He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Colossians 1:15, ESV
Let’s talk about the eye for a minute. It’s a pretty amazing product of our Lord’s endless ingenuity.
Firstly, light goes out from a source (the Sun, lightbulb, the screen you’re reading this on) at an approximate speed of 186,000 miles per second. The emitted light then travels through space at this speed until it makes contact with the cornea, which refracts the light onto your lens. The lens then refracts the light to the back of your eye, where it meets the retina. There, a collection of 120 million rod cells and 6 million cone photoreceptor cells receive this light. They accordingly send electrical impulses through the optic nerve into the occipital lobe in your brain, where those impulses are converted into an image of whatever light hit your retina at the beginning of this process.
Now, we have 3 different types of photoreceptors in our eyes, which means we can see red, green, blue, or any combination thereof. This consists of the entire color spectrum as we know it.
But wait, there’s more.
Humans don’t have the most advanced eye among all of God’s creation. I’m sure you know that already; cats can see better in the dark, eagles can see in great detail at a distance, the giant squid has an eye that weighs over 25 pounds. What if these are not even the most miraculous eyes in the world?
There is a tiny creature that has eyes which contain sixteen photoreceptors (to humans 3.) This range of different cells allows the mantis shrimp to detect different types of UV light, among many other things. Yet not even the miraculous eyes of the mantis shrimp could see God.
There isn’t a creature in this world that has an amazing enough eye to be able to see God. There isn’t a camera with high enough resolution that can find Him among the things of this world. There isn’t a telescope with a far enough reach that can find Him nestled among the cosmos, and it isn’t as if there could hypothetically be a telescope someday that has the capability of seeing God.
With all that being said, there is a way we can see God.
By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
Hebrews 11:27, ESV
We don’t see God by light waves making contact with our retinas. We see God by faith. Only through the spiritual eyes of faith can we truly see God. Here is John Calvin on the above verse
We hence learn, that the true character of faith is to set God always before our eyes; secondly, that faith beholds higher and more hidden things in God than what our senses can perceive; and thirdly, that a view of God alone is sufficient to strengthen our weakness, so that we may become firmer than rocks to withstand all the assaults of Satan. It hence follows, that the weaker and the less resolute any one is, the less faith he has.
John Calvin, Commentary on Hebrews 11:27
And this doesn’t only apply to our time here on Earth. If God is invisible, He shall remain invisible in Glory, for He does not change. We will lay our eyes upon the physical body of our Lord and Savior. We will see Christ Jesus, and our faith will be made sight, but we will still not see God as He exists as most pure, invisible spirit. We don’t get any less of God because we cannot see Him as He exists in the form of invisible spirit, because Jesus is the image of the invisible God. He is God in the flesh. When we get Jesus, we get all of God. When we see Jesus, we see God.
In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.
John 14:20-21, ESV
In part II, I hope to tie together the concept of the invisibility of God with the reformed understanding of the second commandment.