The Changing of God's Image

John 1:29

John is often referred to as the Apostle of Love, this because he not only wrote of God’s love but he also had a recognition of the love of Jesus for him. Five times in the gospel that bears his name, John refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. It wasn’t that Jesus loved him any more than he did the others, but John was the one who realized it!

His descriptions of God in the first chapter of John show us a softening of the image of the Father. The Old Testament depicts God as distant, loud and constantly angry with His people. Many men die, entire towns are burned up and a sacrificial system is instituted that kills over 2 billion lambs, clouding the sky with the smoke off of the altar. As John describes God, he unfurls a three-fold description, showing us the Trinity in a different light.

In describing where Jesus originates from John tells us, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). Jesus comes from the bosom of the Father; a description that shows God as nurturing and gentle.

Next, Jesus is called “Lamb of God” by John the Baptist, as He approaches the Jordan River to be baptized. John could have called Him, “The Lion of Judah” and he would have been just as truthful, but John knew that Jesus did not come to live and die as a lion, but rather as the Lamb. Every Jew standing there would have caught the reference, as they had lived their lives sacrificing lambs, and now here is THE Lamb, who would take all of their sins away. Again, God is now gentle as a lamb.

Finally, John describes the scene of Jesus’ baptism as the Spirit descended from heaven like a dove and landed on Jesus. Here is the Holy Spirit, typified by the dove that left Noah’s Ark, wandering until He could find a place to rest His foot, lighting upon the Son of God. Though the Spirit can hunt down sinners like a hawk, and cause saints to soar like an eagle, it is the dove that is used to describe Him at Jordan.

The Father’s bosom; the Son as Lamb; the Spirit as dove, this is a different face of God! Because of John’s descriptions of the image of God, man should feel a welcome call from the Father to approach Him without fear. As Lamb, Jesus would go forth to the slaughter, not for sins which He had committed but for the sin of the world. John is careful not to say, “The sins of the world”, for this denotes that Jesus will take away individual sins, and we know that He did not do that.

Rather, He died for the “sin” of the world, and His death at the cross has solved the sin problem once for all. Anyone who accepts Christ as their savior has no more “sin problem”. Though they fail and fall into “sins”, they are no longer a sinner, and sin has no dominion over them (Romans 6:14).

If you have been shy to approach the Father, for fear that He will point out your failures, please know that He has already killed the Lamb on your behalf. Your lamb would be worthless, for it could not take away sins (Hebrews 10:4), so God provided Himself a Lamb (Genesis 22:8). Thank God for Jesus!

The Gates Are Broken

Isaiah 45:2-3

God promised to “break in pieces the gates of brass”, using His anointed one Cyrus. Cyrus was a Gentile king, and the first non-Jew to be referred to as anointed. The usage of this king to make crooked paths straight and cut bars of iron is the biblical “Law of Double Reference”, where one character is addressed, but a deeper meaning is implied.

The anointed one Cyrus is a type of the anointed one, Jesus. The Double Reference first occurs in Eden when God speaks to the serpent, cursing him to exist on his belly and promising that the woman’s seed will bruise his head (Genesis 3:14, 15). The serpent did not have his head bruised at Calvary but Satan did; thus God was speaking in part to the snake and in part to the devil. In Isaiah 44:28 and in the 45th chapter, God is doing the same thing in reference to Cyrus, while giving us promises that only Jesus could fulfill.

Why would we need gates to be broken in pieces? Jesus told Peter in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church. Common sense tells us that gates are not used as offensive weapons but rather are closed to keep invaders out. Referring to the gates of hell as being powerless to stop the church infers that we will be going against hell in some capacity and that hell itself will not be able to stop us because Jesus has broken the staying power of its gates.

Gates are not only used to keep invaders out, they are also used to keep people in. Hell has thrown various strongholds against the believer from the very beginning; intent on keeping God’s people down, depressed, miserable and defeated. What Satan has done is not so much throw things at the believer as much as he has hid awesome truths from the believer. These truths have been shut up by strongholds of the enemy so that saints never see the truths for themselves; and what the believer does not know certainly hurts him.

