Let Us Make Man in Our Image
In the beginning God created our planet. God says and it’s done. This demonstrates the power of his word right at the beginning of the bible. Even if you go to the end of the bible which is the Revelation of Jesus Christ it is also about a creation of God saying let us make man in our image. This is a revelation of God in creation. At the end of this planet is a revelation of Jesus Christ at the end of the bible to be in his people in the last days. God said let there be light and there was light. God said and it was so.
Genesis 1:24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
When God creates man he doesn’t just say let there be man. He said let there be light. Let them make man in our image after our likeness.
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
There is the thought and then the action. He comes to man today and says let us make man in our image.
A Shadow of Himself
This word image in the Hebrew is the word shadow. God being light you might think perhaps he doesn’t have a shadow as light doesn’t have a shadow. He says let us make man in our image. Was man created identical with God? Was there differences? Is man subject to time? Yes. Is God? No. When God makes man in his image it is not to the dimensions of God but a shadow which is a lesser dimension. God has greater dimensions than us. He is not in space but we are in space. Although we are made in his image we are not identical to God as a shadow is not identical but it resembles them. God has different dimensions that we don’t have. We are three dimensional and our shadow is two dimensional. God made man in his image and in his likeness and that is the Hebrew to cast a shadow.
God Made Man in His Image
The sun was shining and I was looking at my shadow and it was incredible, you can’t trick your shadow. There is no time delay between my movement and the shadow. If my image was projected somewhere else in some computer imagery there would be a delay. With a shadow, there is no delay. Zero. I was intrigued with my shadow and everything I did my shadow was doing. I couldn’t do anything my shadow wouldn’t do. Man was made after God’s image and God created the animals and brought them to Adam wanting to know what Adam was going to call them. He saw this mind exercising himself and Adam named the animals what they were. It was what it was when God created it. God was making something and man in his purity understands exactly the same.
Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat [a son] in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:
Adam and has a child. At that point in time, was Adam holy or fallen? He was fallen. The child that came forth also using the same word was also in his image.
Today we have an imagery of the mind that was given to Adam and Eve through their submission to Satan. You have an imagery of that mind in every child of Adam. God made man in his image and in his image he could think thoughts after God but he surrendered that and in a fallen state we are in the image of fallen man and think the thoughts after the devil.
That is a problem so God decided to make a plan and this plan is call the plan of Salvation.
Work out your own salvation
We are to work out our own salvation. Coming back to the image that God had created in Adam originally and he worked out that which God did. Now we have the exact same purpose. God has not changed his purpose. He hasn’t changed. We have this working out of this salvation. God created man in his image;
The sanctification of the soul by the working of the Holy Spirit is the implanting of Christ’s nature in humanity. Gospel religion is Christ in the life–a living, active principle. It is the grace of Christ revealed in character and wrought out in good works. The principles of the gospel cannot be disconnected from any department of practical life. Every line of Christian experience and labor is to be a representation of the life of Christ. {COL 384.1}
Can you disconnect your shadow from doing something’s? Can there be differences there? There can’t be any disconnection form any part of life. While I’m walking in the light I have a shadow and it will do what I do in every department of life. That is my image. There is no room for any other action, no room. How would you feel if you were walking along and your shadow decided to walk the other way? You would think what is going on?
That is how it was when God created man. There was no disunity but man went off and did something else and was the image of something else. That is theft. We need a representative and we are called to be Christs representatives.
The path of the upright is the path of peace. It is so plain that the humble, God-fearing man can walk in it without stumbling and without making crooked paths. It is a narrow path; but men of different temperaments can walk side by side if they but follow the Captain of their salvation. {LHU 222.2}
If you come from one mind set and I from another, if we become the shadow of God, we will do the same thing. If we are not doing the same things, there is a lack of copying the original. If we would be the shadow of the same person we would all be doing the same thing and there would be perfect harmony.
Sanctification Is a Process of Us Learning
Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
If you want to be the shadow of Christ you aren’t be your won. You can’t walk where you want to walk, act or do. Otherwise you can’t follow Christ. Does your shadow follow you? Everywhere. Whoever wants to follow him to become his image, a representative to represent him, there must be a denial of what actions and movements of things we want to do. No man can serve two masters. No one can be a shadow of two objects, only one. We are to be a shadow of what Christ wants us to be.
