It's best we start this journey of finding life by understanding our genealogy. Science says we originated from Apes, I don't know about you but I didn't come from any Ape.
The beauty and artistry of the cosmos reveals the evidence of a master artist: a creator God. This brings me to the bases of my belief which is rooted in the spiritual book of Genesis.
Genesis 1 : 26-27 “Then 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. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them”.
This explains that God created man in his image and offered him an administrative authority in his kingdom, but In Genesis 2:16, God gave man a command to freely eat of every tree of the garden except for the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the consequence of eating it was death.
Remember in the previous article, I explained death as the separation from God who is our source of life.
Romans 5:12 explains that sin(disobedience to God) entered the world through one man, and death through sin spread to all men. Since we were all dead in our sins, we also lost the administrative authority.
Although God was offering us the kingdom as an initial plan, salvation became a remedial initiative to restore us to the kingdom.
In John 3:3, Jesus said except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
I will explain this salvation from two views: The judicial and organic view
Romans 5:10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
The judicial view is seen in the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross, which is an active love revealed to satisfy justice, that’s the death we were ought to die.
To explain this further, I will give you an illustration I heard from an Apostle.
Imagine I own a school and the prospectus of the school says anyone who spoils the school property will pay a fine. If my son spoils it, I won't change the prospectus but I will pay the fine required from my account because I love my son.
Apostle Paul says “much more, having being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”
This reveals the organic aspect of our salvation. We shall be saved by his life which is the Holyspirit.
The Holyspirit is a seal for our redemption, he is the one who helps us to continue in that image and likeness of God.
Let me explain with an example:
When you buy a phone, they're features you can use without installing your SIM card, an example is a calculator or torchlight. These are features the phone has within its local content but your initial plan wasn't to use it for a torchlight or calculator, so once you put the SIM card, you can maximise the potential of the network and access more features like calls and messages.
Now when you give your life to Christ, the sim card in the person of the Holyspirit was inserted into your spirit and exposed you to a civilization that’s captured in the kingdom of God.
His Image and likeness
We all have different faces and skin colour so that means that the image of God is not in our physical being.
To clearly understand what this means, we have to study the life of a man who was the image of God.
Colossians 1: 15 says Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation.
Hebrews 1 : 3 further confirms that, it refers to Jesus as “brightness of glory and the express image of God”
Man was created in the image of God so he can be able to operate in the authority of God and Man was created in the likeness of God so he can represent God.
This means Man is to represent God under God’s authority, thereby extending the influences of God’s invisible kingdom into the earth.
Finding Yourself In His Image
Romans 8: 29 says “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son...”
Therefore, we have to learn to be like Jesus Christ so we can grow into the fullness of God’s Image. But first, you’ve to confess him as your Lord and ask for the forgiveness of your sins. Then, you can learn to be like Jesus by studying the word of God.
In the next article, we will understand the importance of the word of God better.
Have you been following up with the Bible study plan, I pray you do.
I will be posting a book for us to read every month and I will share a review of it here at the end of one month.
So the book of the month is “The Normal Christain life” by Watchman Nee, download here.
I will be sharing the review on 22nd July.
