August 23, 2024
God created men and women at the earliest dawn. We are the height of God’s creation, and He made us like no other being. The design of man and his purpose are summed up in one simple verse.
Let us make man in Our image and let him rule… over all the earth (Genesis 1:26)
We were made like no other creature, with a soul and a spirit, so that we might be just like God. And He designed us on purpose, with a purpose: that we might rule over the earth with Him.
Here is the foundational truth about us. Read the following sentence several times.
He made us like He is so we can do what He does!
JOHN’S TESTIMONY
The beloved Apostle, John, testifies in his first letter that God sent Jesus to restore us to God’s original design even though man fell and was separated from God. Christ’s payment for our sins on the cross and our trust in Him brought us back to God. And at the moment of our salvation, He comes to literally live in us through His Spirit. We can now fulfill God’s original purpose. He now says this about true followers of Christ.
“As He is, so also are we in this world.” (1 Jn. 4:17)
We are a “little lower than God,” the Psalmist said (Psalm 8:5), and in our redeemed condition, we have the capacity to rule over this world. Before we were restored to Christ, the world, the flesh, and the devil ruled over us. We were powerless to overcome them. But then, God saved us by His grace and came to indwell us. This transformed us, giving us what we needed to fulfill the original design.
We can allow the world, our flesh, and the devil to rule over us if we are not wise and cooperating with God. But we don’t have to. We can learn how to surrender to Him, follow His leadership, and be filled with His Spirit. We have the power and authority to rule over Satan himself, for “Greater is He that is in us (the Spirit) than He that is in the world (the devil)” (1 John 4:4). We may not realize this authority, or exercise it as fully as we could, but it is there nonetheless.
John testified that God has done it! He made us like Him, and even when we fell, He redeemed us and came to dwell in us so that we could do what He does … i.e., rule over the world, the flesh, and the devil with Him.
Some people may say they are Christians, but they give no evidence. They are not like God and they are not doing what He does. But John says that those who are truly His, have clear evidence that assures them, giving them the confidence that they are in Him.
WE LOVE WITH GODS LOVE
(This love that John speaks of is not mere human love, but “agape” love, the word that is used for the love of God. It is that God quality that always responds in self-sacrifice).
Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. (Vs. 7-8)
If we love one another, God abides in us. (vs. 12)
The one who abides in love abides in God and God abides in Him. (Vs. 16)
WE ARE INDWELT WITH GOD’S SPIRIT
By this we know that we abide in Him and he in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. (Vs. 13)
WE CONFESS JESUS A GOD’S SON
Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. (Vs. 15)
Again, God has made us like He is so we can do what He does. Even though we wandered from God, He has made a way through Christ’s sacrifice and the Spirit’s indwelling for us to be fully restored to the Manufacturer’s original design. We will experience this through gradual, daily transformation in this life (and the more we cooperate, the greater will be that growth) and then one day we will be exactly like He is. Listen to John’s final, glorious statement of who we are and what we will one day be:
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. (1 John 3:1-2)
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