[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God
Do not have other gods besides me. Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth.
“If we’re allowed to make our own images of God, we cannot avoid controlling him, but if we have no images of God, then we just have this invisible abstraction and we can’t know him personally. Christianity says, ‘here’s how you can know God without controlling God…it’s pretty simple…Jesus gives you such a vivid picture of who God is.”
Timothy Keller
[Jesus] is the firstborn over all creation.
For everything was created by [Jesus], in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through him and for him.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.
He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.
He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.
“People want to say, ‘I like to think of God this way. I believe that what I am doing will glorify God,’ but God will not have you tell him how he will be served. He tells you in his Word how he must be served.”
Martin Luther
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him
and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
[Jesus] is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation.
For everything was created by him,
in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions
or rulers or authorities—
all things have been created through him and for him.
He is before all things,
and by him all things hold together.
He is also the head of the body, the church;
he is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead,
so that he might come to have
first place in everything.
For God was pleased to have
all his fullness dwell in him,
and through him to reconcile
everything to himself,
whether things on earth or things in heaven,
by making peace
through his blood, shed on the cross.
