Jesus Christ the Icon of God
The Bible reveals that God is Spirit (Jn 4:24). This is true of God the Father, the first Person of the Trinitarian Godhead. It is also true of God the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity. Before the incarnation of the eternal Son of God (Jn 1:14), Jesus Christ, too, was Spirit, as the second Person of the Godhead.
The human eye was made by God, who did not make it to see or detect spirits, whether angels or demons or God himself. No eye has ever seen God (Jn 1:18). Therefore, we refer to Him as the invisible God. This in no way diminishes His Personhood or any other perfect attribute He possesses.
The Apostle John prefaced his Gospel account and his first epistle with the profound doctrine of God taking on flesh (Jn 1:14; 1 Jn 1:1). This demonstrates the significance, the primacy of the doctrine of the enfleshed Son of God, who became the Son of man (Jn 5:27).
Heretics, such as, Arius, have never understood the ramifications of denying the deity of Jesus Christ. For them, Jesus was only a man. As the Jehovah’s Witnesses do, today, they claim Jesus was a great man. Muslims follow the same tack, finding the incarnation of God the Son to be most reprehensible. It was the Docetists who struggled with the goodness of spirits, while denouncing all flesh as bad.
An icon is an exact image of another. The maker, of a statue of someone famous, will attempt to create an exact replica. The skill will be judged on the likeness the icon has to the real thing. With this thought, we capture some of the significance of the Person and life of Jesus Christ. The implication of Jesus being the icon of God is that He has all the likeness to God. This means Jesus possessed all the attributes of God, during His earthly visit and ministry. This was validated over and over again, with signs and wonders performed by the Nazarene. Even His enemies acknowledged Him to be a teacher sent from God (Mt 22:16). What they missed was that He was God.
Some of the more discerning ones detected claims to deity by Jesus, but they did not believe that they were true claims. Instead, they picked up stones to kill Jesus for blasphemy (Jn 8:59). When the mob was ready to pounce, Jesus displayed His power to evade his enemies, which only God could do (Lk 4:30).
This clause, “which only God could do,” helps us to see Jesus was not just a man, even a good man or a prophet. Giving sight to the blind (Jn 9) and even raising people from the dead (Jn 11) were acts that no mere mortal could accomplish. Jesus was fully God and fully man. He still is, today.
So why did the eternal Son of God, a Spirit, incarnate into the icon, the human likeness of deity. The mission of the God/man was to reconcile rebel, elect humanity to Himself. It was to ransom and redeem His chosen people from the ranks of wayward humanity, the sons of Adam, the sons of disobedience. Jesus came to save His people from their sins (Mt 1:21).
What ungodly sinners needed was the means to be restored to a Holy God. The sons of Adam lived under the wrath of God, even as they do, today (Rom 1:18–32). Who can deliver men from the just judgment of a righteous God? No one could do this work by himself because all have sinned (Rom 3:23; 5:12). Men need a substitute sacrifice that is unblemished, holy, and acceptable to God (Jn 1:29).
Jesus Christ was the unblemished Lamb of God, sinless (Heb 4:15). He laid down His life for His church (Jn 10:11, 15; Eph 5:25), the people of His own possession (1 Pet 2:9), as an act of love (Eph 5:2). Jesus was the representative head of this body of God’s elect (Eph 5:30). The Son of God needed to become like us, in order to properly represent us. Therefore, the iniquity of us all fell on Him, at the cross of Calvary (Is 53:6). He took our sins upon His body (1 Pet 2:24), prepared for this work, planned from before the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8; 17:8; 21:27).
The icon of God had a reason to be in human flesh, for He was a substitute sacrifice for sinners (Rom 8:34; 2 Cor 5:14; 1 Pet 3:18). In His resurrection from the dead, Jesus now has a glorified human body. In other words, Jesus did not die and return to God, as a Spirit without a body. Rather, His dead body was glorified. He retains the marks of His suffering, today, and forever. He retains the title “icon of God” now glorified. His body is the first human body to be glorified (Col 1:18; Rev 1:5). Other bodies will follow this pattern, in the resurrection of the dead on the last day (Jn 5:28–29).
It is important for every Christian, to embrace the reality, of the necessity of God the Son becoming man. As the Son, Jesus is like God the Father. In fact, in the realm of perfect deity, He is exactly like His Father in every respect (Col 1:15). The one discernible difference is the incarnation and its necessary works to fulfill the eternal purpose in Christ (Eph 3:11), which was the salvation of His chosen ones (2 Thess 2:13).
Jesus Christ was and is the icon of God, the exact representation of deity in human flesh. There is no one like Jesus, and there is no other work of men, to be compared to what Jesus has accomplished. It was a finished work at the cross, and it was considered a good work, in God’s estimation. This validation was demonstrated by God raising Jesus from the dead (1 Pet 1:21).
Today, the glorified icon of God reigns on the throne of God (Ps 110:1; Rev 7:17), as Lord of all creation. To deny the icon of God is to deny God himself, who has revealed these things to you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the icon of the invisible God, and you shall be saved.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
December 13, 2022
