Tag: Son

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Made in God’s Image

After God created earth and sky, plants and animals, He did something incredibly loving; He created human beings. “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.’ So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:26-27). We have the very image of God in our DNA, designed to be uniquely different from and to shepherd (rule) all the other creatures on earth. We were meant to rule according to His standard of morality for the good of all living things (Psalm 112). We were designed to walk in His image.

Walking in God’s image was the only way of life human beings were meant for. But today, and since sin entered the world and the human heart, there has been a struggle for us to reflect His characteristics, and our hearts became prone to wandering away from God and His Ways. In light of this, what does it look like for us to genuinely reflect God’s image in our character?

God’s characteristics (for more see the Characteristics of God series) include being just and generous, righteous, and moral (Psalm 112). He generously gave us Jesus, His Son, and brilliantly, with justice through Jesus’ blood sacrifice, gave us redemption from sin and eternal life with Him. He also gave us the Holy Spirit when we believe in Jesus (1 Corinthians 12:13). In so doing, He restored our ability to walk in His image!

This doesn’t mean walking in His image is easy, even for those who have been saved by believing in Jesus. It takes choosing to take up our cross daily to follow Him, and losing our life (refusing to follow the sinful desires of the flesh) to follow the Way of Jesus (Luke 9:23-24), who is our perfect example of living according to God’s character and will. He is faithfully walking with us and empowering us to be faithful through the Holy Spirit (John 14:26). In Galatians 5, Paul writes, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:24-25). We reflect God’s image by denying our flesh, choosing to live by the Spirit, as we believe and rely on the redemption and hope we have in Jesus. God longs for us and our character to genuinely reflect His image (Psalm 112). When we pray according to God’s will, we can be assured that He will answer our prayer (John 14:14).

An important caveat is that it is a privilege to be made in God’s image,  and something to treat with the utmost humility. It is not our right to play God. To do so is to walk in the flesh, which only prolongs suffering apart from the will of God. It is important to remember when talking about God’s image in us that we are not God; God is God, and we are not. 

The image of God is renewed in us by redemption through Jesus Christ. When we abide in Jesus, we have healing, restoration, and life, even in the midst of sin. When Jesus returns to earth, sin will be no more, and we will live in the beautiful way God intended at the Beginning. But, we will understand God’s love on a much deeper level, because we will know and have experienced the bondage to sin that He saved us from. We will understand the lengths He went to rescue and redeem us from it. This just increases our intimacy with God, which sin tried to prevent, but which God desires. Thankfully for us, God’s will always will be done.

Children are often thought of as looking like, or having the image of, their parents. The greatest privilege anyone can have is to be a child of God, to bear His image. And the amazing things is that He offers it to everyone freely, through Jesus Christ. Everyone bears His image, because He created all people, including you! Sin tragically separated us from God our Father. But Jesus, the Son of God, sacrificed Himself on our behalf, making a Way for us to be adopted back into the family of God (Ephesians 1:4-6). Jesus died to save us from the sin in our own hearts and from the sin of the world. He loves all those who were born to bear the image of His Father.  

May we joyously thank God for allowing us the Way to partake of His great love in the family of families, which we were made for, and where we will always belong. Amen.  

“Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous. Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice. Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever. They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord” (Psalm 112:4-7).

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to Life with the King, and follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing this blog. Grace and peace.

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The Character of Jesus

God is ageless; God always has been, is, and always will be. Yet, entering our human timeline as Jesus, He was fully human and fully God. As fully human, Jesus had chronological age while here on earth–thirty-three years. 

The chronological time we think of in our day-to-day schedules or even in the timeline of our lifetimes, in the Greek is the word chronos, or sequential, chronological time.  

Paul wrote in Romans 5:6: “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.” In Paul’s original Greek, the word for “right time” is kairos. Kairos means “the supreme moment of grace,” and it also means a call to action, or an opportune time. At kairos, the supreme moment of grace, after Jesus of Nazareth had lived as a human being for thirty-three years on this earth, God brought about a supreme moment of grace, THE moment of grace, that would also mark all of “chronos” time for every living being on this blue planet. 

