The Gospel of the Image
The Most High God loves us because he can only love HIMSELF. Only He, Himself, is up to His standards for loving relationship. God’s love is holy and fierce flame of passion. Uncompromised!
God put His very IMAGE in us. Jesus did not become an angel to save fallen angels. He became a human to save humans — the exact being that He sees His own image in, though tarnished, fractured and marred. God commands us to hate evil and cling to goodness because He, Himself, hates evil and is the wellspring of all goodness. (Romans 12:9)
God places the believer IN CHRIST, so that no love/grace is withheld from and, no condemnation is put on us — His image bearers. We are to be sanctified, to GROW UP into Holiness, into the “Fullness of the Godhead”!
For in Christ Jesus of Nazareth, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principalities and powers. (Colossians 2:9–23)
Father God loves us WITH HIS OWN LOVE. It is such a profound thing, a blessing beyond which anything else was blessed. His image within us CALLS FORTH His own redemptiveness, His restoration — exactly what we need the most to go from dead to holy and righteous. God is loving his OWN IMAGE like He loves Himself and values Himself. Creator God knows that my truest nature is to be like Jesus.
Religion is oppressive; trying self-behavior-modification into some moral code. Institutionalized religion misses the point because it does not understand the “image of God.” Instead, seeking Jesus is the best way to be true to your core and God-intended self. The Gospel is the RESTORATION of the Image of God. Restored, not to sit around in a restored state, but to be an active partner with God, an Ambassador of the Kingdom, a lover, a friend, a Holy Ally.
We are not “needed” as if God is unwhole without us; rather we are profoundly loved and wanted by the Father that wants to SHARE every good thing with us, foremost share Himself with us. Father God is on a holy MISSION: “I will be their God, and they will be my people and I will dwell with them.” God wants to see more of Himself in us, and thereby flow through us as a force for His own goodness into a sin-stained universe.
Closeness. Presence. Intimacy. Partnership. Grateful Allies. Submissive to God but not passive.
Joyfully embracing that He has CHOSEN us and we actively CHOOSE God back with all we are. Yet also authorized as conduits for His heart to flow into the Universe. We have been given FREEDOM in Christ Jesus in order to be our truest selves — empowered as a force for GOOD. We are called to love with HIS love — His divine and heroic LOVE. When God wants to give you the very BEST, He gives you Jesus. This is the Good News of the Gospel of Christ Jesus.
