‘Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.'
‘Who is the image of the invisible God.' The God of the Jews was invisible and could not be represented by any physical representation in earth or heaven, whether of supernatural being, man or beast (Exodus 20:4). Such representations could only be images of a visible God, and would thus misrepresent God. So ‘the image' is not meant to suggest God's physical likeness. Rather it means revealing Him in His essential being. As ‘the image of the invisible God' Christ has made the invisible God known to man in a unique way, in His life, His power and His teaching. He has shown what God is really like. He has revealed His glory.
Thus John can say, ‘we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only Son of His Father, full of grace and truth' (John 1:14), and adds, ‘No man has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son Who is in the Father's bosom, He has made Him known' (John 1:18). He is the ‘monogenes (only begotten), the only One of like nature with the Father, as opposed to being a creation of God.
That is why Jesus Himself could say, ‘How do you say “show us the Father”? He who has seen me has seen the Father' (John 14:9). We behold God in the things Jesus said and the things He did, in what He essentially was, for the Father was in Him and working through Him uniquely. He did not hesitate to point to Himself as revealing the Father's full glory.
Hebrews puts it this way, ‘Who being the outshining (effulgence) of His glory and the stamped out image of His substance' (Hebrews 1:3). The ‘outshining' refers to light that comes from a glorious object, of the same essence and revealing its glory, like the rays of the sun. The ‘stamped out image' refers to that which is an exact representation of what is stamped out by a seal. Neither should be taken too literally. God is not physical light, nor can invisibility be ‘stamped out'. Thus both tell us that He reveals the very nature and being of God, not some physical image.
We can compare how in Romans 1:20, Paul tells us that ‘the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even His everlasting power and Godness'. Note that it is invisible things which are ‘seen', that is grasped and understood in the mind, just as the invisible God is ‘seen' through Christ. But this perceiving was not, be it noted, through small parts of that creation, which were strictly forbidden as representations of Him, but through creation seen as a whole. The very heavens and earth declared His glory, and power, and uniqueness to the receptive mind, for He was their Creator. But here now was One Who even more revealed that everlasting power and ‘Godness' in His very nature and being.
‘The firstborn (prototokos) of all creation.' On earth the firstborn was the one who, being of the same nature as his father, most fully revealed what his father was. He would one day stand in the place of his father, and be as his father once his father had died. He was, as it were, the reproduction of the father. In Greek philosophy also the Firstborn (prototokos) was seen as the one who fully represented the divine Reason, the Logos, in its relation to the world and as being of the same nature as the divine Reason. But in this latter case both were eternal, the one merging into the other. The stress is on likeness of nature and likeness of being, not physically but essentially.
Paul may also have had in mind the Messianic connection of the term. In Psalms 89:27 God says, ‘I also will make him my firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.' This was interpreted Messianically by the Jews. Here the idea is of one made superior and set over all.
But He is the Firstborn ‘of all creation' not just of the Jews. (This is part of the ‘mystery' as we shall see shortly (Psalms 89:27)). Thus as the Firstborn of all creation, Christ is seen to have precedence to, and authority over all, creation.
But this will now be related to Him creating all things, which includes the whole supernatural sphere. So His sphere of authority comes as Creator, the One Who was in existence before all things. He is superior because He is God's ‘firstborn', the One Who reveals Him as He is, and indeed because He is His only begotten Son. (These are human, and therefore inadequate pictures. They are intended to convey oneness of essence, not that He was ‘born later' than the Father. Theologians use the term ‘eternally begotten', ‘not begotten at a point in time', to describe this).
Thus Jesus Christ as the Firstborn fully represents His Father. He is before all things, He is the heir of all things and supreme over all things, and He is the One through Whom the Father approaches the world. We might thus paraphrase, ‘ the Firstborn, He Who was before the whole of creation, who was of the same essence as the Prime Creator, who represented the Prime Creator in His external relationships and was set over all things supernatural, brought the creation into being.' As Jesus Himself said, ‘Before Abraham was, I am' (John 8:58).