When we look in the mirror or at a photograph, we see an image of ourselves, but it is a flat, two-dimensional portrayal. In some respects, a sculpture gives a clearer idea yet still falls far short of the living, breathing, animated reality. The biblical concept of image, while sometimes referring to these lesser representations, suggests something broader still.
Read Genesis 1:26, 27; Genesis 5:3; 1 Corinthians 15:49; 2 Corinthians 3:18; and Hebrews 10:1. Summarize the various meanings of “image” in these passages. How might they differ from the description of Jesus as the image of God?
Human beings were created to be as much like God as possible—physically, spiritually, relationally, and functionally. Still, they reflect God’s image in certain aspects only, and sin has damaged even that. But Jesus enables us to “see” the invisible God. “He who has seen Me,” Jesus said, “has seen the Father” (John 14:9, NKJV). He is “the exact imprint” of God’s nature (Heb. 1:3, ESV). He is God’s thought made audible and God’s character made visible.
Read Matthew 11:27 and John 1:1, 2, 14, 18. Why is Jesus uniquely able to reveal the Father?
Note other ways in which Jesus described His relation to God the Father:
• “My Father has been working until now, and I have been working” (John 5:17, NKJV).
• “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30, NKJV).
• “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6, NKJV).
Jesus also repeatedly described Himself in an absolute sense in terms of God’s name: “I AM” (see Exod. 3:14); “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35); “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12); “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11, 14); “I am the resurrection, and the life” (John 11:25); “I am in the Father, and the Father in me” (John 14:11); and “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58).
If Jesus were anyone other than God Himself, what would it mean except that the Father sent some created being to die for us? Why is that so radically, and crucially, different from God Himself, in the Person of Christ, dying for us?
Supplemental EGW Notes
As a personal being, God has revealed Himself in His Son. The outshining of the Father’s glory, “and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3), Jesus, as a personal Saviour, came to the world. As a personal Saviour He ascended on high. As a personal Saviour He intercedes in the heavenly courts. Before the throne of God in our behalf ministers “one like unto the Son of man” (Revelation 1:13).
Christ, the Light of the world, veiled the dazzling splendor of His divinity and came to live as a man among men, that they might, without being consumed, become acquainted with their Creator. Since sin brought separation between man and his Maker, no man has seen God at any time, except as He is manifested through Christ.
“I and my Father are one,” Christ declared (John 10:30). “No man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him” (John 10:30; Matthew 11:27).
Christ came to teach human beings what God desires them to know. In the heavens above, in the earth, in the broad waters of the ocean, we see the handiwork of God. All created things testify to His power, His wisdom, His love. Yet not from the stars or the ocean or the cataract can we learn of the personality of God as it was revealed in Christ.
God saw that a clearer revelation than nature was needed to portray both His personality and His character. He sent His Son into the world to manifest, so far as could be endured by human sight, the nature and the attributes of the invisible God. . . .
Taking humanity upon Him, Christ came to be one with humanity, and at the same time to reveal our heavenly Father to sinful human beings. He who had been in the presence of the Father from the beginning, He who was the express image of the invisible God, was alone able to reveal the character of the Deity to mankind. He was in all things made like unto His brethren. He became flesh even as we are. He was hungry and thirsty and weary. He was sustained by food and refreshed by sleep. He shared the lot of men; yet He was the blameless Son of God. . . . Tender, compassionate, sympathetic, ever considerate of others, He represented the character of God, and was constantly engaged in service for God and man.
The theme of redemption will employ the minds and tongues of the redeemed through everlasting ages. The reflection of the glory of God will shine forth forever and ever from the Saviour’s face.—Reflecting Christ, p. 39.
The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.