Perspective
The Image of the Invisible God
While visiting the Luke Society ministry in India, Dr. Pushpa and Prem Rout took their Partnership Ministry Team and me to the city of Puri to see one of the oldest and most famous Hindu temples. There we saw numerous idols and throngs of people who were making pilgrimages to see and worship them. In Myanmar, Rev. Chan Thleng brought me to an ancient Buddhist temples. I saw people splashing water on statues of Buddha, apparently seeking to please him with relief from the midday heat. Throughout Africa idols exist in the expression of animistic practices. All of these efforts point to man’s natural desire to seek God, but it is a desire distorted by the effects of sin.
Man’s attempt to create images of God is clearly forbidden in the Ten Commandments. Yet even as Moses was receiving that instruction, the Israelites pressured Aaron to build the golden calf. God is angered by such a shallow attempt to portray Himself.
The account of creation recorded in Genesis tells us that man was made in the image of God. While traveling in Colombia with Dr. Apolos Landa recently, he remarked how Scripture seems to indicate that God put “special thought” into that particular event of Creation. God said in Genesis 1:26a, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…” Apolos pointed out how God’s decision to make us in His image is evidence of His deep, amazing and undeserved love for us. It also underscores the inherent value of human life. But as we all know, man’s image has been tainted by sin. After the fall, we became a distorted image.
But we have a perfect image in Christ. The first chapter of Colossians describes Christ as the image of the invisible God, and even that all creation was made by Him and for Him. We recognize that this “image of the invisible God” goes far beyond a physical object. Jesus is infinitely different from a lifeless idol. He was human and yet maintained a perfect, untainted image of God. He has satisfied man’s natural desire to seek God in a physical form that is not tainted by sin. We have a wonderful blessing of knowing God, through His revelation in Jesus through Scripture, and through our relationship with Him through the Holy Spirit.
It is our privilege in the Luke Society to partner with Christian believers who have a burden to share “the image of the invisible God” with their people. When Buddhists and Hindus point to their wooden idols and try to please them, we, as Christians, can point to the resurrected Jesus and tell them about His sacrifice on the cross.
Read Colossians 1:15-22 and listen how Christ is described as the image of the invisible God, and what He has done for us as believers. My wife, Barb, and I memorized this passage together a few years ago. We find it to be a great description of our Savior and His love for His people. I recommend that you take time to read and ponder these verses.
Dr. Wrede Vogel