesus, his will and work, because he is the image of God.

By virtue of Christ’s position as God, his work as the image of God is valuable. He has graciously, clearly, authoritatively and with finality made the invisible God known. We cannot trump what he has done.

No amount of imagination, contemplation, education, or inebriation can cast any more light upon the invisible God than our Lord Jesus Christ. ‘Good intentions’ springing from a heart that aims to be ‘more tolerant’ is nothing more than idolatry. It’s time for confessing believers to put down the chisel and get on our face before the living God who changes not.

What image of God works for you?  How about the one that works for God?  His name is Jesus.

Here is the entire audio from this weekend’s sermon on Colossians 1.15 entitled The Resume of Jesus Part 1

Possibly Related posts:

1. The Greater Abel works for this Cain
2. If you don’t get questions about works and grace then are you preaching the gospel?
3. Smiling Upon Sovereign Grace
4. Jesus is…
5. What is Legalism and Why is it so Bad?

12 Responses to “What Image of God Works for You?”

1. Kyle Sprecher says:

   August 14, 2008 at 9:43 am

   I love this line brother: “What image of God works for you? How about the one that works for God? His name is Jesus.”

   May God grant repentance. I am so thankful He destroyed my image of God to give me an image unchanging and true.
2. Matt says:

   August 14, 2008 at 9:48 am

   Amen. Realizing we need to concern ourselves with “the God who is there” rather than “a God I can believe in” is such a crucial point. Pat hit this point hard from a slightly different angle in his sermon on Romans 1 this past week. We better be believers in the “living God” rather than what we corrupt people with finite knowledge imagine He should be.

   Thinking about how nonsensical “the God I believe in” language gets when applied to other real persons is helpful to me. “The wife I believe in would never be so saddened that I forgot our anniversary.” “The dad I believe in would surely not condemn me to grounding for such a small offense.” “I can’t believe in a policeman who would give me a ticket for going just 10 over.” Apart from grace, how terrifying it is to consider similar more serious statements applied to God when we really meet Him as He really is.
3. Seth McBee says:

   August 14, 2008 at 9:56 am

   erik.

   I think we have talked about this some, but you have to read the book “Jesus: Made in America” by Stephen J. Nichols. He gives some amazing understanding of how Jesus has been portrayed throughout the formation of American culture.

   I also amen what Kyle says…your line on the image of God should be the one that works for God, not us…

   Are you starting some kind of underground 5 point picture movement? Because I am in…now I just have to figure out which stupid sign to pick out of the many that I pass by everyday to give the “5 finger shout out” to.
4. Seth McBee says:

   August 14, 2008 at 9:59 am

   I also think it is ironic that the church ran out of “w” so they decided to take it out of the word “Worship” and put it in the title instead on the sign…hmmmm…a little prophecy?

   Worshiping the tagline instead of Christ? maybe?

   Because when the the Lord’s day isn’t about worshiping what God says about Himslef then it does just turn into “orship”

   hahahaha
5. Barry says:

   August 14, 2008 at 12:01 pm

   To me God is …… That is idolatry. Right out of Romans 1 baby.
6. Erik says:

   August 14, 2008 at 2:13 pm

   Seth, yes. As an unbeliever I did a lot of graffitti, now, I may ‘tag’ stuff with the loaded sola hand reference…so feel free to join in the parade tag stuff up.

   I had wondered if anyone would have noticed the missing ‘W’ I also wondered if they ran out of ‘T’s on the end there.
7. Seth McBee says:

   August 14, 2008 at 2:53 pm

   dude…seriously…I didn’t do a lot of graffitti art…but I tagged…a lot…around Seattle…
8. Erik says:

   August 14, 2008 at 4:30 pm

   I noticed the header on your site…is that the RUFA font?

   and now you like tattoos…amazing.
9. Seth McBee says:

   August 14, 2008 at 6:33 pm

   I got it off of 1001 Free Fonts and they called that one, “Tags Xtreme”

   And yes, my name is Seth, and I am addicted to tats.

   I actually am about to get another one in the next three months…should be pretty cool…quarter sleeve that will take up my upper left arm and shoulder…
10. Seth McBee says:

    August 14, 2008 at 6:49 pm

    I love getting moderated…is it because I used the term tats, addicted or Seth?
11. P.B. says:

    August 15, 2008 at 5:57 am

    Hey Erik,

    Just in case anyone might think you misrepresented the title of the sermon (in the sense that the preacher is lamenting the post-modern application of ‘image’ to God), I would urge anyone to visit the website (add a third “W”). I browsed through all the available links and found only four “sermons” posted, from over two years ago. One representative line from the first sermon posted is:

    “Do not ever think that the scripture is beyond reproach when it comes to remembering and writing about its memory. It is not! It is a human document and being human, it is subject to prejudice, malice, ignorance, fear, and even hatred.”

