#12 ~ And She Brought Forth her FIRSTBORN SON+ ~ WHO+ is The IMAGE of the INVISIBLE GOD ~ ADVENT 2020

Luke 2:7

And she brought forth her FIRSTBORN SON+,

and wrapped HIM+ in swaddling clothes,and laid HIM+ in a manger;

because there was no room for them in the inn.

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 Colossians 1:15

Who+ is the image of the invisible GOD,

THE FIRSTBORN of every creature:

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EXACTLY Who is this FIRSTBORN Son of the Hebrew virgin Mariam ?

This lowly-born but utterly Royal BABE+  , the like of which the earth had NEVER seen before, had his first earthly bed in a feeding trough for domestic animals.

This Royal BABE+ was the IMAGE ~ the exact REFLECTION as in a mirror ~ of the INVISIBLE GOD.

This “invisible” means “not able to be GAZED upon.”  It does not mean “hidden”. 

 

The word “image” is eikOn or “icon” in English. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown’s Commentary ( pg 441, part 3, Volume 3, notes on Colossians 1:15; https://biblehub.com/commentaries/jfb/colossians/1.htm  )

 Courtesy of Biblehub.com at Colossians 1:15 :  

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary of the New Testament,  https://biblehub.com/commentaries/jfb/colossians/1.htm

image—exact likeness and perfect Representative. Adam was made "in the image of God" (Ge 1:27).

But Christ, the second Adam, perfectly reflected visibly "the invisible God" (1Ti 1:17), whose glories the first Adam only in part represented.

 "IMAGE" (EICON) INVOLVES "LIKENESS" (HOMOIOSIS); but "likeness" does not involve "image."

"Image" always supposes a prototype, which it not merely resembles, but FROM WHICH IT IS DRAWN: THE EXACT COUNTERPART, as the reflection of the sun in the water: the child the living image of the parent.

"Likeness" implies mere resemblance, not the exact counterpart and derivation as "image" expresses; HENCE IT IS NOWHERE APPLIED TO THE SON, WHILE "IMAGE" IS HERE, compare 1Co 11:7 [Trench]. (Joh 1:18; 14:9; 2Co 4:4; 1Ti 3:16; Heb 1:3).

EVEN BEFORE HIS INCARNATION HE WAS THE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD, as the Word (Joh 1:1-3) by whom God created the worlds, and by whom God appeared to the patriarchs.

Thus His essential character as always "the image of God," (1) before the incarnation, (2) in the days of His flesh, and (3) now in His glorified state, is, I think, contemplated here by the verb "is."

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Hebrews 1:3

Who+ being the brightness of HIS Glory,

and the EXPRESS IMAGE of HIS Person,

[ of HIS ESSENCE ]

and upholding all things by the Word of HIS Power,

when HE+ had by HIMSELF purged our sins,

sat down on the Right Hand of the Majesty on High:

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This is THE ONE Who+ was so lowly born that HE+ was laid in a feeding trough for rough field animals and pack animals. 

This little Royal BABE+  carried the EXACT ESSENCE of our Heavenly FATHER in HIMSELF+, in His+ character and in His+ SPIRIT. This is why HE+ could tell Philip in later years:

 If ye had known ME+, ye should have known My+ FATHER also: 

and from henceforth ye know HIM, 

and have seen HIM. 

Philip saith unto Him+,

 LORD, show us The FATHER, and it sufficeth us.

JESUS saith unto him, 

Have I been so long time with you,

and yet hast thou not known ME, Philip?

 he that hath seen ME+ hath seen The FATHER;

and how sayest thou then, Show us The FATHER?

John 14: 7-9

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We who were born in sterile hospital beds or comfortable home settings with perhaps well-trained mid-wives in attendance were NOT of Royal lineage.  The Royal BABE+ had none of these at His+ Birth.

Whose image and likeness do we REFLECT, now that we know HIM+ ?

 

LET US PRAY:

Dear GOD ~ FATHER, SON+, and HOLY SPIRIT: The ELOHIM ~  in Whose likeness and image man was created in the beginning, thank YOU for sending us The SON+ to bring us back to GOD.

O Gracious LORD, we have fallen FAR AWAY from what YOU created us to be.

Help us to grow back into YOUR Likeness and Image given to us through The SON+, Who+ cleanses us from our sin and is able to keep us from falling.

Grant us a Willingness to embrace obediences that we dislike, for reason of the joy that YOU set before us.

Then, O GOD, we can REFLECT Your Likeness and Image as we ought, as do quiet, untroubled waters reflect the sun’s image accurately. 

This we pray in the Name of The LORD JESUS CHRIST, in Whose+ LIGHT  alone  can we see the True Light.  Amen.