Paul said that if the good news is hid, “it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:3, 4). Satan has worked for 2000 years to deny mankind the light of the good news. Every sermon that emphasizes man’s works or glorifies God’s law as the source of redemption takes the light off of the loveliness of Jesus. This traps the message of grace and favor behind the gates of hell, so that people cannot be exposed to the glory of the image of Jesus.

We are never changed by seeing how bad that we are and then working to improve. Instead, we are changed into His image as we behold His face, and this change is not by our works but from “glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Let’s not hold this glorious good news back one more day from one more person. Let that light shine to all who are in darkness.

The Changing of God's Image

John 1:29

John is often referred to as the Apostle of Love, this because he not only wrote of God’s love but he also had a recognition of the love of Jesus for him. Five times in the gospel that bears his name, John refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. It wasn’t that Jesus loved him any more than he did the others, but John was the one who realized it!

His descriptions of God in the first chapter of John show us a softening of the image of the Father. The Old Testament depicts God as distant, loud and constantly angry with His people. Many men die, entire towns are burned up and a sacrificial system is instituted that kills over 2 billion lambs, clouding the sky with the smoke off of the altar. As John describes God, he unfurls a three-fold description, showing us the Trinity in a different light.

In describing where Jesus originates from John tells us, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). Jesus comes from the bosom of the Father; a description that shows God as nurturing and gentle.

Next, Jesus is called “Lamb of God” by John the Baptist, as He approaches the Jordan River to be baptized. John could have called Him, “The Lion of Judah” and he would have been just as truthful, but John knew that Jesus did not come to live and die as a lion, but rather as the Lamb. Every Jew standing there would have caught the reference, as they had lived their lives sacrificing lambs, and now here is THE Lamb, who would take all of their sins away. Again, God is now gentle as a lamb.

Finally, John describes the scene of Jesus’ baptism as the Spirit descended from heaven like a dove and landed on Jesus. Here is the Holy Spirit, typified by the dove that left Noah’s Ark, wandering until He could find a place to rest His foot, lighting upon the Son of God. Though the Spirit can hunt down sinners like a hawk, and cause saints to soar like an eagle, it is the dove that is used to describe Him at Jordan.

The Father’s bosom; the Son as Lamb; the Spirit as dove, this is a different face of God! Because of John’s descriptions of the image of God, man should feel a welcome call from the Father to approach Him without fear. As Lamb, Jesus would go forth to the slaughter, not for sins which He had committed but for the sin of the world. John is careful not to say, “The sins of the world”, for this denotes that Jesus will take away individual sins, and we know that He did not do that.

Rather, He died for the “sin” of the world, and His death at the cross has solved the sin problem once for all. Anyone who accepts Christ as their savior has no more “sin problem”. Though they fail and fall into “sins”, they are no longer a sinner, and sin has no dominion over them (Romans 6:14).

If you have been shy to approach the Father, for fear that He will point out your failures, please know that He has already killed the Lamb on your behalf. Your lamb would be worthless, for it could not take away sins (Hebrews 10:4), so God provided Himself a Lamb (Genesis 22:8). Thank God for Jesus!

The Gates Are Broken

Isaiah 45:2-3

God promised to “break in pieces the gates of brass”, using His anointed one Cyrus. Cyrus was a Gentile king, and the first non-Jew to be referred to as anointed. The usage of this king to make crooked paths straight and cut bars of iron is the biblical “Law of Double Reference”, where one character is addressed, but a deeper meaning is implied.

The anointed one Cyrus is a type of the anointed one, Jesus. The Double Reference first occurs in Eden when God speaks to the serpent, cursing him to exist on his belly and promising that the woman’s seed will bruise his head (Genesis 3:14, 15). The serpent did not have his head bruised at Calvary but Satan did; thus God was speaking in part to the snake and in part to the devil. In Isaiah 44:28 and in the 45th chapter, God is doing the same thing in reference to Cyrus, while giving us promises that only Jesus could fulfill.

