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We believe in many things we never saw, on the evidence of other senses than sight. We believe in music, invisible odours, nay, in what we can neither hear, taste, smell, nor touch — our own life, our soul. Thus it were irrational to disbelieve in God because He is invisible. Still we are tempted to forget His existence, and as for the ungodly "God is not in all their thoughts."

I. I WOULD WARN YOU AGAINST ALLOWING GOD TO BE OUT OF MIND BECAUSE HE IS OUT OF SIGHT.

1. This is a danger to which our very constitution exposes us. Hence the necessity of striving to walk by faith, not by sight. This is difficult because we are creatures of sense. The dead are out of sight and so often forgotten, the eternal world, the devil, and so God.

2. Why should the invisibility of God be turned into a temptation to sin? It should rather minister to holy care. How solemn the thought that an unseen Being is ever at our side! Were this realized, then bad thoughts would be banished, and unholy deeds crushed, and purity and heavenliness imparted to the life and conduct.

II. THE VISIBLE REVELATIONS OF THE INVISIBLE IN THE OLD TESTAMENT WERE MOST PROBABLY MANIFESTATIONS OF THE SON OF GOD. To Jacob at Peniel, to Joshua at Jericho, to Manoah, to Isaiah (chap. Isaiah 6.), and to others God appeared. How are we to reoncile this with "No man hath seen God at any time"? Only by regarding these appearances as manifestations of Him who is "the image of the invisible God." This is in perfect harmony with other passages in the history of redemption. We know for certain that the fruits of the incarnation were anticipated, and the fruits of His death enjoyed before He died. Why not, then, the fact of the incarnation? Viewed in this light, these Old Testament stories acquire a deeper and more enduring interest. In the guide of Abraham's pilgrimage I see the guide of my own. Jacob's success in wrestling imparts vigour to my prayers.

III. THE GREATNESS OF THE WORKER CORRESPONDS WITH THE GREATNESS OF THE WORK. It is not always so. Sometimes God accomplishes mighty ends by feeble instruments in both nature and grace. But redemption is differentiated in greatness, grandeur, and difficulty from all the other works of God. It cost more love, labour, and wisdom than all yon starry universe. But great as is the work the Worker is greater — the visible Image of the invisible God.

IV. GOD AS REVEALED VISIBLY IN JESUS MEETS AND SATISFIES ONE OF OUR STRONGEST WANTS,

1. The second commandment runs more counter to our nature than any other.

(1) Look at the heathen world. For long ages the world was given up to idolatry with the exception of a single people. To fix the mind on an invisible Being seemed like attempting to anchor a vessel on a flowing tide. And as a climbing plant, for lack of a better stay, will throw its arms round a rotting tree; rather than want something palpable to which their thoughts might cling, men have worshipped the Divine Being through the most hideous forms.

(2) Look at the proneness to sensuous worship among the Jews.

(3) We find the evidence of this prosperity in the Christian Church. Fancy some old Roman rising from his grave on the banks of the Tiber, what could he suppose but that the "Eternal City" had changed her idols, and by some strange turn of fortune had given to one Jesus the old throne of Jupiter and assigned the crown which Juno wore in his days to another queen of heaven?

2. In what way are we to account for this universal tendency? It is not enough to call it folly; the feelings from which it springs are deeply rooted in our nature. You tell me that God is infinite, incomprehensible; but it is as difficult for me to make such a Being the object of my affections as to grasp a Sound or detain a shadow. This heart craves something more congenial to my nature, and seeks in God a palpable object for its affections to cling to.

3. Now see how this want is met in the Gospel by Him who "knoweth our frame." In His incarnate Son the Infinite is brought within the limits of my understanding, the Invisible is revealed to my sight. In that eye bent upon me I see Divine love in a form I can feel. God addresses me in human tones, and stands before me in the fashion of a man; and when I fall at His feet with Thomas I am an image worshipper but no idolater, for I bend to the "image of the invisible God."

V. IN WHAT SENSE IS CHRIST THE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD?

1. It means much more than mere resemblance; it conveys the idea of shadow less than of substance. I have known an infant bear such a resemblance to his father that what his tongue could not tell his face did, and people struck by the likeness exclaimed, "He is the very image of his father." Such was Adam in his state of innocence. Now it may be said that as our Lord, like the first Adam, was holy, he is therefore called the image of God; yet that does not exhaust the meaning, nor is it on that account that Paul calls Him the second Adam. Nor have they sounded the depths who say He was so called because He was endowed with power to do the works of God. For many others have been in that sense equally images of God. But where are they represented as "God manifest in the flesh"?

2. In Christ's character and works we have a living, visible, perfect image of the invisible God.

(1) In Him we see the power of God, and notably at the grave of Lazarus. To make something out of nothing is a work more visibly stamped with divinity than to make one thing out of another — a living man out of lifeless dust, and then on that mountain side the bread multiplies.

(2) In Christ we have the image of a holy God.

(3) In Christ we have the image of a God willing and waiting to save.

(T. Guthrie, D. D.)

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KJV: Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

WEB: who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.