What is the underlying purpose of my life?
Why did God create me?
Where can I find true hope both now and forever?
What is God's ultimate objective of my salvation?
There is one answer to all of these questions.
Be humbled, not intimidated, by these heavy questions. God doesn't want us to be burdened in being responsible for coming up with the answer. He has lovingly and clearly told us the answer through His Word.
We can receive His answer by faith. It is the answer I personally embrace and yearn to meditate and grow in. It is the answer I also hold up before all those to whom I minister.
May God reveal or reaffirm to you through His Word in this Rest Stop the answer...which is the heart of His glorious gospel for you.
MAN ORIGINALLY CREATED WITH GOD'S GLORY
Man was uniquely created in the image of God which means something of the glory of God was put in him. Psalm 8:5b says, You (LORD) have crowned man with glory and honor.
Man was given God's authority over all the animals. The Bible never says that animals were made in the image of God.
Even the angels are never said to be made in the image of God. In fact, Hebrews 1:14 reveals that angels were created as servants for man as ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who inherit salvation.
Because God is Spirit (John 4:24), man was created with a spirit breathed into him by God Himself. This is not true of any other created thing. Man was created to have a spirit-to-Spirit relationship with God...indeed a heart-to-heart relationship with God.
In addition, man was created with a mind that can reason unlike any other creature. God tells man through Isaiah 1:18, Come let us reason together, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Although the context of this verse is salvation later after man's sin, it does point to the fact that man was created with reasoning abilities that makse a personal relationship with God possible.
In addition, Martyn Lloyd Jones poignantly notes that even man's body reflects the glory of God. It is not by accident that man stands and walks upright, unlike animals. Jones notes, "Man was created to stand upright, as it were, to look up to the heavens and to look down on creation!"
GOD'S IMAGE IN MAN MARRED BY THE FALL
After the Fall, God's image in man was marred, in some cases to the point of being hardly recognizable. Although man is fallen, he is still man.
Fallen man did not just enter into darkness apart from God's glory, Ephesians 5:8 says that man became darkness, an identity that led man to naturally produce only works of darkness.
Ephesians 2:1-3 further describes man in his fallen state: spiritually dead, in bondage to Satan, a son of disobedience, full of lustful desires.
Philippians 3:21 describes fallen man's body as lowly and a body of humiliation, indicating that man's body is subject to sin, pain, sickness, disease, and death.
For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
(Romans 3:23)
SALVATION RESTORES GOD'S GLORY IN MAN!
The object of salvation is to restore the image and glory of God in man! Sometimes we limit salvation to forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of sins is indeed a vital part of salvation, but is just the beginning of salvation!
A Christian has been recreated in union with Christ...restored to Adam's condition before the Fall plus so much more! A Christian is predestined by God to be conformed to the very image of Christ (Romans 28-29)!
So, the image and glory of God's beloved Son is at the heart of salvation.
Often we make salvation all about us and our decisions and our ticket to heaven. However, salvation is all about Jesus Christ and what God the Father has done for us and in us...and not what we do. Our doing is to respond by faith to what God has done and is continuing to do in us.
Now in our union with Christ we are to be a light in this dark world because Christ is the Light of the world!
Let your light shine before men
that they may see your good works
and may glorify your Father who is in heaven.
(Matthew 5:16)
CLOSING
Be challenged and encouraged by these quotes by Martyn Lloyd Jones:
"Live in such a way that others will see the glory of God in your face, in your life, in your whole demeanor...in you just being who you are (in Christ). When people look at you, may they see something strange and glorious (that they are drawn to Christ in you)."
"Do you realize this glory belongs to you as a Christian? Or are you still striving to be a Christian with your own efforts?"
God bless you in the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ!
