Today we continue to look into the Word of God, and we have, as many of you will know, been expounding the scriptural teaching on regeneration and renewal. And the first six messages in this series were concerned directly with regeneration and renewal. From the seventh message in this series, we began to look at the scriptural teaching on perfection, because we saw that the whole goal and direction of regeneration and renewal is to perfection — that we may be perfect even as He, our God and our King, is perfect. And the last two messages, and now including this one, so that three messages will have been concerned with the image of God. This is the third then, on the image of God.
Now, today we want to particularly examine the practical aspect of the scriptural teaching on the image of God. Why were we created in the image of God? And evidently the answer to this, put right at the beginning and very simply, is that God intends that His glory will be revealed through us. Put in another way, He intends that His glory, His character, will be made visible in this world through us. Now that's a very high calling indeed. And now we begin to understand why Paul speaks of our high calling. Too often the gospel has been presented as though the only purpose why the gospel is being preached is so that we can be saved and get to heaven. And that is indeed an inadequate, and therefore a misrepresentation of the purpose of the gospel. He saved us with a specific purpose in view: that we should manifest His glory in the world.
He gave us the Holy Spirit. What for? If salvation is simply to get to heaven, what exactly do we need the Holy Spirit for? Because according to many, once you are saved, you are saved anyway. So what do you need the Holy Spirit for, if your place is already reserved in heaven? But if the purpose for which He saved us is so that we may manifest His glory, that we may make His glory visible in this generation, and make it visible to the world in such a way that their hearts will be drawn to God — then we can see what is the purpose of regeneration, what is the purpose of renewal, why we have been given the Holy Spirit of God. And I am saying not mainly "we," but each one of us. And I am saying you in particular have been called — and don't pass the buck to the next guy — you have been called to manifest His glory. And God will not allow you to escape, and I mean you will not be allowed to escape the responsibility that you should manifest His glory in your place of study, or place of work, whatever the situation may be.
So in this third message, I'd like to summarize first and foremost what we have been studying so far, and then begin to examine the practical implication of our being created in God's image. Now in the previous messages, we have seen that Adam was created in God's image right at the beginning, indicating very clearly to us what was the reason for creating Adam at all: namely, to manifest, as we have seen, God's glory. But a very important thing we must bear in mind is this: that Adam was created physically in God's image. Now if we fail to grasp this distinction, we are going to end up like so many theologians in complete error. Adam — and I stress this once more, and I shall indicate to you the scriptural evidence for all this — Adam was created physically, or in an earthly sense, in God's image. That is to say, we must distinguish between two kinds of the image of God in Scripture: the image of God in the earthly sense, and the image of God in the heavenly sense. And when we exegetically fail to distinguish between these two, we will end up talking all manner of nonsense, as indeed many of our theological friends have been doing.
It is because there was the failure to distinguish between these two types of image of God in us that the theologians began to talk about Adam having lost the image of God when he sinned. And as we have seen in our previous messages, there is no scriptural justification whatever for such a statement. The tragedy in the church has been for us that our theologians have been very bad exegetes, and I make that statement with no apology whatsoever. They have been terrible exegetes. They don't seem to understand the elements of exegesis. I would maintain for the safety of the church in the future that no one has the right to be a theologian, or to be called by such a name, who has not been solely equipped in the matters of exegesis. We have suffered quite enough from all the doctrinal nonsense that so many theologians have been speaking to us.
We have seen that in Scripture there is no talk whatsoever of the image of God in Adam having been lost. There is no statement anywhere to that effect, whether in the Old Testament or in the New. And there is no danger of my statement being challenged whatsoever because it cannot be challenged. That's the fact of the matter. In fact, only two days ago when I was looking in the article on the image in the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament edited by Brown, the statement is there clearly observed. In fact, I saw that the one writing the article was able to state categorically and quite correctly that there is no doctrine of Adam having lost the image of God in the Old Testament. Correct. So the theological dictionary is quite correct on this point. He could have also added equally correctly that there is no such statement in the New Testament either. However, as he goes on in the article, he is obviously confused by the doctrine on which he was nurtured up, so that it is a little bit difficult to reconcile what he says further on from what he says at the beginning, which shows how difficult it is to think clearly and spiritually in these days.
Now, the first thing then, let me stress again, is that there are two images. We have and we still bear the image of God physically. It has never been lost. But we will, and we are in the process of bearing the spiritual image of God as it is in Christ. Now let's get this very clear in our minds. Adam was created in God's image in the earthly sense. Christ bears the image of God in the spiritual sense.
