WEBVTT 00:00:02.479 --> 00:00:16.079 Familiar passage of scripture, which you may not immediately connect with the Imago Day series, the Image of God series, talking about the fact that we're all made in the image of God. 00:00:16.480 --> 00:00:22.640 God, when he made humanity, said that we were going to be made in his image and in his likeness. 00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:28.079 And we've traced the arc of that all the way to the person of Christ last week. 00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:39.920 And now we're looking at a new part of that, the renewed image, and God's gracious activity to restore that image as it was designed to be within us. 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:48.079 In the book of Romans, in chapter 8, the Apostle Paul talks about the struggles of life in this life in light of the hope of eternity. 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:55.200 And he puts us into the our days into the context of all of that in a passage that we are very familiar with, many of us. 00:00:55.359 --> 00:00:58.479 In Romans 8, verse 28. 00:00:58.719 --> 00:01:05.920 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. 00:01:06.239 --> 00:01:15.680 For those he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:23.519 And those he predestined, he also called, and those he called, he also justified, and those he justified, he also glorified. 00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:45.840 We find in God's eternal purposes this plan not only to save or to redeem, but to actually bring us into a family, brothers and sisters, of which Christ is the head, and that all of us are eventually to be in a place of glorification, bearing the image of Christ Himself. 00:01:47.120 --> 00:01:55.120 Now, with that truth in mind, there's some questions we often ask ourselves, and every honest Christian does. 00:01:55.439 --> 00:02:05.599 If I belong to Christ and this is my destined end, why do I feel and why do I so often not look like Him? 00:02:06.959 --> 00:02:11.280 Why do the old patterns of my life still cling so tightly to me? 00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:20.000 Why does my change and develop into Christ's likeness feel so slow, so uneven, and so fragile? 00:02:20.960 --> 00:02:28.960 Why do I feel this tension between what I am today and who I'm going to be in the future? 00:02:29.919 --> 00:02:42.560 As we go through this this evening, those questions I want to bring some light into, because they're not questions necessarily of spiritual immaturity or the lack of spirituality whatsoever. 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:46.400 They are signs that something deeper is at work within us. 00:02:47.120 --> 00:03:12.080 Because these questions and the answers to those questions really do root in this idea of the image of God, that we were created as humanity to be those who would bear God's image, to reflect his character, to display his righteousness, to be a personification of his goodness, and to behold face to face his beauty. 00:03:12.719 --> 00:03:16.319 We saw last week what that was like in Christ Himself. 00:03:16.719 --> 00:03:21.039 We saw him, the perfect image of God, the last Adam, the true human. 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:27.039 And as we listen to that, as a believer in Christ, all of us said we recognize him. 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:31.919 But not only do we recognize him, there's something that moved us last week. 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:35.439 It was, I want to be like that. 00:03:37.199 --> 00:03:39.759 That's really what I was made for. 00:03:39.919 --> 00:03:43.439 And I know I won't be at rest until I'm like that. 00:03:44.879 --> 00:03:55.360 And so after we lifted up our eyes to Christ, we now want to see ourselves with our longing, our desire, and yes, even our hope. 00:03:55.520 --> 00:03:58.240 Lord, make me like Jesus. 00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:14.000 But if you were like me, you woke up on Monday, and uh you woke up on Tuesday, and you felt the gap between what you heard Sunday evening and what you were doing on Monday morning. 00:04:15.199 --> 00:04:22.319 And that gap is troubling, it's disturbing, but it's not a sign of God's absence at all. 00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:32.720 It's a sign that the Spirit has actually awakened us, put within us a desire and a yearning that is different than what we would have had before we were Christ's. 00:04:33.279 --> 00:04:55.519 And that brings us to Romans chapter 8 here, a passage that lifts our eyes beyond our weaknesses into the intention of God and his purposes for us, telling us that his saving work is not merely about forgiveness or rescue, that his design and his intent is more than just restoration. 00:04:56.240 --> 00:05:02.319 It is to make us bear the image of God Himself in Christ. 