Chapter 238—In God’s Image
And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after
the image of him that created him.
Colossians 3:10
.
When Adam came from the Creator’s hand, he bore, in his physical,
mental, and spiritual nature, a likeness to his Maker....
Through sin the divine likeness was marred, and well-nigh obliterated.
Man’s physical powers were weakened, his mental capacity was lessened,
his spiritual vision dimmed. He had become subject to death. Yet the race
was not left without hope. By infinite love and mercy the plan of salvation
had been devised, and a life of probation was granted. To restore in man
the image of his Maker, to bring him back to the perfection in which he was
created, to promote the development of body, mind, and soul, that the divine
purpose in his creation might be realized—this was to be the great work of
redemption.
Though the moral image of God was almost obliterated by the sin of
Adam, through the merits and power of Jesus it may be renewed. Man may
stand with the moral image of God in his character; for Jesus will give it to
him.
It was a wonderful thing for God to create man, to make mind. The glory
of God is to be revealed in the creation of man in God’s image and in his
redemption. One soul is of more value than a world.... The Lord Jesus Christ
is the author of our being, and He is also the author of our redemption, and
everyone who will enter the kingdom of God will develop a character that is
the counterpart of the character of God.
The Lord, by close and pointed truths for these last days, is cleaving
out a people from the world and purifying them unto Himself. Pride and
unhealthful fashions, the love of display, the love of approbation—all must
be left with the world if we would be renewed in knowledge after the image
of Him who created us.
By the transforming agency of His grace, the image of God is reproduced
in the disciple; he becomes a new creature.
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