27 22 God's Image Restored

22 God’s Image Restored

22. God’s Image Restored

Going back to the very beginning, we find our God saying: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." And in pursuance to this declaration he says: "And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him." (Genesis 1:26-27). That man, by transgression, lost that image, or, to a large extent, marred it, I presume, is universally admitted by all religionists among us. The great question before us today is the restoration of this image. The Bible talks about our needing to be "born again," must be if we ever see God. (John 3:3-7). our Lord speaks of "The Regeneration" in Matthew 19:28. Paul says: "The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now... waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." That is, the "whole creation" is waiting for the new heavens and the new earth, at which time we will have given unto us new bodies in which to live forever in God’s presence, when the "lost Eden" shall be restored to us in its greatest glory, and we shall see the face of our Lord. Study Romans 8:19-23; Revelation 21:1-7; Revelation 22:4.

How that lost image is restored to us, even now, is the practical question before us. That this can be done only through Christ, the following words clearly indicate:

"But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of theglorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:3-6).

Please note how beautifully this Scripture harmonizes with the words of our Lord: "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father;... I am in the Father, and the Father in me." (John 14:9-11).

Note that Christ came "to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Let us here raise the question: What is the glory of God? It is the character of God. About this there can be no doubt. Go with me back to Exodus 3:13-15 and study it. When God appeared to Moses to send him to deliver Israel from bondage, Moses stated that Israel would ask for his name. Do you remember Jehovah’s reply? He said tell them: "I AM THAT I AM." Study this as long as you please, and what do you learn? You can learn nothing other than that God’s character is God’s name. He is exactly what he is. Do you know of any other glory that he has or could have? This is the glory of Christ; viz., his character, his life among men. This is the way he revealed God unto men and glorified the Father in heaven. Hence, "Look at me," he would say, "in all that I do and say, in my attitude toward persons, things, and conduct, and you see God’s feelings and his attitude toward these things." That this is the how we are restored to the lost image can hardly be doubted. THE TEXT THAT PROVES IT

"But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the I same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit." (2 Corinthians 3:18). Perhaps the most literal or exact translation would be worded: "We all, with unveiled face, reflecting in a mirror the glory of Christ (the character of Christ) are changed into the same image. This tells exactly how it is done. It is by our seeing that lost image in this mirror, and having that image reflected back that our own minds and hearts are changed into the same image. It is not possible for us to become like something we do not know, some unheard-of and unseen character. We must come to know God, to see him as he is. Jesus our Lord came into this world to reveal him unto man. But remember that all of this has reference to character- likeness and not physical likeness.

WHAT IS THIS MIRROR?

It is the word of God, the teaching of our Lord that he lived before the people while here. Here is a fact that means it all to us; hence, we must learn it. Let US introduce a few Scriptures that prove this beyond a doubt. We can see God only in his word. Out of his word we cannot know him as to his character. In the great book of nature, we find abundant proof of his existence, but there we cannot learn his character. Paul says: "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." (See Romans 1:20, But the book of nature does not reveal God’s character. We must come to the gospel of Christ, which Paul says, is God’s power to save.

1. We go toJohn 1:1-4; John 1:14 : "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men." "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory [character], the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."

Now with this before us, how can we think of separating God and his word? It cannot be done. We see God only by looking into his word. In it we see his character; what he is, and wants us to be. But his Son is God’s word incarnate or presented in the life he lived while in the flesh.

Most certainly you can see from this reading that. the eternal God and our Lord, the Judge of all the earth, is right here in the word. Do you wonder, then, that yonder at the judgment, the book will be opened, and we will be judged by the things written in this book? This is why we dare not add to God’s word or take from it. This is why it would damn an angel if he undertook to preach another gospel. It would be equivalent to trying to add to God and take from God, or to preach another Christ.

But the point in the Scripture just given is that this image, glory, or character of God is to be seen only in the teaching of our Lord, or the gospel of Christ. The needed thing today, both to the church and those who are not members of the church, is to teach them of God, to let the people see him as he is in the Scriptures pictured to us. "It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. ” (John 6:45). To know God always means obedience to God.

I fear we have been missing the meaning of 1 John 2:3-4 : "And hereby we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." The exact point is this, namely: That heart that comes to know God will obey God. If you think you know him and are knowingly leaving undone his commandments, you are simply deceived. Remember our Lord says: "Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me." How important, then, is it that we know God.

