Sunday: Image of the Invisible God
Daily Lesson for Sunday 15th of February 2026
When we look in the mirror or at a photograph, we see an image of ourselves, but it is a flat, two-dimensional portrayal. In some respects, a sculpture gives a clearer idea yet still falls far short of the living, breathing, animated reality. The biblical concept of image, while sometimes referring to these lesser representations, suggests something broader still.
Read Genesis 1:26-27; Genesis 5:3; 1 Corinthians 15:49; 2 Corinthians 3:18; and Hebrews 10:1. Summarize the various meanings of “image” in these passages. How might they differ from the description of Jesus as the image of God?
Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com
Human beings were created to be as much like God as possible—physically, spiritually, relationally, and functionally. Still, they reflect God’s image in certain aspects only, and sin has damaged even that. But Jesus enables us to “see” the invisible God. “He who has seen Me,” Jesus said, “has seen the Father” (John 14:9, NKJV). He is “the exact imprint” of God’s nature (Hebrews 1:3, ESV). He is God’s thought made audible and God’s character made visible.
Read Matthew 11:27 and John 1:1-2,14,18. Why is Jesus uniquely able to reveal the Father?
Note other ways in which Jesus described His relation to God the Father:
• “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working” (John 5:17, NKJV).
• “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30, NKJV).
• “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6, NKJV).
Jesus also repeatedly described Himself in an absolute sense in terms of God’s name: “I AM” (see Exodus 3:14); “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35); “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12); “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11,14); “I am the resurrection, and the life” (John 11:25); “I am in the Father, and the Father in me” (John 14:11); and “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58).
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If Jesus were anyone other than God Himself, what would it mean except that the Father sent some created being to die for us? Why is that so radically, and crucially, different from God Himself, in the Person of Christ, dying for us? |
Genesis gives a context to this idea of image:
In spite of the obscuring effect of sin, that is still God’s ideal for us.
I photograph birds and one of the things I try to capture is not just a picture of a bird sitting on a stick but something of their character. The other day I photographed a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo landing on top of his mates while they were eating and you can almost see the cheeky grin on his face as he does it. A good photograph of a bird captures its character rather than just the shape.
When God said “Let us make mankind in our image!” it was more than shape he had in mind. He wanted us to have his character.
Jesus demonstrated what it meant to be in “the image of God” during his ministry by his self-sacrificing love for the people within his earthly horizon. He could make the claim:
Do our neighbours, friends, acquaintances see glimpses of God’s character in us? Or, are we so full of religious pride that they see only us?
What a fun photo, thank you for sharing.
It is quite interesting to reflect on why an invisible God chose to reveal Himself visibly through Jesus Christ. The act of an invisible God becoming visible has important lessons to teach us.
1. God is not distant, abstract or imaginary. God is real, though invisible. We do need to guess what God is like. We look at Jesus. The character of God and His will are perfectly manifested in Jesus.
2. God, though invisible (spirit), can perfectly understand our struggles. He stepped into humanity. When we pray, we are not praying into empty space. God is very personal.
3. God taking the form of a created being (humanity) is the ultimate measure of His desire to save mankind. This measure is simply the imaginable love which demonstrates the very nature of God. Therefore, if we desire to meet and see God one day, we must also show love to one another as Jesus did to us.
4. The invisible is revealed through the visible. Likewise, our faith (invisible) must be revealed through the visible. Our faith must be manifested through our actions. Faith without works is dead (James 2:26).
5. God humbled Himself to reach us. If we have to reach the dying world, we must humble ourselves, too.
6. To know God is to know Jesus, who dwelt among us. God is not unreachable. God is not hidden in the heaven of the heavens. Through prayer, God can visit us in this world that He created. God is not an absentee Landlord.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth”. (John 1:14, NIV).
Love it brother.
We have a parlance in Africa especially among the Ibos in Nigeria that goes like this, ” a wise and successful child belongs to the father while the rebellious one belongs to the mother” ( please this quote is not to denigrate women) the implications of the parlance is that, if a child is successful or is renowned for good behavior in the community, the father will be proud to attend meetings with him or make boast about him or her among his peers, But he can never mention the name of the rebellious and unsuccessful one in public and questions or discussions concerning the child he refers to the mother.