00:05:03.120 --> 00:05:07.439 And so tonight we're going to look at how that happens and how these movements unfold. 00:05:07.519 --> 00:05:11.680 We're going to look at six altogether, three tonight and three next week. 00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:16.240 So this evening we're going to look at the people of God, a new man created. 00:05:16.480 --> 00:05:27.839 We're going to look at the purpose of God, which we've introduced here in Romans 8, being conformed to the image of his son, and then the means by which that happens, beholding the glory of Christ Himself. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:29.680 And then we'll stop there for tonight. 00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:40.160 And next week, we'll look at the process that God uses, the power that's behind that process, and then what it looks like in completion. 00:05:40.480 --> 00:05:45.519 It's just a foretaste of a future message that will unpack that in its totality. 00:05:45.839 --> 00:06:07.920 So this evening, as we listen together, I don't want you to walk away and say this message was about me trying harder, but rather that this is a message about looking to Christ and feeling the movement and motions of the Spirit and moving into the intentions of the Father, and that Father, Son, and Spirit are work to make this happen. 00:06:08.160 --> 00:06:10.240 So let's begin at the start. 00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:12.959 The people of God, a new man created. 00:06:13.199 --> 00:06:22.720 Now, when we talk about this renewed image of Christ-likeness, we need to begin where Scripture begins, with the moment that God makes us alive. 00:06:23.360 --> 00:06:34.079 The scriptures tell us that in our natural state we're dead in trespasses and sins, that we live according to the prince of the power of the air, children of disobedience and wrath. 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:40.319 But the scriptures tell us that God in new birth is restoring his image in us. 00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:45.439 And that process begins not with our effort and resolve. 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:54.160 It doesn't begin with our renewed desire to turn over a religious leaf and make a fresh commitment to live out a life of obedience. 00:06:54.480 --> 00:06:59.199 It begins with a miracle that God performs within our heart. 00:07:00.000 --> 00:07:09.759 Jesus, when he spoke to Nicodemus, a religious man in John chapter 3, did not tell him you need to try harder at what you're doing. 00:07:10.160 --> 00:07:14.000 You need to understand more, or you need to behave differently. 00:07:14.319 --> 00:07:20.240 He looked this religious man in the eye and he said, You must be born again. 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:27.439 That is definitely not a metaphor for moral improvement, right? 00:07:28.720 --> 00:07:37.120 It's an announcement that he needed to be brought into a new life and that he was a member of a kingdom that could not comprehend the new one. 00:07:37.279 --> 00:07:39.839 In fact, he spoke precisely about that. 00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:45.439 You can understand the wind, but you don't know where it comes from, and you don't know where it goes. 00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:48.879 And so the spirit operates in ways that are beyond you. 00:07:49.040 --> 00:07:55.120 And I'm telling you something that you can't comprehend right now, but you must be born from above. 00:07:57.360 --> 00:08:07.680 Your old self can't see that kingdom, your old self doesn't desire that kingdom, and your old self will not move toward that kingdom. 00:08:08.160 --> 00:08:18.319 Because the old self is dead, and dead things don't grow, and dead things don't change, and dead things do not reflect the image of Christ. 00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:24.639 In order to talk about the renewed image, there has to be a new life born. 00:08:24.959 --> 00:08:26.480 It's that radical. 00:08:27.759 --> 00:08:30.800 Paul in Ephesians chapter 2 talks about that. 00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:38.960 God being rich in mercy has made us alive in Christ. 00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:48.720 Not improved, not awakened, not inspired, made alive. 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:50.720 Made alive. 00:08:52.799 --> 00:08:58.559 Regeneration is that moment when the Spirit breathes life when there was none. 00:08:59.440 --> 00:09:14.000 When the heart of stone is transplanted with a heart of flesh, when the image is born to live again into the likeness it was designed. 00:09:14.720 --> 00:09:28.320 Paul describes that in Titus 3, and we'll look at this later in the morning messages, that we are brought into the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. 