Who is the image of the invisible God
Not of deity, though the fulness of it dwells in him; nor of
himself, though he is the true God, and eternal life; nor of the
Spirit, who also is God, and the Spirit of the Son; but the
Father, called "God", not to the exclusion of the Son or Spirit,
who are with him the one God: "and he is invisible"; not to the
Son who lay in his bosom, and had perfect and infinite knowledge
of him; nor, in some sense, to angels, who always behold his
face, but to men: no man hath seen him corporeally with the eyes
of his body, though intellectually with the eyes of the
understanding, when enlightened; not in his essence and nature,
which is infinite and incomprehensible, but in his works of
creation, providence, and grace; nor immediately, but mediately,
in and through Christ, in whom he gives the light of the
knowledge of the glory of his person and perfections; and this
not perfectly now, but in the other state, when the saints shall
see him face to face. But chiefly the Father is said to be
invisible, because he did not appear to Old Testament saints; as
his voice was never heard, so his shape was never seen; he never
assumed any visible form; but whenever any voice was heard, or
shape seen, it was the second person that appeared, the Son of
God, who is here said to be his "image", and that, as he is the
Son of God; in which sense he is the natural, essential, and
eternal image of his Father, an eternal one, perfect and
complete, and in which he takes infinite complacency and delight:
this designs more than a shadow and representation, or than bare
similitude and likeness; it includes sameness of nature and
perfections; ascertains the personality of the Son, his
distinction from the Father, whose image he is; and yet implies
no inferiority, as the following verses clearly show, since all
that the Father hath are his. Philo, the Jew F6, often
speaks of the (logov) , or
Word of God, as the image of God. Also, this may be understood of
him as Mediator, in whom, as such, is a most glorious display of
the love, grace, and mercy of God, of his holiness and
righteousness, of his truth and faithfulness, and of his power
and wisdom:
the firstborn of every creature;
not the first of the creation, or the first creature God made;
for all things in ( Colossians
1:16 ) are said to be created by him, and therefore he
himself can never be a creature; nor is he the first in the new
creation, for the apostle in the context is speaking of the old
creation, and not the new: but the sense either is, that he was
begotten of the Father in a manner inconceivable and
inexpressible by men, before any creatures were in being; or that
he is the "first Parent", or bringer forth of every creature into
being, as the word will bear to be rendered, if instead of
(prwt) (tokov) , we read (prwtot) (kov) ; which is no more than changing the place of the
accent, and may be very easily ventured upon, as is done by an
ancient writer F7, who observes, that the word is used
in this sense by Homer, and is the same as (prwtogonov) , "first Parent", and (prwtoktisthv) , "first Creator"; and
the rather this may be done, seeing the accents were all added
since the apostle's days, and especially seeing it makes his
reasoning, in the following verses, appear with much more beauty,
strength, and force: he is the first Parent of every creature,
"for by him were all things created" ( Colossians
1:16 ) , or it may be understood of Christ, as the King,
Lord, and Governor of all creatures; being God's firstborn, he is
heir of all things, the right of government belongs to him; he is
higher than the kings of the earth, or the angels in heaven, the
highest rank of creatures, being the Creator and upholder of all,
as the following words show; so the Jews make the word
"firstborn" to be synonymous with the word "king", and explain it
by (rvw lwdg) , "a great
one", and "a prince" F8; see ( Psalms 89:27
) ( Hebrews
1:2 Hebrews
1:6 ) .