Renewed in Knowledge After the Image of Jesus Christ?

Are you in the image of Jesus Christ, or are you in the image of a false god - an idol? You might say "I'm a Christian, not an idolator". A lot of people believe and claim that, but that does not make it so for the Bible tells us that the "devils believe and tremble" but they are not Christians. It does take something more, doesn't it?

Remember an image (or idol) is a resemblance of some god, or someone - and yes, people do worship people. Essentially all religions started with the worship of a person or an individual's beliefs or philosophies. The physical idol did not just create itself. It took a real person to think of how it would look, and then to fabricate the image. The same is true of religious doctrines or teachings. They needed to first become understood and believed within the mind of some person before they were ever spoken or written down.

So the questions we need answered are:

1. What was the source of inspiration that caused the person(s) to write or speak about what I believe today?


2. How can I today discern and know that what I believe in has come from a true inspiration?

The answer to both of these very important questions lies with the very "source" of inspiration and life - for you. Does your inspiration for all your living and doing come from the true God? Because if it does not, that means it is a false, dead (no real spiritual life) religion. No real God, then there is no real life: and we are found believing and worshiping a dead thing. Essentially nothing more than a dead idol, although there may not be any physical image, and we may even believe that our beliefs are not founded in religion.

What is your underlying inspiration or motivation for what you call "life"? It is critically important that you clearly understand and know! Where you will be in eternity is dependent upon if you get this right in your lifetime!

The true God: the faithful, loving and merciful heavenly Father has provided a clear and faithful way for everyone to be able to know. He has provided a living resemblance of himself and the true words he has spoken. That perfect resemblance we can compare to is his own Son, Jesus Christ whom he sent to earth to live, and to die, for us!

How do we compare to Jesus? Are we walking worthy of the Lord by obeying his word and following his spiritual living example - walking in the footsteps of him "who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth"? (1 Peter 2:20 - 25)

True Worship of Jesus Christ (continued)

Does your worship have true spiritual life, or is it as dead as an idol?

Through Jesus Christ came the promise of the Spirit of life: God's Holy Spirit. In order for the true Holy Spirit to reign in the heart of the individual, their personal spirit must yield full control to him.

"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God." Romans 6:12-13

I am NOT talking about modern-day, so-called Pentecostalism where people get taken by a strange spirit and jibber-jabber and claim the Spirit of God. God does not cause people to act strange, nor does God force his Spirit on anyone, nor does he give his Spirit to someone who is still sinning. Jesus Christ saves completely from sin and then one can receive the Spirit of life, God's Holy Spirit into a new holy vessel. If one that had the Holy Ghost sins against God, the Spirit of God (the true Spirit of life) leaves because they no longer are letting him reign on the throne of their heart.

What I am talking about is the new life that Christ gives us when we completely yield to God to serve him. Our old way of living that produces sin (spiritual death) must stop! Yes, our own way, that still includes sin, spiritually only resembles the deadness of idolatry - even though we may call it "Christian".

"What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness." Romans 6:15-18

Which leads us back to the main point, true life must be in true worship, and the Spirit of God is what we need for life! If we have the outward form or resemblance because of a knowledge of God's word, but don't allow his Spirit to have full control over our very choices and purposes - then all we will have is the resemblance, or image of the true, but without the life. In other words, the resemblance of a dead idol, or idolatry.

There is a spirit that attends idolatry worship (just like it does in modern day Pentecostalism) but that spirit cannot produce true life by true holiness. It produces a "form of godliness" but it is not the real thing.

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away." II Timothy 3:1-5

Being a religious worshiper, yet still living under the power of sin, will only produce spiritual death. Therefore the image you will resemble is that of a dead idol and not the living God. God wants us to be a resemblance to the true living God, by the power of holiness working through our life by Jesus Christ.

The True Worship of Jesus Christ

Many today are very confused and deceived concerning how to worship God:

"Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them."
Psalms 115:4-8

Let's see, they that make and trust in an idol are like that idol... are they like an image that has no life? Well, I remember it is written "And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." (I John 5:11) Also, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)

Jesus was the Word of God come to life by how he lived it, and we must be obedient to the truth of God's Word, and his Spirit to have life. It is critical that both God's Word and his Spirit are part of our life, because true worship is a whole life lived for Christ and completely under his direction! Without both, people are still only taking part in idolatry - yes nothing more than the worship of an idol; although they may call themselves "Christians". What is an idol? It is an image, or resemblance of something or someone, but that is all that it is because it does not have life - or spirit in it. Only God created life, and true spiritual life can only come through his Son, Jesus Christ.

So are people without true spiritual life like a lifeless idol?

One may be very religious and do many works of a religious nature (idolators often do a lot of works), but Jesus came to earth as the "express image" of God (see Hebrews 1:3, Colossians 1:12-19, II Corinthians 4:4). This means he was not just a lifeless resemblance of God, like an idol. He also was not like a person who is physically alive, but is still bound to the spiritual death of sinful passions and lusts. (Most people are their own idol, they serve themselves, but they are dead in sins of disobedience.) Jesus did not serve his own interests, he always did the will of the heavenly Father. He was the perfect, full "express image" of the Father - he was a "live" spiritual resemblance of his Father's love!

God also wants us to be a "living" resemblance of his Son, Jesus Christ. He does not want us serving a dead image. Nor does he want us serving ourselves - being dead in trespasses and in sins (nor being a very religious, so called "Christian" but yet still serving our sinful passions.) He wants us to be resurrected to a new life in Christ Jesus! Resurrected out of a life of sin being made clean and holy through the sacrifice of Jesus' blood.

Like Jesus, God wants us to spiritually be in the image of his Son (Col 3:10), a holy and living resemblance of God - not lifeless, like an idol.

(Note: more to be continued on this thought in my next blog post.)