IN THE BEGINNING…THE WORD
DAILY DEVOTIONAL FOR TODAY, August 5, 2011
GOD’S NEW IMAGE IN YOU
“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. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
From the beginning, God’s design included you-- for he created you in his image, after His likeness. Many of us desire to trace our family’s lineage, yet we fail to see that we need to look to our creator for clues to our identity and personhood. We are made in the image of God, male and female. We are designed to have authority and creativity. However, just as the first Adam had to be changed into the second Adam—Christ Jesus, so does our carnal nature have to change into Spirit. God has a new image for his sons and his daughters. Colossians 3:9,10 tells us to put off the old man with his deeds, and…put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all in all.
What good news! God has renewed his image in us. This new image is not fallen or corrupt. (According to Genesis 6:6, it repented God that he had even made man, “grieving him at his heart.”) This image of God that is now in His Church is the new man, Christ Jesus. We can rejoice with praise and thanksgiving because Jesus is the express image of God. Jesus is the firstbegotten of God, the brightness of his glory. Yes, Jesus is the firstborn, but we are the many brethren desiring the fullness of the firstborn. According to Romans 8:29 we have been predestined to be conformed to the image of the firstborn who is Christ. Jesus.
Today, let us put on the NEW MAN and let our prayer be: “God see your image in me.”
