The Image of God:

You know, it is difficult to sum up the topics mentioned during the two services on Sunday. The topics include: the image of God; the witness; the two witnesses; making disciples, the Lampstand; the end-time revival. All of these were mentioned as we discussed the tenth and eleventh chapters of the Book of Revelation.

(2/5/2006) Perhaps I should discuss the concepts in the order I have just stated, since they all are connected.

First, the image of God. In the beginning God declared that man is to be in His image and likeness. We are to be in His image in our moral character. We finally are to be in His outer likeness when we are raised from the dead and clothed with a body like that of the Lord Jesus.

Obviously we have to be changed into God’s image in our moral character before we will be entrusted with a body like that of Jesus Christ.

What a momentous hour we are living in! Prior to this time the emphasis has been on imputed righteousness, that is, a righteousness assigned to us independently of how bound we are with sin. All the righteousness most of us have known is a de jure righteousness, a righteousness assigned to us because of our faith in the blood atonement made by the Lord Jesus.

If we think about it we soon will come to the conclusion that a righteousness ascribed to us while we are unchanged in character is not satisfying. It is not what is meant by being made in God’s image. There shall come a day, according to the New Testament, when the Lord will give us a de facto righteousness, a moral transformation that will cause us to keep, by nature, God’s eternal moral law. Maybe we never thought that our salvation would include actual deliverance from sin, as well as forgiveness while we yet are sinning.

But Christ came to destroy the works of the devil, not to forgive the works of the devil.

We have experienced the fullness of the Divine redemption, that which was purchased by the blood of Christ on the cross, when all that is of Satan has been removed from us; Christ has been formed in us; the Father and the Son are residing in us; and we have been raised from the dead and clothed with incorruptible resurrection life.

Can God actually make us in His image? Yes, He can.

The reconciling of us to God in our personality is prefigured in the two goats of the Jewish Day of Atonement. One goat provided forgiveness of sin. The second goat portrayed the removal of sin. Both were goats of atonement. This is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. We now are experiencing the spiritual fulfillment of Yom Kippur.

The Holy Spirit is using circumstances and people to provoke us so all that is not of the image of God in our personality is revealed. And example of this would be a critical spirit. When we see that we have a critical spirit we are to confess this to God as not being of His image, and then firmly denounce it, asking Christ to remove it from our personality and put His Spirit in its place.

And so on and on until all that is not of the image of God has been removed from us and replaced with Christ. If we are utterly diligent in following the Holy Spirit in this matter, we will reap the image of God a hundredfold.

We have to have faith that God is able to make us in His image and we have not been condemned to be unlike Him in our personality.

By the way, going to Heaven will not cause us to suddenly appear in the image of God. We cannot find the image of God by going to another place; only by interacting on a day by day basis with the Lord Jesus. It is He who transforms us, not our environment.

Then we spoke of what it means to be a witness. There only is one Witness of God: the Lord Jesus Christ. We can bear witness only to the extent that Christ has been formed in us and is living His Life in us. We can talk about the Witness, about Christ, but Christ Himself is the eternal Witness of God.

In the eleventh chapter of the Book of Revelation we read about the two witnesses. The two witnesses are Christ—Head and Body. The two olive trees indicate that during the end-time revival, God’s saints, and Christ working in them and with them, will be anointed with a double portion of God’s Spirit. We shall be endued with power from on High so we can bear witness to the ends of the earth.

The first verse of Chapter Eleven refers to the measuring of God’s elect. This measuring, or judging, is the spiritual fulfillment of the Day of Atonement. Its purpose is to prepare us to present the last great witness, as described in the last verse of Chapter Ten.

The Bible says that before the end comes, the Gospel of the Kingdom of God shall be preached in all the world for a witness. This last great witness of the coming of the Kingdom of God to the earth shall be provided by the Head and Body of Christ—Christ in and with His saints.

The Lampstand is Christ, the Light of the world. Now, in our day, as the Spirit of God begins to unwrap the graveclothes from us, we shall be the Light of the world because the only true Light of the world is being formed in us and we are reflecting His Divine Glory.

As we go into all the world and make disciples, we must be able to say, "Follow me as I follow Christ." Words alone will not be sufficient to bear the last witness. We will have to be the testimony, the covenant of God with man. People must be able to see Christ in us. Also, God will entrust us with miracles as signs of His Presence. But miracles apart from a transformed, obedient, cross-carrying personality is the False Prophet.

We can make disciples of all nations only as Christ is revealed in our words and actions. There is much "Christian ministry" in America today. But the witness, the testimony, has been destroyed because of the worldliness, lust, and self-seeking of the so-called "ministry."

The Lampstand (not candlestick!) of God is Christ, as set forth in the fourth chapter of the Book of Zechariah. The Lampstand is solid gold, representing Divinity. But at that time there was only one Lampstand.

During the two thousand years of the Church Era, the second Lampstand, the Body of Christ, has been created.

When God is satisfied that Christ has been formed in us sufficiently, we will be anointed with a double portion of His Spirit. Then shall come to pass the saying: "not by might nor by power but by My Spirit, says the Lord." The Capstone shall be put on the Temple. The mystery of God, Christ in us, shall be completed. All shall be accomplished by the Spirit of God, not by human endeavor.

As far as the end-time witness, the great harvest rain of the Spirit, is concerned, please consider the following: "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." (Matthew 24:14—NIV)

The Gospel of the Kingdom: hidden for two thousand years, and now being revealed.

In the whole world: no peoples, nations, languages, or kings will be omitted, as set forth in the last verse of Chapter Ten of the Book of Revelation.

As a testimony: a clear revelation of the Person, way, and will of God, and His eternal purpose in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The end will come: the end of the Church Age and the beginning of the thousand-year Kingdom Age.

What a time in which to live! God is ready to make man in His image, through Christ.

Surely the Lord Jesus has kept the best wine until now!