00:09:28.799 --> 00:09:35.840 Now listen to that language: the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit. 00:09:36.000 --> 00:09:47.440 There are echoes out of Genesis there with the Spirit hovering over the waters and God bringing order out of chaos and life where there is nothing. 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:50.240 And here the Spirit is doing that. 00:09:50.559 --> 00:09:53.919 The Spirit is bringing into us life itself. 00:09:55.360 --> 00:09:58.799 Paul talks about this again in 2 Corinthians 4, 6. 00:09:59.200 --> 00:10:01.600 Let light shine out of darkness. 00:10:01.679 --> 00:10:04.000 And he quotes the Genesis passage. 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:15.440 And he says, This God who said that has shone in our hearts to give the light to the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:34.960 Regeneration is what God did at the beginning, bringing life where there was death, bringing light where there was nothing but darkness, bringing substance where there was nothing but a void, a new humanity where death reigned. 00:10:36.159 --> 00:10:40.879 And so the scriptures Paul uses when he talks about this new existence. 00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:43.519 He speaks about the new man. 00:10:45.039 --> 00:10:52.320 And there he says in Ephesians 4, to put on the new man, created after the likeness of God. 00:10:53.440 --> 00:11:00.799 This is the new dimension in which we live and the new purpose for which we were reborn. 00:11:01.600 --> 00:11:04.799 He's talking about a new creation event. 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:12.720 Colossians 3, a parallel passage, that we're being renewed in knowledge after the image of the Creator. 00:11:12.799 --> 00:11:14.799 Do you hear that imagery language? 00:11:15.039 --> 00:11:17.759 There it is, in new birth. 00:11:24.639 --> 00:11:35.360 The image given in creation that was fractured by our sinful disobedience, displayed in his perfections in Christ, is now created in all who believe. 00:11:35.679 --> 00:11:38.080 And we are moving that direction. 00:11:38.960 --> 00:11:46.399 That's why Paul can say in 2 Corinthians 5, if any person be in Christ, he is a new creation. 00:11:46.879 --> 00:11:50.399 Behold, the new is come, the old is gone. 00:11:51.360 --> 00:11:53.679 It's a remarkable transformation. 00:11:54.320 --> 00:11:58.399 Once dead in sins, but now made alive. 00:11:59.279 --> 00:12:08.639 And this is where those questions intersect with us because now that he's made us alive, he is teaching us to live in that new life. 00:12:09.440 --> 00:12:19.519 So imagine a young woman living far away from the life of royalty, doesn't know anything about the court. 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:32.960 She has no pedigree, she has no refinement, she has no training in royal customs, her dress is simple, her manners are unpolished, her background is unimpressive. 00:12:33.919 --> 00:12:40.000 Nothing suggests anything about her that she belongs in a palace the way she is. 00:12:40.720 --> 00:12:43.279 But then something astonishing happens. 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:51.440 A prince, a noble prince, loved by his people, sets his affection on her. 00:13:04.639 --> 00:13:06.240 Something changes. 00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:11.519 In an instant, by sheer fact of that union, she becomes what she was not. 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:13.919 She is now a princess. 00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:27.120 Her status has been transformed, her identity is brand new, her standing is secure, and it's not because of any merit of her own, but because she's brought into this marriage of the prince. 00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:30.399 Now she's truly a princess. 00:13:31.039 --> 00:13:32.879 She's not yet a polished one. 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:36.799 She still carries the habits of her old life. 00:13:37.039 --> 00:13:39.840 She still thinks like a commoner. 00:13:40.240 --> 00:13:43.519 She still stumbles over the customs of the court. 00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:49.200 She still feels out of place in all the halls and rooms of the palace. 00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:52.080 So what happens? 00:13:54.000 --> 00:14:02.000 The rest of her life is about the process of learning to live what she already is. 00:14:02.559 --> 00:14:04.799 That she is a princess. 00:14:05.200 --> 00:14:07.919 And she begins to grow into that new identity. 00:14:08.159 --> 00:14:11.279 She begins to learn the ways of the kingdom. 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:17.600 She slowly begins to shed the patterns of the old life and to take on the new. 00:14:17.759 --> 00:14:19.759 Not in order to become a princess. 