Let's look again at 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 49, to get this into focus. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 49. And this is what we read here: "Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven." There you have this image — the same word again. Just as we have — and we still do — bear the image of the man of dust, Adam — or rather, more correctly stated, the image of God as transmitted to us in Adam — so we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven, or the image of God in Christ. Now of course, if you have been already so brainwashed by the idea that the image of God in Adam has fallen, then you would of course say we have borne the image of the fallen image of God in Adam, whatever that would mean. Of course, if that's what you are doing, then what you are doing is you are reading a doctrinal presupposition into Paul's statement, because Paul has already made it clear that the image of God in Adam has not been lost.
Where do we see this? He has already told us that four chapters earlier, in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 7. So let me read to you 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 7, and this is what Paul says: "For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man." Now let's look at the first part of the statement. And if our theologians had ever done the most elementary exegesis, they would have seen that Paul is asserting that the man is — not was — the glory of God and the image of God. I mean, this is something so elementary in exegesis that it is just beyond belief that people like Karl Barth or Calvin or anyone else can blunder so astonishingly into such a thing as talking about the fallen image of God. Well, Paul doesn't know about any fallen image of God; neither does the Old Testament, as we have seen. No, no. Paul, on the contrary, asserts: "For a man is the image and glory of God" — not "was." And of course, if it's already fallen, his argument in the whole of 1 Corinthians 11 would collapse. Paul would have no case at all.
He is saying — and notice this, and this is very important for understanding — that the man is. And I should point out to you that the word translated "man" is the word masculine in Greek, which means it refers to the male. There are two Greek words translated "man" in the New Testament. One is anthropos and the other is aner. Anthropos is where you have the English word "anthropology" from, which is simply the generic term for human beings; it may refer to a man who is male, but it may also refer simply to the human race generally. But that's not the word used here. The word used here is aner, which refers to the male of the human species only. The male is the image and glory of God. That's a very important statement in Paul. And what he is saying here is that the man, because he was created directly by God in the first instance, was created in God's image, and he is still in that image. The woman, of course, also bears the image of God, but in a derivative sense, because she was taken out from Adam. Now this is the point, the whole point on which Paul's statement here rests. And therefore to this day, because man is still in the image of God, he must not cover his head, lest he hide God's glory. But because woman is derived from man in the Genesis account, as you know, she is therefore the glory of man, and the glory of man is to be covered in the presence of God. So this shows that in the physical sense, the image of God is for Paul very much the basis of his reasoning here in 1 Corinthians 11.
Now as I have mentioned, in Scripture there are two types or two levels of the image of God. One is the physical level; the other is the spiritual level. What is true on the physical level is not true on the spiritual level. It is true on the physical level that man was created — that is the other thing to notice, of course, from the exegetical point of view — is that in verse 7 we have the present tense, and that's where it says "man is," correctly translated "is" because it is a present participle here in the Greek text. So man is right now still on the physical level the image of God, but not necessarily so on the spiritual level. That is why he becomes — and he becomes a partaker of the image of God on the spiritual level only through regeneration or through the new creation.
Now once the theologians had so much as grasped this point, we would not have been in the messy doctrinal situation we are in today. I would like you to observe that the very foundation of Western theology is based on the notion that Adam's fall destroyed the image of God in man. And I mentioned this before. And this morning, the very thought of that prevented me from going to sleep again. After four hours of sleep I woke up, and the realization that the foundations of Western theology was actually built on a mistaken piece of doctrine of scriptural teaching so shattered me that I couldn't sleep anymore after that for hours. I was calling upon the Lord and saying, "Lord, what is the fearful situation of the church, that so important an aspect of Your word has been misrepresented to us?"
As you know, it is the first and cardinal point of Calvinistic teaching that man has fallen. It is called total depravity or original sin. And because of that first point, the other points followed from the whole Calvinistic system, which of course was borrowed from Augustine — it was nothing invented by Calvin; he borrowed the entire system from Augustine — and the whole of Western theology is based on something that doesn't exist in Scripture: the fallen image of God in Adam. It doesn't exist in Scripture. And the realization of this, as it dawned upon me, was quite shattering. I thought to myself, "Lord, have pity upon us. We have an entire system of theology based on a piece of non-existent scriptural teaching. It doesn't exist in Scripture. It is, to put it rather frankly, a piece of pure invention — this idea of the image of God in Adam having fallen."
