28 23 More About Our Father's Image
23 More About Our Father’s Image
23. More About Our Father’s Image As has been before stated, when God made man he made him in his own image. "And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him." (Genesis 1:27). But man has fallen and this image has been lost or badly marred. The whole purpose of what we can religion is to restore this lost or marred image. This is the purpose of our Lord being sent into the world. He came "to give the ... knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6). our Lord declares: "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father;... I am in the Father, and the Father in me." (John 14:9; John 14:11). Again he says: "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." (John 1:18). There is no question that is more practical than, "what is this image of God that we have lost?"
Different answers could be given to this, but the one answer that includes all others should be found and we can find it. However, there is hardly any need of our hunting for it unless we want it. The fact of the business is you will not hunt for it unless you desire it, and you will not even look at it when shown to you unless you are longing to become more and more like God. David says: "As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." (Psalms 17:15). our Lord says: "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." (Matthew 5:6). But there is no hope of this being accomplished unless we hunger and thirst for the truth. John says: "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." (1 John 3:3). The Scripture suggests the idea that the ultimate restoration of the lost image will hardly be completed until our Lord shall come again. It has been well said that in conversion the negative is taken, this negative is developed in the church, the developing room, and the finishing touches are made in heaven, the finishing room.
Hanging on the wall of this "developing room" is a mirror. This mirror is the gospel of Christ, God’s power to save. In it we see the likeness of our Lord which is the image of God. This is what Paul means in this most literal translation: "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Corinthians 3:18). And let us remember that glory of Christ means nothing other than the character of Christ. We see the character of Christ in this mirror, and reflect it from this mirror into our own hearts and lives. And as has been suggested before, if you study Exodus 3:13-15, you will find the glory of God is his character and name. When God says: "I AM THAT I AM," he can mean nothing other than that "my name is exactly what I am." There is no pretense—cannot be-- there is no such thing as seeing God and knowing God except by coming to know exactly what he is. He is always THAT, and not even the semblance of something else. But what word comes most nearly, if not absolutely, revealing God to man? This word is:
LOVE
"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. " "And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him." (1 John 4:7-8; 1 John 4:16).
Now that tells it exactly. Let us pick a thought from this reading for special study just here. I have often stated, and want to repeat, that, in conversion, when the negative is taken, brotherly love is there, else your conversion or new birth was an abortion. Do you note that John says: "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. " Now connect this with what Peter says in 1 Peter 1:22-25 : "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.... And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you."
If this does not establish brotherly love in our new birth, how could it be established there? And when you connect 1 John 3:14-15 with these Scriptures just used, it places it beyond a doubt: "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him."
Let us stay a little longer with 1 John 4:7-8. Note these words: "Every one that loveth... knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. " In John 17:3 our Lord says: "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." - To know God, then, means life eternal. But we have just read that he that "loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." Look at it as long as you please and from whatever angle and you can come to no other conclusion than this— viz., the soul that knows love, knows God, and that soul that has love stamped in his heart has the image of God there. And how true it is to say the same thing of our Lord. When you know Jesus you know love, and so long as you have love abiding in you, you have our Lord there.
God tells us how we know these things. He has not left us to guess about it. "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life." (l John 5:13). And here is what he has written: "And hereby we do 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. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. ". (1 John 2:3-6).
LIGHT But just here let us look at another word that tells us what God is. In 1 John 1:5 it says: "God is light. "
Let us associate the two words, namely, LOVE and LIGHT. We may get a more vivid idea as to why a real Christian is spoken of as "the light of the world." Our Lord, in speaking to his apostles, says: "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid." (Matthew 5:14). Would you be surprised if we learn that LOVE and only this, in us makes us shine as lights in the world? Is this not exactly what our Lord had in mind when he said, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another"? (John 13:35). That love that is the very image of God that stands for God himself gives us that "wisdom that is from above." How could it give us anything else? And that wisdom is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and goodfruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And it saves us from that "wisdom that is from" below, which is earthly, sensual, devilish, producing envy, strife, confusion, and every evil work. (James 3:15;James 3:17). And here is a Scripture that places it beyond a doubt: "Do all things without murmurings and disputings: that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life." (Php 2:14-16).
Get it: God is love. The book says so. But God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." If we will become like God in love, we are having the image restored. And to the extent we do this, we are the light of the world and the salt of the earth. But now look for Jesus, see him walking up and down in love as we now study Paul’s full description and analysis of love in 1 Corinthians 13.
LOVE ANALYZED
Its Patience. Love suffers long, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Perhaps the best exemplification you can get of this characteristic of love on earth is to look at it yonder in that mother toward her own child. Does it not suffer long? Will it not bear all things and endure all things for her child? And, yes, believeth all things and hopeth all things for that child when not another soul on earth can believe in, and have hope for, her wayward son or daughter. Think of this characteristic of love. God "is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (See 2 Peter 3:9). If we could only see how unworthy we are, with God still loving us and being patient and forbearing with us, we could then get a glimpse of the lost image.
