Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
Genesis 1:26
Last week we looked at “What’s my Purpose?” and we concluded that:-
- We are to reflect the image of God.
- To Love God and your neighbour.
- Make Disciples of all nations.
- Be fruitful and increase in number.
- Finally God has purpose(s) for each one of of us.
So this week I would like to start a series looking at the first 4 of these “Purposes”. This week lets start with what does being an Image of god mean.
God is Spirit (John 4:24) and we are of flesh. And in the book off Revelation John is so overwhelmed by God’s appearance the best he can come with was that God “had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne.” (Revelation 4:3). So, PROBABLY, physically God does not look like us at all. So, if we PROBABLY don’t look like God what image of God is there in us.
We have imprinted on our spirit God’s nature/spirit, as God’s spirit dwells within us (1 Corinthians 6:19, Ezekiel 36:27, Timothy 1:14, Romans 8:11, Galatians 1:15-17, ….). So, built within in us is God’s nature of love, holiness and righteousness. In his grace God gave us the free will to ignore this and to to choose to live other life styles, which, very sadly, we (and I include myself) do choose to live other life styles. But it is our nature to be God’s image of love, holiness and righteousness, so most of us (including me) spend our life fighting our true nature, making life hard for ourselves.
The whole of the Bible, in one way or another, tells us to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…….Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). I cant’t count the number of times Paul, in his letters, tells us to “Be holy/lead holy lives” (Romans 1:17, 1 Corinthians 1:2 Ephesians 1:4 Ephesians 1:18 ….). Likewise we are repeatedly told to try to live righteous lives. Why? Because it is God’s will for us and it is our natural/created nature.
“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Ephesians 4:11-12), so yes some of us are destined to be apostles, prophets. evangelists, pastors and teachers. But we are all called to be an Image of God, so that people may see God in us and say “I want some of that!”, and together we will build up the body of Christ and rule over God’s creation.