I don't know if the realization, the shock of this, is beginning to come through to you, but the shock of it as it came to me is — it's hard for me to convey, as you see I'm running out of words to know how to express this thing, that since the days of Augustine, 1,500 years, we have perpetrated a system — and a whole system of theology — that isn't to be found in Scripture. We can only cry out to God: "Lord, have mercy upon us. Lord, raise up for Your people in these days people who are committed to the truth of Your word." And as I had said earlier, if only we had paid a little more attention to our Jewish friends, we would not have made so astonishing a blunder as this. The Jews have always told us there is no such teaching in the Old Testament. And after all, they have dedicated their entire history to the study of the Old Testament, which is the word of God for them. They have warned: there is no such teaching in the Old Testament. But Christian theologians thought they knew better, and invented a system which is non-existent.
Only recently I've been reading an anthology of the writings of A.J. Heschel, that great Jewish scholar and rabbi, great thinker, and also I would say a great man of God. And he already said in that anthology of his writings called "Between God and Man" — there he stated categorically, he said, "Judaism is not committed to any doctrine of original sin." It is not committed to any doctrine of original sin. Why? Because it's not in Scripture. It's as simple as that. It doesn't exist in Scripture. But we are not listening. We think we are superior to the Jews. We think that they are blind and we see. Pity — Lord, have pity upon Your church. It turns out that we are blind and they see. We do well to attend carefully to those who have been warning us along the way.
But let us continue to press on. It raises the question then, that so much of our dogma has been controlled by theological interests, not by the teaching of the word of God. You see, there was the notion, as we saw, that if Adam did not fall, then somehow he would have automatically inherited the kingdom of God, and Jesus would not have had to come, and He wouldn't have had to die. And as we saw in an earlier message, we almost have to plead with Adam that he might sin so that the grace of God might come — exactly as Paul said in Romans: "Shall we sin that grace might abound?" Is it that God's grace would be hampered by the lack of sin, that the more we sin, the more God has a chance to express His grace? And we saw how ridiculous is this notion. God's grace does not depend upon our sins, or else we should be grateful for sins, because if we didn't sin, then God's grace would be frustrated and have no occasion to express itself.
If only we had understood the scriptural teaching — Adam, even if he had never sinned, would still need God's grace. He would still need to be regenerate. Did you realize that? Why? Because the earthly cannot inherit the heavenly. It's as simple as that. As the Lord Jesus says in John chapter 3 and verse 6: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." What does that mean? That means, in terms of salvation, as the Apostle Paul made it clear for us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 50, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is something spiritual. Flesh and blood — you and I in our natural state, no matter how good we were, no matter how righteous we were — could never inherit the kingdom of God. The righteousness of man cannot inherit the kingdom of God because it is flesh and blood. We need to be born of the Spirit before we can inherit what is Spirit.
Put in simpler language: you cannot have eternal life, no matter how righteous you are, because eternal life is spiritual and you are carnal. And Adam is carnal. And even if he never sinned, he could still not inherit eternal life. His physical life might go on, but physical life is not eternal life. And an endless physical life is not equivalent to eternal life in the Bible. Do we realize that? When will God's people see and understand the things which are of God? Even if Adam never died physically, that is not eternal life in the Bible. Endless life, unending life, is not eternal life. Eternal life is spiritual life. It is God's life. It is a totally different quality of life from our earthly life. If I did not die, if I could live tomorrow and the day after for a thousand years and ten thousand years, that is not eternal life in the Bible. That is simply physical life — an extended and continual physical life. Adam himself, even if he never sinned, could never have inherited the kingdom of God. Do we understand the Scriptures? Even Adam had to be born again of the Spirit of God in order to inherit eternal life. You see, that is why I said in an earlier message: even if Adam never sinned, he would still have to be born again. As every righteous man, even if he never sinned, would still have to be born again. Therefore we do not have to try to drag people down into sin before they can be saved — almost we would wish that they would sin. How absurd, as though God's grace depended on man's sin to manifest itself. We live by grace, as we saw, in every detail, just as the angels of God who never sin depend on God's grace. And we utterly depend on God's grace for His mercy and His kindness and His salvation. And your righteousness, even if you had never sinned, would make no difference to that.
