Made In His Image Part Three - Restored

(Made in His Image Part One – Created) (Made in His image Part Two – Fallen)

If I haven’t said so, here’s angle I’m coming from with Made In His Image: we were created in the image of God, humanity fell from that ideal, and it’s God’s mission to restore us to who we were created to be. It’s something I’ve found fascinating, and it’s popping up in everything I read. The concept of restoring and reinstating has to be my favourite though. God’s plans for you and I are incredible.

 We’ve all messed up; we all need salvation. I knew about the gift of salvation, but I’d never before stopped to think that when you save something, you save it to something. If you save someone from drowning, you take them out of the water and onto dry ground. If you rescue something, you take it away from danger, and into a safe place. 

So as God saves us, and rescues us, He begins the process of restoring us. He wants to take us back to who we were made to be. His saving us is all about wanting to recreate His image in us, restoring us to the image we were created in; making us like Him! He wants to rescue and save us, and bring us to himself.

That explains trials and temptations too: God only allows those situations to come to us that will make us more like Him; those that will help us grow to become like Him! It’s fascinating to view life –and its hardships and pain - from this perspective.

It also cleared up another point in my mind. You know the verses in Jeremiah and Hebrews where God says He will write His law on our hearts, and He will be our God, and we’ll be His people? Think about it this way: God’s law is a transcript of His character, right? It’s an explanation of Who He is, and how He works. So, Him wanting to put His law into our hearts, and make it a part of us, is just saying that He wants to make us like Him! 

And, He calls us His sons and daughters, because that’s who we are. We’re His image, His creation. 1 John 3:1-2 explains it so well - I couldn’t how perfectly this verse summed everything up: “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it doth 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 shall be like Him.

Romans 8: 14 &17 are another couple of my favourite verses on this topic: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” What more could He do for us?! He restores us to the position of being sons and daughters, and then makes us heirs, even joint-heirs with Jesus!

He created us to be like Him, and even when we sin, all he wants to do is restore us to His image, and make us like Him – the highest honour He could ever give. Isn’t it amazing how much God lavishes on us? The unique way He designed us? Firstly, He made us in His own image. He could’ve dreamt up something amazing, and patterned us after His imagination, but he wanted us to be like Him. Then, we messed up, and He gave a solution, His Son - the most valuable gift He could give - just so that we could be rescued and restored to be like Him. Finally, He calls us His children, His sons and daughters, brothers and sister of Christ. It’s hard to comprehend the love God has for you and me, and when I think about it, all I can say is wow. 

What are your thoughts? Did these posts even make sense? It was hard to get my thoughts into words, but I wanted to share, because it’s been exciting learning all this! I know there’s so much more too, and I really want to hear your comments, reactions, and disagreements – let’s grow together!