Why would we need gates to be broken in pieces? Jesus told Peter in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell would not prevail against the church. Common sense tells us that gates are not used as offensive weapons but rather are closed to keep invaders out. Referring to the gates of hell as being powerless to stop the church infers that we will be going against hell in some capacity and that hell itself will not be able to stop us because Jesus has broken the staying power of its gates.

Gates are not only used to keep invaders out, they are also used to keep people in. Hell has thrown various strongholds against the believer from the very beginning; intent on keeping God’s people down, depressed, miserable and defeated. What Satan has done is not so much throw things at the believer as much as he has hid awesome truths from the believer. These truths have been shut up by strongholds of the enemy so that saints never see the truths for themselves; and what the believer does not know certainly hurts him.

Paul said that if the good news is hid, “it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:3, 4). Satan has worked for 2000 years to deny mankind the light of the good news. Every sermon that emphasizes man’s works or glorifies God’s law as the source of redemption takes the light off of the loveliness of Jesus. This traps the message of grace and favor behind the gates of hell, so that people cannot be exposed to the glory of the image of Jesus.

We are never changed by seeing how bad that we are and then working to improve. Instead, we are changed into His image as we behold His face, and this change is not by our works but from “glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Let’s not hold this glorious good news back one more day from one more person. Let that light shine to all who are in darkness.

The Changing of God's Image

John 1:29

John is often referred to as the Apostle of Love, this because he not only wrote of God’s love but he also had a recognition of the love of Jesus for him. Five times in the gospel that bears his name, John refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”. It wasn’t that Jesus loved him any more than he did the others, but John was the one who realized it!

His descriptions of God in the first chapter of John show us a softening of the image of the Father. The Old Testament depicts God as distant, loud and constantly angry with His people. Many men die, entire towns are burned up and a sacrificial system is instituted that kills over 2 billion lambs, clouding the sky with the smoke off of the altar. As John describes God, he unfurls a three-fold description, showing us the Trinity in a different light.

In describing where Jesus originates from John tells us, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). Jesus comes from the bosom of the Father; a description that shows God as nurturing and gentle.

Next, Jesus is called “Lamb of God” by John the Baptist, as He approaches the Jordan River to be baptized. John could have called Him, “The Lion of Judah” and he would have been just as truthful, but John knew that Jesus did not come to live and die as a lion, but rather as the Lamb. Every Jew standing there would have caught the reference, as they had lived their lives sacrificing lambs, and now here is THE Lamb, who would take all of their sins away. Again, God is now gentle as a lamb.

Finally, John describes the scene of Jesus’ baptism as the Spirit descended from heaven like a dove and landed on Jesus. Here is the Holy Spirit, typified by the dove that left Noah’s Ark, wandering until He could find a place to rest His foot, lighting upon the Son of God. Though the Spirit can hunt down sinners like a hawk, and cause saints to soar like an eagle, it is the dove that is used to describe Him at Jordan.

The Father’s bosom; the Son as Lamb; the Spirit as dove, this is a different face of God! Because of John’s descriptions of the image of God, man should feel a welcome call from the Father to approach Him without fear. As Lamb, Jesus would go forth to the slaughter, not for sins which He had committed but for the sin of the world. John is careful not to say, “The sins of the world”, for this denotes that Jesus will take away individual sins, and we know that He did not do that.

Rather, He died for the “sin” of the world, and His death at the cross has solved the sin problem once for all. Anyone who accepts Christ as their savior has no more “sin problem”. Though they fail and fall into “sins”, they are no longer a sinner, and sin has no dominion over them (Romans 6:14).

If you have been shy to approach the Father, for fear that He will point out your failures, please know that He has already killed the Lamb on your behalf. Your lamb would be worthless, for it could not take away sins (Hebrews 10:4), so God provided Himself a Lamb (Genesis 22:8). Thank God for Jesus!