What Does Jesus Want Us To Follow?
Think About Christ and consider our standing whether we are being his image.
1 Peter 2:20 For what glory [is it], if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer [for it], ye take it patiently, this [is] acceptable with God.
2:21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
2:22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
This is our calling, what we are called to do. We are called to follow his movements. You see those movements then you do them. What image is he wanting to bring us to? The movements that he created in the beginning? It was good, very good. This is what we are wanting us to copy. He is making the movements of creation all over again.
He Reviled Not Again
His movements are;
1 Peter 2:23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed [himself] to him that judgeth righteously:
2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
Have you ever considered this text when it says when he was reviled he reviled not again? What does this mean? What does the word revile mean? When he is provoked. When someone is coming to irritate him or to afflict him or to annoy him or to do something to get his movements out of sync with creation.
What does the devil want us to do? Anything but the image of God. The movements that the devil is trying to get us to do is to come out of the holiness we are trying to imitate. He wants you to snap, lose your cool act out of sync with the movements of God as then you are not his shadow. If the shadow is acting differently God will say it’s not my shadow. If we don’t act like God we are not in his image.
This is reviling. Putting two people together that are of different temperaments. Put two people of different temperament together and they will be out of sync. Satan is putting us in a situation where we will be reviled as it says here unto were you brought. The reason is to meet a different temperament but to still act as Jesus acted. To meet an annoyance that someone is provoking me but not to retaliate. That is why we are called as it is demonstrating who we are copying. Jesus when he was reviled – reviled not again. Who in his self bear our sins in his own body. When did he bear our sins in his own body? Calvary? Gethsemane?
Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were [our] faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (sorrow, grief).
53:4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
53:5 But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
Does that sound like a shadow? No we have turned our own way.
Isaiah 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
Picture being reviled. Someone is provoking you. Imagine yourself in a situation where you are carrying grief internally that no one knows about and then someone provokes you while you are carrying this grief. Not just grief but condemnation so you are feeling condemned. Think about Christ, his friend betrayed him. His disciples were sleeping. His friends that didn’t betray were asleep. Peter denied him. All the people you like are failing you plus the sins of the world were laid in his body. There is the condemnation of the law, separation from God, my friends have forsaken and denied me as if they don’t even know me. The church is putting me up for death and I am now being provoked. Isn’t that enough? Patience ceases to be virtue. I have grief, I have sorrow, a loss of all things and now you are coming to provoke me and you are spitting in my face, that is too much now.
Is that what our creator did? He didn’t do that. If someone is provoking me with their disposition with straight out words smiting and I have my personal issues and personal griefs that this person doesn’t know about and my family is provoking me and God seems far and if we act and let it out, are we in his image? Are we acting in concert with the person? Are we being the shadow of the person? We read that he opened not his mouth when he was reviled and that when he was threatened he threatened not. What a character.
The Angels Who Left Their First Estate
This is what we need to practise of him. It is like we have read. We want to be in the society of whom? The angels. Do we want to obey God in concert? Do they always behold his face so they can get his movements right? Do the angels copy him? There were some angels didn’t want to do that. These angels left their first estate. This estate is the best estate to live in. Perth, Australia has some nice estates, but they left their habitation where they were dwelling.
Many Mansions
Jesus says in my father’s house are many mansions. There is room, there is a hole in heaven. They left their home and are now reserved in darkness in everlasting chains. There are some homes that are empty. Mansions, a beautiful estate and Jesus says;
John 14:2 In my Father’s house are many mansions: if [it were] not [so], I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, [there] ye may be also.
Where You Are Is Your Shadow There?
I was looking at my shadow today and my feet were connected where I was exactly is where my shadow was. I’m going to a place and where I am my shadow should be as well if you will consent to this salvation and to his image and not that of fallen man. These mansions that are in heaven that the angels have are for you and me if we will act in concert with him, he is only going to take his shadow there. Of the 144,000 what does it say? They follow the lamb where ever he goes.
