The Fullness of Salvation 4
Salvation From Satan’s Image to Christ’s Image
In addition to forgiveness, eternal life, spiritual freedom, and obedience, is the issue of God’s image. God has created man in God’s image. Man is to be in the image of God, in the image of Christ who is the image of God.
An individual is not in the image of God until all that is found in the individual is found in God.
When considering God’s image we must include at least seven elements: being, character, substance, function, organization of parts, abilities, and appearance.
Let us think for a moment about each of these seven aspects.
God’s Being includes spirit, soul, and body.
Satan is a fallen cherub consisting only of a spirit, as far as we know.
God’s Character is what God is and God does. God is love and acts in love. God is joy and acts in joy. God is peace and acts in peace. God is patience and demonstrates patience. God is gentleness and acts gently. God is goodness and demonstrates goodness in His behaviour.
God is meekness and shows forth meekness. God is self-control and acts temperately. God is courage and acts bravely. God is righteousness and acts lawfully. God is holy and acts in purity. God is the King and rules over all. God is compassion and acts compassionately.
Satan is hatred and acts in hate. Satan is wretchedness and acts in wretchedness. Satan is unrest, torment, and anxiety. Satan is lust, violence, cruelty, abomination, treachery, implacability, abandonment, perversity, and lawlessness. This is what Satan is and how he behaves.
God’s Substance is Divine, incorruptible eternal Life.
Satan’s substance is putrefaction and death.
God sees, hears, speaks, thinks, feels, touches, smells, tastes, and functions in every other manner to which humans are accustomed.
All of Satan’s functions and senses are perverted and inflamed and result in perversion and torment in those in whom Satan dwells.
All of the "parts" of God, such as His eyes, hands, feet, face, are perfectly organized and operate in harmony and peace.
The parts of Satan are in disorder producing disease and abnormalities in those in whom Satan dwells.
God has unnumbered abilities . God creates. In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom, knowledge, science, music, art, architecture, technologies, poetry, and agriculture.
Satan operates with the limited authority and power allocated to him by Christ, corrupting and perverting the talents of those whom he indwells and guides.
The appearance of God is that of radiant, fiery Man (Ezekiel 1:26-28)
The appearance of Satan is so hideous that to see him as he is would be the most devastating of all experiences.
Man is born in sin with a bent toward lawlessness. Man has the potential for continuing in sin and lawlessness until he is in Satan’s image, or for following Christ until he is in the image of the God of Heaven.
How are we delivered from Satan’s image and brought into Christ’s image in each of the seven aspects?
By deliverance
By being born again
By being nourished by the Life of Christ
By beholding the Glory of the Lord
By education and training.
By deliverance.
The seven aspects of God’s image we have just mentioned have been corrupted by the world, by the sin that dwells in our flesh, and by our self-will, self-seeking, and self-centeredness. In particular, our character is affected by Satan and by our rebellious nature.
We are delivered from the world as we follow the Lord through water baptism, and then as we present our body a living sacrifice to God, not being changed into the image of the world but being transformed by the renewing of our mind in Christ.
The sin that dwells in us is cast out as we confess our sins, as we repent, as we receive forgiveness and cleansing from the Lord, as we resist the devil, as through the Spirit we put to death the deeds of our body, as we put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for our flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.
The self-seeking, self-will, and self-centeredness that corrupt our soul are removed from us as we patiently carry the cross of affliction and self-denial. We must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Jesus.
Only in this manner can we be delivered from self-will, from rebellion against the Father.
By being born again. In order to be changed from Satan’s image to Christ’s image we must be born again of the Spirit of the Lord. Christ must be born in us. The incorruptible Divine Seed must be conceived in us.
Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. The human soul does not enter the Kingdom of God. It is the new man of the heart, the Divine Seed, the life-giving Spirit, that enters the Kingdom and is the Kingdom.
The human soul serves as ground in which the Divine Life is planted and germinates. A new type of creature comes forth. In this manner our being, our character, our substance, are formed in the image of God.
By being nourished by the Life of Christ. After we have been born again we must work with God in nourishing our new Divine Life. We must pray, meditate in the Scriptures, and gather together with fervent saints on a regular basis if possible.
We must find our talent and use it in the Kingdom of God. We must wait on the Lord day and night. As we do, the Lord Jesus Christ nourishes our new inner Life with His body and blood, with the "hidden manna." Christ is formed in us, causing us to become a new creation, a new kind of creature, a life-giving spirit, a creature in God’s image.
By beholding the Glory of the Lord. We must witness the Glory of the Lord on a continuing basis.
But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (II Corinthians 3:18)
God has given us freely of the Divine Virtue that the Lord Jesus is. We have been entrusted with the body and blood of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God (both written by the Prophets and Apostles and also as "manna" given us through the Spirit). The Life of Christ is developed in us through the travail of the ministries and gifts of the Body of Christ.
