Who Is the Visible Image of the Invisible God?

We're going to go right back to where we left off in Colossians, and I know our television audience is going to notice that we've got a lot of empty chairs today. Well the flu I guess is running rampant in Oklahoma, so that has to be the reason. But we're glad you folks are here, and for those of you joining us on television we just always are so appreciative of the fact that you feel you're a part of our class. I don't know how many times people have written and said, well I just feel like I'm sitting back there in the back row, and that's exactly how I want you to feel. In fact I think I've said on the program once before, this is real informal, we'll be getting back to our tables when we get out into the new studio area, and we used to have the coffee cups standing on the table, and I suppose that raised a lot of eyebrows. But we want to keep this just like an informal home Bible study, and the only thing that is different from what we teach here in Oklahoma is that we can't give you the opportunity for asking questions of course, because we haven't got time. But when the folks up here first called and asked if I would consider teaching on television, the first thing that came to mind was that there used to be on public television a fellow who taught Algebra. Maybe some of you remember seeing it, do you? He taught Algebra just like I teach the Bible. He had just a plain simple blackboard, and he had about 15 students, and he would do it like I do. He would go to the blackboard and he would write formulas and so forth, and so when they asked about this, I thought if people can enjoy a Bible class as much as I enjoyed that old fellow's Algebra, it'll work. Well evidently it did, because Iris and I have often talked about it. We thought this would probably go six months at the most, and here we've been on the air now nine years, and our audience is growing day by day. But this is the format that we want to keep. Just keep it like a home Bible study, and I want people out there in television to just feel like they're right in here with us, and we're going to keep on using a plain old simple blackboard that in spite of all the technology and all the so called gimmicks that they've got for teaching, I still like the old blackboard the best, and we'll have opportunity to use it perhaps even in this half hour. But anyway we just praise the Lord for using our simple format, and all the past programs are available on videotape, on little books, and audio cassette packages, and if you're interested in any of those, you just write to us or give us a call on the 800-number. We're ready to get back into Colossians chapter 1, and we're at verse 15. Now those of you who have been with me ever since Genesis, you'll probably remember that when we talked about God in Genesis 1 as the Creator of everything, heaven and earth, I always come up to the New Testament and use these verses in conjunction. So this is nothing new for a lot of you. Verse 15. Who? It's a pronoun, but it refers back to God the Son up there in verse 13. And so it's God the Son who is the image of the invisible God. Now I guess I have to stop. Everybody that knows anything about the Bible at all, knows the verse that says, Ephesians 1. No man hath seen God at any time, and yet we have instances back here in the Old Testament where Jacob actually put a landmark, and he said he called it Peniel, because I have seen God face to face. Well then they think the Bible contradicts itself. On the one hand it says nobody can see God and live, and yet Jacob says, I have seen God face to face. Well you go back to Genesis 18, and we know that Abraham set the table of the fatted calf, and whatever else went with it, and the Lord and two angels sat down and ate. Now he wasn't in some invisible, foggy, whatever. He was visible, he was physical, he ate, and Abraham talked with him. They talked about Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham saw him. So it's not a contradiction, but you have to understand that God, the invisible triune God, no man has ever seen. How could they? He's invisible, plus the fact that if man would have ever found himself in a position to be in the presence of that invisible triune God, no, he would have never survived. So what has happened? Well the best way I can usually put it, if I can use the blackboard, is that here we've got God, the invisible triune spirit God. But once man filled the scene, and would now have to have some way of identifying with his Creator, what did God do? Well one person of the Godhead stepped out, and became visible, tangible, over and over, and it's always God the Son. God the Son is the member of the Trinity that has always been the one to communicate with man, and to become the visible manifestation of that invisible God. And so yes, no one has ever looked on the triune invisible spirit God. But when God the Son steps out and becomes visible, and can communicate with man, it's no problem whatsoever. It isn't a contradiction, you just have to understand the circumstances. Now this is what Paul is talking about. Back to verse 15, that God the Son is the image. Now we're going to take this slowly. What's an image? Something you can see. It's not something that's out there in an enigma, or in a semi-state. An image is something that you can see with your own eyes. So God the Son is the visible image of the invisible God. See how plain that is? God the Son stepped out of that invisible triune Godhead, and in the person of the Son He became visible, He became tangible, and He walked among men all the way back into the Old Testament. So whenever God appeared, like speaking to Moses