Christ JESUS ~ The Image of the Invisible God
"And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." - Colossians 1:17 [KJV] How doth the apostle mean that Jesus is before all things? Not as God only, for then the observation would have been needless; and not as man only, for then how could all things consist by Him? What is it then, my soul? Is it not as Mediator, both God and man? And was not Christ thus set up from everlasting? Not openly revealed indeed, neither openly manifested in a body of flesh, until the fulness of time; but secretly, and in the divine counsels. What a blessed thought for the redeemed to exercise their rapturous meditations upon! And is it not this which the apostle hath said; "He is the image of the invisible God?" [Colossians 1:15] . The image! Yes, that representation of what is in itself invisible; that identical image concerning which Jehovah when calling Adam into existence, said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness." So then Adam was the