August 5, 2001

Begotten Into His Image

Romans 8:29

I heard a story last week that really got to me, and I'd like to share it with you. When Leonardo DaVinci was painting his famous masterpiece, "The Last Supper," he was having a great deal of trouble locating someone he could use as his model for the face of Christ. "I must find a young man of pure life," he declared, "before I can get that look on the face I want." At length, his attention was called to a young man who sang in the choir of one of the old churches of Rome, whose name was Pietro Bandinelli. He was not only a young man with a beautiful face, but his life was beautiful as well. The moment that Leonardo looked upon his face, he cried out for joy; "At last I have found the face I wanted." So Pietro Bandinelli sat as the model for his painting of Christ.

Years passed, and still the great painting, "The Last Supper" was not finished. The eleven apostles had all been done on the canvas, and the artist was hunting for a model for his Judas. DaVinci said: "I must find a man whose face has become hardened and distorted, a debased man, his features stamped with the ravages that only wicked living and a wicked heart can show." Thus he wandered long in search of his Judas, until one day in the streets of Rome he came upon such a wretched creature, a beggar in rags, with such a hard, villainous face that the artist was repulsed. But he knew that at last he had found his Judas. So it came about that the beggar, with the repulsive countenance, sat as Leonardo DaVinci's model for Judas.

As he finished, and was dismissing the beggar, DaVinci said to him, "I have not yet asked your name, but I will now." "It is Pietro Bandinelli" replied the man, looking at him unflinchingly. "I also sat for you for your model of Christ." Astonished, overwhelmed by this startling declaration, DaVinci would not at first believe it, but it was true, and he had to admit that Pietro Bandinelli, whose fair, sweet face had been the inspiration for the face of Jesus, had become so disfigured by the sins of a lifetime that there was no trace left of the beauty which had once been the admiration of men.

In one of his letters to the church, John tells us: "Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." We are not always going to be like we are now. The day will come when we will be very different. What will we be like?

If we were to suddenly find ourselves in a situation where we were being sent off to prison, we would wonder: "What's going to happen to me? What will I be like when I get out?" Back in the days of the draft, when a person suddenly found themselves called up for military service, a similar thing would go through a persons mind: "What is getting ready to happen? How will I be affected? What will happen to me? How will I be changed?"

Unlike going to prison, or going into the military, becoming a child of God has a lot more positives than negatives, but the same question is still true: "What is going to happen to me? How will I be changed? What will I be like after I leave here and go there? What can I expect?" The Bible has some answers for us, and that is what we want to find out about today.

If you have your Bibles with you, and I hope you do, turn to Genesis chapter 1, verse 26: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Gen 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."
Man was originally made in the image of God, but sin has defaced that image. Like Pietro Bandinelli, sin over the years takes it's toll on us. Our bones hurt, our skin goes to pot, our brains turn to mush, by the time we have passed our 19th birthday, it's all downhill. Change for the worse. Instead of living in the image and likeness of God, we live and die in the image and likeness of Adam, cursed by sin. However, God is not easily frustrated. He intends to restore us to what He wants us to be, and more besides. A change for the better.

Turn to Romans 8:29. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren."
Jesus Christ came into this world and took upon Himself our image, that through His grace, we might take upon our selves His image. Conformed to His image. Conformed to the likeness of Christ. What does that mean? How does that affect us? What is it like to be Born Again and become part of the family of God? What changes would there be?

First, it means a change in our relationship to God, and to each other. Turn to the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 14: "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."
Verse 18: "No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." And we all know that beloved gospel verse, John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Jesus is the eternal Son of God, from everlasting to everlasting, and it is a family relationship. In some way that we cannot understand, Jesus is the Son from the Father. It is a perfect father/son relationship. It is a perfect family relationship. And God is bringing His children of the new birth into that same relationship. Changing us from children of Adam to children of God.

Turn to 1 John 5:1: "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat -God the Father- loveth him also that is begotten of him." - other believers. Those of us that have been born again can look forward to a change in our very nature. The apostle Peter tells us that God has given unto us "exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." Having a divine nature: does that mean that we will be as gods? No, that was Satan's lie to Eve, but in some wonderful way, our nature will become like God's nature. Our first birth made us all human. Our second birth joins us with deity, makes us truly the children of God, and in some marvelous way begins the creation in us of the nature of God.

