The Image of the Invisible God
The Beginning
No word
could be altered in the first five
verses of the Gospel of John - so wrought are they with extremest care - without opening the
door to the gravest errors; and the first two verses are one of the exceedingly
rare photographic negatives, so to speak, exposed to the void eternity of
God. Now, as the curtain is thus drawn
from Eternity, in the background of all worlds, the first object which strikes
our eyes is Christ; the first orb shining in the primal dawn, already
there, is the Logos. In the
beginning - not, in the beginning of the world; but in the dawn behind
the worlds was - as a luminary
already shining in meridian splendour the Word (John
1: 1): men are born, worlds are made,
Christ is. The world was from the
beginning; Christ was in the
beginning: He was in the beginning, for He never had a beginning. Christ
is the Thought or Word of God; and, as there could never be a time when God had
no thought or word, so Christ must be as eternal as God. He who is before all worlds must be God. Out of thee, Bethlehem Ephrahah - out of
the manger in the inn shall One come forth whose goings forth are from of
old, FROM
EVERLASTING (Mic. 5: 2). The Morning Star in the great Void backward is
the eternal Christ. No one could tell us
this but God; for no one then existed but God; and God says that, in the primal
dawn, Christ was already there.
The Companionship
But is
He the solitary Orb? Is He the only Godhead, so that when He came to earth,
Heaven was emptied of Deity? is there no God but the
Word? Another Orb of Deity co-equally
fills the void, exposed on this sensitive plate set to Eternity. And the
Word was with - literally, stood over against, yet for ever moved towards
God; two Thrones of
Deity confronting one another, face to face in a co-equal blessedness, and a
perpetual communion. The same responsive
companionship is betrayed in a later preposition, - The only begotten Son, who is into the bosom of the Father (John 1: 18): the eternal motion of Christ
is Godward, and the eternal response
of God is Christward; whose
goings
forth are from everlasting (Micah
5: 2). So the Psalm, with
extraordinary clearness, - Of the Son
He [God] saith, Thy throne, O God - two Divine Persons, each
addressing the other as God is
for ever and ever (Heb. 1: 8); and
our Lord recalls the companionship, - And
now, O Father, glorify Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was (John 17: 5). God is love, and this proves it; for love is a relationship between persons,
and is impossible without plurality: so our Lord says, - THOU lovedst ME before the foundation of the world (John 17: 24). The eternal Christ was enthroned in communion
with God from everlasting.
The Deity
Now we arrive at a definite declaration of Godhead. And the Word was God: not a god, but God; not a lower kind of God, but God: and the word God is put in the Greek in the place of emphasis. Christ, is not the only Godhead, but He is
essential Godhead: I am in the Father and the Father
[reciprocally] in Me (John 14: 10); I and the Father are - here are two Persons
one (John 10: 30) - for there is but one God, in
nature, in essence, in kind. The oneness
of the Godhead is as vital as the plurality of the Persons. Ever blessed Trinity in unity! It is rashness to
search too far into it; it is piety to believe it; it is life eternal to know
it (Bernard). But this simple, profound utterance, ringing
out like a sharp, pungent oracle, forever defines the Christ of God. In the
beginning was the Word - an eternal Christ; and the Word was with God- a co-equal
Christ; and the Word was God - a
Divine Christ: in the beginning was the Word - the
eternity of Jesus; and the Word was with God - the separate
personality of Jesus; and the Word was God - the
Godhead of Jesus.
The Image
So we arrive at the
exact position of our Lord in the Deity.
Who is the image of the invisible
God (Col. 1: 15). In the background is God invisible, dwelling in light unapproachable, whom no man hath seen, nor
can see (1 Tim. 6: 16): the
invisible God - how dreadful is this impenetrable vail! how
fathomless the mystery! For He dwells in light unapproachable: that
is, all approach, all revelation of Deity, must come
from that side; and it
has. No man hath seen God at any time; the only
begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, HE HATH DECLARED HIM (John 1:
18). As on the depthless
darkness of midnight skies the sun, coming forth out of the bosom of the
heavens, reveals the burning light buried deep in the darkness, so Christ is the effulgence - the apocalypse of His glory, the very image of His substance (Heb. 1: 3): He is the outburst of God. For
He was God manifest, long ere
He was God manifest in the flesh; His were the manifestations, visible and
tangible, of the Jehovah Angel; and from all eternity He images forth that in
God which is invisible. All the holiness
that is in God, is also in Christ, all the power that is in God, is also in
Christ; all the love that is in God, is also in Christ, - who is the effulgence of His glory, and the very image of His
substance; the Image, not of the Father only but of God. He that
bath seen
Me HATH
SEEN THE FATHER (John 14: 9).
The Gospel
What
then is the inconceivably important
consequence of the Godhead of Christ? That
the Gospel is true, and that no man rejects it except at his own infinite
peril. For what Christ was before all
worlds alone reveals how He was able, and He only, to carry the vast burden of
a worlds guilt, and to undertake the stupendous enterprise of a worlds
salvation. As infinite as the Person, so
infinite is the merit and the work: for unto us
a child is born, and his name shall be called the Mighty
God (Is. 9: 6); of whom is Christ
concerning the flesh, who is, GOD OVER
ALL, blessed for ever (Rom. 9: 5); and
the Church, has thus been bought with the blood of the infinite - the church of God, which he purchased with His
own blood(Acts 20: 28). So also we wait for the Image of the invisible
God. For the Father never appears to men
in the flesh - whom no man hath seen, nor can see
(1 Tim, 6: 16); but we look for the appearing of our GREAT GOD and
Saviour Jesus Christ (Tit. 2: 13).
- D. M.
PANTON.