Into The Same Image

by Toms, A. F. | Category: General | Mar 1983

The epistle to the Colossians is full of Christ. One of the reasons for the apostle Paul writing was to correct false teaching and he did so by presenting the Lord Jesus Christ in the exceeding glory of His Person and the complete adequacy of His work. It makes an enriching study to go through the epistle noting each reference to Christ and the particular facet of teaching which is presented concerning Him.

Some of the false teachers were influenced by gnostic doctrines and the gnostics claimed that their superior knowledge was reserved for a favoured few. Not so, countered the apostle, for we labour, he said, that "we may present every man perfect in Christ" (Col. 1:28). That is the perfection of full growth, growing up "in all things into Him, which is the head, even Christ" (Eph. 4:15). This present spiritual growth will be followed by the great eternal purpose for which God has saved us, that we might be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29). When the Lord Jesus returns each believing one will be changed instantaneously into His likeness. "We know that, if He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him" (1 John 3:2). What a wonderful contemplation! Conformed to the image of God's Son.

But the Scriptures also speak about our being transformed into His image, and that is a process which God intends should be going on continuously. "We all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror (R.V. margin) the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:18).

The language carries us back in thought to the sixth day of creation when God said "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness". "And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him". But that image was marred on account of sin. So God began again, sending His own Son "in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin". "Wherefore if any man is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17 RVM). And as with the first, so with this new creation it is "after the image of Him that created him". God is working out His eternal purpose, producing the likeness of His Son in human lives, so that when the Lord Jesus leads many sons to glory it will be said "each one resembled the children of a king".

There are two words for "new" in the Greek New Testament, kainos meaning fresh, new as to form or quality, and neos, new in respect of time. When the apostle wrote to the Colossians "ye have put off the old man and his doings, and have put on the new (neos) man" he was stressing the fact that they had had a new experience. Whereas in the parallel scripture in Ephesians he said "put on the new (kainos) man which after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth" (4:24). That was new as to quality, in contrast to "the old man, which waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit". The Colossian scripture refers to a past event - "ye have put off and have put on"; whereas the Ephesians are instructed to "put away the old man ... and put on the new man" as a continuing experience. Both are true. We put on the new man in much the same way as we would put on a suit of clothes, for the same word is used when it is recorded of our Lord Jesus that they "put on Him a scarlet robe". As we do so the image of Christ will be renewed in us, and we shall grow more and more into His likeness:

Like Him in all those lovely traits, Which in His lowly, earthly days, So beautiful we see.

In the verses which follow in Colossians 3 the apostle enlarges on what is involved in putting on the new man. "Put on therefore, as God's elect, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving each other, If any man have a complaint against any; even as the Lord forgave you, so also do ye: and above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfectness". A salutary exercise is to make a list of them on paper, eight delightful characteristics, and going through them one by one, ask ourselves to what extent this lovely image is seen in us.

The superior knowledge claimed by the gnostics produced a contempt for under-privileged people, but there can be no thought of that in God's new creation. "There cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman: but Christ is all and in all" (Col. 3:11). All distinctions, national, religious, social or intellectual, are done away in Christ. The Holy Spirit is as well able to produce His fruit in the life of one as of another. Those who have had the privilege of becoming acquainted with their brethren and sisters in "under-privileged" lands testify to the fact that among the very poorest they have met some whose lives are radiant with the loveliness of Christ. To that end then let us encourage one another in every land, and "let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us

Toms, A. F. | Mar 1983
General