out of the burning bush, now in that instance He didn't appear visibly, but Moses certainly heard Him speak, and so who was it? God the Son. I don't call Him Jesus back in the Old Testament, because the Bible doesn't, but He was God the Son. When God appeared unto Abram in Ur of the Chaldees, who was it? God the Son. And as I've already rehearsed, when Jacob wrestled with the man until the breaking of the day, who was the man? God the Son. And then He would just simply go back up into the Godhead. Next word. He's the first born, or He was before anything that ever appeared. Now that's His eternalness again. God the Son was just as much from eternity past as the Father and the Spirit, and we're going to be looking at that, if not in this program we'll probably have to wait until next month. But when we get to verse 9, we'll see that God the Son, who we now know as Jesus the Christ, is the visible manifestation of that invisible God. Now the other thing you always have to remember is that whenever God the Son stepped out of the Godhead, He lost none of His deity. Remember that. He did not lay aside a portion of His power, He did not lay aside a portion of His deity, but He was always, constantly, veritably gone. And so just because He became visible, and even when He appeared in Bethlehem in the virgin birth, He never stopped being gone. Now at that time of course, He laid aside His glory, because He could not have cohabited with man in all the glory of the Godhead. But other than the glory that He laid aside, He never stopped being gone, and of course He never exercised it until He began His earthly ministry. Now you've got to stop and think. Had Jesus of Nazareth been anything less than God, and once He understood that He could control the elements, He could raise the dead, He could heal the blind, would He have ever limited it? Would you? Would I? If we once realized that we had this kind of power, would we have ever limited it? Why? We would have used it to the extreme! But He didn't. See He could always control it, and He always kept it under perfect control, and when He was manifesting Himself from His humanity side, He never let His deity interfere. And so always remember that it was because of His deity that He could control His power, instead of taking advantage of situations. Now verse 16, this visible manifestation of the invisible God, is the same God of Genesis 1. You know what Genesis 1 says, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Well this is the same one, this is the same creation. Genesis 1, verse 16, "...for by Him, by God the Son, we now know as Jesus the Christ. By Him were all things created, that are in heaven, that are in the earth, whether they be visible, the spirit world, the demons, the angels, you name it, everything was created by Jesus Christ. Whether they be thrones, governments, powers, dominions, principalities, powers, whether they were righteous or evil, all things were created by Him, and for Him, for His pleasure. And everything that God ever created is under His control, and it's to establish His sovereignty, and it's all been done for His own pleasure. Now let's go back and compare a few other Scriptures, I haven't done this for a long time, so I think it's appropriate. Instead of going from Genesis to Colossians, we'll go from Colossians back. Now stop at John's Gospel. John's Gospel, chapter 1, so that someone can say, well this is Paul. No Paul agrees with everything else in Scripture. He never contradicts anything. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Now you know we have groups that just can't buy this, so they have twisted their writing, and they have made Jesus something less than God. But while we're on the subject, keep your hand in John's Gospel. Can you find Titus chapter 2, and I think I used this a few programs back, but it bears repeating. You have someone come to your door, and they try to tell you that Jesus was not God, that He was a prophet, or that He was something less than God, that He was not the Creator God. Then this is the best verse I've found to confront that. Because all the others they will twist, and they'll get around it one way or another, but this one they can't. I mean you just can't get around this one. Titus chapter 2, verse 13, "...looking for that blessed hope, the glorious appearing or coming of the great God, our Savior Jesus Christ." Now you see you can't get around that, I've shown them the verses back in Isaiah, and we'll look at that probably before the hour is over. And they'll say, but that's the Mighty God, that's not the Almighty God. See they'll just use any little thing to wiggle around it. But this verse in Titus, you can't argue with it. We're looking for the Great God, the Creator God, the God of the Universe, and who is it? Jesus Christ. Now back to John's Gospel, chapter 1. Verse 2, "...the same was in the beginning with God." He's always been, He's from eternity past, the same as the other persons of the Godhead. Verse 3, "...all things were made by Him." Just like Paul says in Colossians, everything that was ever created was created by God the Son. Now John says the same thing, all things were made by Him, without Him was not anything made that was made, whether it�s heavenly, whether it�s invisible, whether it�s dominions or powers, everything was made by the Word. Now who�s the Word? John 14. The Word was made flesh. The Holy Spirit never took on flesh, God the Father never took on flesh, but God the Son did. So here�s the evidence that the Word, God the Son was made flesh, and dwelt among us. And John says we beheld His glory, the glory of the Only Begotten of the Father. What�s he talking about? The