THE IMAGE TRANSFERRED

Now the practical thought to us is: how is that image—lost or marred, if you please—we find here in the "gospel mirror" transferred to our own hearts and made a part of us? We have the Scripture that tells how it is done, and here it is from the American Revised Version: "Wherefore putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves. For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror: for he beholdeth himself, and goeth away, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But he that looketh into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and so continueth, being not a hearer that forgetteth but a doer that worketh, this man shall be blessed in his doing." (James 1:21-25).

Now, why is this? Just because a mere knowledge of the theory or character of Jehovah is not enough. The image is transferred from this gospel mirror to our own hearts in obedience. This is exactly the thought in l Cor. 7:19: "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but the keeping of the commandments of God." For when we see the truth in the mirror there, then obey it, the imprint is made, the negative, as we sometimes call it, is taken.

Now this cannot be too well seen. I not only want you to see it, but feel it. The man who looks into this gospel mirror and obeys not what he there sees and learns is like the man who looks into the glass and straightway forgets how he looks. But what about the man who looks into the gospel mirror and continues to look, being not one who forgets, but does and lives what he there learns? He does not straightway forget what manner of man he is. Friends, we can see our Lord as he is in character in his teaching; but his likeness we cannot establish in our own hearts without doing as we learn. Whenever we see there a single characteristic, by obedience we take the brush, as it were, and make another stroke upon the canvas of our hearts in perfecting and developing therein this likeness.

Only those who get in the doctrine of Christ and abide there have both the Father and the Son. "Whosoever goeth onward and abideth not in the teaching of Christ, hath not God: he that abideth in the teaching, the same hath both the Father and the Son." (2 John 1:9). And why is this? Because the image of God and his Son is to be found in the word, not out of it. And when we discover this image in the gospel mirror and begin to live and act like it, we begin to grow into the likeness of what we there see. It is the Spirit’s part to change our nature into the divine nature or likeness. Our part is to learn and obey. We "are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord," the good book says, and I know nothing other than to believe the book is right.

SOME THINGS GOD CANNOT DO

1. It is impossible for God to lie. Talking about the two immutable things upon which God’s promise to us rests, the writer of Hebrews says that one of them is the fact that it is "impossible for God to lie." (Hebrews 6:17-18). Have you noted how hard our God is on liars? James clearly indicates that it is easy to make mistakes with the tongue. "If any stumbleth not in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also." (James 3:2). But this way of knowingly and consciously telling things you know to be false, or telling them before investigating to see if they are true, just will not do. And those who help to circulate such falsehoods will go down to death with the liars that started them. "All liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." (Revelation 21:8). Do not try to justify yourself by saying your lie is just a little "white lie," or that you were told it by "so and so." All liars get all of them—those who peddle lies as well as those who start them. Remember that "whosoever loveth and maketh a lie" shall have their part with dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers. Bad company, but not too bad, unless God has made a mistake in putting them together. (Revelation 22:15). We are wont to quote Proverbs 6:16-19 and drive a lesson home to the hearts of our religious neighbors for causing divisions with their doctrines and commandments of men. And well that we do this. Let us remember while doing this that one of those hateful, abominable things in God’s sight is "a Lying tongue" or "a false witness that speaketh lies." Solomon says in Proverbs 10:18, American Revised Version: "He that hideth hatred is of Lying lips." Then to go along and associate with people, making them think that you love them, that you are their friends, when deep down in your heart there is hatred, simply means you are a living, walking lie. Too bad, indeed! But the question is: Is this image of God in you, and is it developing in such a heart? To ask the question answers it. How important, then, that we "let dove be without hypocrisy," or pretense, as we are commanded in Romans 12:9.

AT WORK IN THE DEVELOPING ROOM In the new birth the idea of the negative being taken and then developed in our life and in the church is correct. Hence, we now peep into the developing room and there we see what is sometimes called addition and subtraction going on. It is a matter of growing, putting off things of the flesh and putting on things of the Spirit. We close the study with the exact words of the Holy Spirit. He is talking to those who have just been raised from the waters of baptism into the life in the church. We read Colossians 2:12; Colossians 3:1-14 : "Having been buried with him in baptism, wherein ye were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead." "If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth. For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory. Put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry; for which things’ sake cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience: wherein ye also once walked, when ye lived in these things; but now do ye also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful speaking out of your mouth: lie not one to another; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him: where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond man, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all. Put on therefore, as God’s elect, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving each other, if any man have a complaint against any; even as the Lord forgave you, so do ye: and above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness."

Keep these things in mind and continue with us in what is to follow in the next chapter. It is not so much doctrine, for lack of which the cause of our Lord is suffering; it is a failure to live the life that conversion calls for.