glory to FATHER GOD FOR TRUTH Amen ! The great Italian sculptor, Benvenuto Cellini, told of receiving a block of marble with one flaw. Because of this flaw, no artist would submit a design — except one. In the public square of Florence a fence was built around that piece of marble, and a little shack was erected for the artist. For two years the sculptor labored. Then on a certain day a vast multitude of the citizens of Florence assembled in the public square; the fence was torn down, and the shack was taken away. At this unveiling all of Florence beheld the result and marveled. Since then Italy and all the world have marveled at Michelangelo’s “David”. In that block of marble was a statue, others did not see it, but Michelangelo did. And, precious friend of mine, in that lump of clay which is you, the almighty Father sees an image too — the image of Jesus Christ! And God is working unceasingly and tirelessly to form the image of His Son in you. No truth has come with more soul-gripping force and power to the elect of the Lord than the beautiful hope of sonship to God. Well indeed may we yield ourselves into the hands of heaven’s skilled sculptor that HE may form His Son in us. All it takes is to chip away that portion that conceals the image. The image is there if only it can be uncovered, brought forth out of our innermost being. The outer veil of the carnal mind and the obscurity of the flesh are all that the sculptor must chip away in order to reveal the image of God within. It is for sonship that the whole creation groans in a sort of universal travail while it eagerly waits to see the glorious sight of God’s sons coming into their own (Rom. 8:22-23). It is the Son in the sons — the revelation of Jesus Christ! There is coming a day when all the glories of the Son of God will be revealed and manifested in the sons of God. With a heart of understanding and a spirit bright with the hope of God’s eternal purpose the apostle penned these meaningful words: “...it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to REVEAL (apokalupto: to uncover, unveil) HIS SON IN ME” (Gal. 1:15-16). George Hawtin once wrote: “Did you ever stand in awe and marvel at the work of the great artists on earth? Perhaps expressions failed and words became inadequate as you gazed with wonder at the faces of the presidents carved in the heights of Mt. Rushmore. Wonderful as these things are, it must be that, ere the sculptor placed his chisel upon the stone to chip it away, he beheld in the uncut rock the very image of that which he by toil and skill would bring into being. Thus it was that God, the mighty architect of the universe, beholding in His own Spirit the glorious image of things to come, set the forces of His own will in motion to bring forth with unerring exactness the image of His pleasure in the very likeness of Himself. God with omniscient wisdom planned with unerring and immutable accuracy every blow of the hammer that would in the end bring forth from the uncut rock a race of sons in the image of Himself.” What was fully manifested and seen in Jesus is potential in every man. Something of that same divine spirit that was expressed in Him in all fullness is also in us. Something of the same divine likeness in which we were created is hidden in all men. Concealed and corroded by sin the resemblance is not evident save to the penetrating search of love, but there is something of God-life in every man. Our spirit must indeed be quickened by His Spirit before it can be made evident and recognized. To be “dead” does not mean to be non-existent, but to be unresponsive to the realm of spiritual life. The body in the casket is not non-existent, otherwise there would be no point in attending the viewing. But it is certainly unresponsive to the world about it! This is what Paul meant when he wrote: “And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. Wherein in time past ye walked (dead men walked!) according to the course of this world...among whom we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ; and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus...for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:1-6,10). It has been said that in Jesus Christ the divine and the human meet, but this is also true of everyone of us. He is the true humanity who is the Son of God. It is not that He is super-human, but that we are sub-human. But inasmuch as we are human at all we are akin to Him. The first man and the second man are both man. The first Adam and the last Adam are both Adam. Those in the first man are in part what the second man is in perfection. The whole purpose of our lives is to become human in the sense in which He was human; to be changed into the same likeness from one glorious conversion to another, even by the Lord who is the Spirit — PERFECT MANHOOD. Christ is to grow up in us, and the whole process of life is one in which “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Paul said it so well, “It pleased God to reveal HIS SON in me,” which precisely describes the life of sonship, for the Son of God is the PERFECT MAN IN GOD’S IMAGE. It is as the Spirit of Christ becomes manifest within us that we approach nearer and nearer to the true humanity as it was seen in Jesus, “till we all come to a perfect manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). His possession of our lives will grow, until we are fully “strengthened with power by His Spirit in the inward humanity,” being “filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:16,19). Now, the best way to promote an idea is to wrap it up in a personality. The Maytag repairman is an example. Always sitting with nothing to do, he personifies the idea that Maytag washers never break down. That is what God did in Jesus Christ. He wrapped up all His nature, character, glory, grace, wisdom, knowledge, love, and power in a man and stood Him up in the earth. This man was God’s Idea — the Word! And Jesus Christ is the ideal of all mankind, the second man, the last Adam, the example and pattern and proto-type of God’s will and purpose for all men. What Jesus is is what God meant when He said in that long ago beginning, “Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness” (Gen. 1:26). That is GOD’S IDEA! That is GOD’S WORD! That is the glory and majesty of man AS HE WAS INTENDED TO BE!
Posted on: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 12:34:27 +0000
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