Seeing Jesus – Seeing what needs to change

 

This vacation and observations of my attitude while away from home show the importance of understanding what is coming from the Holy Spirit and what is a demand of the flesh. If I use the lists of sinful attitudes in Scripture, I can easily make excuses for selfish behavior. Most of them a horrid things that I’d never do.

This reminds me of the five-year-old in a discussion of sin. She said, “But I’ve never murdered anyone” and to her thinking, she was not a sinner. If we rate sin that way, excuses come easily.

One clue to the subtlety of sin is in the words of the OT prophet: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6) This describes sin as turning to my own way rather than living in God’s way. This means if something looks good, even though it is selfishly motivated and for my own glory, it can be justified or excused. I could think that only the really bad actions are sin.

Yesterday I felt like leaving this place and going home to my Christian friends who sin at times but it is not their lifestyle. But the Lord reminded me that He did not do that. He came to this sin-soaked planet to save the lost. I’m in this place to be like Jesus and not do my own thing – including running away from what is difficult or unpleasant.
However, it is not just knowing myself and my sinfulness. This is only discovered by knowing what the Lord Jesus Christ is like and willingly let His Spirit make a comparison to show me His intentions and His goal for me.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:28–29)

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (1 John 3:1–3)

God is my Father and I am His child – an infant really. When I ‘grow up’ I will be like His Son, perfected when I see Him, but in process while here and while God uses all things to work in me that likeness. I’m to see Jesus as clearly as I can, and that is the work of the Holy Spirit who reveals Him to me...

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

It is in beholding Jesus that I see what I am not, but also how He changes me. Instead of wanting to run to my comfort zone yesterday, He showed me Himself and it became easier to “eat and drink” with those who don’t know Him. This is why I am here.

PRAY: Jesus, Your Word and Your people give me a vision of what I am not, and what I need to confess so You can forgive and cleanse me (1 John 1:9). I know I bear “the image of the man of dust” but will “also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:49) and am thankful to be alert to both the old that needs to be changed, and the new that is my destiny – all because of Your incredible grace!

How to See God

 

The OT word is “selem” or IMAGE — meaning made in the likeness of something else. It can refer to a few other things but this word is used to say God made humans in His image.

Genesis 1:27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

In this case, ours is not a physical likeness, more likely moral and spiritual and in contrast to animals. Humans can have a relationship with God, are given dominion over the earth, and can mirror or reflect God to one another as well as to image God back up to God. However, sin marred that image. Now His image is blurry and difficult to see as He intended.

We know God is not like the carved images made by and bowed down to by some. Sadly, in answer to the question in Isaiah 40:18, “To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?” Isaiah rebukes those who make idols from wood and metal. God forbids making images of any gods.

Deuteronomy 5:8 says this about any sort of likeness: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” Yet this is not about sculpture; it is about worship and the sinful attempt to adore what can be seen, heard or touched.

Wanting to “see” is a human characteristic. We want to rely on our senses to prove realities. This shows up in science but also in ordinary life. God is spirit, not visible. Our desire to perceive Him through our senses is strong. We want to see Him, however God says in Acts 17:29:

Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

Again, what is this God like? We are made in His image but what does that mean? God revealed truth to His people yet He understood our need to see Him, not a mere representation or a carved idol but Him, the living God.

So He sent Jesus!

Colossians 1:15 declares Him as “the image of the invisible God” and Hebrews 1:1–3 declares: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power . . . .”

In the NT, image is “a visual representation (of an object or scene or person or abstraction) produced on a surface” whereas an imprint is more descriptive. It says Jesus is “an exact copy or reproduction; understood as the exact expression that is the result of printing or engraving with a stamp.”

It is in Christ that I can see God, know what He is like, understand His love, power and attributes. Yet I am fully aware that not everyone sees God in His Son. The Bible explains why not:

2 Corinthians 4:4. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

In other words, seeing God in Christ requires an enlightenment, a revelation to the heart and mind. Before that happens, Jesus appears to be a good man, a teacher, a prophet, or merely a cuss word, but when God opens our eyes, we know who He is and can see Him in Christ.

GAZE INTO HIS GLORY. Not only that, in Romans 8:28-29 God promises to use the stuff of life to “conform us to the image of his Son” and promises again in 1 Corinthians 15:49 that, “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” He does it when His people focus on Him. This means that more I see of the glory of God, the more I am transformed.

2 Corinthians 3:18. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Why? God created me in His image that I might reflect His image back to Him and to the world. This is God’s humbling yet awesome plan to restore people to what He intended in our creation. Gazing into His glory is my part. Cooperation is necessary — so is faith, obedience and humility — because pride and any other self-focus throws more mud on the mirror.