the image of the invisible God

Colossians 1:15-23

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷And hold together. ¹⁸And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. ¹⁹For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by the blood of his cross. he is before all things, and in him all things making peace

 ²¹ And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²²he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, ²³ if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

A lot of people say they believe in God, but for most, the "god" they believe in is a vague higher power. This passage shows us that, if we want to see what God is like, we need to look at Jesus, He is the image of the invisible God, and the fullness of God dwells in Him. We do not worship an invisible force, we worship a person. Jesus. Paul goes onto to describe Jesus, telling us that everything was created by Him and for Him. You were created by Him and you were created for Him. He is above/before/in charge of all things - things we can see and things we can't, angels and demons, kings, governments and your boss at work. The solar system, the earth and your body are held together by Him. He is the head of the church, it doesn't belong to the church members or the minister, it belongs to Him.

We were enemies of God, alienated towards Him, but through His death on the cross, we can be reconciled to Him, restored to the relationship with Him that we were designed to have. Our evil deeds have been forgiven and we are holy and blameless before Him, not because of anything we've done but because of what He's done. We don't worship a distant, unknown God who may or may not be able to help us. We worship Jesus who has saved us.