Jesus is God

Col. 1:15-20

 ^“15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶ For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷ And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. ¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

One of the clearest examples of Satan, “blinding the minds of unbelievers” [ 2 Cor. 4:4] is manifest in the sad fact that many who believe the Bible does not clearly teach that Jesus Christ is God, the second Person of the Trinity.  Look at the text above from Colossians 1:15-19 where Paul not only states this truth repeatedly, he underscores it so that it will be impossible to miss for those who have eyes to see.  Notice the following phrases in this text that scream the divinity of Jesus.

·        “He is the image of the invisible God” v.15 The reason Paul puts it this way is not to qualify or negate the fact that Jesus is God, but to highlight it.  The point is—God the Father is invisible—He is Spirit, not flesh, dwelling in unapproachable light.  But Jesus has imaged him.  In the Old Testament one of the ways people tried to image God was in “graven images.” The Ancient Near Eastern people tried to convey the form of an invisible god in a physical image.  This was forbidden to the Jews in the Second commandment—“You shall make no graven images.”  The reason is that no created thing could present an adequate image of the invisible God.  Jesus, however, uncreated, but given a physical body fully images God.  “He is the image of the invisible God.” 

·        “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on the earth…” v.16 This speaks of Jesus as Creator and the wording is not accidental.  Any good Jew knew that “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  Do you hear the echo of that proclamation in Jesus who created all things in heaven and earth?  This is a clear allusion to the creation account and as God is the only one who created the heavens and the earth and Jesus did so, he is ergo, God.

·        “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”v.19 Again, the reason for this wording is not to make it an oblique or ambiguous reference to convey that Jesus is in fact not God as some of the spiritually blind claim.  In fact, Paul says it this way to emphasize Jesus’ deity.   Paul could have said, “...in him…God was pleased to dwell.  That would have been ambiguous at best.  But he says, “In him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.”  That is—Jesus did not bear a part of God, but his fullness.  It was a FULL expression of God dwelling in him.  This is why Jesus can say to Philip in John 14:9, “He who has seen me has seen the Father.”  These are not murky messages of Christ’s deity, as some claim.  Here in five verses in Colossians chapter one are three powerful proclamations of Jesus Christ as God.  They are very clear to those whose minds have not been blinded by Satan to the truth of Christ’s deity.