His image and likeness

I thought we could focus on two verses from Colossians in this musing, using them as a springboard to consider what Christian ministry is all about.  “Christ in you, the hope of glory: Him we preach, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we might present everyone mature in Christ.  For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me” (Colossians 1:27-29).  There are plenty of truths to consider in these words that were brought forcibly to my mind some days ago prompted by something that happened in our home church recently.  It was a Sunday morning meeting the tradition in this assembly is that someone opens the meeting, welcoming everyone, perhaps sharing a brief scripture and choosing a hymn or chorus, so the meeting begins.  It was a bit of a shock to me when the brother in his opening spoke a few words about becoming like Jesus and chose an old chorus, “Let, the beauty of Jesus be seen in me, All His wondrous compassion and purity, O Thou Spirit Divine, all my nature refine, Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me.” This was quite a surprise, we are in so many meetings that almost inevitably begin with the usual praise Psalm being read followed by some up tempo praise Choruses that are geared to help us “enter into His presence,” “through the gates of praise,” (all very Old Testament ideas by the way).  This particular morning we were immediately brought face to face with the fundamental issue of image and likeness.

It appears to me that the church is in grave danger of simply being a mirror of the world vaguely Christianized rather than being that place where the image and likeness of Christ is seen.  In the Greek language the word for ‘image’ is the word ‘icon’ so we would not be wrong in saying that the churches are to be an icon of Christ in the world.  Icons are meant to be windows, therefore churches are to be windows into the love and grace of God, His purity and holiness should be shining through the community of the saints.

The Word made flesh, in and through the church is to be the word made flesh again; this is her calling.  She is “flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone” (Genesis 2:23, Ephesians 5:28-30).  In each generation and every nation God’s people must embrace the fact that they must become what they are.  They are in His image; this is the incredible truth Paul states most plainly in Romans.  “And those whom He foreknew He also predestined conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:28).  Look carefully at this text because I have omitted two little words that are almost certainly present in your Bible Translation, they are the words “to be.”  Yet Paul did not put this into the future tense, the calling, justifying and the glorifying are all finished for all of us who are in Christ as far as God is concerned.  We are already conformed to the image of His Son and so should make sure that we help each other on to become what we are and make our calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10)!

The words “image and likeness” first occur in Genesis (Genesis 1:26).  God in Three Persons (an early allusion to the Trinitarian Being of God when He said “let US”) speaks them forth, a statement of intent.  God does not lie, nor does He change His mind, this is His unswerving purpose for men and women and settled and sealed in His Son Jesus.  Almost from the earliest days of the church there was discussion as to what IMAGE AND LIKENESS meant.  The general consensus that emerged was that image was set and likeness was a process.  Image was given, an impartation Divinely granted whilst likeness implied a growing up into that in fullness and maturity.  In Christ Jesus we are created anew in His image, much like a child is born to grow and endued with all the powers to do so, so we, in communion with God are to grow up in Christ in all things that we might attain the likeness of God, “to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13).  “Grow up in ALL THINGS” is a challenging thought!  Things difficult, things easy, testing times of various sorts, in gladness and in sorrow, it reminds us of the wise wedding vows that refer to sickness and health, except that the promise of God says we can, together grow up in all things, not simply exist through them, put up with and suffer them!  What kind of ‘all things’ did Jesus suffer?  He actually used those words to two disconsolate people bemoaning the sad events of His life and especially His crucifixion (Luke 24:19).  “What things,” Jesus said as they narrated their sad tale. For Jesus these ‘things’ were His pathway of growth and fulfillment of His calling.  Through it all He became what He was but in the flesh, God incarnate, THE Image of God indeed.  “If you have seen Me you have seen the Father” He said in answer to the question that Philip asked on behalf of every searching soul (John 14:9).  Man’s deepest appetite, longing and desire, at bottom, is to see the Father, or, to put it another way, to be back in the garden eternally settled in heart with God.

Christ fulfilled the purpose and counsel of God.  He is the Last Adam and the Second Man.  The first man Adam failed (and in him we all fell from God’s intention).  In Himself, Christ reclaimed all that was lost and added much more.  He in love and obedience consummated all God’s will for mankind.  In Him alone human beings can become the image and likeness of God, there is no other way and it is the calling and ministry of God’s church to show this amazing good news forth.  Perhaps it will help us just a little if we mention the Latin words theologians have used when speaking of these things, Jesus is the ‘imago Dei’ and became, in His flesh the ‘similitudo Dei” as He lived in fellowship with His Father upon earth.  We, His church are called to a life of fellowship with Him and obedience to Him as Lord and as we do so there will be a clear emerging of the ‘similitudo’ from the ‘imago’ that has been planted in us by His presence in our hearts.  Am I becoming ‘similar’ to Christ and are we, in our churches becoming ‘similar’ to Him?  Am I in any way correct when I suggest that the churches are in danger of erring in the direction of being a mirror of the world and its ways with a little bit of Christ and the gospel thrown in?  Pressures to be relevant and effective and to grow numerically are very real and we need to be focused in the way that Paul was.