That man sins is a fact. That God has been merciful to us is also a fact. But let us never be foolish enough to imagine that Adam somehow — that God had to hope that Adam would sin so that He could manifest His grace. I hope now you understand that there are two levels of the image of God, and one does not pass automatically from the one to the other. There is no automatic transfer from the one to the other. There is a barrier between the flesh and the Spirit that no man can get across except by regeneration, except by the power of God transforming him. None of us get across that barrier, and no amount of righteousness on your part can get you across that barrier. No amount of merit and good works can get you across the barrier, because what is of flesh is flesh. So plain is the teaching of Scripture. It's so clear.
So let us proceed. And my heart pains me for the church of Christ. Oh, what have our theologians done to us, and created and invented systems of absurdity to prove a point that didn't need proving, because it was there all the time in Scripture.
Now another important distinction between these two images, and another important distinction between the image of God in us on the earthly level and the image of God that will be in us on the spiritual level, we find in Scripture is this: the image of God in us on the earthly level is already complete. It is always in Scripture spoken of as the complete image. There is no question of development of that image. But the spiritual image of God in us is always spoken of in us as being incomplete. Very important to grasp this distinction too.
Let us look, for example, at Colossians chapter 3, verse 10. Let me read to you Colossians 3:10, and it reads like this: "And you have put on the new man, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator." You have already put on the new man, which is however being renewed. Notice, it's in the process. That's why we spoke of regeneration and renewal. This image of God in us is not perfect yet. It is being renewed. That's why we can see why we are talking about perfection and image under the terms of regeneration and renewal, because this image in us is not, in this present time, perfect. It is in the process of being renewed in the image of its Creator, that is, of God.
Now we see this also in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse 18. And let me read this passage to you also, for some of us this passage is very familiar already, as I have referred to it many times before: "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into His likeness" — notice again, it's a process — "are being changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." We are being changed from one degree of glory to another. The image of God is gradually being formed in us, and there are different degrees of it depending on your present spiritual state. This means that some people right now are manifesting more of the glory of God — which is, by the way, a synonym for the image of God. Notice how "glory" and "image" — man, as we saw in 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 7, man is also on the physical level the glory and image of God. These two terms, "image" and "glory," are constantly linked, and here also they are linked. We are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another. And that means that some people manifest more of the glory, a higher degree of God's glory, than others, which is a matter of common experience. You look around and you can see some obviously manifesting more of God's glory than others.
# In His Image (Part 3) — Manifesting God's Glory Through the Image of Christ
Christ is in the image of God. He came as the image of God. Why? Because nobody has ever known God. Nobody has ever seen God. But in looking at Jesus, we have seen God in Christ, in the face of Jesus Christ. That is why in John chapter 14 verse 9, the Lord Jesus himself says, "He that has seen me, has seen the Father." You want to know what God is like? Just look at me. Wow, that's a staggering statement.
Let me tell you this other part of the staggering statement is this. You are also created, and I am also created on the spiritual level, in the image of God. And what does that mean? It means this, that God has laid upon you and upon me, the frightening responsibility to manifest Him to the world. So that you and I will be able to say, "You want to know what God is like? God, look at me. I am in the image of God." It is true that though we are not perfectly in the image of God, as Jesus is, He perfectly portrays to us God. We are in the process of gradually more and more portraying that image. Yet, God has willed, even now, that you and I are in His image, for no other reason, but that we are to manifest Him and His glory in the world today.
Paul says in Romans 8, verse 29, that God has predestined us, that is, planned in advance, predetermined, that we should be conformed to the image of His Son. That is God's will. He has determined that you and I are to be in the image of His Son. That's why He saved us. That's why it goes on, He says, "Whom He justified, whom He glorified, that they be conformed." He glorified. We saw the word glorified, He has glorified. And we saw that the word glory and image are synonyms. I often used to wonder, what does it mean? And He has glorified. "Them whom He justified, He has glorified." What does it mean, He is glorified? Notice the perfect tense. He has glorified. He has, in other words, now we understand what it means. He has made us in His image and in His glory.
Oh, that is staggering. Frightening, isn't it? You might almost be scared by this time and say, "Hey, don't look at me." I hear the whole church saying, "Don't look at me. Look at Christ." But that is exactly the problem. The world cannot see Christ. They can only see His body. Us. You and me. And don't you and I dare to run away from that responsibility. If you and I run away from that responsibility, you and I will answer for it at the judgment. He has made you and made me in His image. So that the world will know what He is like through you and through me. That means if you misrepresent Him, or if I mispresent Him, in the way you and I live, we are in trouble. We are in big trouble.
