Dear Friends,
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
This month I would like us to think more about the image of God as it relates to us. Specifically, I would like us to consider the subject of freewill. This bewilders many Christians. Whatever our theological background we are still made in the image of God which means we can make choices and indeed are responsible for those choices. To be clear, only God Himself has complete freewill and has the freedom to do anything He wishes. Our image is that of His rulership as is stated in the Scripture at the top. He does not rule randomly, fortunately, but as we considered in detail last month, God sustains a wonderful harmony in every detail of His creation.
From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ Acts 17: 26-28
From this wonderful statement of the Apostle Paul, we see how the Lord made us, designed our future and wanted us to find reality in belonging to Him. Our whole being is designed to be found joined to God. When we understand that context, we begin to see that our choices will reflect that state of being so that we are constantly taking up the place God has prepared for us and also doing the works he also chose for us to do.
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10.
This life of faith brings us in tune with the will of God and causes us to surrender our freewill in favour of His. This is actually what pleases Him because we are saying “Yes” to living heaven’s way, so to speak. Only on earth, under the authority of Satan, do we desire a detached way of living. Detachment was what Satan chose in the beginning for the goal of gaining more status than the considerable status he already had. This is what is prevalent amongst mankind is achieving success. More status, more wealth and more influence are what people run after which creates the greatest possible pride! Often that is at the expense of others too, sadly. But, when we are empowered by the Lord and are doing His will we gain our greatest peace and happiness. Changing from ambition to destiny in our thinking is a necessary change in the use of our freewill.
It is a surprise to some when the Scripture says that we are no longer our own. Let us look at 1 Corinthians 6:19,20:-
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”
Truly, Jesus bought us by paying the price on the Cross to deliver us from separation from God through the forgiveness of our sin and thus remove the detachment planted in us by Satan. God designed eternal life in Him whose nature is eternal and infinite. Only He could provide the backdrop for us to be so enriched. What a privilege to be partakers of the divine nature as is mentioned in 1 Peter 1:2,3:-
“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.”
Another view of this is found in John 15: 5:-
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
It is nothing because it is not relevant to the kingdom of heaven which is the only permanent entity! Everything else will disappear and become nothing! Perhaps we have to be reminded that a Day of Judgment is coming and this planet earth is time-limited! Jesus will be coming again with the angels. Hallelujah! God has already prophesied a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousness ( I explained this last month):-
But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. 2 Peter 3: 13
The beautiful thing about being a creation of God is that each one of us has been given a unique personality and temperament as well as the image of God in a fundamental way. This means that the way we express ourselves, not only verbally, but in the choices we make, reveals more of the character of God which is multifaceted. I have read one person express it from a vision this way:-
“We each carry the radiant holiness of Christ in white but also an individual colour as part of the infinite colours found in the rainbow.” (Interestingly enough, it is true that when all the colours of the rainbow come together, they produce the colour of white!)
Now we are beginning to appreciate our freedom in Christ. It may seem different to what we thought before.
God bless you,
Pastor Keith Pascoe