There are some moments that are, in fact, meant to be, divinely ordained, especially set apart. And they work, not in opposition to sequential time, but still, somehow, outside of it. 

Just by being born in the place and manner that He was, the prophecies about Jesus were undeniable. King Herod committed heinous violence in the name of preserving his position of power when Jesus was around 2 years old (Matthew 2:13-16). God kept Jesus and His family safe from Herod and they successfully fled to Egypt. Before He could even talk, simply by entering the human timeline, Jesus defined the ages into what we now call Before Christ (B.C.) and After Death (A.D.). 

Humanity’s timeline was defined by Jesus coming into the world.

Jesus grew up living a fairly typical Jewish life after His early years in Egypt. Back in His hometown of Nazareth He learned carpentry, the trade of His earthly father, Joseph. In the gospel of Luke, there is a story about how Jesus stayed in the temple during His visit to the Passover festival in Jerusalem. He spoke with understanding and wisdom to the teachers there at just twelve years old. Jesus’ devotion to God was demonstrated even then, listening and learning in His Father’s house (Luke 2:42-50).  

Jesus is a loyal and faithful Son to His Father.

At about the age of thirty (Luke 3:23), Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by Satan for 40 days, and passed this test, remaining steadfast in faithfulness to God. After being rejected by the people (nearly being thrown off a cliff) in Nazareth (Luke 4:28-29), He left and started developing close personal relationships with twelve particular men, His apostles, but also women, several of whom he cured of disease, including Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Susanna (Luke 8:2-3). He taught them all by His living example, caring for their souls’ well-being, and speaking of the Kingdom of God. He also occasionally taught in parables that compelled them, even when they didn’t understand them.  

Jesus fiercely loves His friends and followers.

Thirty-three is the age many believe Jesus was when He suffered and died on the cross for the sins of the world. After just three years of ministry, healing people, gathering grain on the Sabbath, and criticizing the Jewish authorities’ contrary hearts, God brought about the kairos, the ordained moment, for Jesus to give up His life for you and for me. Jesus chose to seize the moment, not avoid it. He leaned into His role in the kairos of God out of His faithfulness and love. He was put to death as a threat to power, both according to the Jewish leadership and political (Roman) leadership. 

Growing up learning about Jesus I used to think thirty-three was pretty old, but it is not long at all to have fulfilled one’s entire life purpose, let alone God’s ultimate purpose for fulfilling His covenant with humanity. In thirty-three years, God turned flesh was able to make sure that everyone, Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles, had a Way through Himself to live in hope and peace with the Father. This Way remains open to us to this day!

Jesus is our self-sacrificially courageous Savior.

Though He was crucified at thirty-three years old, Jesus rose again. He is alive today, seated at the right hand of God. He is ruling and working on our behalf, interceding for us even now (Romans 8:34). 

Because of Jesus, life never ends for us, even when our bodies die. “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!” (Romans 5:17). Jesus has demonstrated His characteristic loyalty, faithfulness, love, selflessness, and courage flawlessly, even being fully human. We can know Jesus is interceding for us with the Father because of who He is! He knows that we are dust, meaning we are weak and prone to sin, and yet, He has deep and active compassion for us all.  

Jesus is the present-day Ruler and King of all kings.

I’ll be turning thirty-three myself tomorrow. To be this age for me means sharing something, even in some small way, with Jesus. I feel it is a beautiful kairos, a moment to be celebrated and observed in light of God’s goodness. But it is not the only one, nor the last one. It is not the last chance. It is instead yet another invitation to enter into His unending grace. We have these invitations now, and at every moment, from Him, no matter what age we are or whether it is our birthday or not. 

And that, friends, is something to celebrate. 

“He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life” (Revelation 21:6). 

“He is not God of the dead, but of the living. …” (Mark 12:27). 

Thank you for spending some of your time journeying with me. If you haven’t yet, please subscribe to the blog, and like & follow the Facebook page; it truly helps me continue writing about Life with the King. Grace and peace. 

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