Now you can understand what Paul says and what he means in Philippians chapter 1. "Let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling." Work out our salvation. Because He justified us in order to glorify us. In order to manifest His image in us. And that is enough to make me fear and tremble. The enormity of the task that has been entrusted to us.
Today, we hear all the time talk about evangelism. Evangelism this and evangelism that. I am a great friend of evangelism. But I am not sure that our friends know what evangelism is all about. In the Bible, in the scripture, there is no evangelism by mere word alone. Evangelism in scripture is founded on manifesting God visibly. Images are seen, not heard. You don't hear an image. You see an image. Manifesting God visibly to the world. Just as the Lord Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. You are the light of the world." Which means, you manifest my light to the world. The only way the world will see my glory is in you. Or they don't see it at all. Either you reveal that glory, or nobody sees that glory.
But we have found a cheaper way to do this whole business of evangelism. Talk. Or print. It's all talk and all print. And the world is tired of talk and print. There's endless printed pages. And of the making of books, there is no end. Of the publication of papers, there is no end. Of words, there is no end. There is only talk and talk and talk. What the world wants is to see the glory of God. And how many people have told us, "If only we can see the reality of God manifested in your life, we would believe." Of words, we have heard enough. But it's today, the printing of tracts, and the distributing of tracts, and it's on the sound waves, it's talking on the radio, and talking on the TV, and talk shows, and it's all talk and talk.
Let me tell you, we are not ready to talk about evangelism, until the day that by the grace of God, people can see, that we have indeed been born of the Spirit of God, and something of the glory of God is manifested in us. Until that day, let's stop talking. Until that day, let us live. And if we can't live, we have not earned the right to talk in this world. That is why, you will notice, I have said before, the church today, the churches today, are just not ready to talk about evangelism. It hasn't got the right to talk about evangelism. Until the church lives, in such a way, that people will know, that we are His disciples.
How do men know that you are my disciples? The Lord Jesus said, because you talk so good? Not at all. "Hereby shall all men know, that you are my disciples, because you love one another." And where is the love to be seen? Oh Lord, have mercy upon your church. Today, when I see the way Christians conduct themselves, I'm not at all sure we are dealing with Christians. Today, when I was in Toronto, only two weeks ago, I've heard that now they have begun a campaign, a campaign of character assassination, against me. I have no worry about that. I know where I stand before the Lord, but do they know what will happen to them on that day? In order to hinder the work in Toronto, and the spread of the work, there's only one way they can think of to stop the work progressing in Toronto, that is, to assassinate my character, to slander me, as they have been doing for years already, talking about my preaching, or my preaching of salvation by works and such. Do they know what they are going to have to answer? May the Lord have pity and mercy upon them. I shudder to think what will happen at the day of judgment, to tell such lies, to fabricate slander.
"Hereby shall all men know, that you are my disciples." How? Because you love one another. Love, in such a way, that people can see. But what do Christians do? They mount campaigns of slander. Have they ever bothered to find out what is the truth of the matter? Or don't they care? And brother [name] was sharing this point with us the other day in Toronto. That's what they are trying to do. They think they will stop the work by blackening my name. Well, that's fine. As far as I'm concerned, they can blacken my name some more. It doesn't matter to me. But may there be some pity upon the church of God. The church is supposed to be the bulwark and pillar of the truth. And where is the love of truth in these days?
So, where is the image of God to be seen? Today, you have to strain your eyes very hard, to see the image of God in the church. The glory of God in the church, where is it? But of the multitude of words, there is no end. In North America alone, the gospel is on endless radio stations, of talk there is no end. Of something to be seen, in the way of image, nothing. No wonder the church doesn't talk about the image of God anymore. We happily say, it's fallen and it's gone. But what about the image of God in Christ? Well, let's not talk about that. Have you heard a message on the image of God? Have you heard it expounded as a cardinal doctrine of the scriptures? I haven't heard anything on the subject. And I'm making sure, in all these three messages, that you will hear a lot on the subject. Because that is what is God's plan and purpose for each one of us. To manifest Him. So that we can say, by God's grace, "You want to know what God is like? Look at me."
