SALVATION REMAKES US AFTER THE DIVINE IMAGE

In Christ, we are saved from sin--from both its guilt and its power. When we are saved from sin we become strong with God's own strength. Then we are able to quit doing and saying things we could not quit before. We are even able to refrain from dwelling on such things in our minds. You then take "off your old self with its practices." In view of this reality, believers are challenged to "be not conformed to this world" (Rom 12:1-2), and to "sin not" (1 John 2:1). But it is not enough to simply quit doing what is wrong. That does not properly reflect what God is like--and, in salvation, we are being restored to His image (Col 3:10), and "conformed to the image" of God's Son (Rom 8:29- 30). The Lord not only does NOT do what is evil, He DOES do what is righteous. The Lord Jesus Christ, Who is "the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being" (Heb 1:3) is described like this: "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy" (Heb 1:9). This is what empowered Jesus to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah concerning Himself. "He will eat curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right" (Isaiah 7:15). That means Jesus fed His heart and mind on things that clarified the difference between good and evil. That is the kind of image to which salvation restores you. From the positive point of view, salvation is becoming like the Lord Jesus Christ. That process begins in this world, and will be consummated, or completed, when we leave this world to be with the Lord. "We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is," is the glorious promise we have embraced (1 John 3:1-3). From this point of view, any purported salvation that does not result in you being made like Jesus is really no salvation at all! Remember, God has targeted to give you the world, but it cannot occur until you are like Him! He will not share His rule with someone unlike Himself. This is involved in the word of Amos to wayward Israel. "Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?" (Amos 3:3). The Spirit of God is changing you into Christ's likeness, from one stage of glory to another (2 Cor 3:18). Rejoice that such a transformation is being accomplished.

-- MONDAY: RIGHTEOUSNESS, PEACE, AND JOY --