HIS GLORY. HIS IMAGE. THE FIRSTFRUITS OF HIS GRACE.
"For all have sinned and FALL short of the Glory of God." - Romans 3:23
What is Salvation?
- Freedom from sin and eternal damnation by putting your faith in Jesus Christ and His redemptive work on the cross.
What is the Glory of God?
- The beauty and presence of God
What is the Image of God?
- The resemblance of God or a representative figure.
What is Grace?
- The power of God through Jesus Christ that we may be justified according to our faith In Him. It is by grace that we are saved through faith, and that salvation is made available to all men. It is the love and favor of God to the unworthy.
When Adam, who was the Glory and Image of God, became a partaker of sin that is when he lost both the image and glory, not just for himself but for mankind. Sin became alive within his body and defiled him and us therefore we lost the image. Once sin came in, his spirit also was now tainted, and the Holy Ghost wasn’t no longer accessible and living within him and he lost the Glory. But thanks be to Christ Jesus, who came in power, lived in power, died in power, rose again in power, ascended in power, and gave us that same power. It is by His resurrection power that the Image and Glory of God are now accessible again to mankind through grace given to us by our faith in Him, saving us from ourselves.
We’re constantly being saved. By constantly believing in Christ and His redemptive work. Because as long as we’re in this body, we’re susceptible to sin, to satisfy the desires of our flesh. Sin has been destroyed in the body of Christ who is sinless. And now once again we can be of the image (body) and glory (spirit) of God. Because of Christ, we are now able to resist temptation and carry the Kingdom of God and to be of who He originally called us to be.
For a long time man has lost the original formatting of the Church. Neither being the image or glory of Him anymore, they have strayed away from His precepts. But now God is calling us back to the beginning again, back to being the image and glory of Him. To being His representative figure and carrying His beauty and presence. It’s a all or nothing type deal. You can’t have one without the other. Because the only way you can be of the image of God is if you are of the Glory of God. And the only way you can be of the Glory of God is if you are the image of God. You can’t look like Him, yet not carry His beauty and power. Neither can you carry His beauty and power and not look like Him.
We’re doing a full circle, and coming back into alignment with the will of God. Where we are now coming into His original image, and a new glory is coming. The latter glory which is greater than the former. We will be true representatives of Him and His Kingdom, in His resemblance and likeness and of His Glory and splendor. Where there is room for mistakes because of the grace that is accessible in Christ Jesus. We are not perfect. We FALL short of the glory (the beauty and power of God), through sin, which takes away also our resemblance of Him. But thanks be to Christ Jesus who restores the Glory and the Image, but not like the former, but of a latter which is greater and restored in love and in a spirit of gentleness.
It is religious to shove holiness down the throats of others, but not father and mother them in the spirit to show them how to be holy. It is religious to set a standard that you have to be perfect and if you mess up once that you’re done for. From that condemnation is rooted within the souls of them, and they are now bed-ridden in sin because Grace wasn’t preached. We are to preach the Grace of Jesus Christ. That’s not an excuse to keep sinning, but if you fall, grace gets you up to keep pushing. Because Grace says in my eyes it’s not like you never did it, If you repent and give it to Him. It’s by grace that the glory and image are now accessible to all who believe in Jesus Christ and accept Him as their Lord and Savior, working out their salvation in fear and trembling. So in your walk, leave room for grace. Leave room for mistakes, but don’t wallow in it, neither force it. God knows your heart and your intentions, and convictions come accordingly.
We are to be living sacrifices in Christ because NOW that the Glory and Image are accessible. We can be just like Him and give our bodies to be glorified constantly. We are to die daily. To renew our minds daily. But that is only possible if we understand the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Because within that grace now we are being remade into His Image and His Glory. Conviction comes when it is lost, there are things that we don’t even know that causes us to fall short of the glory… the beauty and splendor of Him, thus making us lose our image, our places as ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. We are to be representatives of the Kingdom of God moving in and with His grace, preaching and teaching the grace that God has given us through Jesus Christ.
It all comes back to Jesus and what He did for us on that cross. Jesus Christ is the answer, He is the way, the truth and the life. He fufilled the promise, and gave back to us what we lost, which was the Kingdom. Now, through the Holy Ghost we now have inherited the Kingdom of God once again. It is by the Holy Ghost that we can be made into new creatures after His likeness, His image and of His glory. Be His Image, be His Glory, be His ambassador. It doesn't take a man or woman laying their hands on you, but once you confess with your mouth Jesus Christ as your Lord and believe within your heart His death and God raising Him back up you will be saved.
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 to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
- 2 Corinthians 3:16-18
"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."
- Romans 8:14
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
- Romans 8:1-11
For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
- Genesis 1:26-27
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