You say, "Wow, that's arrogance." Not at all. "I am what I am, by the grace of God," the apostle Paul says. I am. "You want to know what the grace of God is? Have a look at me. There you see the grace of God." Do you dare to say that? No, no, no. No, no. We live defeated Christian lives all the time. Such statements are not for us to mention. Well, until we can say these things, let's not talk about evangelism anymore. Until we can say, "Here you can see the grace of God. God, there, look at my life, there is the grace of God." Not perfect, I am not perfect indeed, but God's grace is indeed really manifest in me, if not completely, at least really, manifested in me.
Well, let us ask some specific questions, before we close, in a few moments. How do we gain this image of God? What does scripture have to say about how this image of God comes to us? Firstly, the image of God, as I have stressed again and again, is God's work in us. It is God's work. Nobody can make himself in the image of God. It is God's creation. So, Paul speaks of it as God's new creation in us. As we've seen in Colossians chapter 3, verse 10, 2nd Corinthians chapter 5, and verse 17. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation," and that new creation is in God's image. We have seen that the apostle John prefers to speak in terms of a new birth. The apostle Paul prefers to speak in terms of a new creation. There are different ways of saying the same thing, but the whole emphasis is on this: that the origin of the image of God in us is God's grace. It is God's amazing, wonderful, transforming grace. So the first thing, and since we have already dealt with this at some length, I will not stop, is that God's image in us is the result of His work and His grace alone.
Secondly, in scripture, the formation and development of God's image in us owes a lot to the travail of God's faithful servants. Oh yes, it owes a lot to the travail of God's faithful servants. Let me read to you Galatians chapter 4, verse 19, this beautiful verse, Galatians 4:19. "My little children, with whom I am again in travail, until Christ be formed in you." That's an amazing verse. Until Christ, the image of God, in Christ, is formed in you. I am in travail. The word travail, of course, means labor. Like a woman in labor, about to give birth. "I am suffering in travail for you, until Christ be formed in you." Almost as though Paul is saying, "I am your mother in God." Sometimes, Paul speaks of himself as their father. Sometimes, he speaks of himself as their mother. He is their mother, and father, and everything, all rolled into one. But now, he is using this picture in which he is picturing himself as a woman in travail, until Christ is formed in the Galatians. Until they come into his image.
Now, this is very important to grasp too. This means that God has a task for you and for me too. To help others to come into the image of Christ. That we are prepared to suffer in travail until Christ is formed in others. This kind of self-giving love is hard to come by in these days. Oh, would to God that God will raise up more faithful servants like these. Who travail over us. Who pray for us. Who teach us. Who admonish us. Who caution us. Who nurture us in the faith. Until Christ is formed in all the beauty and glory of His image, in us. In other words, the role of man is by no means to be underestimated. Not only are we to manifest, in other words, the glory of Christ in our own lives. We are to labor until His glory and image is formed in other people's lives. You see, not only for ourselves, but for others, are we to labor. Not only are we to build ourselves up in His image, but to labor to build His image up in others. Now we understand what is our responsibility to one another.
Thirdly, in the scriptural teaching, our own response to God's call to imitate Him is very important. This comes to what is called the whole vocabulary about imitation. To imitate Him, in Paul's language. Paul is the main one who uses this language. Paul uses the word eight times, to imitate, to imitate, in its various forms in the Greek. Basically, three main words in the Greek having to do with imitation. So, eight times in Paul's letters, he talks about imitating. First of all, he speaks about imitating God. Let's read Ephesians chapter 5, verse 1. Ephesians 5:1 reads like this. "Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ loves us, and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." Be imitators of God, as beloved children. Now, if we are children of God, then we are to imitate Him. First of all, a child is already formed in the image of the father. That is one aspect of it. But there is the other aspect of it. He is also, consciously on his part, to imitate the father.
But this immediately raises the question: when it says, "Be imitators of God," we have a difficulty. Because to imitate somebody, we have to be able to see or to visualize the person. How can you imitate someone that you don't see? This leads us to the next point that Paul speaks about. In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse 1, he says this. 1 Corinthians 11:1. "Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ." Now you see, Paul is very well aware that to imitate God, or to imitate Christ, is very difficult for many Christians, because we cannot see God, we cannot see Christ, or we don't know Him well enough to be able to imitate Him. Because to imitate a person implies that you know Him very well. And if you don't know a person, how can you imitate him? So Paul interposes himself to solve the problem. He says, "Imitate me. I imitate Christ, you imitate me." So you are imitating Christ through imitating me. You see.