All these Divine impartations and enablement’s work together to change us into that image of Christ that continually is presented to us as we seek the Lord. Sometimes we "see" the Lord during fervent, prolonged prayer; sometimes as we meditate in the Scriptures.
Often we behold the Lord through the ministries and gifts given by the Holy Spirit to a fellow saint, or through the personality and behaviour of another Christian. It may happen that we are blessed with a dream or vision. Often the Lord uses a book or other form of communication to help us.
We continue "seeing" Christ, and as we do we are changed by the Spirit of the Lord into the image of God. Our mind is renewed. Divine Substance is formed in us. The Life of the Spirit guides our behavior, and the fruit of the Spirit begins to appear in our motives, our speech, our deeds, our meditations and imaginations.
We must be delivered from sin and self-will. We must be born again, and that new life must be nourished continually. We must be transformed continually by beholding the Glory of the Lord as He brings His Glory to us.
When we keep our eyes fixed on the Lord Jesus we begin to notice that the whole earth is filled with His Glory.
By education and training. In addition to the previously mentioned means of bringing us into His image, God educates and trains us. He transforms us by the renewing of our mind.
God educates and trains us through the Scriptures, both Old and New Testament, through the ministries of the Body of Christ, through the direct revelation of His Spirit, including impressions, dreams, and visions, and also by the experiences through which He brings us.
Now let us resume the thought of bringing us into God's image.
The Holy Spirit is the Master Teacher. We learn of the Person, the Word, and the eternal purpose of the Lord God as we allow the Lord to teach us. Many of the Lord’s people are slow to learn or even unwilling to learn.
Let us pause to review the outline of what we are discussing.
There are seven aspects of the Christian salvation:
Salvation from guilt to forgiveness.
Salvation from spiritual death to eternal life.
Salvation from spiritual bondage to spiritual freedom.
Salvation from disobedience to obedience.
Salvation from Satan’s image to Christ’s image.
Salvation from emptiness to fullness.
Salvation from bodily corruption to bodily incorruption.
We have been elaborating the fifth aspect—salvation from Satan’s image to Christ’s image.
There are seven elements of God’s image:
Being.
Character.
Substance.
Function.
Organization of parts.
Abilities.
Appearance.
There are five means of bringing us into God’s image:
By deliverance.
By being born again.
By being nourished by the Life of Christ.
By beholding the Glory of the Lord.
By education and training.
We have mentioned four methods of educating and training us in God’s image:
The Scriptures.
The ministries of the Body.
The direct revelation of the Spirit.
The experiences through which the Spirit brings us.
God is holy and righteous. Those who are in God’s image are holy and righteous.
The image of God reveals courage and dominance (the lion), the capacity and willingness for work and service (the ox), the wild, fierce, independent liberty of the Lord (the eagle), and the "human" traits of intelligence, judgment, jealousy, friendliness, playfulness, the desire to create, humour, the love of beauty, compassion, the desire for union, and a human form (the man).
Changing our image goes hand in hand with deliverance. As we are delivered from spiritual bondage our new image is able to manifest itself. As Christ is formed in us we are brought into increasingly greater deliverance. Deliverance and image. Image and deliverance. Deliverance and image, until we stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.
The process of image change of image has not been completed until every point in us corresponds to a point in God. We are to be like our Father in every way although not nearly as great as He. This is pleasing to Him who has called us to be His sons, to be the brothers of the elder Son, Christ.
If we are set free from spiritual bondage, and then do not press forward into the fullness of the image of Christ, we are a spiritual vacuum. Soon the unclean spirits that have been driven from us, not having found rest elsewhere, will return to us and enter us. Our last state will be worse than the first.
God does not forgive us, cause incorruptible eternal life to be born in us, deliver us from spiritual bondages, nourish us with the body and blood of His Son, reveal His Glory to us and in us, and carefully educate and train us in His Person, Word, and eternal purpose so we may go about our business as usual, living to ourselves as it pleases us. Rather, God redeems us so we may enter our proper role in His Kingdom and do His will.
How many people wish to be "saved" so they can follow their desires without hindrance from God or anyone else? These are wandering stars. They are clouds without water. The eternal darkness is their portion because they are not willing to give themselves to God’s plan for them.
They are a law to themselves, always seeking to build their own kingdom. They do not want God to interfere with their plans, and God will not interfere if this is what they truly desire.
He will invite them into His will and purposes. But upon their refusal God will give them over to their own desires to wander about in darkness by themselves, each being his own sole companion. They have sought to be separate from God and their prayer will be answered.
Satan’s image has been rejected. It will not be permitted to exist among the inhabitants of the new world. Satan and all who bear his image will be shut away from saved society by the power of God. It is only as we are redeemed from Satan’s image and transformed into Christ’s image that we are permitted to have fellowship with Christ and with the saints and holy angels of the new Jerusalem.