We are living in the days (they have lasted two thousand years now) when God is making His word FULLY known (Colossians 1:25).  This is in contrast to the limited ways He disclosed His purposes in the former days that we can call ‘before Christ.’  It is the mystery of Him and was hidden “for ages and generations that is now revealed to His saints” (Colossians 1:26).  We are in the time of the unveiling of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  God is the active evangelist Who, through His gospel is going out into the entire world and the word of the gospel of Christ is bearing fruit everywhere (Colossians 1:6).  It had been effective in Colosse: God the evangelist had blessed the ministry of His servant Epaphras who had been a “faithful minister of Christ” (Colossians 1:7).  This gospel of Christ had been received in that city and now He was among them in the church.  Christ in the midst of each church is the power and wisdom of God and the open secret (that is what a mystery is) to her glorification.  “Christ in (the Greek is among) you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).  “Among you” is in the plural.  In these days of the magnification of the individual even ideas of personal holiness become exactly that, ‘personal’ holiness but Paul did not think in those terms, he was in the realm of the community and indicates in no uncertain terms the fact that purity and the likeness of God in Christ is a communal reality.  We grow up together into Him, accountability to each other, no one sins alone but their sin affects others inevitably, and neither do we put off sin and put on holiness on our own, we affect others as we do so, in this case, for their up building and help.  HIM WE PROCLAIM (Colossians 1:28)!  What a phrase!  Who?  Him Who is in the midst of you and not far away.  It is impossible to continue in sin if we are looking unto Jesus and know that He is very near.  It is very hard to nurse hurts and bitterness’s and maintain unforgiving attitudes in our heart if  “we all, with unveiled face, behold the glory of the Lord”(2 Corinthians 3:18).  Christ in the center, worshipped, known, loved and obeyed is the powerful antidote to sinful, self-pleasing living and the empowering One Who enables us each to strive for the good of each other and for the good of the world.  Listen to this minister of Christ speak, “HIM WE PROCLAIM, warning EVERYONE and teaching EVERYONE with all wisdom, that we may present EVERYONE mature in Christ (Colossian1: 28).  Warning and teaching with all wisdom is in the present tense, it is continuous, it is in the ‘now’ moment yet Paul is working toward something in the future, namely the presentation of everyone mature in Christ.  Much ministry today seems to major on getting people ‘saved,’ saying the ‘sinners prayer,’ and along with this getting them into some experience of the Holy Spirit which may or may not include speaking with other tongues, but here Paul focuses at the heart of everything that we aim at as we seek to serve God in and with each other.  Maturity in Christ, this is God’s objective for us all and therefore the aim of Christian ministry.  We must not be satisfied with anything less than the image of Christ in us emerging into likeness to Him in the way we are amongst men and women.  I well know that the old King James Version uses the word ‘perfect’ rather than ‘mature’ but I am also aware that, for certain sections of the church, the idea of ‘perfection’ can so easily become something abstract and an obedience to an accepted code of behavior.  The word mature is better.  Am I maturing in Christ, are you?  And in the midst of the ‘all things’ that come our way?

We can take heart because Paul expresses things this way “For this I toil (the actual Greek word is ‘diligently labor till growing weary’), struggling (the word is agonize) with all HIS energy that He powerfully works within me” (Colossians 1:29).   Christ powerfully working in His people for their mutual up building and growth into the similitude of Christ.  Enabling them to labor and strive like those who prepare themselves for participation in the games.  Yes, it really is ‘team’ ministry involving warning, encouragement, assistance and training; everyone exercised unto holiness in their own life and each for the other so that the church becomes an ICON of CHRIST indeed.  Paul was cooperating with that energy that worked in his life; this is why he can unabashedly say that Christ was working POWERFULLY in him to help others come to the maturity of the likeness to JESUS.  We used to sing a wonderful hymn of Charles Wesley that begins “Savior of all, to Thee we bow” and the last verse says,


Beholding as with open face
The glory of the Lord we go
From strength to strength, from grace to grace,
And perfect holiness below.


These words capture this musing exactly.  The open face with which we, each one, look at Christ in the midst, beholding Him in His glorious perfections and as we do, we will go from strength to strength and grace to grace and perfect (I am sure that this is a verb and not an adjective qualifying the noun) holiness below.  So let us walk and so let us live Lord, we pray.

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