The Image of the Invisible God, Firstborn of All Creation (Colossians 1:15–16)

Col. 1:15. Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

“Image”—indicates consubstantiality with the Father; by virtue of what? by virtue of the fact that He is begotten. Inasmuch as He is begotten, He is consubstantial; being consubstantial, He is the image.

“The Son is the image of the invisible God,” an essential image, exactly like, differing in no way. What the Father is, so is He. Look upon the Father, look upon the Son,—no difference save generation. Saint Chrysostom says: “the word ‘image’—indicates απαραλλακτον, exact likeness, difference in no way; therefore He (the Lord) is απαραλλακτος, exactly like (the Father), differing in no way (from Him).” Blessed Theodoret writes: “‘image’ signifies consubstantiality. Inanimate images do not possess the essence of what they are images of, but a living image differing in no way has one nature with the original.” We read the same in Oecumenius: “The Apostle calls the Son the image (of the Father) because of difference in no way from Him and complete likeness and equality, like εκμαγιον(to speak in modern terms, like a photographic print of the original beauty).” Let us add also Theophylact’s word: “Saying: ‘The Son is the image of God,’ the Apostle here represents the Divine glory and majesty of the Only-Begotten. ‘Image,’ he says, there is, that is, exactly like, differing in no way. There is no measure for His greatness so that (having measured it) you could say how much He lacks (in comparison to the Father). If He were an image like a man, you would have something to say (in this respect), because this image (human) never reaches the original. But inasmuch as He is the image as God and as the Son of God, that is, an image of God completely like Him.”

To a clearer understanding of how God the Son is the image of God the Father, the following passages of Scripture can lead: “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;” (Phil 2:6); and: “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being” (Hebr 1:3). The latter passage gives the thought that God the Father sees in God the Son the reflection of the glory of His Godhead, which is why He is also “the exact representation of his being.” As in a mirror, to use a human comparison, all that looks into it is reflected in its entirety exactly as it is: so entirely as it is, essentially, with all His Godhead the Father is reflected in the Son. The first passage suggests that God the Son, eternally being in the form of God, or being the essential image of God, is equal to God the Father, stands on the same level, if one may so express oneself of the Divine Persons, on the same level of Divine majesty with God the Father; which cannot be otherwise than by consubstantiality.

“‘The Son is the image of the invisible God.’ This expression generates the thought that the invisible Divine nature becomes visible in the Son, in His eternal mode of existence. But one should not think thus. If the Son is the exact image of the invisible God, then He also is invisible: otherwise He would not be the exact image. He is the image of the invisible God, but an invisible image. Invisible is God worshipped in the Trinity: the Father is invisible, the Son is invisible, the Holy Spirit is invisible. Saint Chrysostom says: ‘if He (God) is invisible, then His image also is invisible, because otherwise it would not be an image.’ Blessed Theophylact concludes: ‘therefore join together the two, holding that the Only-Begotten is both—both the image and invisible.’”

And in the incarnation of God the Word the invisible Godhead did not become visible, but only His presence became in a sense tangibly known, yet still to the mind and not to sight. Thus the holy Apostles perceived in their mind in the Lord the Saviour the invisible Godhead and confessed: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Mt 16:16); thus after the resurrection blessed Thomas, as if touching the invisible Godhead, in a mental perception of it, cried out: “My Lord and my God!” (Jn 20:28); thus when the Lord ascended visibly into heaven, to the invisible Godhead in Him the Angels bowed, and do even now bow to Him sitting at the right hand of God, Christ the Saviour (Hebr 1:6; 1Pet 3:22). And the invisible Godhead will yet be seen in the Visible, coming to judge the living and the dead. Ambrosiaster writes: “The Lord said to Philip: ‘If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me?’ (Jn 14:9, 10). The consubstantiality of the Father and Son is the fact that they are one, so that he who sees the Son sees the Father. But how could Philip, seeing the Son, see the Father? With the eyes of the mind, seeing the Divine works of the Son. What the Son did, he spoke of as being the Father’s, showing the unity of Divine power. In the same manner Jacob also saw God; which is why he was called Israel, that is, a man who sees God (Gen 32:28). Therefore the Lord is called the image of the invisible God to give understanding that He Himself is God, who is seen in Him to the mind. But the Father never in any way appeared visibly, as is said in the Gospel: ‘No one has ever seen God’ (Jn 1:18).”

“‘the firstborn of all creation,’ that is, begotten before every creature” (Blessed Theodoret). If begotten, then from the essence and nature of the Father; consequently, He is consubstantial with Him; in which is the direct basis also for His being His image.

“‘the firstborn of all creation.’ By these words two relations of the Son are determined: to God the Father, that He is begotten of Him, and to creatures, that He is before all of them, not created but begotten. This signifies the infinite distance from Him of all creation.” Blessed Theophylact writes: “The Apostle shows that the Son is before every creature. How is He? Through generation. See how wise is the Apostle’s wording: he did not simply say that He is before all creatures, so that hearing this you might not think that He is separate from God the Father; but he said: begotten before all creatures, teaching you that He has a Father and is begotten of Him. And by this he showed at the same time that He is different, and all other things are different from Him: He is the Son from the Father, while all else is creature, namely created by Him.”