Mount of Transfiguration. When Peter, James and John went up into the Mount with Christ, and what happened? He shone like the sun. And Peter, James and John witnessed that, and that�s what he�s referring to. We beheld His glory, we saw what He could be, and as the Only Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Well I�m not going to take you all the way back to Genesis, you all know that verse. Now we�ll go all the way back to Hebrews chapter 1, and see how all these verses fit. John says the Word became flesh, and nothing was made without Him. Paul says in Colossians that Christ is the visible manifestation of the Invisible God, and by Him all things were created. And I think Paul wrote Hebrews, but whatever. Chapter 1, starting in verse 1. God, this God right here, the whole triune God, God in His invisible triune make up, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets. That�s the Old Testament. Verse 2, God has in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. See that? In other words when God the Son was manifested in the flesh, and He began to reveal things that all the Old Testament had merely been talking about in a latent form. Now here He is in fulfillment of it all. And so in these last days He has spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds. Now let�s see, I just had a question, who in the world is Jesus Christ? And at the time it shocked me, and I thought how could anybody even think such a thought? But now I know that this is the thing that more people should be asking. Who is He? He�s the Creator of the universe. He is the All Sovereign God of everything, and yet He�s the One that went to that Roman cross. And as I�ve stated over and over, those Roman soldiers who put the nails through His hands were His created beings. He made them, and He let them do that to Him. Now you see this is all part and parcel of what Paul is trying to get across to us, is who Jesus really is. And if we understand who He really is, then we can understand how by that death of the cross, He could of His own volition, pay the sin debt for every human being that�s ever lived, because He�s God. No human could have ever done that. And this is what puts Christ head and shoulders and everything above all the other religions of the world. Buddha could never have died for the sins of mankind, and the gods of the Shintos could never have died for the sins of mankind. Muhammad couldn�t take the sins of mankind, and Joseph Smith couldn�t take the sins of mankind. None of these men in their humanity could even begin to scratch the surface of what the Creator God Himself has done. And this is where our faith then becomes not a blind faith, but we know what we believe. We know it was the Creator who purchased our salvation. It was the Creator who took on human flesh, made of flesh and blood, so that He could become the supreme sacrifice, and fulfill the demands of that Holy God, that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. See how it all beautifully fits together. Now as you come back to Colossians, all things were created by Him, and for His pleasure. Acts chapter 2, verses 22 and 23. Acts 2, verses 22 and 23. And Peter of course is preaching here to the nation of Israel on the day of Pentecost. And so he says, "...Ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man in the flesh, visible, approved of God among you by miracles, and wonders and signs, which God did by Him in the midst of you, as you yourselves also know. Him being delivered, not by the Roman decree, not by the shouts of the Jews crucify Him, when was He really delivered up to be crucified? Long before anything was ever created, way back in eternity past, when delivered by the determinate council, or the meeting of the minds again of this triune God." Way back in eternity past the Trinity came together, and they had a meeting of the minds, and their determining meeting of the Godhead was, we're going to create the universe. And in one little tiny corner of the universe we're going to create a planet, and on that planet we're going to create a race of humans. And we're going to let them start absolutely sinless. We're going to put them in a perfect environment, but they're not going to be satisfied. They're going to rebel, and they're going to sin. But we're going to come right back with a plan of redemption, and one of us, one of the Trinity, is going to be the Redeemer. One of us is going to go down to that little planet, and we're going to take on flesh and blood, and we're going to go to a cross, and we're going to be lifted up and be crucified, so that we can purchase the salvation of our created beings. And who was the one of that Trinity that went? God the Son. God the Son by determinate counsel, and the foreknowledge of God, because God planned it from start to finish. Nothing caught Him by surprise. It was all in the blueprint, and when the fullness of time was come, I shared that verse with all my classes in Oklahoma for my Christmas message, if you want to call it that. Rather than the Bethlehem story, I used the one in Galatians. When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, to purchase man's salvation. Thank you for watching Through the Bible with Les Feldick. Through the Bible is a partner supported ministry. If this program has been a help to your study of the Scriptures, and you'd like to see others enjoy the teaching, your support would be greatly appreciated. Write to us at Les Feldick Ministries, Route 1, Box 760, Kenta, OK 74552, or call 1-800-369-7856. Remember, all programs are available in printed form, audio cassette, and videotape. Be sure to tune in next time to Through the Bible with Les Feldick.