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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Man-centeredness, #6
And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no. (Deuteronomy 8:2)
God through His sovereign workings has brought you and me out of Egypt into the wilderness of tribulations. The tribulations are designed to make us fit for the land of promise, for the place in Christ in God where we are abiding in perfect love, joy, and peace. Either we place our faith in Christ until we enter the promised-land rest of God or else we fall in the wilderness of temptation and testing because of our unbelief. Which is it going to be?
Let us consider the fourfold Divine declaration:
Image
Male and female
Fruitfulness
Dominion
In the beginning these four aspects were interpreted on a primitive level, a rough draft of what God has in mind.
Image, in the fullest interpretation, is what Christ Is. Christ is the only Man we have seen who fulfills the first of the four proclamations. Christ is the complete, perfect Image of God—exactly the Personality God desires in each of His sons.
Male and female speaks of man's unique characteristic of incompleteness. Unlike the other creatures of God, man cannot exist by himself. Apart from union with God and with others of his kind, man is an incomplete creation.
Fruitfulness has to do with man's charge to multiply the image of God, which at its highest level is Christ, throughout the creation.
Dominion is concerned with man's role of rulership in the universe. It has been given to man to govern all the works of God's hands.
These four attributes are what "man" is. Man is nothing more nor nothing less than these. It is to this supremely high calling that Christ is the Amen, the Verification. By emphasizing the "rights" of people, Laodicea limits man to the stature of an intelligent animal. But man is called to fellowship with God. Therefore the man-centered spirit of Laodicea is a perverse foe of every human being.
Let us examine these four a bit more closely.
Image. Man is destined to be in the image of God. Each person is a unique creation and will remain a unique creation—a unique expression of the Father through Christ.
God is a holy, life-giving Spirit. He works righteousness. His appearance is Glory, Holiness, Majesty, and unlimited Authority and Power.
Each son of God has been predestined to be in the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). This means we are not being perfected as a living soul, as a child of Adam, but are being re-created as a life-giving spirit (I Corinthians 15:45). We are being trained to practice righteousness. When Jesus appears we shall be like Him (I John 3:2).
We are to be of the Being of God, of the behavior of God, and we are to be godlike in appearance. Such is man's destiny. We are being created in the image of God.
Thou madest him [man] a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: (Hebrews 2:7)
To be continued.