00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:21.600 She already is one. 00:14:22.639 --> 00:14:24.480 But to become what she is. 00:14:25.279 --> 00:14:33.039 And when God makes us anew, he brings us into a new life, into a new kingdom, into a new savior and Lord. 00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:36.159 There, our status is secure. 00:14:37.039 --> 00:14:44.399 The stamping of that image upon us is the process that we'll talk about more and more today and next week. 00:14:44.639 --> 00:14:50.720 That lifelong process of learning to live within the palace that God has put us in. 00:14:51.679 --> 00:14:54.320 He doesn't love us because we're lovely. 00:14:54.799 --> 00:14:58.320 We become lovely because he's loved us. 00:14:59.279 --> 00:15:11.600 He joins us to himself, he gives us his righteousness, and he patiently molds us and shapes us to walk and to talk in the ways of his kingdom. 00:15:12.639 --> 00:15:39.919 And so when you understand that, that this process begins right at new birth, and that you're living in between that awakening of new creation and the completion of God's intentions, and you find yourself in the tension of all that, you begin to realize something about that, that you're learning to live that life that God has destined for you, that He is bringing you into. 00:15:40.559 --> 00:15:53.120 And all of the desires in you that rise and fall, and all the habits that you'll slowly loosen, and the patterns that will break and reform, these are not signs that your new creation is uncertain. 00:15:53.279 --> 00:16:08.639 They're actually signs that your new creation is real, that God is doing something in you, that he's reordering and reshaping and reforming you and bringing you into conformity with the image of Jesus Christ. 00:16:09.759 --> 00:16:14.399 But before we talk about that in detail, we have to start in this one spot. 00:16:14.720 --> 00:16:22.399 It begins with new birth, it begins with resurrection life, it begins with new creation. 00:16:23.679 --> 00:16:36.320 And if you're here this evening and you don't know Christ as your Savior, this isn't about trying to make yourself better or joining a church in order to live a life of religiosity. 00:16:36.639 --> 00:16:42.480 It's about finding a savior who will make you a completely different person. 00:16:43.039 --> 00:16:46.240 You must be born again, just as Jesus said. 00:16:46.639 --> 00:16:54.480 Your need is that radical, and the transformation is that radical to make you a new person. 00:16:55.200 --> 00:17:01.519 Now let's go back to Romans 8 for a second and just think about this a little more deeply than we did in the introduction. 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:13.440 If you look at that in Romans chapter 8, in verse 28 and 29, you'll notice that Paul here is describing the entire trajectory of the Christian life. 00:17:13.680 --> 00:17:15.920 And he doesn't begin with us. 00:17:16.160 --> 00:17:21.039 He doesn't begin with our desire to grow or our attempt to change or us taking on a new religion. 00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:23.680 He begins with the eternal purposes of God. 00:17:24.319 --> 00:17:29.759 For those he foreknew he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. 00:17:30.559 --> 00:17:37.839 And that single sentence carries the whole weight of that trajectory, the whole journey that we're on. 00:17:38.559 --> 00:17:39.839 Think about it for a second. 00:17:40.079 --> 00:18:01.680 Before you ever felt the ache or longing of change, before you ever felt the sting of conviction of your sin, before you ever prayed your very first prayer or opened your Bible to read it sincerely, God had already set his purposes in place. 00:18:03.119 --> 00:18:16.400 And his purpose wasn't just to rescue you or to free you from judgment, but to restore the very image of Christ in you as we were designed in the beginning. 00:18:19.039 --> 00:18:22.720 Many believers, however, don't live their lives like that. 00:18:23.039 --> 00:18:37.599 They think that somehow their spiritual growth is dependent on their consistency, dependent on their discipline, dependent on their emotional steadiness, dependent on their ability to maintain spiritual momentum. 00:18:37.839 --> 00:18:39.440 I must do this. 00:18:40.880 --> 00:18:42.960 What is Paul telling us here? 00:18:44.559 --> 00:18:53.279 He is telling us that the foundation of our transformation is not how strongly we grip Christ, but how strongly God grips us in Christ. 00:18:54.160 --> 00:18:58.160 It begins with God's desire to make us like his son. 00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:04.799 Now that's going to transform our desires and our interests and our disciplines. 00:19:05.039 --> 00:19:06.880 But it doesn't start there. 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:08.720 It begins with God. 00:19:09.519 --> 00:19:12.720 It begins with his desire to make us like Christ. 