I tried to outrun my shadow and I couldn’t it was following me and I thought why aren’t we like that to God? Why aren’t we beholding the pattern and following it? The pattern was done to my ability. While I’m in the light everything I do, my shadow can do. Everything Jesus did we can do.
We have a different dimension, we are locked in time but God isn’t. God wants us not to be just two dimensional but to take us in to the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; all four dimensions. This is something we can barely comprehend. Jesus is being reviled and two false witness’s came along;
Matthew 26:61 And said, This [fellow] said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days.
26:62 And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? what [is it which] these witness against thee?
26:63 But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.
26:64 Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
26:65 Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy.
26:66 What think ye? They answered and said, He is guilty of death.
26:67 Then did they spit in his face, and buffeted him; and others smote [him] with the palms of their hands,
Imagine carrying the deepest grief of your whole life and then someone comes and spits at you. How can you take that? He held his peace but was he not raging inside?
Peace
His thoughts were father forgive them as they don’t know what they are doing. He is putting a construction on their actions. In Hosea it’s speaking of Ephraim and they are going backward and God says how can I give thee up? It’s so hard for him to deal out punishment, it is a strange act of God, and he has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. It pains God to hurt them. What attitude is this? When he was reviled he reviled not again.
The image that God created in Eden wasn’t just the shadow we know of but it was also the inward thoughts. He thought Gods thoughts after him. We are not to just hold our tongue and feel angry inside as we are not then shadowing his thoughts. We are to think what he thought – How can I give thee up, forgive them for they know not what they do.
Are We Being Gods Shadow?
As Christians we are being called to be reviled.
The true Christian obtains an experience which brings holiness. He is without a spot of guilt upon the conscience, or a taint of corruption upon the soul. The spirituality of the law of God, with its limiting principles, is brought into his life. The light of truth irradiates his understanding. A glow of perfect love for the Redeemer clears away the miasma which has interposed between his soul and God. (Letter 139, 1898). {7BC 909.8}
When you have miasma or darkening, can there be a shadow in the dark? There can’t be. We need to behold Jesus without the veil as the 144,000 perfect character. Light means perfect character. Are we living in the full light that will light the whole world with its glory. Then what should our shadow be?
We are not living in the dark ages but the light of God’s word.
The will of God has become his will, pure, elevated, refined, and sanctified. His countenance reveals the light of heaven. His body is a fit temple for the Holy Spirit. Holiness adorns his character. God can commune with him; for soul and body are in harmony with God (Letter 139, 1898). {7BC 909.8}
We are to be in harmony with the heart of Jesus Christ when bad things happen and when everything in your life has fallen like job and yet trust him.
We embrace the truth of God with our different faculties, and as we come under the influence of that truth, it will accomplish the work for us which is necessary to give us a moral fitness for the kingdom of glory and for the society of the heavenly angels. {AG 351.3}
Only those who act in the image of God will have those mansions and be in the society and estate of heaven where these fallen angels have refused to come back. We have opportunity to become part of the family of God.
Should not every family on earth be a symbol of the family in heaven? In each household should there not be heard songs of praise and thanksgiving? {UL 33.3}
The family whose members love God and one another, who do not get provoked, who are longsuffering, forbearing, kind, is a symbol of the family above. {UL 33.4}
This is a love that loves one another whether others love us or not. Is a symbol also a shadow? Yes. A symbol is an image. Here we are today in our families and our church family and we are to have kindness. When someone does something kind to you, to do something kind back isn’t kindness its duty.
If I fixed your vehicle and you gave me $179.50 are you being kind to me? You are not as it is duty as I have done this and good returns good. But if I didn’t fix your vehicle and you have me $179.50 is that kindness? Yes as I’ve done nothing to deserve it. To be kindness to those who have not been kind is heaven. If we want to be where he is we are to be connected as my shadow is to my feet. We are to study Christ’s nature.
Back to Genesis
In the beginning he created and said back then let us make man in our image and he is saying the same today. Let the action follow the thought.
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
1:27 So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
God is wanting your salvation so he says let us make man in our image, what a thought but verse 27 says let be there in your life and so God did make you in his image. It is up to you if you will deny your own responses and everything you are and become his image. May God help us to do this before he comes as there is no changing when he comes.
Amen.
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