The Arians thought they had great support for their false teaching in this passage. “the firstborn of all creation,” they interpreted, means that He stands at the head of creatures and, as the first of them, is Himself a creature. But in that case the Apostle would not have said: “firstborn,”—but—first-created (Saint Chrysostom). “But if you consider the word ‘firstborn’ equivalent to ‘first-created,’ then the Apostle would have said: ‘firstborn’ (in the sense of first-created) of other creatures, besides Him, begotten (in the sense of created) before them” (Saint Athanasius the Great). But the Apostle says: “firstborn.” Begotten; consequently, He is of one nature with Him who fathered Him, God the Father, and through this is infinitely distant from creation. Begotten before all creatures, therefore eternal: for time, as an inseparable form of created existence, came into being together with creation. Before creation is eternity; and He who is begotten before creation is eternal; by which again infinite distance of the Son of God from creation is established. Moreover, the firstborn of all creation is then called the Creator of all things. But when something is created, it is created from nothing. To create from nothing can only He who Himself is Being; but he who is himself from nothing, as a creature, cannot create. Therefore, if the firstborn of all creation created all things, then He Himself cannot be a creature.

Col. 1:16. Because by Him all things were created, things in the heavens and things on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers: all things were created through Him and for Him.

“For”—indicates that what is here said proves what precedes. Inasmuch as all things were created by the Son, it is evident that He is before all creatures and that He Himself is not a creature but is Being; otherwise He could not create from nothing; yet He is not separate from the Father, but is from Him and in Him by generation, not separating Himself from Him, however. “in him,” εν αυτω,—and at the end of the verse it is said: δι αυτου και εις αυτον,—all together: in Him, through Him, and to Him or for Him. The Apostolic mind, illuminated by God, certainly saw clearly what nuances or aspects of creative work are signified by each of these expressions. But we can confess that we cannot with certainty assert that by one expression is meant precisely this, by another that, by a third that. It is better for us to suppose that by such many turns of phrase is expressed merely: whatever anyone might conceive as necessary in the work of creation, all of that is in the Creator Son, shown forth by Him and put into the work of creation. God the Son created all by Himself, by His own power and for Himself. Nothing from without came to assist in this.

“‘For in him all things were created,’ that is, as before, the ‘firstborn,’ and as yet higher above, the ‘Son of God.’ The work of creation is the work of God Trihypostatic, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, indivisibly. Saint Athanasius the Great expresses this repeatedly thus: all things were created by the Father in the Son through the Holy Spirit, or by the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit. Therefore God the Father is Creator, God the Son is Creator, God the Holy Spirit is Creator, yet not three Creators, but one Creator. The Prophet David so confesses this: ‘By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth’ (Ps 32:6). If in the writings of the New Testament we encounter more passages in which creation is ascribed to the Son; this is because the holy Apostles had the greatest need to prove the Godhead of the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God, since in Him the visibility of human nature hid His invisible Godhead; and the strongest proof of Godhead is creatorship: for He who creates from nothing is Being, His essence is—to be, encompassing in Himself all the fullness of perfections. Thus also in the present Epistle the Apostle needed to set forth the Divine majesty of Christ the Saviour—and he says that by Him, as the Son of God and God, ‘all things have been created,’ certainly not excluding from his mind the Father and the Holy Spirit.”

Let us note in this that all attempts to determine exactly what belongs to the Son in the work of creation should not be considered worthy of full agreement, respect and attention. For example, such expressions are considered as explaining much, that the Son is in the work of creation causa instrumentalis or causa exemplaris: the first means that the Son is the instrument of creation, the second that He, as wisdom, is the holder of the ideas of all creatures. Both expressions seem to explain something; but both remove the Son from creatorship: for if the Son is an instrument, then it is not He who creates, but the Father creates through Him; and if He is only the holder of ideas, He appears as something resting, not acting. Besides, is it reasonable to say that in Persons of God equal in all things, one is the instrument of the other? And is it fitting to think that the ideas of creatures are only with the Son, and not also with the Father and the Holy Spirit? And if they are with Them too, why then philosophize: the Son as causa exemplaris? If it is fitting to apply the work of creation to the activity of our soul; see then how it acts. Whatever it does, it always works with all its powers: with mind, will, and feeling. But begin to examine and distinguish what belongs to each power in the work, and you will not make out with precision. So if in our own work we cannot discover such distinctions; how could we conceive what in the work of God Trihypostatic belongs to which Person? And this all the more because the likeness of three powers in a single soul to three hypostases in a single God is extremely weak, although it can be considered when thinking of God: for in it is the image of God.

“all things”—all that exists. Then he enumerates: “things in heaven and on earth,”—the earth with all creatures on it and heaven with all that exists in it. Then, since upon the word “things in heaven” another might limit his thinking only to the sun, moon and stars, but the Apostle needed to indicate not only these; he added: “visible and invisible,”—as if to say: I mean not only these, but also what is hidden in them; I mean not only the visible world but also the invisible, spiritual. Finally, so that no one might exclude anyone from the host of spirits in this spiritual world from the number of those created by God the Son, the Apostle recounts by name the multitudes of them: “whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities,” and concludes: “all things have been created through him and for him,”—all, all, whatever you might conceive and recognize as existing, all was created by Him.

It was especially necessary for Saint Paul to fix attention on this invisible world of heavenly spiritual powers, because the false teachers who led the Colossians astray speculated about them improperly and placed Christ, Jesus, and the Son in their ranks. The Apostle says that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, incarnate, is not only not among them, but on the contrary, is their Creator and God. He lists only four hosts of them, it must be supposed, only by way of example. One can complete: these and all other hosts, as many as there are. There was no need to list all the ranks of angels. The discourse is not about them, but about the Godhead of the Lord Saviour, which is proved chiefly by creatorship. Having said: “all things have been created through him and for him,”—the Apostle gives to understand that nothing remains uncreated by Him, except of course the Spirit, who proceeds from the Father (Blessed Theophylact).