This is a remarkable statement. In another way, it's really saying, "He that sees me, sees Christ." So I am showing you what Christ is like, so you imitate me, as I am showing you what Christ is like. See, Paul makes no apology for saying that you, in seeing him, you have seen Christ. Wow, that is a remarkable statement. But he is able to say that, as I said earlier, because he is able also to say, "I am what I am, by the grace of God." Now we think it is very spiritual to be able to say, "Don't imitate me, imitate Christ." That is really begging the question, because the young Christian doesn't know how to imitate Christ, and if he knew how to imitate Christ, he wouldn't be imitating you. You see. And as we have also seen, earlier on, there are different degrees of the glory of Christ manifested in different Christians, which means that some people are further ahead, and some further behind. Now anyone who is further ahead of me, I can imitate, because he is more mature than I am. He knows the Lord better than I do. So, because he is closer to the Lord at this point in time, I can learn from him about Christ. And that is the whole point. That we can imitate those who are ahead of us in the faith.
But beware of this kind of false humility, which is in fact an attempt to run away from our responsibility. By saying, "Well, don't imitate me. I know I am a disgrace, you know. But I mean, you imitate Christ." No, no. God will not allow us to run away in this fashion. I am very afraid in the church there are so many spiritual-sounding things, which are simply a cover up for spiritual defeat, for hypocrisy, for failing to live out our spiritual responsibilities. And so we cover ourselves up with spiritual-sounding excuses. God is not mocked. God is not deceived. He looks into our hearts. He gave us the responsibility to manifest Him. And we have not the right to run away from that responsibility.
Of course, when Paul says, "Imitate me," he is not saying, imitate my hairstyle. He is not saying, imitate the way I dress. You see, I like to wear this kind of color, so you have to wear this kind of color. I mean, we are talking about imitating people spiritually, not imitating their hairstyles. So we don't have to go and imitate the way they preach either. Because I move my hand in this way doesn't mean you have to move your hand in this way. And because I have this mannerism doesn't mean you have to imitate that mannerism. After the Billy Graham campaigns, it was astonishing how many people in Bible school were all miniature Billy Grahams. Suddenly, we saw in the Bible school all kinds of people who were preaching in the same style. Yes. Now of course, to a certain extent, we can't avoid this. If, for example, I sat under the ministry of Martyn Lloyd-Jones for many years, I guess I picked up many of the mannerisms of Martyn Lloyd-Jones. But that was not because I deliberately tried to copy him. It was inevitable, since I sat under his ministry. But imitation has nothing to do with the external aspect. We are talking about imitating his faith. And not only of Paul, of course, but as the scripture teaches us, we are to imitate the faith of our spiritual seniors, our spiritual leaders. We see that in Hebrews chapter 13, verse 7. Hebrews 13:7. Where it says, "Imitate their faith." Speaking of the leaders of the church. We see that also in Hebrews chapter 6, and verse 12.
So, from all of these things, we see that Paul uses the word "imitate" to stress the character of discipleship. Paul does not use the word "disciple." And I think I know why. Because Paul himself had been a rabbi. And discipleship was very common among the rabbis. All the rabbis had their own disciples. And Paul had his own disciples too. But it seems the reason why he avoided this word "disciple" was because among the Jews, the notion of disciple tended to stress knowledge. The disciple learned knowledge from his rabbi. And Paul wants to avoid the concept of knowledge. He wants to stress life quality. And therefore, he uses the word "imitate." Because you imitate something that you see. You imitate his lifestyle. And he doesn't want to put the stress on knowledge of this or that. He wants to put the stress of discipleship on my following after and imitating the quality of that person's life, as he manifests the quality of Christ's life.
I was pondering, meditating also, the words that Paul uses for Christians. He never uses the term "Christian." He also doesn't use the word "believer." It's interesting. Paul tends to use the words — what? Saints. Holy ones. You see, again the stress is on quality of life. Strange that today, nobody dares to use the word "saint" to describe the ordinary Christian anymore. Isn't it? But that is the one term that Paul always uses to describe Christians. His quality of life. His holiness. A church today that does not want to stress holiness. Yet Paul does not want to stress anything else but holiness. Isn't that interesting? He always calls the Christians saints, or holy ones. Always the stress on the life quality. And that holiness is what we are to imitate, one from the other.
