As we have been looking at the theme of doing life
with God, we have talked about: how
accountability among believers can foster personal growth and intimacy with the
Lord, the importance of realizing that God is not calling us to work for Him but to work with Him in what He is already doing, and the need to examine our
lives daily to avoid the pitfalls of Christian atheism (believing in Christ,
but acting as though we don’t).
But, I think we need to look at doing life with God from another, higher vantage point. Remember during creation that God said, “Let us create man in our own image?” Not once, but three times in Genesis 1:26 and 27, we are told that God created man in His image. But something dreadfully tragic happened. Man in his desire for more was tempted to covet against God, leading him to disobey, distrust and rebel against Him by eating the forbidden fruit. As a result, he forfeited his life and his godly image. Along with Adam and Eve all nature came under a curse and fell into corruption, as well. We call this the Fall.
Since the Fall, God has been at work ceaselessly to redeem us, to reconcile us to Himself and to bring about restoration. He has provided a way through the work of Jesus Christ, who gave Himself as the substitute sacrifice necessary to pay the price for the sins of Adam and all mankind. He has promised that Jesus will come again to resurrect those who have trusted in Him and to bring about the restoration of all things, not just to their original state before the Fall but to a far better state.
In the meantime, God has already started part of the restoration process, not in nature but through the spiritual preparation of a new race made in His image. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus form that pivotal point of human history. The Apostle Paul refers to Christ both as the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45) and also the Second Man (1 Corinthians 15:47). If you are a true believer in Christ, you are no longer a member of Adam’s race but a member of God’s new race! Watch carefully how this has happened.
When Christ died for the sins of the whole world, from the eternal Father’s point of view, it is as though the whole world (the entire human race, including those yet to be born), was declared dead in Him. Thus, forgiveness became available to everyone who will believe in Him. We know that Jesus came in the flesh both as a man, and as God. In His death as a man, therefore, He brought to an end Adam’s race – becoming the last Adam. When Jesus rose from the dead, however, He had a new spiritual body and became God’s Second Man, who would head His new creation.
This is a little deep, but try to catch the significance of what this means. As Paul writes in Romans 8:29, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren.” Do you see it? God is, one-by-one, creating a new race made in His image, by His grace through faith in Jesus. Jesus is the perfect head (first-born), but he will have many with Him. This is what Paul also talked about in 2 Corinthians 5:17, where he said, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, the old things passed away; behold new things have come.” Yes, anyone who is “in Christ” is already in the new creation, spiritually.
The implications of this are many and huge. When Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me,” we begin to get it. Doing life with God now takes on a new meaning, seeing what a truly high calling we have as members of God’s new race, who are chosen to become like His Son. We must take admonitions from His word seriously and realize that our standard of comparison is never other believers but Jesus Himself. We belong to Him and “we know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2b).
But, I think we need to look at doing life with God from another, higher vantage point. Remember during creation that God said, “Let us create man in our own image?” Not once, but three times in Genesis 1:26 and 27, we are told that God created man in His image. But something dreadfully tragic happened. Man in his desire for more was tempted to covet against God, leading him to disobey, distrust and rebel against Him by eating the forbidden fruit. As a result, he forfeited his life and his godly image. Along with Adam and Eve all nature came under a curse and fell into corruption, as well. We call this the Fall.
Since the Fall, God has been at work ceaselessly to redeem us, to reconcile us to Himself and to bring about restoration. He has provided a way through the work of Jesus Christ, who gave Himself as the substitute sacrifice necessary to pay the price for the sins of Adam and all mankind. He has promised that Jesus will come again to resurrect those who have trusted in Him and to bring about the restoration of all things, not just to their original state before the Fall but to a far better state.
In the meantime, God has already started part of the restoration process, not in nature but through the spiritual preparation of a new race made in His image. The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus form that pivotal point of human history. The Apostle Paul refers to Christ both as the last Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45) and also the Second Man (1 Corinthians 15:47). If you are a true believer in Christ, you are no longer a member of Adam’s race but a member of God’s new race! Watch carefully how this has happened.
When Christ died for the sins of the whole world, from the eternal Father’s point of view, it is as though the whole world (the entire human race, including those yet to be born), was declared dead in Him. Thus, forgiveness became available to everyone who will believe in Him. We know that Jesus came in the flesh both as a man, and as God. In His death as a man, therefore, He brought to an end Adam’s race – becoming the last Adam. When Jesus rose from the dead, however, He had a new spiritual body and became God’s Second Man, who would head His new creation.
This is a little deep, but try to catch the significance of what this means. As Paul writes in Romans 8:29, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren.” Do you see it? God is, one-by-one, creating a new race made in His image, by His grace through faith in Jesus. Jesus is the perfect head (first-born), but he will have many with Him. This is what Paul also talked about in 2 Corinthians 5:17, where he said, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, the old things passed away; behold new things have come.” Yes, anyone who is “in Christ” is already in the new creation, spiritually.
The implications of this are many and huge. When Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me,” we begin to get it. Doing life with God now takes on a new meaning, seeing what a truly high calling we have as members of God’s new race, who are chosen to become like His Son. We must take admonitions from His word seriously and realize that our standard of comparison is never other believers but Jesus Himself. We belong to Him and “we know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2b).
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