In the last meditation, we saw that we become children of God through ‘rebirth’ by God’s Spirit.
Today we want to pause to consider what are God’s further purposes for us after we have received his Spirit?
Actually, it is God’s plan to transform his reborn children into the likeness of Christ. We saw before, that Paul stresses this point in various letters:
To the Christians in Rome he writes: “God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn, with many brothers and sisters.” (Romans 8:29)
To the followers of Jesus in Corinth (Greece) he assures: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his [Jesus Christ’] likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
(2 Corinthians 3:18)
He reminds God’s reborn children in Ephesus (modern Turkey) that “we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2:10)
Naturally, the apostle Paul interchanges the notion ‘Christlikeness’ and ‘God-likeness’ as Jesus Christ is the exact likeness of God: “They [those who don’t believe] don't understand the message we preach about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:4)
Therefore, we read in his letter to the Ephesian Christians:
“You must display a new nature because you are a new person, created in God's likeness-- righteous, holy, and true.”
(Ephesians 4:24)
To the followers of Jesus in Colosse (modern Turkey), Paul writes: “...(you) have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.” (Colossians 3:10)
Actually, as God’s Spirit transforms me into the likeness of Christ, he restores my rebellious heart into the (Christlike) image of God. Did not Genesis 1:26-27 tell us that God made man originally in his likeness?
“Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness ... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
(Genesis 1:26-27)
The apostle Paul explains to the Christians in Corinth that God will fully restore ‘his image’ in us which was broken by the rebellion of Adam, the first man (see Genesis 3).
In his first letter to the followers of Jesus in Corinth, Paul points out that God will achieve that restoration by transforming us into the likeness of his Son, Jesus Christ:
“...The first man [Adam] was of the dust of the earth, the second man [Jesus] from heaven.
As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth [mankind]; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven [God’s reborn children].
And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.”
(1 Corinthians 15:47-49)
As we have seen, that process of restoration into God’s or Christ’s likeness starts with our rebirth as God’s children on the day we accept Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord (see meditations 26, 27, 30, 34-37 and 44).
Yet, when will that transformation into Christ-, or God-likeness, be completed?
The apostle John answers that question as he writes to the followers of Jesus: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he [Jesus Christ] appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2)
The apostle Paul says the same thing when he urges on God’s reborn children in Colosse: “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4)
By now we realise that the Holy Spirit causes not only our rebirth, but also directs the transformation process into Christ-, or God-likeness during our walk on earth.
And as we just saw, the apostles John and Paul want us to know that this transformation process finds its completion when we will be with Christ forever.
Many questions remain to ponder in the coming meditations:
--- How does this transformation process take place?
--- Don’t all God’s reborn children have the option to sin as long as they live on this earth?
--- By sinning, don’t they obstruct the process of transformation into Christlikeness?
--- Does God’s transformation process only deal with his reborn children individually or does God also aim at transforming the entire local church [i.e. the local messianic community or the local Body of Christ] into the likeness of Christ?
We will reflect upon that last question next time.
The Bible verses 2 Corinthians 3:18, Colossians 3:10, Genesis 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 15:47-49, 1 John 3:2, Colossians 3:1-4 are quotes of the New International Version. The other texts are quoted from the New Living Translation.
For further study on Christ-, or God-likeness see meditations 13, 18, 29, 30, 34 and 37.
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