Thousands of years ago God displayed His power by
creating the universe. At a later time He created the highest form of life in
all of eternity: humans. And they were given their birthplace as a temporary
home. God wanted a special creature of flesh made in His image. We humans have
the unbelievable advantage of being designed with the capacity to look like
God. Interestingly enough our reason for existence has been lost as the years
rolled by. The average American today is not even interested in our eternal
purpose. Occasionally some poet or philosopher will bring up the subject of our
existence with very little understanding of it. They don’t know that the secret
of our life is contained in the word “Image”. There is absolutely nothing that
our unlimited God could create to have a meaning any higher than His own image.
He actually created people so that they could partake of His perfection.
Because God is a Spirit, He decided long ago to display many of His attributes
through creatures made in His image. Wow, can we see how plainly America has
missed the actual meaning of life?
Today it may be difficult to accept that we can be a
display of God’s own attributes. The reason we struggle with our image problem
goes back to that terrible day when Adam decided to disobey God. Every time a
human does what they want, rather than obey God, the “fall of man” is being reenacted.
Some people want to know the meaning of “the fall”. Simply put, every human
will fall out of God’s perfect image into a wretchedness of our own making. Jesus
said; You don’t realize that you are
wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. So I advise you to
buy gold from me. Rev 3:17-18 (NLT) The average American continues to live
in their wretchedness when, all the while, they possess the opportunity of
returning to God and being shaped into the image of His perfection. The reality
is that God would love to place all His goodness into our life. This would
allow His image to be reflected to everything that exist anywhere. We can
actually become a mirror that reflects God to our entire universe and beyond. However,
the path of our return to God’s image will require the path of humility.
Most people do not think of God as humble, but there
is no pride in Him. We know that Jesus was the exact image of His Father and has
His characteristics. The Bible says: When he (Jesus) appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and
died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the
place of highest honor Phil 2:7-9 (NLT) There is no way God could have
allowed people to do all the things they did to Him if He were not humble.
Knowing why we were created should help us see that our path to glory is the
path of humility. Humans lost the way of humility during Adams insubordination.
The disobedience of Adam gave every one of us a nature of pride. Evil
absolutely thrives in our pride. When Jesus redeems our soul it is a reversal
of what Adam did to our nature. We do not have the power to throw the Devil and
his evil ways out of our life. But when the Spirit of Jesus lives in us His
power can change our nature. Humility must become the basis of our new life if
we want to live in the image of God.
Realizing that
the plan of God operates out of humility should clear up some of our thinking.
For example, Jesus is asking us: If any
of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up
your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you
will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. Luke
9:23-24 (NLT) Jesus needed humility to find meaning and victory on His
cross then it is certain that we will need humility for our cross. It is now
becomes obvious why we must become an empty vessel. Our potential to be the
image of God depends on our old life being wiped clean. The only meaningful
life is to return to the purpose of our creation. We must reflect the image of
God’s perfection. Living in Jesus Christ is our only chance. Many believers
made a start with the Savior but have fallen by the wayside. This is because
they would not continue to learn from the revelation of God. His revelation
gives a Christian their strength. God created all of us to be totally dependent
on Him. Our new humble live will not survive if we don’t maintain a continual
dependence on His power, God must constantly project His image into our humble,
clean life.
Every
Christian must maintain the correct attitude if we hope to honor the
restoration work that God has done on our behalf. Actually, if we can see it, our
fallen nature is a sign to us that we really need to find the path of humility.
Having humility is a kind of “stamp of deliverance” that the Lord now allows us
to have fellowship with Him. As reasonable creatures we should find our proper
place and gladly wait for His next command so that we may obey Him. It sounds
odd, but when we find our correct sense of nothingness, life can begin to take
on true nobility. The entire family of God suffers when our leaders fail to
teach the Church the humility that our new life is based on. Understanding the
meaning of life allows people to accept their correct place so that God can
make them part of His life forever. Our pride of life must die so that the
grace of God may come through Christ and into our new life. The most meaningful
life is obviously one that pleases God and brings glory to His Almighty
presence.
The Old
Serpent was cast out for his pride. Every human lost their fellowship because
of pride. Pride is the reason we make wrong choices and we must allow it to be
taken out of our life. The secret of life is knowing our proper place with the
creator. Then with the help of God we can live a life that is pleasing to Him
and in His image. Humans have the unbelievable privilege of choosing to walk in
pride of in humility. Of course we can only find humility in the Savior. Jesus
said: “No one can serve two masters. For
you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise
the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Luke 16:13 (NLT) When we freely
chose to serve God, in humility, we can bring honor to Him. My friends, we were
created to reflect the image of the Almighty as we serve others. This is how we
can be of value to our Savior. The believers in our church must humble
themselves and crucify themselves or face judgment for our pride. We do have a
choice.