00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:18.880 And that is not something that's tentative, fragile, or experimental. 00:19:19.279 --> 00:19:25.359 It's secure because it starts here and it ends in glory. 00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:29.119 And I didn't see any detours along the way. 00:19:29.599 --> 00:19:30.559 Not one. 00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:41.680 What are you sure about, Paul? 00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:49.119 That he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 00:19:50.640 --> 00:19:54.720 So there, let that truth settle into your heart. 00:19:56.079 --> 00:20:02.319 The seasons when you feel slow, they're not wasted seasons. 00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:08.960 The moments when your spiritual life feels stagnant are not moments when you're abandoned. 00:20:09.920 --> 00:20:33.599 The places when you feel the tension in your life, the impatience you wish you didn't have any longer, that you're impatient with your own impatience, the fears that rise up within you and the anxieties that grip you sometimes, the habits that cling to you stubbornly, those are not signs that God has stepped away from you or stepped back from you. 00:20:34.480 --> 00:20:37.519 They're the very places he is going to work. 00:20:39.359 --> 00:20:47.599 Because he is going to conform us into the image of Christ, which means he doesn't work around our weaknesses. 00:20:47.839 --> 00:20:50.400 He actually is going to move toward our weaknesses. 00:20:50.559 --> 00:20:56.640 And the reason why they're at the forefront of your mind is because he is operating in those places. 00:20:56.880 --> 00:21:02.319 He's making you aware of where you are not yet like Christ. 00:21:03.519 --> 00:21:05.920 He's not going to avoid those fractured places. 00:21:06.079 --> 00:21:13.440 He's going to enter into them, and he's going to do so with steady intention, and he's going to shape you into the likeness of Christ. 00:21:13.759 --> 00:21:17.440 Because God is not concerned with how comfortable you are. 00:21:26.400 --> 00:21:31.440 However, the more you are holy, the more truly happy you will be. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:07.519 Image is not an abstract concept, it is a person, Jesus Christ. 00:22:09.599 --> 00:22:17.200 So whoever we might be, if we are born again in Christ, we are being brought to that place. 00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:24.319 So Peter, in the midst of his impulsiveness, was not defaulted because he was an impulsive person. 00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:31.440 God began to move within him and to make him a steady presence in the midst of God's people. 00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:40.640 John's early ambition to rise with his brother to places of prominence turned into the place of love. 00:22:41.279 --> 00:22:45.119 And the more we know about John, the more that word comes out. 00:22:45.519 --> 00:22:52.000 Sacrificial care for the benefit of others, rather than stepping on others to benefit yourself. 00:22:52.960 --> 00:23:11.920 Paul's zeal in order to persecute the church becomes in Paul a place of gentleness and patience, as he even speaks to his son Timothy in the faith and says, Be patient with all, even those who oppose you. 00:23:13.519 --> 00:23:17.759 You see, we're being shaped with the precision of a master craftsman. 00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:32.079 And he uses every joy, he uses every sorrow, he uses every success and every failure, he uses every season of clarity and all those moments of confusion to bring us into the image of his own son. 00:23:32.799 --> 00:23:34.480 None of it's wasted. 00:23:34.960 --> 00:23:37.599 And this is the foundation that we stand on. 00:23:38.480 --> 00:23:42.000 Because God is not going to leave us unchanged. 00:23:42.559 --> 00:23:44.720 He is not going to abandon this work. 00:23:44.960 --> 00:23:49.599 He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. 00:23:50.559 --> 00:23:52.640 That's his determination. 00:23:54.079 --> 00:24:00.559 The God who set his purpose on you is not going to step back and say, I think I've changed my mind about you. 00:24:01.359 --> 00:24:03.759 I'll just leave you as you are. 00:24:05.440 --> 00:24:13.279 And that brings us to the next moment because if the purpose of God is to conform us to the image of his son, that leads us naturally to this question. 00:24:13.519 --> 00:24:15.279 How does that happen? 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:18.640 How do we become conformed to the image of Christ? 00:24:18.799 --> 00:24:21.680 How does the Spirit shape us into that? 00:24:22.480 --> 00:24:25.759 Where does that transformation show up? 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:28.240 Well, let's go to 2 Corinthians 3. 