We are Image Bearers.
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God created us in His image, so that we may represent Him in the world.
God created us in His image, so that we may represent Him in the world.
The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
“I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
It began with the Israelites. They were God's chosen people, but that did not mean what they thought it meant. God chose them to be a light to the nations. That is what we see in the complaint from Jonah to God.
But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD, “Isn’t this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
Jonah knew that God wanted the people to repent. Jonah knew that God wanted to use him to save the Ninevites. But he was unwilling because he did not see them the way God saw them. He did not understand that he was the image bearer of God.
In fact, the Israelites failed at the job so miserably that God gives the Job to King Cyrus, an outsider. Listen to the words of God to Cyrus:
“I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness;
I will take hold of your hand.
I will keep you and will make you
to be a covenant for the people
and a light for the Gentiles,
to open eyes that are blind,
to free captives from prison
and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
But through Isaiah also comes a promise of one to come, the suffering servant who will save the world. In fact, Simeon interprets the words of Isaiah to Mary at the Temple to be about Jesus.
Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.”
So, Jesus comes to be God in flesh. To show us once again that we are to be the image bearers of Christ. Paul tells us we are God's image bearers in thee ways in 2 Corinthians passages:
Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
The more we dwell in Christ the more we represent Him.
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.
God's light shines in our hearts! Why? So that we may be the image bearers of God to the world.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
One way that we truly can show our love for God is to be His image bearers.
One way that we truly can show our love for God is to be His image bearers.