Why God Created Us in His Image
Friday, December 30
For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen. (Romans 11:36).
Weaved into the tapestry of the Bible is that God created the human race to show God. The essence of images is to image forth. God did not create us as an end in ourselves. He is the end, we are the means. And the reason that's the bedrock of Christian identity is because the best way to show that God is infinitely valuable is to be supremely happy in Him. If God's people are bored with God, they are really bad images. God is not unhappy in Himself. He is infinitely happy in His own glory.
This brings us to a great reality in the New Testament about our identity as Christians. Our identity is in Christ and not in ourselves. We hear this often times. But it is very misleading. The image of God is not found in the interior of our bodies, and it's not located in our rational or creative powers. In 2 Corinthians 4:4 Paul wrote about the "message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God." Then in Colossians 1:15 he wrote that "Christ is the visible image of the invisible God."
From this two scriptural witnesses, Christ is the image of God and the identity of the Christian. And if Christ is our identity, and the image of God, it logically means that our true worth is to display the worth of Christ and image Him forth in the way we think and feel and act.
The image of God is the glory of God reflected in Christ through Christian identity. Hence, our joy in Christian identity comes not from self-esteem or self-worth but from our deep, intense sense of the mercy of God for creating and redeeming us into the image of His Son to display His glory in the world―that is to be happy in God.
Devotional taken from Christian Identity