Colossians 1: 15 – Icon of God (2)

Who is the image of the invisible God…

The Son of God’s love is God’s image. The Greek word behind this (eikoon) is still easy to recognize in the English ‘icon’ and the Dutch ‘ikoon’. The first occurrence of this word in the NT (Matt.22:20) clarifies its meaning perfectly. There we read that Jesus brings a coin and asks whose image (Gr. eikoon) is on the coin. The answer is: from the emperor.

Our word ‘imagery’ is derived from the word ‘image’. To stay with the example above: it is a figure of speech to say that the coin shows the emperor. Just as it is a figure of speech when I show a passport photo and say: that’s me. In the literal sense both statements are not true, but as a figure of speech they are.

Anyone who understands that the Son is God’s image also understands how He is sometimes called God Himself. That has nothing to do with theology; it is an everyday figure of speech. When Jesus says of the bread during the Passover: “this is my body” (1 Cor. 11:24), this is not hocus pocus but a figure of speech that everyone is expected to understand. The Son is not “God the invisible”, but nevertheless: whoever has seen Him has seen the Father (John 14:9)!

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