Invisible forces ∙

Invisible forces ∙

By faith we understand that the worlds were set in order at God’s command, so that the visible has its origin in the invisible. – Hebrews 11:3

Colossians 1:15-16

 15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,

 16 for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see – such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.

Much of what exists remains unseen, invisible: radio waves, quantum particles, dark matter, antimatter, air, oxygen, ultraviolet light, infrared, gravity, the mind, or emotions.

Many previously unseen things have only become known and observable in the last hundred years. For example blood cells, single-cell animals, atoms, mitochondria, DNA, distant galaxies, and stars.

Dr. Liane B. Russell was a pioneer in the study of the dangers of invisible radiation on developing embryos. Her findings are the reason doctors today ask women if they are pregnant before giving them X-rays.

In 1938, Dr. Russell fled Vienna with her Jewish family when the Germans invaded Austria. She spent more than a half-century at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in East Tennessee. Dr. Russell arrived in 1947, just two years after the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The United States had a tremendous interest in discovering the effects of radiation poisoning.

Dr. Russell determined that in humans, developing fetuses were most vulnerable to radiation during the first seven weeks of pregnancy. Because women generally do not know right away if they are pregnant, Dr. Russell recommended that non-urgent diagnostic X-rays be taken in the 14 days after the onset of a woman’s menstrual period.

That recommendation was adopted around the world. Hence, doctors routinely ask women of childbearing age if they are pregnant or if they think they might be pregnant, before taking X-rays.

The Father God is invisible to the natural eyes of earthbound creatures. What is He like? How can we know? The apostle Paul provides the answer to this question. The Lord Jesus Christ is separate from the Father in personality, but totally equal to Him in deity. The eternal Son of God entered into the world at the incarnation. He became true humanity, real flesh and blood. If you want to know what the Father is like, look at the Son. He is the exact representation and manifestation of the invisible God.

Colossians 1:15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God

To see what the Father is like, we look at the Lord Jesus Christ. He perfectly represents God to men and women in a form that they can see, know, and understand (Barclay).

Think of a family portrait of a father and his son. Sometimes, allowing for the age difference, they can look like identical twins. So it is with the Father God and the Son of God. If we had a photograph of the Lord Jesus Christ, He would look very similar to the Father.

John 1:18 No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.

REFLECT & PRAY

The Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, is the Creator and Sustainer of all things visible and invisible.

Father it is amazing that You sent Your Son to show us what You are like. He is just like You. But the most amazing thing of all is that You have adopted us as Your child He has called us Your friend (John 1:12, John 15:15).

INSIGHT

But the Lord Jesus Christ is much more! How can He be more than perfect deity and the exact representation of the Father? It was not the Father who was responsible for creation! It was the Son who created everything! This may be a newsflash for many. But this is exactly what the Scriptures say.

Colossians 1:15-16

 15 He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,

 16 for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see – such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.

The apostle John communicated the same idea in different words.

John 1:3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.

The Scriptures present somewhat of a conundrum. But it is easily resolved. “This statement is literally ‘all things through him came into being.’ The Greek phrase through him indicates that the Word was the agent in creation, but at the same time the context clearly implies that God is the ultimate source of creation.”

“Similar expressions are found in Paul’s writings and in the Letter to the Hebrews. In 1 Corinthians 8:6, Paul distinguishes between ‘God, the Father, who is the creator of all things’ and ‘Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created.’ Again, in Colossians 1:15-16, Paul refers to ‘the first-born Son,’ by whom ‘God created everything in heaven and on earth.’ In Hebrews 1:2 the writer speaks of the Son as ‘the one through whom God created the universe’” (UBS). 

Twenty-first century science suggests that most of the creation is actually imperceptible and invisible. When we think small, atoms consist of protons, electrons, neutrons, and mostly empty space. The electrons whiz about the center at such high rates of speed that we never know exactly where they are from one moment to the next. They are like blurry clouds that seem to be everywhere at once.

When we think big, the universe seems almost without end. There are billions of galaxies and these galaxies contain billions and billions upon billions of stars. Many of the stars and galaxies are immense and move at nerve-racking speeds. Most of them have been undetectable until only quite recently.

But all things big and small move in mathematical precision. Even the apparent randomness of chaotic complex systems, reveals underlying patterns, repetition, fractals, self-similarity, and self-organization. The Lord Jesus Christ personally sustains them all. He controls and maintains everything He has created.

Upon reflection, would it not be sensible and appropriate to recognize, honor, and extol the Father? He is the transcendent King who is eternal, immortal, and invisible. Nonetheless, this same Lord God omnipotent intervened personally and sent His Son into the world to save  save all who would believe in Him from sin and its eternal horrendous consequences (1 Timothy 1:17).

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