In The Image Of God II
In yesterday’s post I talked about being made in the image of God and that it is more about "why" rather than "how" we are made in the image of God. One of my favorite passages of scripture from the Old Testament is Gen. 5:24 "Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away." I once heard someone say that Enoch’s relationship with God became so close that one day He just said to Enoch, "Let’s go home."
Our being made in the Image of God makes us capable of fellowship with the Creator of the universe. Having so created us, He draws us to Himself with the powerful story of the Cross. We come to realize that we are broken, helpless and dead in sin. We cry out in faith and trust and He reaches down and lifts us up. Now the "walk’ begins. The longer we are with Him, the more like Him we become. He never leaves us, He holds the forces of darkness at bay and only allow us to be tried within our own personal ability. He takes those periods of challenge, hardship and stress, that come our way, and uses them to mold us and to form us into the image of His Son.
And then one day we are walking and talking, and He looks our way and says, "Let’s go home!"
God didn't sculpt a lifeless statue to remind creation that He was God; He made us, humans, to be the apex of His creation, an image and likeness of Himself. And when we are really like Him, He's glorified, not the statue. Saddam and Nero were glorified by the images, not the images themselves. We exist for God's glory, but with vibrant life and the ability to know the satisfaction that comes from walking with Him until we begin to look a bit like Him as He shapes us into the likeness of Christ day by day. (Comment this)