In His Image and Likeness (Lent 4, 2023)

When God created us, He created us not just in His Image, but also in His likeness. When God created all the other animals, they were each created “according to their kinds” with the purpose of reproducing, each according to their kinds.

But when God created man, in a sense, He made man according to His kind—in His Image and in His likeness! What an amazing thought that we are God’s kind of people–there’s something truly special about humanity that is somehow … like God.

It’s no wonder that the greatest temptation humanity would perpetually face is to be gods ourselves, to have more than just god-likenesses. It’s hard to put to words what God’s Image is, because God Himself is beyond our human understanding. However, the irony is that to be DIY gods, always seems so much more understandable or attainable to the finite mind living in temptation to be what we are not.

Focus for Lent: Repent of anything flesh-like. Instead, elevate your living to be God’s kind of people.

Questions for further thought:

If the original Adam (i.e., created to be perfectly reflective of God’s Image) were to look in the mirror, what would Adam have seen? Would he have seen something like a child sees in his father or mother? A family resemblance?

Adam and Eve had no problem seeing God face-to-face in the beginning. Why can’t we see God face-to-face now?

Prayer: Father God, we praise You that through the Holy Spirit, we can come boldly before Your throne, forgiven by Christ Jesus, and our sins washed away. We can meet You spiritually face-to-face in Jesus and His Word. We praise You that someday we will know You even as we are fully known. We see now through a “glass darkly” as the Apostle Paul put it and ask that You would hasten the day of Jesus’ return so that we will have finished the work You sent us to do, fulfilling that multiplication of Your Image on earth, bringing glory to You, and we will finally know You as the original Adam did. We look forward to that day, Lord. Until then, please keep us focused on the mission and bringing glory to You. In Christ Jesus, Amen.

===

If you’re already signed up on my Home Page sidebar to receive posts, you’ll get the 2023 Lent Devotionals automatically. Or you can “Like” Seminary Gal on Facebook and they’ll be delivered to your Facebook news feed. If you haven’t signed up, today is a great day to do so. Advent and Lenten devotionals remain among my most popular offerings. You don’t want to miss this encounter with God to prepare your heart for Easter! Understanding that prior years’ devotionals continue to minister, you may want to have access to a full series ahead of time:

Lent 2013 looked at The Letter to the Romans: Paul’s Masterpiece to reclaim foundations of our Christian heritage and began February 13, 2013.
A very special and ever popular offering was Lent 2014’s Be Still and Know that I AM God which can be obtained through the archives beginning in March 2014.
Lent 2015 began on February 18, 2015 with a series entitled With Christ in the Upper Room: Final Preparations. We explored what is often called “The Upper Room Discourse” found in John chapters 13-17.
ReKindle, the Lent 2016 series, began on February 10, 2016 and encouraged us to rekindle our spiritual lives.
Light: There’s Nothing Like It was the 2017 Lent series and explored this metaphor often used to portray Christ. It is archived beginning March 1, 2017.
Lent 2018, we explored the questions of Pi and Chi (the Greek letter beginning the word Christos, which means Christ, Messiah, the Anointed One). We asked and answered the questions “Why?” from the movie Life of Pi as we discovered the uniqueness of Jesus Christ in a world of many faiths.
Lent 2019 gave us a deeper window into Easter “More to the Easter Story” since we miss so much when we rely only on a superficial understanding of the work of Christ. These devotionals are archived beginning March 6, 2019.
Our Lent 2020 devotional series offered prayer points surrounding “Be Thou My Vision” and were aimed at helping us to see God for who He is. The full set of devotionals are archived beginning February 26, 2020.
The theme for 2021 Lent Devotionals was how to live between two worlds while waiting for Christ’s return. Into the gap between the City of Man and its fixation upon sin and the City of God with its demand for holiness, two words minister peace: But God. Praise God for His intervention! They are archived beginning February 17, 2021.
Last year’s devotionals, Revelation in 40 offered 40 vignettes, scenes, concepts, and thoughts to inspire us to read the Book of Revelation as it is written and to go deeper. They are archived beginning March 2, 2022.