Of course, it's very costly to be holy. It involves the death of the self. It involves a total commitment to God. And we want cheap Christianity, and cheap grace, in these days. But Paul will not allow it. He will stress the one name — not disciple, not believer, not Christian, but saint, holy one. That's the only term he knows for a Christian. And it's about time we learn the same thing too. That we may call every Christian a saint. But we still don't dare to do that today, isn't it? Because we can't see the image of God. "Be holy, as I am holy." That is the point. The imitation of God. Discipleship, in that sense, is what Paul wants to stress. And if you are holy as He is holy, then obviously you will be a holy one. You will be a saint. Maybe learn this vocabulary too.
Now, one thing more we need to stress. It is: God is indeed our Father. But we also have God's life transmitted to us through people. And people, in the New Testament, play always a very important role in the transmission of God's life. Let's read, for example, 1 Corinthians chapter 4. 1 Corinthians 4, verses 14 to 16. "I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you, as my beloved children." You see this again, in Galatians he called them little children. Here they are, the Corinthians, are also his beloved children. "For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel." Therefore, verse 16, "I urge you, therefore, be imitators of me." You are to imitate me, he says to the Corinthians, because in Christ Jesus, I became your father. God is your Father, but His life was transmitted to you through me. That is why I say to you, you must imitate me. That is evangelism. That is evangelism in the biblical sense, where we can not only preach the gospel to the person, but say, "You follow me, you imitate me. I will show you how to live as a Christian." May God help us to understand this doctrine of the image of God, transmitted from one to the other, not directly, but through us. If Paul was the image of God, and he is their spiritual father, then he is transmitting God's image to them, through him. Both through transmitting God's life, and through being their example to follow. That is our calling.
You know, [he manifested Christ] so beautifully and perfectly, in a relative sense, of course, but so powerfully, that he manifests Christ's life to those whom he taught, that it is said that the churches received him as an angel of God, but indeed, as a messenger of God, but indeed, as Christ Jesus himself. Look at Galatians chapter 4, verse 14. And this is what we read in Galatians 4:14. "And though my condition was a trial to you," he says to the Galatians, "you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God. No, you received me as Christ Jesus himself." Now, I find these words most beautiful and most powerful, because it shows how powerfully he manifested Christ Jesus to them. The image of Jesus was manifested so beautifully in Paul himself, that in spite of his terrible physical condition, they didn't despise or scorn him, but they received him, not only as an angel of God, but as Christ Jesus himself. Now, think of this, if Paul had failed to manifest Christ to them, how would they ever receive him as Christ Jesus? No way. It just goes to show how powerfully the image of God was manifested in Paul. And may it be that by the grace of God, that image would be manifested also in us.
In the previous chapter, there is another point, in Galatians chapter 3, verse 1, which has often interested me, as I thought about it. Galatians chapter 3, verse 1, here he rebukes the Galatians. "O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes" — notice eyes, not ears — "Jesus Christ was publicly as crucified." Isn't that something amazing? He said, Jesus, the crucified one, was portrayed before you, before your eyes, as the crucified one. How did Paul do that? How was it done? It was Paul who preached the gospel to them. But how? You see, he didn't say, "I talk to you in your ears." He said, "You saw with your eyes what Jesus was like in his crucified form." Where would they see that, if not in Paul himself? He lived the gospel that he preached. He lived the very Christ that he preached, in such a way, that they could see with their eyes, in Paul, the form of Jesus crucified.
Galatians 6:14, we read there, "I glory in the cross of Christ, by whom the world was crucified to me, and I to the world." That is, in the very life of Paul, the crucifixion of Christ was manifested, was it not? Therefore, those looking at him, and all the scars that he bore in his body for the cross of Christ, could well portray Christ as the crucified one. In 1 Corinthians 4:9, he says this: "For I think that God has exhibited us apostles, as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men." A spectacle. The Greek word is theatron. A theater, where people gaze with their eyes, they see the spectacle of men sentenced to death, manifesting the crucified Lord.
We have evangelists today. We have smooth talkers today. We have people of eloquence today. We have people who flaunt to this and that degree from this and that seminary today. We have no lack of these types. And whenever they are put up, somebody says, "This is a Doctor of Theology, so and so, and Professor of Theology, so and so." Where do we have the men, brothers and sisters, in this generation, who portray for us Christ crucified? To whom it can be said, "You have seen with your eyes Christ, the crucified one." When will you and I be able to go forth to be His image? The image that reveals God's grace and love, in such convincing fashion, that people have been able to say, "We have seen with our eyes the spectacle of men sentenced to death for the sake of Christ. We have seen the glory of God manifest in their lives." That, brothers and sisters, is what you and I have been called to.
Let us pray.