Kindness. "And is kind." Can you not see kindness in all its tenderness and sweetness in our Lord? Have you read the description Solomon gives of a "virtuous woman" in Proverbs 31:10-31, whose price, he says, "is far above rubies”? He says: "She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness." And Micah says: "He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth Jehovah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God?" (Micah 6:8). Are you kind? When you look into the gospel mirror and see Jesus, this is exactly what you see.
Generosity. ”Love envieth not." Truly did Rochester say: "Envy is a passion so full of cowardice and shame that nobody ever had the confidence to own it." Pliny says: "Envy always implies conscious inferiority wherever it resides." Perhaps nothing shows the littleness of a human soul more than envy. Can you imagine our Lord being an envious soul? Remember we are looking for the lost image. Envy must go if this image is restored in you.
Humility. "Vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up." J. Mason says: "True humility makes way for Christ and throws the soul at his feet." Ruskin says. "I believe the first test of a truly great man is humility." Augustine says: "It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes them as angels." Guthrie says: "The Christian is like the ripening corn; the riper he grows the more he bends his head."
Courtesy. "Doth not behave itself unseemly." This simply means good manners. It is never rude, impolite, but becomes all things to all men if by any means it might save a soul. Look at it in the life of Paul. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23). Bouvee says: "The small courtesies sweeten life; the greater ennoble it." "Small kindnesses, small courtesies, small considerations, habitually practiced in our social intercourse, give a greater charm to the character than the display of great talents and accomplishments," declares M. A. Kilty.
Unselfishness. "Seeketh not her own." Emmons says: "Selfishness is the root and source of all natural and moral evils." Spurgeon well says: "Beware of no man more than yourself. We carry our worst enemies within us." And as we have learned before, Jesus puts self-denial right at the beginning of our becoming his disciples. Says he: "If any man will come after me let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." (Matthew 16:24). The following poem is worth remembering:
Lord, help me live from day to day In such a self-forgetful way That even when I kneel to pray My prayers shall be for others.
Help me in all things I do, To ever be sincere and true, And know that all I’d do for you Must needs be done for others.
Let self be crucified and slain And buried deep, and all in vain May efforts be to raise again Unless to live for others. And when on earth my work is done And my new work in heaven’s begun, May I forget the crown I’ve won While thinking still of others.
Others, Lord, yes others, May this my motto be:
Help me to live for others That I may live for thee.
Good Temper."Is not easily provoked," or as the Revised Version puts it: it "is not provoked. Solomon says: "He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." (Proverbs 16:32). Paul says: "Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: neither give place to the devil." (Ephesians 4:26-27). There are things that rightly make us angry. We need self-control that when such things come up we give no place to the devil.
Guilelessness. "Thinketh no evil." It is too sad when about all you exercise your heart in is thinking evil and as peaking evil of others. There are people who are evil-minded, and all they can think are evil thoughts because this is all their evil hearts will give birth to. You cannot imagine our Lord thinking up evil thoughts of others. He saw them and thought of them only as they were.
Sincerity. "Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth." There was no evil, sin, or iniquity in which he took pleasure. He abhorred all evil, and shunned its very appearance, and so must we. David says: "Ye that love the Lord, hate evil." But our Lord’s greatest joy was to be found in the truth. "Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth," are his words in his prayer for his disciples. He loved every word that came from the father and never trampled one word under his feet. Think not that you have his Spirit or image in you when you can knowingly trample under foot one word of our Father. With all this before you, can you not now understand that "Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son." (2 John 1:9).
WHAT IF HIS IMAGE IN US IS DEVELOPING?
We Will Not Knowingly Sin. "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him." (1 John 3:6). This is what the Bible says, hence we must accept it, else be found making God a liar.
We Can Get an Audience with God. He will hear and answer our prayers. "If ye abide in me," says Jesus, "and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." (John 15:7). Could you think of anything more thrilling than that God is listening when you pray?
We Bear Much Fruit. "He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit." (John 15:5).
Almost all lovers of art are familiar with Leonardo da Vinci’s great picture, "The Last Supper." His biographer tells us that while at work on this great masterpiece the artist quarreled with a man and vowed to take vengeance upon him. While in this vengeful mood he sketched the face of Judas, but when he started to paint the face of Jesus he found he could not give it the expression he so desired until he had gone to the man against whom he had vowed vengeance and sought his forgiveness. When this had been done, he was able to sketch the face of our Lord and finish the picture which proved to be one of his greatest masterpieces and brought him much fame. —Selected.
Let us remember that our Lord is looking to us to paint a picture of him each day as we before others live. This picture cannot be painted correctly if we carry in our hearts hatred, malice, envy, jealousy, or anything else we know to be contrary to the Spirit of our Lord. How truly it has been said: It is an art to say the right thing in the’ right place, but far more difficult still to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment." It is just as sinful to sit and listen to the wrong thing that is being said as it is to say it.