The Exact Image

Have you ever heard someone say, “He’s the spitting image of his dad”? Where did that phrase originate? There are a couple of theories. Some believe the phrase was originally “splitting image” and derived from the two matching pieces of a split plank of wood. The mirror image of the matching grain has often been used in furniture and musical instruments. And so “splitting image” came to mean “exact likeness.

Others suggest that if someone (or something) is so similar to another, it appears as if that person (or thing) had been spat out of his mouth. A play from 1689, says, “Poor child! He’s as like his own daddy as if he were spit out of his mouth.” The more exact usage was first quoted in A. H. Rice’s Mrs. Wiggs in 1901. She wrote: “He’s jes’ like his pa—the very spittin’ image of him!”

The phrase in Hebrews that describes Jesus as “the express image” of God goes far beyond the expression “spitting image.” Even the idiom “splitting image” doesn’t capture the divine nature of Jesus, for He is not “partly” God but is equal with God. All the attributes of God are in Jesus; He stated, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30).

Jesus doesn’t just look like God on the surface. His divinity goes all the way to the core of His being. He told Philip, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Jesus claimed equality with God when He identified Himself as the “I AM” (John 8:58) of the Old Testament.

Christ not only points us to the Father but is God Himself. People worshiped Jesus after the resurrection (Matthew 28:17). The Bible says, “Let all the angels of God worship Him” (Hebrews 1:6). Someday every knee will bow and “confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10, 11).

Apply It:

Think of two close relatives you know who look very similar. Reflect on how they are different. Even identical twins are not exact in every way.

Dig Deeper:

Matthew 1:23; John 1:1, 14; Romans 9:5

Key Bible Texts

God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, (Hebrews 1:1 KJV)