I got to thinking about the fact that God tells us that we were created in His image and likeness. I remembered that Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 11:7. He is talking about head coverings which I don’t want to get into right now, but he says, “For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since (and here is the part I want to focus on) he is the image and glory of God.” Here God is saying that man is the image and glory of God. The word behind image is “icon” and the word behind glory is “doxa”. Most of us know what an icon is. It is a picture or representation of something. We are that image of God. We are the picture and representation of God in the world! We get the word doxology from doxa. A doxology is a word of praise. We are the glory or praise of God!
Most of us don’t feel like we do a very good job of representing God as His image and glory, but the Bible says that that is what we are. How can we improve; make the image clearer? In 2 Corinthians 3:18 Paul writes that we, “with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
In that verse you see the same two words – image and glory. The key to showing that image and glory more clearly is to gaze on the glory of the Lord Jesus in His Word and as we do that more and more the Spirit of the Lord transforms us (the word is metamorphosis) into His image from one stage of glory to another. There are not a lot of secret steps here. It's a matter of spending time reading, thinking about and reflecting on scripture, the Word of God. It's a pretty simple concept really.
1 comment:
I listened to Pastor Rawsthorne's message on Quenching the Spirit via podcast. Kind of believe that fits here as well. As we look into scripture, we've got to let the Spirit do His work in our hearts and lives. So, first we have to be in the scriptures, but then, let the Spirit work.
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