    And just in case anyone think the above is taken out of context, below is the preceding words in full:

    “The Gospel of Mary, dating from the first quarter of the 2nd century, C.E., is a Gospel written by a particular community of faith who had Mary Magdalene as their leader, preacher, and teacher. The following passage is from the Gospel of Mary. Jesus said: “Do not lay down any rules beyond what I appointed you, and do not give a law like the lawgiver lest you be constrained by it.” When He said this He departed. But they (his followers) were grieved. They wept greatly, saying, how shall we go to the Gentiles and preach the gospel of the Kingdom of the Son of Man? If they did not spare Him, how will they spare us? Then Mary stood up, greeted them all, and said to her brethren, “Do not weep and do not grieve nor be irresolute, for His (Jesus’) grace will be entirely with you and will protect you. But rather, let us praise His greatness, for He has prepared us and made us into Men.” When Mary said this, she turned their hearts to the Good, and they began to discuss the words of Jesus. Peter said to Mary, “Sister we know that Jesus loved you more than the rest of woman. Tell us the words which you remember, which you know, but we do not, nor have we heard them.” Mary answered and said, “What is hidden from you I will proclaim to you.” Responding to Mary’s word of instruction, Peter answered and spoke concerning these same things. He questioned them about Jesus: “Did He really speak privately with a woman and not openly to us? Are we to turn about and all listen to her? Did He prefer her to us?” Then Mary wept and said to Peter, “My brother Peter, what do you think? Do you think that I have thought this up myself in my heart, or that I am lying about Jesus?” Levi answered and said to Peter, “Peter you have always been hot tempered. Now I see you contending against the woman like the adversaries. If Jesus made her worthy, who are you indeed to reject her? Surely Jesus knows her very well. That is why He loved her more than us. Rather let us be ashamed and put on the perfect Man, and separate, as He commanded us, and preach the gospel, not laying down any other rule or other law beyond what Jesus said. And when they heard this they began to go forth to proclaim and to preach.”—from The Gospel of Mary You can get The Gospel of Mary on the internet or from Karen King’s (professor of ecclesiastical history at Harvard Divinity School) book, The Gospel of Mary of Magdala: Jesus and the First Woman Apostle. King says that Mary Magdalene was a prominent disciple of Jesus, an apostle, and a leader in the church after the resurrection. What happened to Mary, the apostle, leader, and possible wife of Jesus? The Gospel of Philip, written in the second half of the 3rd century, says: “There were three who always walked with Jesus, Mary his mother, his sister, and Magdalene, the one who was called his companion.—-They are all called Mary.” Why don’t we know more about our sister Mary? Why do some folks act like she is the adversary? Why is the Roman Church afraid of her? How did Mary Magdalene, a major player in Christianity’s defining moment, come to be so maligned and discredited? The answer is that at the end of the 6th century, Pope Gregory the Great gave a series of sermons in which he characterized Mary Magdalene as a prostitute by identifying her with the woman in Luke’s Gospel, who bathes Jesus’ feet with her tears and dries them with her hair.—Luke 7: 36ff Yet, nothing in Christian scripture says Mary was a prostitute. The Gospel of Luke says that Jesus casts seven demons from her, after which she becomes active in the Jesus movement and helped provide for the movement. She witnessed the crucifixion when all of the male followers fled. She was the first to experience the resurrection of Jesus. Karen King says: “If one wanted to discredit Mary Magdalene, simply saying that she was a woman and her witness was unreliable was not sufficient. Saying that she hadn’t been an important disciple, or hadn’t been with Jesus, that was not possible, because that was in the tradition. But to see her as a prostitute, this was a way of maligning her in a way that would stick.” It did. Basically, after Jesus’ death, the church began to back away from Jesus’ acceptance of female leadership within the movement; this is particularly the case when the movement becomes an institution, the church. The farther the movement, and then the church, got from Jesus the more threatened it became by strong female leadership. Perhaps it began with Peter being threatened by Mary, who knows, except that it did happen. In 1906, in a cave above the ruins of Ephesus, an archeologist uncovered two 6th century images, one of the Apostle Paul, the other of Thecla, a female companion of Paul and leader in the early church. Both figures are painted as equals on the cave wall. Thecla and Paul were equal apostolic leaders and teachers in the early church. Yet, later in the 6th century, perhaps after Pope Gregory the Great maligned Mary, someone defaced the image of Thecla, gouging out her eyes and cutting off her fingers held in the classic teaching position. But this misogyny began earlier. By the writing of First Timothy, a letter attributed to Paul, but not written by him, women were being maligned. The letter says that woman should be silent in the church. Paul was not a misogynist, a woman hater. It was a later revisionist of Paul’s writings that stuck that on him. A later writer, for example, inserted into Paul’s letter, First Corinthians, that it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. Elaine Pagels, author of the book, The Gnostic Gospels, says “in some of these other Gospels, we find women in very different positions, with very different kinds of respect as disciples, as apostles, as teachers than you find them in the Gospels of the New Testament.””

    I think the above is a fair representative sampling of the kind of words that the people in the pew heard on that particular Sunday.

    BTW, I heard you were sick. Delaney and I prayed for you last night!

    Yours for our Master,
    P.B.
12. Erik says:

    August 15, 2008 at 8:07 am

    PB- good investigative work. Sadly liberalism is alive and well. “Do not ever think that the scripture is beyond reproach…” What autonomy!

    Thanks for praying, feeling much better.