Here is John Calvin commenting on Colossians 1:15:
The sum is this — that God in himself, that is, in his naked majesty, is invisible, and that not to the eyes of the body merely, but also to the understandings of men, and that 
he is revealed to us in Christ alone, that we may behold him as in a mirror. For in Christ he shews us his righteousness, goodness, wisdom, power, in short, his entire self. We must, therefore, beware of seeking him elsewhere, for everything that would set itself off as a representation of God, apart from Christ, will be an idol. (John Calvin, “Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians,” trans. John Pringle, 150)
And on Philippians 2:6:
. . . As, then God is known by means of his excellences, and his works are evidences of his eternal Godhead, (Rom. I. 20,) so Christ’s divine essence is rightly proved from Christ’s majesty, which he possessed equally with the Father before he humbled himself. As to myself, at least, not even all devils would wrest this passage from me — inasmuch as there is in God a most solid argument, from his glory to his essence, which are two things that are inseparable. (John Calvin, “Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Philippians . . .,” 56)
Two eloquent statements, by Calvin, on (a.) Positive Theology, so that “knowledge of God” is limited to Christ alone — and not searching around for other “[sophist]icated” ways to talk about God (all you conceptually oriented scholastics out there). And (b.) on the relationship between the ontological/immanent nature of God, and the ‘evangelical’/economic nature of God. Calvin believed that the ‘works and miracles’ (“his glory”) are the external and univocal expression of His eternal being perichoretically united to the Father and the Holy Spirit. In other words, Calvin didn’t think that there was “a God behind the back of Jesus;” but that who Christ revealed Himself to be, was the ‘exact representation’ and externalization of the coinhering glory (Jn. 17) that He has always shared with the Father by the communion of the Holy Spirit. So as John the Evangelist records Jesus saying:
If ye had known me, ye also should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. 8. Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, shew us the Father? 10. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. 11. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. John 14:7-11 KJV
This is all Calvin is getting at. When we do theology, when we work in the realm of “Christian epistemology,” we are strictly limited to doing Christology. If we want to know what the Father is like, if we want to talk about what God is like; then we are limited to looking at Jesus for all the proper boundaries and emphases that He wants us to know. Calvin would probably be appalled to see how his name has been applied to an theological methodology that has gone astray from this narrow framing provided by Calvin in his commentaries.
*A post from 2010
Bobby,
I believe there is a real need for a couple of works. One more academically focused on “Christophoric Hermeneutics” (which i think some people are already looking at but it does not really get inside this in the way you do as yet ie thoroughgoing and rigorous as well as “doxological”). There could be a “cookies on the lower shelf” version for “regular” people wanting to encounter God in Christ through the Scriptures. A work on Homiletics would also be of great value since i almost never hear this kind of preaching and cant find much on line actually. (send me some if you have any). I think these would be very valuable and you would have a significant contribution. I would like to support this work and as you pray about it please keep me informed. Thanks for your unrelenting faithful proclamation of Jesus in your writing.
Richard, thank you for the encouragement! Yeah, that’s something I would like to focus on for sure, and have focused on it for along time, really; i.e., biblical hermeneutics. I think there definitely is a dearth in just the way you identify it. Maybe I can do something in that area. And I agree, there needs to be the academic, like the foundation level, and then a more popular or accessible work for folks to grasp in realistic ways. I remember back in Bible College, probably in 99, as I was walking to the library, the thought occurred to me then that all of theology and biblical interpretation must be shaped by Jesus Christ (I had Jn 5.39 in mind at that time). That has been my guiding reality ever since then. I’d rather err on “too much Christ,” than not enough or none 🙂 .
Go for it Bobby. I also had a similar moment in 2001 I think it must have been in Bible College when I was in a class and read 2 Corin 3:18. I saw that beholding of Christ is the very means of change. We behold him and we become like him. Our goal then must be to point to him in everything. That changed my life forever and set me on this trajectory. Everyone needs this revelation. We must pray that because that is what God wants. If this is something the Lord is leading you to work on then please keep me informed. As I said it would like to support it and have been thinking on it for these many years. I have found only a very few who actually are able to articulate and get inside this reality. It is the only reality that matters and the only way the gospel will change anyone.
@Richard,
Amen. It is a total blessing when the Lord brings us to that spot of understanding that the Kingdom is thoroughly Christ-filled, and thus all is contingent upon Him per the Father’s choice, along with the Son’s and Spirit’s. I agree, until someone grasps this they aren’t living in step with the full force of the Gospel reality; and so people need to come to know this. Thank you for the continued encouragement, and I’ll let you know how the Lord leads!