God the Father made the following bold declarations about Christ at His baptism and at the Mount of transfiguration;
“And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Matt. 3:17
and
“While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” Matt. 17:5
These bold declarations from God the Father was as a result of Christ’s decision to dwell among men in order to display the true character of God, redirect mankind to the will of the Father and seal up every effort by sacrificing His life on the cross as a way to reveal the eternal love of God to humanity.
Christ has been given the authority to make bold declarations about those that will make heaven and if we must be part of the group, we should live now the way Christ lived, reflecting His image daily so that at last the King will say to us,
“Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” – Matt. 25:34
Wow! This really brought it home brother. It landed!
We are not strangers to images. They flood our screens daily, fill our magazines, and catch our attention on billboards. Through them, we form certain meanings. In the same way, the voice of God rings out: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” The imagery in the Bible points to the person of Jesus Christ as a unique image, unlike the ones we are accustomed to seeing in magazines and on screens. For God entered the human story only once in a unique and profound way. Through Him, everything that exists was made, and through Him God’s power is manifested in our very existence.
The Apostle Paul points out that “Claiming to be wise, many became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things” (Romans 1:22–23). Meaning they lost touch with Jesus the invisible image of God. May we all come to the realization that “Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15–23)—the invisible God who created heaven and earth, came into the world, became a man, lived a human life, died a human death, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven.
Thank you for pointing to Rom. 1:22-23. Such an important reminder to compare every concept I have of God against what I know and read of Jesus Christ directly in His Word. Many today like to take Jesus’ words and corrupt them into an image of God more comfortable, more “tolerant”, more in their own image of what love means. I take comfort that Romans 1:20-21 assures us that God can be clearly seen by everyone, and that even one protesting against Jesus as the only “Way, Truth, Life” has a conscience that is internally tugging them towards Jesus.
My Unitarian Universalist best friend of 27 years has a bobble-head doll of Jesus bobbing on the back of her bathroom sink. She has always loved me sharing Bible stories and Jesus’ parables with her (historically, I’ve always been careful to share in an inoffensive way), but God is growing in my own heart the urgency to share more fully about Jesus, still sensitively but more honestly, and last year when she asked me “well all viewpoints lead to the truth, don’t you think?” and I answered “no, I don’t think that’s true” (and that is all I said) she has been more defensive. The natural human heart wants a little tame Jesus with helpful maxims…it rebels against a God-Jesus who is all-powerful and who speaks with all authority (Mark 1:22,27; Matt. 28:18) whom we must worship (Matt. 28:17). I was there too at one time, doubting the divinity of Jesus because it seemed too unbelievable, and His blood sacrifice too confusing.
One other response to your comment, the one about images of influencers filling our screens, magazines and billboards daily, I am struck by how false or doctored those images are. Usually they are airbrushed, the “stars” are heavily made-up, now AI can even falsify an image all-together, adding in or taking away bits. Only Jesus is without make-up, without glossing over a narrative, without subtracting out unflattering parts, and still perfectly reflecting God’s character every time. 1 John 1:1-4 is a beautiful testimony by one of Jesus’ closest followers that everything they saw, heard, experienced and touched of Jesus was a Word of Life and Joy. And at the end of his gospel, John says that actually Jesus showed so much more of God than he could relate in his written account that the world itself is not big enough to contain all the books full of more stories and firsthand accounts he and others could write on Jesus’ “amazingness” (John 21:25).
Jesus is best and complete person of God that humans could have when He came to the world. You look to Jesus and see God. That is why He was the perfect candidate for our redemption from sin on the cross.
We have been so far from perfection that we can’t see it. And because Jesus was a simple man, just like you and me, many did not see His perfection. Jesus’s whole being was perfect, measured by the amount of love He gave to humanity. Love turns anything into perfection!
True indeed,Jesus is the perfect image of invisible God and like wise,we christians are the image of Christ. People should be able to see Christ in us through the way we talk, behave and generally conduct ourselves. When people see the Christ we are preaching about in us,they will come to Him but if we do not show His image in us,then we are hypocrites.
Consider the story of good Samaritan; the priest and Levites who were regarded to be ” Like Jesus- religious”,they passed by the needy person. They never reflected the image of Christ(they did not care to help). When we were at the point of death,Christ left heaven and came to die for us
To JC “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear…” 1 John 4:18