thoughts that challenge the status quo of modern, western christianity

Friday, January 30, 2009

Our Job Description

Many people today are wondering what their life is all about. They are looking for something that gives them a purpose, a meaning, a reason to get up in the morning. This is very common among Christians: many are wondering what is their part in the kingdom of heaven.

In our previous post, we revealed that Adam's purpose was to be the representational image of God to creation. Unfortunately his disobedience disqualified him from that position. Thankfully, God had a plan to restore mankind.

Jesus Christ, as the last Adam, came as the visible image of an invisible God. However, he was more than an image, he was representational of the invisible God. In John 17:6 Jesus states; “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world:” According to Vines, manifested is a verb that means; "to make visible, clear, manifest," Thayer's says it is making visible or known “what has been hidden or unknown, whether by words, or deeds” (emphasis added). A verb is an action word. Jesus came making an invisible God more than visible; he came to make him knowable by demonstration.

Just as the scripture shows us that the first and last Adams were each to be a representational image of an invisible God, so we who are born again are to be representational. Paul tells us in Colossians 3:10 that we “have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:” (emphasis added). We have been born again to a new nature, one that includes His representational image.

As His body, the church is to manifest Jesus Christ to this dark and confused world. However, we are not to just present an image of a good moral life, we have been authorized to conduct business as representatives of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. We are to walk in His delegated authority as we demonstrate to this world what His kingdom will be like. By manifestation and representation, we reveal to this world there is something better. We reveal to them that there is a King and He is coming with His kingdom and His name is Jesus!

What a privilege, what an honor, what a responsibility. We are chosen to ACT as the representative of the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings! Praise God!

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