Summary Post: Images of the Invisible God

Note: This post summarizes what is written in this entire section.

A.    A Theology of Sin: Sin is what keeps humanity from being fully conformed to the image of Christ. For Christians, being conformed to Christ’s image is a promise and guarantee. Many Christians believe the Bible teaches we have a sinful nature and are born with sin, but the Bible does not say that. The Bible says we are created in God’s image (Psalm 139:13-15) and become corrupt by choosing to sin – we are not naturally created that way (Isaiah 64:6, Psalm 14:3). Humans have sin because all have chosen sin over God’s way. All humans have the opportunity to become sinless by following Jesus, the man who became sinless himself. By faith in Jesus, obedience to God in loving Him and our neighbor, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, every human can become like Christ, fully conformed to his image. Jesus was made like humanity in every respect. He was supernaturally born of a virgin and without any corruption from his past lives as Adam and David, as he was in the form of God (Philippians 2:5) without any sinful flesh (Romans 8:3). As previously explained, Jesus did still struggle with sin and temptation, but he had no sinful corruption from his past lives and so was born pure in the form of God (Philippians 2:5). He overcame sin fully and, amazingly, gave his life for the world. Original sin, the teaching that humans are sinful by nature, is unbiblical (see my post for the full argument). We have the ability to choose the good as we are made in God’s image and His Spirit dwells within us. We are to be perfect as the Father is perfect, as Jesus taught (Matthew 5:48) and live as Jesus lived (1 John 2:6).

B.    The Similarities between Jesus and Christians: For eternity, there will be 0 real difference between Jesus and all Christians except for his role as their Savior, King, and Lord. In a similar way that the president of a country is like us but has a higher role, Christ is our King. But our King still sinned and needed saving just like us. So, we will be like him in almost every way. The Bible says Christians will be images of the invisible God (Romans 8:29), reign together for eternity (Revelation 22:5), are all children of God (John 3:6, Romans 8:29-30), are co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17), will be glorified with Christ (Romans 8:16-17), will obtain Jesus’ glory (2 Corinthians 3:17-18, 2 Thessalonians 2:14), are part of Christ’s body and one with him (1 Corinthians 12), all will be resurrected and immortal (1 Corinthians 15:22-23, 2 Corinthians 4:14), have the same (and Jesus says even greater!) power to do works for the kingdom (John 14:12), are anointed with the Holy Spirit and will be filled completely (Colossians 2:9-10), are reconciled with God (Romans 5:10), will be fully mature and attain to the fullness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13), will be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19), share the same source, God (Hebrews 2:10-11), will be perfect (James 1:2-4), sinless (2 Peter 1:4), share every spiritual blessing with Christ (Ephesians 1:3), sit with Christ on his throne (Revelation 3:21), and will judge the world together with Jesus (1 Corinthians 6:2-3). Finally, Jesus also sinned, became perfect, and needed a savior (his savior is God, Hebrews 5:7). Again, the only real difference between Jesus and Christians for eternity will be Christ’s role as our Savior, King, and Lord.

C. God’s People as One Team: If God’s people united, the world would be saved per Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John 17. But God’s people need to let go of the idol of Jesus and worship God together. Jesus is not our Coach. God is our Coach. Jesus is our captain, playing with us and on our team. We are, with Jesus, God’s people.