Why does your life (and mine) often trend toward that which is trivial? Because the default mode of the human heart is bent toward triviality. Unless intentional action is taken, you are always going to lean in the direction of pursuing that which is trivial. Just as your computer settings will operate under their default mode unless directed by you to do otherwise, so will your life. It’s not hard to pursue triviality because you have naturally done it your whole life. But what if there were some kind of work-around, intentional reset or deliberate action on your part to move away from triviality, to a life of meaning and purpose? What if you could push back against the default […]
Sanctification
159 posts
Continued from Beholding and Becoming Life in the New Creation Paul describes the change believers have experienced as a new creation. In Ephesians 2:10, he says that we are the workmanship—the masterpieces!—of God “created in Christ Jesus for good works.” Similarly, Paul reminds his readers that when they “learned Christ,” they were taught to “put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:20–24).26 A parallel passage in Colossians 3 says the new man, “is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (v.10). And 2 Corinthians 5:17 exults that, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” […]
Continued from Restoration: New Man, New Creation The question this book aims to answer is how do we become like Jesus? How does the restoration of the image of God within our hearts take place? In the following chapters we will explore how Scripture gloriously answers this question. For now, let’s consider a passage that compellingly describes the transforming power of gazing at God’s glory revealed in Jesus. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory […]
Continued from Redemption: The Gracious Rescue In contrast to Adam, the first man, Jesus came as the second Adam, the true image-bearer of God. Paul, looking forward to the final resurrection, says: Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the […]
Continued from The Fall: Shattered Mirrors The good news is that God is reforging the shards! When he is finished, no trace of the breakage will remain. For God has formed a rescue plan. Not willing to abandon his creation to evil, God has purposed to redeem and restore the world by setting a new people apart for himself. Although hints of this plan are given even before the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden (Gen. 3:15), God’s redemptive mission truly began to take shape when he called Abraham.13 God promised to give Abraham two things: A son (and descendants) through whom the world would be blessed (Gen. 12:1–3), and a special land that would belong to his heirs […]
Continued from Created in His Image: Reflecting, Relating, Reigning The tragic reality, however, is that the mirror itself has been shattered. We rebelled against God and now live under his judgment and wrath (Gen. 3:16–19; Rom. 1:18). The image of God is therefore distorted. In Calvin’s words, God’s image is deformed, vitiated, mutilated, maimed, disease-ridden, and disfigured. This is true for all of us. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). We have failed to glorify God by not loving his person, obeying his laws, and delighting in his glory. Rather than exclusively worshiping our glorious Creator, we have served and worshiped created things (Rom. 1:21–23). We are “alienated from the life of God” […]
Continued from Creation: Images of His Glory Reflecting To be created in the image of God means we are designed to display God’s nature, character, and glory. As a mirror is made for reflection, so God created us to be mirrors of his character, instruments for reflecting his glory. Created in God’s image, we are invested with special dignity and entrusted with particular duties. Our distinct worth as human beings springs from being God’s image-bearers, the unique reflectors of his character on earth. The rest of creation declares God’s glory, speaking of it vividly in a great variety of ways (Ps. 19:1). But we reflect it, actually making it, in small part, visible and tangible. One of the supreme ways […]
Continued from Restoring God’s Broken Image Why did God create us? For what purpose? The Westminster Shorter Catechism answers, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” Speaking originally of the scattered exiles of Israel whom God promised to redeem, Isaiah 43:6-7 agrees: I will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. In the first chapter of Genesis we don’t read that man was created for God’s glory, but in God’s image. What’s the difference? Not much. As Sinclair […]
The glory of God is man fully alive, and the life of man is the vision of God. —Irenaeus By the time David Garrett was eight years old, he was studying violin with the world’s finest teachers, practicing seven hours a day, and making solo appearances with legendary orchestras, including the London Philharmonic. As an adolescent, he studied at the Juilliard School in New York City. In 2003, for the price of one million dollars, Garrett purchased a Guadagnini, a rare 236-year-old violin made by a student of Stradivarius. But on December 27, 2007, after a brilliant performance at the Barbican in London, David Garrett tripped, fell down a flight of stairs, and landed on the valuable instrument. Though still […]
by Dr. Jim Newheiser During the past twenty years of working in a church-based biblical counseling ministry, in which I have tried to put these principles for change into practice, I have observed three general outcomes. Some counselees are quickly and radically transformed. I have seen cases in which a husband and wife who were already separated and moving toward divorce were in one session brought to heartbroken repentance as each confessed his or her own sin (Matthew 7:1-5) and granted forgiveness to the other, in light of the forgiveness we have received in the gospel (Ephesians 4:32; Matthew 18:21-35). I have also seen many cases in which the counselees went away sad and unchanged, like the rich young ruler […]