The Image of God...

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The first chapter of the Book of Hebrews tells us that God has declared the Word of God, who was from the beginning and created all things, to be His Son, God, the Lord, the heir of all things, and His Firstborn. It is interesting that the statement is made that God created all things through Christ. This relationship has existed from the beginning, and is seen in the Gospels. When Christ works, it is the Father working through Him. Christ made all things as the Father worked through Him.

(4/15/2007) The emphasis, in the first chapter of the Book of Hebrews, is that Christ is God's "Son." Perhaps we do not always realize how important it is that we are referred to as sons of God. We are coheirs with Christ because we also are God's sons and brothers of Christ.

Notice carefully the expression, "the exact representation of his being." The Lord Jesus Christ is the exact representation of the Father's Being.

When God made man, He made him to be in His image, that is, the exact representation of His Being. The first Man to appear on the earth, who fulfilled the Divine decree, was Jesus Christ.

We also are to be made the exact representation of God's Being, which also is Christ's Being, and is to be our being.

To be in the image of God, two things must be true of us. First, our character must be formed in the image of God's Character. This means that all of our behaviour must be righteous. We must be faithful, kind, merciful, peaceful, loving, truthful, joyous, honest, patient, hopeful, just as God is. Such transformation of our character into God's image is accomplished only as Christ is formed in us. Christ is formed in us when we deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Christ at every moment.

Second, we must carry the Presence of God with us. We must reflect in ourselves, at any given circumstance, the thinking, speaking, and acting of God, just as Jesus did and always does. We must become, as Paul exclaimed, a magnifying glass such that people can see Jesus enlarged in us at all times. As our character is transformed by the Spirit, God Himself dwells in us and can be seen.

We are to be, like our elder Brother, the Lord Jesus, the exact representation of God's Being. This is why we must be born again and Christ formed in us. To be in the image of God is impossible for our adamic nature.

We understand then, that when God said "Let Us make man in Our image," He was speaking prophetically of that which would take place with Adam's descendants, Adam being but the raw material, as it were, from which God would create that which was on His mind.

Jesus Christ sustains all things, including outer space and its stars and planets, by His powerful word. The heavens declare the Glory of God. Any time we are tempted to believe that God cannot create each of us in His express image, we need to consider the power that guides the stars and planets. Then we can realize that that same power is able to create us in God's image.

Christ is greater than the angels in that He is God's Son.

In the second Psalm, God informs Him who had been the Logos, the Word, that the Word now is to be known as God's Son: "Today I have begotten you." What day? Perhaps the day Christ was born of Mary, because God speaks prophetically.

There have been many marvellous happenings since the creation of the world. But none compares in awesomeness with the birth of the Logos as a human, a Son.

"Let all the angels of God worship Him." And let all other creatures of God worship Him who now is God's Son, the Firstborn, the Heir of all God Is and possesses.

But that word "Firstborn" is loaded with significance. Can it be possible that Jesus Christ is the First of many sons who also will be heirs of God and the exact representation of God's being? Will God also refer to Himself as our Father? Will we also sit with Jesus Christ on the highest throne of the universe? Is this scriptural? Will righteous behaviour be the sceptre of our Kingdom?

Is such a sceptre, such a rod of iron righteousness, being created in us today as we set our will to resist every temptation that we might do God' will perfectly and completely?

Now we come to what may be the most puzzling of all passages of Scripture: "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy."

Could it be true that the Creator of all was standing in the midst of "companions" (whom He had created), in the spirit world, when the Father singled Him out and declared that God anointed Christ (the Anointed One) with the oil of joy because He loved righteous behaviour and hated wicked behaviour? (I add "behaviour" to "righteousness" because today's overemphasis on imputed righteousness has befuddled the minds of the believers until they are unable to think clearly about what God means by "righteousness").

Is this why Satan is consumed with envy, forever attempting to tear down all God is doing through Christ?

Or does the passage mean that we believers are Christ's companion and He has been anointed with joy more than we? I prefer the first explanation, although I have no quarrel with those who have another explanation. It indeed is a difficult passage, in my opinion.

Note the emphasis the Father places on righteous behaviour. It is true today. When we choose to behave righteously, God anoints us with love, joy, and peace. As we grow in righteous behaviour, we receive increased love, joy, and peace. These are not rewards that we earn, they are the natural result of our increased fellowship with Him who is the source of all love, joy, and peace. God give His Spirit to those who obey Him!

One day the physical universe that we are accustomed to will flee from the face of Jesus Christ. The present world, which is a cesspool, will have served its purpose.

God understands fully the incredible moral filth of the world we live in. We Christians are not to fret ourselves about it. The rulers of the creation that God is creating, under the Lord Jesus Christ, cannot be fashioned in Paradise. The Lord Himself was made perfect by means of the suffering He encountered in the world.

All the events of history are working together to produce the brothers of the Lord who, under Christ will rule the world to come. When we can do some good in the present world, we should do so. But in all other matters we are to cease our fretting, realizing that Christ is in control of the present world and understands precisely what He is doing.

When Christ is through using the present world to accomplish His purposes in His elect, He will discard the present physical universe, and then bring into view a new world of righteousness that will surpass in splendour any vision we possibly can imagine in the present hour.

And the new world of righteousness and splendour shall last forever. Think of it!

But the Lord Jesus Christ will remain the same, yesterday, today, forever!

Jesus Christ has had to sit patiently at the right hand of God until God decides to make Christ's enemies a footstool for His feet. This work has begun on our day.

The Lord Jesus has come to us in the Spirit, in fulfilment of the convocation of The Blowing of Trumpets, to declare war against His enemies that live in us.

When the Spirit of God points out to us a behaviour that is not of the image of God, such as unforgiveness, we are to denounce it as an enemy of Christ. We are to renounce it, declaring firmly that we want nothing more to do with it. When we confess a sin, such as unforgiveness, and resolve by the Lord's help to turn away from it, God forgives our sin and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Thus Christ's enemies are made a footstool for His nail-pierced feet.

The following statement shows us where the writer of Hebrews is taking us: "Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?"

"Those who will inherit salvation." The writer has spoken of the high state to which God has raised the Firstborn. Now we see what really is on the writer's mind: the remainder of those who also are born of God.

The entire Book of Hebrews is a rebuke directed toward experienced Jewish Christians. They had been forgiven through the blood atonement and filled with the Holy Spirit. They had been taught by those who themselves had been taught by the Lord Jesus.

Now they were drifting away. They did not realize they had not entered the promised "rest" as yet.

The "rest" of God is our Canaan, it is our land of promise. It is the state of being where we are in the express image of God and dwelling in untroubled rest in the centre of God's Person and will.

Those Jewish Christians to whom the Book of Hebrews was addressed were certainly as far along in God's plan of redemption as we are, according to what we read in the text. Yet they are being rebuked soundly.

We need to take heed, understanding that after we have been forgiven and filled with the Spirit we are prepared to press forward into that exceedingly high calling resting on all who are called "sons of God."

We are being challenged today to press forward until we attain to the inward resurrection upon which our outward resurrection into glory depends. Are we going to move forward with Christ, or are we going to drift, thus putting in danger our very inheritance in Christ.

How shall we escape if we neglect such an awesome salvation?

You can hear the morning sermon at morning. http://www.wor.org/audio/audio.htm

You can hear the evening sermon at evening. http://www.wor.org/audio/audio.htm

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