“And God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…'” Genesis 1:26
Dear Ones:
How far we have fallen from that blessed state and calling of being made in the image of God!!! The effects of the fall, and the curse and judgment of our sin, has plummeted mankind into a downward spiral of corruption and degradation. If it were not for the mercy of God, His restraining influence, coupled with His holy LAW, which was given to Moses, and implanted in the conscience of men, there would be no limit to which man could go, and would go, in the “knowledge of evil.” The good news of the Gospel is that God has provided not only the perfect “image” of Himself in Christ, but has also made provision in Christ that we should escape the downward trend, and be transformed into His image again. How?
First of all, let’s look at what Scripture declares concerning “images.” From Moses’ writings, we discover that in the application of the first commandment of the Ten Commandments, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me,” (Ex. 20:3), he writes: “…Thou shall not make unto thee any graven IMAGE.” (v.4) This “image” means “likeness,” or resemblance. Any man-made effort to represent the invisible God by that which is of this creation is forbidden, simply because it can never be accurate. It will always, not only be flawed in a major way, but will be an distortion of the truth, a deception….a lie. God never blesses the lie, and certainly will not be worshipped according to the lie. However, God CAN and DOES present to us an “image,” a likeness of the Divine, and this, in human flesh. The writer of the book of Hebrews writes: “God…in these last days has spoken unto by His Son, …being the brightness of His glory, and the express IMAGE of His person…purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.” (Heb. 1:2,3) Christ is declared in Scripture as being the second ADAM, that perfect man, without sin, in whom the Spirit dwells fully, and unreservedly. He is also God in the flesh, for He declared: “Before Abraham was, I AM.” (Jn. 8:58) Paul, in writing to the Colossians, and speaking of the Son, wrote: “…who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.” (1:15) How can this be, that Christ would be both the “image” of God, and at the same time, God in the flesh? The writer of Hebrews writes: “Thou madest Him a little lower than the angels; Thou crownest Him with glory and honor…Thou hast put all things under His feet.” (Heb. 2:7,8) He then writes of our limitations in our ability to understand and grasp the enormity of Christ’s divinity in the flesh, but then adds: “…but we see Jesus.” (2:9) Christ is the “image” of the Divine, for we SEE Him. And it is in this vision and grasp of Who and What He is, that faith lays hold on Him to know the provision of God to transform us.
Secondly, God by the Spirit IS that blessed means by which He counters the downward descent of sin and death, by transforming us into the image of Christ. Paul writes: “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the IMAGE of His Son.” (Romans 8:29) Faber wrote, in the context of a fallen world: “There is a way for man to rise, to that sublime abode, and Offering and a Sacrifice, and Advocate with God.” The question then becomes, “But how, practically speaking?” It is in the appropriation of the life of Christ by the Spirit, that He reveals Himself in and through us. It is in the expression of His indwelling life, the fruits of the Spirit, Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, that we shall declare: “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:31) It is as we abide in Christ, that He abides in us, revealing in and through us the blessedness of His nature and life, by the Spirit. “But we ALL, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Cor. 3:18) To God be the glory.
Dear Father, We praise and thank Thee that provision was made from before the fall, that we should be changed into the image of Christ. Grant us grace to so abide in Christ, that He will abide in us, being perfectly “at home” in and through us. Then the world will know that He is the truth, light, and perfect love. We thank and praise Thee in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad