D-9. What does Made in the IMAGE of God TRULY Mean? DOWNLOAD to SAVE as a PDF Doc to read OFFLINE. D-9. What does Made in the IMAGE of God TRULY Mean? Let us begin this study in God’s word by reading Colossians 1:15 without any comments. Colossians 1:15. “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:” Now, all Christians agree that this verse is speaking of Jesus as being the IMAGE of Almighty God. But what does Jesus being in the IMAGE of God truly mean in the LIGHT of ALL of the Scriptures? Well, in Hebrews 1:3, we see that Jesus is referred to as being in the EXPRESS IMAGE of God’s PERSON. So, what does being in the express IMAGE of God’s PERSON truly mean in the LIGHT of the WHOLE word of Almighty God? Let us read a little context with verse 3 in Hebrews chapter 1 so that we can see that it was the human Son of God who was MADE in the IMAGE of God after the cross and resurrection. Hebrews 1:3,4. “Who being the brightness of His glory, and the EXPRESS IMAGE of His PERSON, and upholding all things by the word of His power, (In other words, Jesus was given the POWER to BECOME the eternal Son of God in much the same way that we are given POWER to become the eternal sons and eternal daughters of God. For you see, according to Hebrew 12:2, God set a joy before Jesus to ENDURE the cross. And) when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; 4. Being MADE so much better than the angels, as he has by inheritance OBTAINED a more excellent NAME than they.” So then, by the context in verse 4, we can clearly see that it was the human Son of God who was MADE in the IMAGE of the invisible God’s PERSON after the cross and resurrection. Please understand that the invisible God is ALWAYS referred to as being the Father ALONE. And thus, Jesus was made in the IMAGE of Almighty God the Father's PERSON. And now, we as Christians are being CONFORMED into the IMAGE of God’s dear Son, Jesus, according to Romans 8:29, who is the firstborn of many BRETHREN. Please read Romans 8:29. “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be CONFORMED to the IMAGE of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many BRETHREN.” And when we read the CONTEXT of the phrase “the firstborn of every CREATURE” found in Colossians 1:15, then we can learn its TRUE sound Biblical meaning. For you see, in the LIGHT of verses 18-20, you can clearly see for your self that Jesus became the firstborn of every CREATURE when God raised him from the DEAD and HIGHLY EXALTED him to make him the head of the church. Colossians 1:18,19. “And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the BEGINNING, (Or who is the FIRST to become) the FIRSTBORN from the DEAD; that in all things he might have the preeminence. (In other words, God highly exalted His human Son to be made Lord over his body of believers called the church. But why did God do this?) 19. For (Or BECAUSE) it PLEASED the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;” The BEGINNING of WHAT? Go back to the phrase “the firstborn of every CREATURE” made in the IMAGE of the invisible God found in Colossians 1:15. Now interpret the phrase “the firstborn of every CREATURE” in the LIGHT of the phrase “who is the BEGINNING, the FIRSTBORN from the DEAD”. So then, the CREATURE that God made in His the IMAGE of His PERSON is the FIRSTBORN from the DEAD. And since Jesus is the FIRST human being to be resurrected or BORN-AGAIN from the dead never to die again, then Jesus is the BEGINNING of God’s CREATURES of righteousness to be given eternal life. In other words, Jesus is the FIRSTBORN of every CREATURE by being the FIRSTBORN from the DEAD to become the FIRSTBORN among many BRETHREN, who is the BEGINNING of God’s NEW CREATION. The Greek word “ktisis” also means creation. So, Colossians could be translated as “firstborn of every CREATION.” Here is how E-Sword defines the Greek word “ktisis” G2937 ktisis ktis'-is From G2936; original formation (properly the act; by implication the thing, literally or figuratively): - building, creation, creature, ordinance. Total KJV occurrences: 19. The church is a “spiritual” BUILDING that is still yet being built. And Jesus is the FOUNDATION of the church, according to 1 Corinthians 3:11. Jesus is also called the chief CORNERSTONE. Please read Ephesians 2:19-22. “Now, therefore, you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20. And are BUILT upon the FOUNDATION of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21. In whom all the building fitly framed together GROWS unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22. In whom you also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” So then, the Scriptures COMPARE the building of the church to a physical building that is being built, and Jesus is the FOUNDATION of that building. Now, the foundation is a PART of a building. And thus, Jesus is a PART of the church. In fact, Jesus is the HEAD of his BODY, called the church. So then, Jesus is one of us, as in, the FIRST MEMBER of the church. Now, Jesus is not ashamed to call us BRETHREN, so then, why should we be ashamed to call Jesus our BROTHER? Part of the reason that Christians in the mainstream orthodox church denominations do not call Jesus their brother is because they have never been taught that Jesus came into existence as God’s HUMAN Son at the virgin birth. Christians have wrongly been taught for centuries that Jesus is Almighty God Himself in the flesh having two natures at the SAME time during the days of his flesh, one divine, and one human. And thus, they wrongly conclude that Jesus is NOT one of us because to THEM he is the divine Almighty God Himself. But that is NOT what the Bible ITSELF teaches us. The Scriptures clearly teach us in SIMPLICITY that God DWELT in Jesus, and NOW, God DWELLS in us who believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. You have already seen in this study that Jesus was made in the IMAGE of God’s PERSON after the cross and resurrection to BECOME the FIRSTBORN among many BRETHREN. So then, now that you understand WHEN Jesus was MADE in the IMAGE of Yahweh, the Father, let me give you a “word picture” so you can better understand what being made in the IMAGE of God’s PERSON actually means in the LIGHT of the WHOLE word of Almighty God. I woke up this morning with this “word picture” being spoken to me by the Holy Spirit. And I thought, wow! Even little children can understand this. I thought to myself, why did I not see this before in such detail. Please understand that I did not write this down and I went back to sleep. So this is not like a prophecy, as in, this is not a thus says the Lord word for word quote from God. But rather, this is me EXPLAINING what God spoke to me early this morning. I remember God saying, think of a person looking into a mirror. Then, the Holy Spirit said, the REFLECTION in the mirror is an IMAGE of that person. And if the mirror is turned AROUND there is no more REFLECTION on the backside of the mirror. And all you can see is DARKNESS on the other side of the mirror. In other words, the person is still their but the IMAGE of that person is GONE. Now then, let us take that same “word picture” of a mirror REFLECTING the IMAGE of SOMETHING. And this time try and visualize Jesus as being the MIRROR and the something standing in front of the mirror is Almighty God. In other words, Jesus being the IMAGE of God’s PERSON means that Jesus is REFECTING the PERSON or the CHARACTER of Almighty God the Father. In other words, if you see the Jesus you see the Father because it was the Father dwelling in Jesus who did the WORKS of love and compassion healing the people. And during the days of his flesh, Jesus never TURNED his back toward God, so Jesus always remained a REFLECTION of God’s true nature or character of LOVE, compassion, mercy, and grace to forgive. And BECAUSE Jesus loved righteousness and hated iniquity to never sin by disobeying God's WILL, his God anointed him with the oil of GLADNESS after the cross. In other words, according to Hebrew 12:2, God set a joy in front of Jesus to ENDURE the cross. And as a reward for obeying all of his God and Father’s will, God’s human Son was made a partaker of the DIVINE NATURE of IMMORTALITY to never die again. And for further reward, Yahweh highly exalted him to be above his BRETHREN or above his fellows as it is translated in the King James Version in Hebrews 1:9. So then, after the cross and resurrection, Jesus was made in the EXPRESS IMAGE of the PERSON of God for all eternity future, and he was RECEIVED up into glory. In other words, God HARVESTED His first FIRSTFRUITS of His NEW creation of new CREATURES of RIGHTEOUSNESS who will never rebel against God like Lucifer and the fallen angels did. Please read 1 Corinthians 15:1,2, 16-28. “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the GOSPEL which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand; 2. By which also you are saved, if you keep in MEMORY what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in VAIN… (Now, are we not suppose to preach what the very Apostles of Jesus PREACHED? YES! And here is what the Apostles of Jesus preached BEFORE the TRUE gospel of salvation was PERVERTED by the Roman Catholic Church) …16. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: 17. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; you are yet in your sins. 18. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. 20. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and BECOME the FIRSTFRUITS of them that slept. (The first fruit of the HARVEST is the BEST of the HARVEST that is offered to God to be RECEIVED as a sacrifice to God. So, Jesus becoming the first fruits of the saints who have died in Jesus means that MORE HARVEST is coming later. Jesus is the FIRSTBORN from the DEAD to become the FIRSTBORN among many BRETHREN. And the brothers and sisters of Jesus are the new creatures created in Jesus, who is the BEGINNING of the new creation of God’s new creatures. Jesus is the FIRSTBORN from the DEAD to become the FIRSTBORN of every CREATURE made in the IMAGE of God’s PERSON. And now, we as God’s new creatures created in Jesus anointed, are being conformed in the IMAGE of God’s now ETERNAL Son) 21. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. 23. But every man in his own ORDER: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. 24. Then comes the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. (Here we see that there are THREE harvests, the Son of Man, Jesus is the FIRST human to be given the divine nature of immortality. The SECOND harvest will be at the COMING of Jesus. And the THIRD harvest will be at the end of the Millennial reign of Jesus) 25. For he must reign, UNTIL He (Almighty God the Father) has put all enemies under his feet. 26. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. (And according to Revelation 20:14, death and hell will be destroyed in the lake of fire on the final Day of Judgment after the 1000 year reign of Jesus is FINISHED) 27. For (Or for you see) He (Speaking of Almighty God the Father) has put all things under his feet. But when He says all things are put under him, it is MANFEST that He is excepted, which did put all things under him. (The word “MANIFEST” means that it is clearly SHOWN to us that it is Almighty God the Father who is doing the WORK of putting all things UNDER the feet of Jesus, EXCEPT for putting Himself under the feet of His Son, Jesus) 28. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then the Son ALSO himself shall be subject unto Him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.” Now, we all agree that Jesus did NOT sin. And thus, Jesus did not fall short of the GLORY of God. But we, on the other hand, have ALL fallen SHORT of God’s INTENDED glory, because ALL men have SINNED. And now, we who believe in Jesus are being conformed into the IMAGE of God’s Son, Jesus. For you see, 1 John 3:1-3 teaches us that WHEN we see Jesus at his COMING, then we will be LIKE Jesus because we will see Jesus as he is right now, after the cross and resurrection. But God is not finished conforming us into the image of the LIFE of Jesus. And thus, while we are living in our PHYSICAL bodies, we are now the MIRROR, and it is Jesus standing in front of the mirror. And thus, we are to be the REFLECTION of Jesus, who is the EXAMPLE that we are called to FOLLOW in his steps, who did not sin, according to 2 Peter 2:21-23. Now, here is where we are not like Jesus. As I said a moment ago, Jesus never turned around or turned his back to God to walk away from God by living in SIN. But that is not the case with every other human being. For you see, we ALL have sinned at some point in our life. And, therefore, we ALL have fallen short of the glory of God which Yahweh intended for all men to have. And even though God is RECONCILING the world to Himself, according to 2 Corinthians 5:15-21, not all men will BELIEVE and receive God’s salvation in His Son, in whom God is well pleased. So then, we are all BORN pure and innocent to be like MIRRORS to REFLECT God’s IMAGE or God’s character of goodness and love. But no man has seen God at any time to be able to truly UNDERSTAND God’s goodness and love. And that is why God begat Himself a human Son to SHOW us the Father because no man has seen or understood God’s LOVE. So then, Jesus is a PICTURE or a REFLECTION of Almighty God the Father. In other words, Jesus DECLARED the PERSON or the CHARACTER of God’s GOODNESS and LOVE to us by the works that God did through the hands of Jesus. And now it is our turn to reflect the love of God by obeying the leading of the Holy Spirit to WORK through us to be the LIGHT in the world of darkness. Now, if a baby or a child dies prematurely, then they are innocent before God even if they have sinned in the eyes of MAN. Please read the studies called “F-9. THE AGE OF ACCOUNTABILITY” and “F-14. THE FALSE DOCTRINE OF ORIGINAL SIN!” But for now, let us look at what happens to ALL men after the age of accountability. You can be a good and righteous human being for the most part, but in God’s eyes, He CONCLUDED all to be under sin so that He could show His mercy and grace. So, no matter how good you may think your are, you have sinned at least one sin sometime in your life. And because we ALL have sinned, we ALL need to be saved or delivered from those PAST sins in order for God’s Holy Spirit to come dwell in you to give us power to help us overcome future temptations to sin. Therefore, before a person is saved, we were ALL like MIRRORS that eventually turned OURSELVES around with our back facing God and His Son Jesus. For you see, while a person is living in sin, they are the children of the NIGHT. And that means that they are no longer the children of the day. And thus, we need to REPENT, which means to TURN AROUND and FACE God to confess our sin of falling short of His expectation of us to reflect His goodness and love. And the very moment that we truly REPENT with godly sorrow desiring to change our way to remain facing toward God and His Son, Jesus, then all of our past sins are forgiven. We are saved at that moment in time, as in, we are placed BACK into a right relationship with God. But you see, after God CLEANSES us from all our past sins, we become that MIRROR facing the way to eternal life. The way is like a road or a narrow path that LEADS to receiving the end of our salvation, which is our actually OBTAINING the gift of eternal life in the world to come. Jesus ENTERED into GLORY after the cross and resurrection by being GIVEN eternal life to be having in himself even as the Father has always possessed eternal life in Himself. Yes, God GIVES us His GIFT of righteousness the very moment we first repent and ask Jesus into our life. But that is only the first STEP toward the end of our salvation which is CONDITIONAL. And thus, we must be found FAITHFUL at the end of our life in order to be granted to sit on the throne with Jesus. So then, every sin that we commit after we are initially saved must be repented of and confessed to God. For you see, God COUNTS the righteousness of His Son, Jesus, to become our righteousness all through our walk unto eternal life in the world to come. And that means, that if we sin after we are saved, then all that God requires of us is to repent and confess our sins. And then, God is always FAITHFUL to forgive us and CLEANSE us from all of our unrighteousness to be made perfect once again in the eyes of God. In other words, each time we sin as a Christian, then our mirror becomes FOGGY and we are not a good REFLECTION of God or of His Son, Jesus. So we, like mirrors that are fogged up when we sin, need to be WIPED clean by God when we repent and CONFESS our sins. Now, if a Christian does not confess their sin and they REMAIN living in sin, then they are TURNING themselves around to follow the Devil. And thus, they return to being the children of the Devil until they REPENT and turn back around to face God and REFLECT God’s IMAGE. So always make sure your mirror remains SPOTLESS so that you will SHINE like the LIKE God INTENDS you to shine as lights having no darkness of sin. For how can others see Jesus in you if your mirror is stained with sin? We are no longer of the world, and thus, we should no longer REFLECT the world by living in sin. Yes, we all sin, but we do NOT HAVE to sin. Please read the study “F-12. HOW YOU CAN LIVE YOUR LIFE FREE FROM SIN!” Thanks for reading, and may God bless you richly as you continue to seek the TRUTH of the WHOLE word of Almighty God. And to me, the truth concerning who Jesus TRULY is, according to the Bible ITSELF, is the Biblical Unitarian view of Jesus. So, for ALL of the studies on the Biblical Unitarian view of Jesus, please click on the subject heading >>>D-0. THE BIBLICAL UNITARIAN VIEW of JESUS!<<< And for the SUBJECT on the true foundation of the church, please click on the subject heading >>>C-0. THE TRUE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH!<<< This way you can just send ONE link to those who you want to share the TRUE sound Biblical FOUNDATIONAL teachings of the church that Jesus and his Apostles taught in the first century church.
Your brother in our Lord Jesus Christ, Brother Mark.
My heartfelt prayer is that all Christians RETURN to the TRUE FOUNDATION of the church that is taught by the very Apostles of Jesus in the first century. So let us all come into the UNITY of the faith and return to what Jesus and his Apostles taught us in SIMPLICITY in the New Testament.
To learn more TRUTH, then please return to
VERSES USED TO TEACH THAT JESUS PREEXISTED!
To me, the best way to know the ONE true God in ONE person is to know who Jesus TRULY is according to the WHOLE word of Almighty God. So please read ALL of the studies under the heading >>>N-0. WHO is JESUS ACCORDING to the BIBLE?<<< and you will see that the Bible itself teaches us that Jesus was CREATED by his God and Father. And if you have any questions related to the correct meaning of certain verses of Scripture on this subject of who Jesus is please read all the studies under the two headings >>>U-0. VERSES used for THE TRINITY!<<< and >>>V-0. VERSES used to TEACH that Jesus PRE-EXISTED!<<< These two headings have ALL of the studies that I have on who Jesus truly is according to what the Bible itself teaches us in simplicity. I compiled these three headings to make it easy for my readers to send just one, two, or three links to those you desire to help understand what the Bible itself teaches concerning who Jesus is in the LIGHT of the WHOLE word of Almighty God. If you have any questions, please feel free to write to me. My contact email is MarkatAMatterOfTruth@Gmail .com. Thanks again for reading and may God bless you richly as you continue to seek the truth of the whole word of Almighty God.
Your Brother in our Lord Jesus Christ, Brother Mark.
RETURN to HOMEPAGE at
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Always be faithful to share, to preach, and to teach the whole gospel of Jesus Christ! |
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