SONSHIP

"And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."  (Genesis 1:26).

From the very beginning God desired to create man in His own image, and after His own likeness.  He did not leave this task up to man to accomplish on his own, but He undertook it Himself.  "Let us make man in our image..."  This image, or likeness, did not refer so much to Adam's physical features as much as it did his purity of spirit and moral character.  Adam was sinless and innocent before his Maker.  His soul was a clear glass into which the Creator could gaze and see His own nature reflected.  In every respect, Adam was a son of his Father, and it could be said of him, "Like Father, like son."  Sadly, Adam chose to break the Father's commandment; and, as a result, sin caused the image that he once bore to become tarnished.  From that time on, sin compounded in mankind until the original likeness of the Father was marred beyond recognition.

The good news is that God still desires to make man in His own image, and to raise up sons to Himself.  This work of creating man in His image is now fulfilled in Christ Jesus; and, again, it is a work which God wants to accomplish Himself - without our help.  "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."  (Ephesians 2:8).  Our only job is to have a willing heart, to want to be like our heavenly Father, and to exercise faith in the One Who can make it happen.

Many Christians adopt the mindset that they are broken and need to work very hard to be good and righteous.  It is as if they believe that God has forgiven them in Christ for all their past sins, but has now left them on their own to struggle to remain sinless.  Nothing could be further from the truth!  Colossians 2:9 tells us that all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Christ Jesus.  What a glorious thing to realize, and most of us have no trouble believing that this is true.  The incredible revelation that we discover in the next verse (v. 10), however, is that, "...ye are complete in Him."  We are not broken - we are complete!  We are complete because of God's promises which He has given to us in Christ.  Peter tells us that, "...by these [promises] ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."  (2 Peter 1:4).  God has made it possible for us to adorn the divine nature, in fact, He has promised that we can adorn the divine nature.  This is all made possible by the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ.  When Jesus was crucified, He cried out, "It is finished."  There is nothing that He left undone to secure our eternal salvation.

There is a beautiful allegory in the Bible concerning the building of Solomon's temple in Jerusalem.  Before Solomon was king, his father David desired to build a house for God.  God told David, however, that because he was a man of war, he could not build the temple himself; but his son, who would be a man of peace, would be the one to fulfill David's dream.  David then set about to prepare materials for the building of the temple.  He amassed gold, silver, precious gems, brass, cedar wood, stone - all in vast quantities.  He also lined up workman and artisans who would be able to craft those materials into a glorious house for God.  God even gave to David the blueprint, or pattern, of how the house was to be fashioned.  Eventually, when Solomon took the throne, everything was prepared for him.  All he had to do was command the work and assemble the materials.

Just as God had given all things to His Son Jesus, so also has Christ provided all things for us.  We have all of the materials at our disposal to build a glorious house to our God.  "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"  (1 Corinthians 3:16).  We now have access to the unlimited resources of power, love, and strength that is in our Savior's hand.  The pattern is clear: it is Jesus Himself.  The workmen have been hired.  The materials are assembled.  All that is left is for us to say, "Yes, Lord, build your home in me!"

The Israelites were promised a land flowing with milk and honey where they could lay down roots and become a nation.  God carefully described the boundaries of that land to Moses and to Joshua before the first battle was ever fought, and before the host of Israel had ever crossed over the Jordan into that land en masse.  Because God had promised this land to them, it was already theirs.  Though they had not walked in to possess it yet, God still considered it theirs; and as Joshua led them into the land, every place that they had faith to occupy became their possession.  Likewise, all of God's fullness is ours in Christ.  There is nothing in this life that we cannot overcome by faith in the Lord Jesus.  It is already ours by promise.  We must merely walk in and occupy it. 

In Christ, we have been created in God's image and called to be sons of God.  Our very nature has been changed, and we begin to reflect the likeness of God as He intended for us to do from the beginning.  "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.  And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure."  (1 John 3:1-3).  We can't fully see yet all that we shall be; but we do know that, as we seek to comprehend our Savior more clearly, He will reveal more of His nature to us; and we then will be transformed into His glorious image.