Why is Jesus called “the image of the invisible God”?

The apostle Paul says of him, “He is the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15). If sin has veiled humanity from seeing the glory of God, the incarnate Word came, not to give us intellectual or theoretical ideas of the divine glory, but rather to abolish sin through His cross, so that the veil was torn (Matt. 27:51) and we acquired the right to see God through the cross. The divine light of Christ shone upon Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus and his physical eyes were afflicted by a kind of blindness, an inability to see God, while his inner insight was opened to bask in the True Light. This was also the experience of the apostles Peter, James, and John on Mount Tabor where He was transfigured before them, His face shone, and His clothes became as white as light (Matt. 17:1–5).

The word “ image ” in Greek means the perfect visible revelation of the invisible God, who is of one nature of His essence and the trace of His brightness. This is precisely what the Lord meant when He said of Himself: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

The scholar Origen says, “Let us now see how we are to understand the expression ‘invisible image ,’ that we may in this way perceive how God is rightly called the Father of His Son; and let us, in the first place, draw our conclusions from what are customarily called images among men. The name, image, is sometimes given to that which is painted or sculptured on some material substance, such as wood or stone; and sometimes a child is called the image of his parent, when the features of the child closely resemble the father … But the image of the Son of God, of whom we are now speaking, may be compared to the second of the above examples, even in respect of this, that He is the invisible image of the invisible God.”⁷⁶⁷

St. Gregory of Nazianzus says, “And the Image is of one substance with Him, and because He is of the Father, and not the Father of Him. For this is of the Nature of an Image, to be the reproduction of its Archetype, and of that whose name it bears; only that there is more here. For in ordinary language an image is a motionless representation of that which has motion; but in this case it is the living reproduction of the Living One, and is more exactly alike than was Seth to Adam (Gen. 5:3), or any son to his father.”⁷⁶⁸

766 Origen, Homilies on Luke 34.5 (FOTC 94:139).

767

Origen, De Principiis (On First Principles) 1.2.6 (ANF 4:247) amended.

768 St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Select Orations of Gregory Nazianzen 30.20 (Fourth Theological Oration) (NPNF II/7:317) amended.

St. Ambrose says, “And because He Himself is the image of the invisible and incorruptible God, let Him shine for you as in the mirror of the Law (cf. Col. 1:15). Confess Him in the Law that you may acknowledge Him in the Gospel.”⁷⁶⁹

St. Jerome says, “The face of God, what is it like? As His image, certainly, for as the Apostle (cf. 2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15) says, the image of the Father is the Son. With His image; therefore, may He shine upon us, that is, may He shine His image, the Son, upon us in order that He Himself may shine upon us, for the light of the Father is the light of the Son. He who sees the Father, sees also the Son; and he who sees the Son sees also the Father (John 14:9). Where there is no diversity between glory and glory, there glory is one and the same.”⁷⁷⁰

The brightness of His glory and the express image of His essence: the expression “ brightness of His glory ” refers to eternal birth, for the eternal light cannot exist without its brightness. The Son is Light of Light, or the eternal Brightness that is inseparable from the Light, that is one with it. Pope Athanasius says, “who has so little sense as to doubt of the eternity of the Son? for when did man see light without the brightness of its radiance?”⁷⁷¹ And again, he says that He “is as indivisible from the Father as is the brightness from the light.”⁷⁷² St. John Chrysostom says, “[He is called] ‘the express image of His Person’ (Heb. 1:3), in order to make evident His proper Personality, and that He belongs to the same Essence.”⁷⁷³