During the time that we live on this earth, being a child of God, a follower of Jesus, is not always easy. Think about the experiences of Jesus Christ while He was in this world. Were all His experiences positive? Were they all easy? What was true for Him will also be true for us. Hebrews 5:8 tells us something important about Jesus: "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;" Jesus was without sin, but He was not without suffering. If we are followers of Him, then we will also have our share of problems. Our Lord's public and private life was one continuous battle. Satan tempted Him: "If you be the Son of God..." The Pharisees tempted Him with religion, the Sadducees tempted Him with philosophy, even Mary and Martha and His disciples made Him groan and cry. If you are being conformed -changed- to His image, don't expect your life to be always a bed of roses, expect your share of thorns. Being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ will cause a major change in our character. This is the task of the Holy Spirit, and we are to cooperate with it.

What kind of a character would a person have, if they were conformed to the image of Jesus Christ? First of all, they would be consecrated or set apart to God. The Bible says that Jesus Christ was eaten up with a zeal for God's house. Are we eaten up with zeal for the things of God? We ought to be. Jesus was always busy with His Father's business. We should be occupied with the same concerns. The things that concern the Father ought to concern us. Jesus had a heart of love for others. Not a mushy, sentimental kind of love, but a love that unselfishly chose the highest good of other people. Is that the way we feel toward others? He was gentle and kind and tender. He did not break the bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax. Yet He was stern and consistent in denouncing evil. It is not always easy to be well balanced in that regard, but that is what we need to be.

Purity, holiness, unselfishness, all those virtues should show forth in us as they showed forth in Him. And that is what God intends to do, and the Holy Spirit works in us to accomplish, because the scripture says that we are predestinated to be conformed -changed to- the image of Jesus Christ. If we don't ever seem to quite measure up in this life, then we will surely measure up in the life to come, because that is what God wants, and what He intends to have. A partial change now, a complete change later.

Why is it so important to God that we should measure up to this particular goal? Why does He go to all this trouble? Is it on our account? Is it on account of His Son? Why is this? It is because of what the rest of the verse says: Romans 8:29 says: "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren."

God the Father wanted Jesus Christ to be the first born among many who would be like His Son.

I realize that not everybody in any group of people thinks alike, but even if you don't agree with me, what I am about to say is true. The best thing that you can do or have in life is to have a friend that you can really talk to, be close to, and share things with. If it is a friend that loves you, like a spouse, or a brother or a sister, that is a wonderful and special thing. If that friend is also a believer, someone who knows the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, then the Holy Spirit creates in those friends an even closer bond of the Spirit that we call fellowship. That is something that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit had shared from all eternity past, and it was so good that they wanted to be able to share it with others. This presented God with a real challenge.

Only those who are born into the family of God as children and relatives would qualify.

God could create angels, but angels would not be able to fellowship with God on His level. God could create man, but man could not fellowship with God on His level either. True fellowship was not possible until God became man, and made a way for man to become born into the family of God. Jesus Christ took upon Himself the nature of man, and made a way for man to take upon himself the nature of a child of God, and become part of the family of God. That changes everything. Jesus Christ can relate to us in our humanity. The things that we know about, He knows about too. The things that we have gone through in our lives, He has gone through also. He was made like us in every way, except that He committed no sin. Yet He still experienced sin, because that awful day on the cross, He was made sin for us, and took away our sin in His death.

Jesus Christ has made a way for us to have fellowship with God, and for God to have fellowship with us. Regenerated men and women have been changed into suitable companions for Jesus Christ to spend eternity with, because God has created a way for God and man to relate to each other, fellowship with each other, as we are conformed to the image of His Son.

Not that we will be equals. The scripture says that Jesus Christ will be the first born among many brethern. In that part of the world especially, the first born becomes the head of the household. Right now, we know Jesus Christ as our Lord and King. When we get to heaven, we will still look up to Him as our elder brother, the head of our family, no matter how close we get to Him in affection and friendship.
What He wants, that is what we will do, and be glad to have it that way. And I believe that there are things that He will want, and that He will have things for us to do. The big bang scientific theory about the universe is that a bazillion years ago there was this lump of matter about as big as a chicken egg, and it blew up, the universe came into existence and is still expanding, and that is how everything got here. And in another bazillion years, the universe will collapse back into another lump about as big as a chicken egg.
Isn't that about the stupidest thing you could imagine? It might be OK if some pigmy cannibal in the jungle thought that, but that is what they are putting in science textbooks, and you are spending your money to send your kids to school to learn that. And Nashville wants more money for education. What's wrong with that picture? Everything.

But what's right, is that God is a God of decency and order, and I believe that He put all those millions of stars out in space for a reason, and He will have something for us to do with them. We have a heritage that is limitless, that knows no boundaries. You aren't going to spend eternity sitting on a cloud playing a harp, you are going to spend eternity in fellowship with the very creator of the universe, and He is not going to let you get bored. If you know Jesus Christ now as Lord and Savior, you will know Him then as your older brother, and you will also have an incredible number of other brothers and sisters to fellowship with and relate to, to consider and discuss all the worthwhile things that God wants you to do, and how you'll do them, and how it will please Him.

What is it going to be like to be conformed to the image of God's Son? Let me give you one more thought and then I'll sit down. God was so well pleased with his Son, and saw so much in Him that was beautiful and excellent, that He was determined to have more family around that was like Him.

God loved His Son so much, that He set about to create men and women that would be like Him, that would enjoy Him and enjoy His company, and be able to fellowship and relate to Him with the closest family ties of brothers and sisters in a perfect relationship.

The face of Jesus is more precious to God than anything else in the universe, so He chose to have that face reflected in the faces of millions of children that bore a resemblance to Him.

God loved to have fellowship and communion with His Son, so He purposed to create a family that could talk to Him and relate to Him on a similar level, and appreciate similar things.

God knew that having that sort of relationship would be pleasing to His Son, because Proverbs 8 tells us that Jesus delights in the sons of men.

The reality is: the pleasure that we will have with God, and the pleasure that He will have with us, is deeper and greater than we can imagine or understand. Paul tells us in Ephesians 5 that there is a deeper mystery yet to be revealed, because the relationship between husband and wife was created by God to teach us, and foreshadow for us, the relationship between Christ and His church. Just as a husband and wife are two people who become one flesh, Jesus Christ was made like we are, so that we could be made like He is. That He could become a husband to His bride, the church. I'm not sure exactly what that involves, but I know it sounds good. I know it tells me that there are depths and heights of love and companionship between us and God, that God has in mind for us that we cannot even conceive, and I can hardly wait.

What do we do in the meantime? What do we do while we're waiting? Keep Christ always before your eyes. You know what you are to become, you know what you will be changed into, don't waste your time or energy on trivial things that keep you from that goal. When you see something in yourself that is not Christlike, put it away. Give it to the Holy Spirit, and ask Him to deal with it. Spend time with God. Spend time in His Word. Live constantly with Jesus Christ now, and you will be readier to live with Him later.
Think of yourself and other believers as part of a family in fellowship now, and work from the idea that you will be close friends in eternity later, because you will.

Your life is not going to stay the same as it is today. Whether you like it or not, change is inevitable. If you have had only one birth, a natural birth as a child of Adam's race, then you are on a downhill slope that will only get worse, and end in a terrifying plunge into an eternal abyss.

If you have answered the call of God, if you have bowed the knee to the Lordship of God, and received Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you are changing in another direction. That process will only be complete when we stand in His presence, but in the meantime, cultivate it, cooperate with it, and pursue it.

And enjoy it. God has called you to the most wonderful future that there could possibly be. He has changes in mind for you that you can't even imagine. Maybe right now you are still in the same old rut. Maybe you are stuck with a physical or financial or some other situation that is not what you want. It will change. Maybe it will get better, maybe it will get worse. But the day will come that you will stand in the presence of God, and then you will experience the most incredible change you could possibly imagine. If you belong to Him, it will be an incredible change for the better.

If you have rejected Him as Lord and Savior, it will be an incredible change for the worse. But one way or another, God has arranged your life so that what you have now will change. I trust that you have bowed the knee to God, so that the change you get is the change you want.