Scripture: Colossians 1:15
Date: December 25, 2011
Speaker: Sean Higgins
What image comes to mind when you think about Christmas? Do you think about a decorated tree, with presents all around it? Do you think about a table full of steaming food, surrounded by family? Do you think about snow, hot chocolate, cookies, candles, credit card bills, long lines at WalMart? Or if you’re more spiritual, do you think about a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger, where ox and ass are feeding?
Nothing is necessarily wrong with any of those images but, when we think about Christmas, the central image should be the Word becoming flesh, Immanuel—God with us, the Son of God and the Son of Mary, Jesus born in Bethlehem.
What do we learn from the original Christmas image? Do we not, in the incarnation, see the image of true man as he is made in the image of the true God? In Jesus, we see both what humanity looks like and what deity looks like. At Christmas, we see what we’re supposed to be like.
We are image-bearers. A few months ago, we spent a couple Sunday evenings studying Genesis 1 and 11 as we considered that God made man, Adam and Eve, in His image. Human beings are the crown of God’s creation, the only beings privileged to reveal God’s glory by reflecting Him in the world. We considered that there are a least two general ways of describing how we bear God’s image.
The Trinity deliberated about making man: “let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26) and, in order to accomplish this, He made “male and female.”
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)
It was not good for man to be alone (Genesis 2:18) because God Himself has never been alone. We are made for relationship, for intimacy, family, society, because of who God is, not simply because of what God wanted.
After God created then He commissioned Adam and Eve regarding relationship: “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” They were meant to know one another, enjoy each other, share with each other, serve one another, and spread out. Not only did men have horizontal relationships, but also vertical, in fellowship with God.
God gave Adam responsibility in the garden a few hours before the nap that changed everything (Genesis 2:21). Adam was put in the garden to tend it (Genesis 2:15). God also provided man with responsibility to name the animals (Genesis 2:19-20), which was part of God’s clear mandate to the man and woman.
As they filled the earth, they also were to “have dominion and subdue the earth” (Genesis 1:28). These responsibilities were no less Trinitarian, no less a reflection of God who formed and filled His world. Though men don’t create out of nothing, they still have responsibility to take responsibility as image-bearers.
The first Adam was created from dust, given life to reflect God in the world. Within a few days, or maybe a few weeks, Adam blew it. He disobeyed the only prohibition God gave and subsequently suffered the consequences. Sin’s effect hit at his very being. Sin broke relationship, it separated, both between man and God and between the man and woman. Sin also brought God’s judgment on responsibilities. Adam made excuses, he passed the blame rather than shouldering fault. His work in the ground was made more difficult and woman would bear children in pain (Genesis 3:16-19).
The image of God in man was not totally lost, but it was fallen, marred. He was still made for relationship and responsibility, but he could no longer reflect the Trinity’s life because man’s spirit was dead. Sin keeps men from faithful image-bearing, sin keeps men from even knowing and seeing God’s image accurately.
What could fix the broken image? Christmas, by which we mean, the incarnation.
Christmas really is good news. The incarnation reveals the true image of man, what man was meant to be which is the true image of God, which Jesus fulfills. Jesus is the image of God.
He [God’s beloved Son] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. (Colossians 1:15)
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, (Colossians 1:19)
For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily (Colossians 2:9)
And the Word (see John 1:1-3) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. (Hebrews 1:1–3)
In Him the fulness of deity dwells. In Him the reality of humanity shines. In light of the two categories of image-bearing, consider Jesus as the ultimate image-bearer. He is the supreme self-disclosure of God, the clear revelation of God Himself.
Jesus is the ultimate image-bearer who reveals the relational nature of God. He taught us some about relationships among the Trinity, in particular, between Father and Son.
Christmas is the ultimate revelation of God’s relational nature with man. God took on flesh and dwelt among us. Not God at us, but God with us. He lived and communicated and taught and discipled and served and died for men.
No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. (John 1:18)
He did so in great humility. He came as a baby without global fanfare. It was relatively quiet and unknown. And He came as a servant (cf. Philippians 2:4-11). When we want to learn about God’s relational character, we look to Christ.
Jesus did not come to men in a good situation. He came to rebels. He came to weak, mortal flesh. He takes responsibility, for others. He fulfills God’s promise.
an angel of the Lord appeared to [Joseph] in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). (Matthew 1:20–23)
Then, at the right time:
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6–8)
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him (Colossians 1:21–22)
He is the ultimate responsibility taker and so the ultimate image of God. Not only that, His responsibility enables relationship. This is the work of reconciliation. He redeems us from sin and reconciles us to God that we might fellowship with God and with each other.
the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. (1 John 1:2–3)
With the incarnation, with Christmas, we understand that:
So, in Christ, we see the height of humanity. He is the aim of image-bearing. He also redeems our relationships and responsibilities, He enables us to bear God’s image. That’s what Christmas brings.
He has redeemed us for purpose, to reflect Him as we are conformed to Christlikeness, as we live our Christ at home with our families (part of relationship), as we worship and make disciples, and as we pick up our cultural tasks given by God in Genesis 1. Because of Christmas, our labor done in the Lord is not in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58).
He has redeemed us to reflect Him as we live out the gospel toward each other. Husbands die for their wives. We humbly serve others as more important then ourselves because of Christ’s example (again, Philippians 2). We are many members but unified as one body (John 17; 1 Corinthians 10). We have true fellowship with God and with each other (again, 1 John 1), and this is not merely with those that we find easy to get along with.
A Christmas chiasmus (a parallel structure in an “x” shape like the Greek letter “chi,” the letter that also starts Χριστός, Christos, Christ).
What image comes to mind when we think about Christmas? The image of true man and true God—Jesus. His incarnation reveals God among us.
How do we see this today? We ought to see the image of God in each other. We were made to bear God’s image, and because of Jesus, we now work and relate as He made us to. We have His example and His enablement. Because of our union with Him, we are His body and we have His power. Not only in Him do we see God’s image perfectly, or, what we did and do wrong, but also in Him we are made able to reflect well again.
In His person is revelation. By Jesus we know God. In His propitiation we are redeemed. By Jesus we relate to God. Through His power we obey God. By Jesus we live for God. Because of the incarnation, we understand, we fellowship, and we enjoy God. It’s what we were made for in the first place.
Therefore, every Christian should be an image of Christmas. We are not God in flesh, but we do have God’s Spirit in us in flesh. We incarnate, we image, we reflect God to the world.
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:9–12)
Where will men see God’s image? In us as we love one another.
From the last verse of Charles Wesley’s Hark the Herald Angels Sing:
Adam’s likeness, Lord, efface,
Stamp Thine image in its place:
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love.
Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the Life, the inner man:
O, to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart.
When we take responsibility to give gifts and provide food and to humbly serve one another, we show Christmas truth. We are images of Christmas. When we do this for the sake of fellowship with others, to bring people together, to share life and enjoy each other, we are images of Christmas.
Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. (1 Corinthians 15:49)