00:24:28.799 --> 00:24:30.559 2 Corinthians 3. 00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:41.599 Take a look at verse 18 with me. 00:24:42.960 --> 00:24:53.920 We all with unveiled faces are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. 00:24:54.160 --> 00:24:58.240 And this is from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 00:24:58.799 --> 00:25:03.359 Romans 8 talks about the purposes that God has to conform us to the image of his Son. 00:25:03.519 --> 00:25:09.599 And Paul is now here showing us the means that he uses to accomplish that purpose. 00:25:10.079 --> 00:25:16.000 And this single sentence is one of the clearest windows into the Christian life that we can have. 00:25:16.240 --> 00:25:23.680 And it tells us that our transformation isn't because we're looking inward, it's because we're looking at Christ. 00:25:24.079 --> 00:25:29.359 Our transformation happens because we are gazing on Christ himself. 00:25:29.519 --> 00:25:37.519 And Paul uses this display of a contrast between Moses and Christ in the old covenant and the new covenant. 00:25:37.680 --> 00:25:43.119 And he talks about the glory that Moses had when he came off of Mount Sinai. 00:25:43.279 --> 00:25:45.200 And he talks about it in this way. 00:25:45.440 --> 00:25:48.240 And just read this chapter on your own afterwards. 00:25:48.400 --> 00:25:50.480 He talks about that glory fading. 00:25:50.720 --> 00:25:52.720 He talks about it being temporary. 00:25:52.960 --> 00:25:58.960 He talks about it being just a reflection for a moment and thus incomplete. 00:25:59.839 --> 00:26:04.319 But then he says that the glory we behold in Christ is different. 00:26:04.799 --> 00:26:10.640 It doesn't fade, it doesn't diminish, it doesn't leave us unchanged. 00:26:10.880 --> 00:26:19.200 And as we behold Christ, the Spirit uses that to shape us into the very likeness of Christ himself. 00:26:20.960 --> 00:26:23.200 And so we focus on him. 00:26:23.519 --> 00:26:25.839 That's the means by which it happens. 00:26:26.079 --> 00:26:29.839 The more clearly we see Christ, the more we love him. 00:26:30.240 --> 00:26:33.680 And the more we love him, the more we're willing to follow him. 00:26:34.000 --> 00:26:39.440 And the more we follow him, the more we take on the likeness of him. 00:26:40.720 --> 00:26:46.160 And this is why seeing Christ in Scripture is so very important. 00:26:48.640 --> 00:26:50.480 You've heard me say this a lot of times. 00:26:50.640 --> 00:26:56.799 There are a number of churches, even good churches, who talk about the gospel as the front door. 00:26:57.200 --> 00:27:05.119 And when you get in, it's all about service and sacrifice and Christianity and disciplines and all of that stuff. 00:27:05.200 --> 00:27:10.160 And you think, how does the gospel connect to all of that? 00:27:10.319 --> 00:27:12.559 How does Christ connect to all of that? 00:27:12.799 --> 00:27:18.319 And I'm here to say the gospel in Christ is not the front door, it's the house. 00:27:18.559 --> 00:27:20.480 It's literally the house. 00:27:22.160 --> 00:27:28.720 Seeing Christ in Scripture is imperative for our growth into that image. 00:27:29.359 --> 00:27:37.440 The Bible is not just a source of information, it is the place where the glory of Christ is revealed. 00:27:39.039 --> 00:27:44.960 On the Emmaus Road, the disciples who walked with Jesus talked about their hearts burning within them. 00:27:45.200 --> 00:27:50.400 And it wasn't because they had a new insight about themselves, it was because they had a new insight about Christ. 00:27:51.599 --> 00:28:01.839 Mary sat at Jesus' feet because she knew being in his presence was the better thing, even than the service that her sister was performing. 00:28:02.319 --> 00:28:24.480 Paul, who recognized that he was willing to let go of all of his heritage and all of his actions and all the things that he did to build a credit in God's account book, says that he's counting everything but loss for the surpassing knowledge of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, in Philippians 3. 00:28:25.759 --> 00:28:39.119 And so when we look at Scripture, we have to realize that it's the Spirit is at work, not just to illumine the text for our information, but to illumine Christ within the text for our transformation. 00:28:40.240 --> 00:28:51.680 That he's bringing conviction into our hearts so that we might find that Christ is the one who's borne our guilt and rest our hearts in the gospel again. 00:28:52.240 --> 00:29:04.160 That he's moving us not simply for correction, but so that we might be brought into the image of Christ Himself, who said, I am the way and the truth and the life. 00:29:04.640 --> 00:29:12.400 That he's not merely strengthening us in the word, but he's anchoring us in the one who is our anchor. 00:29:13.839 --> 00:29:19.440 And so when you understand that, everything about your Christian life transforms. 00:29:19.920 --> 00:29:23.839 Scripture becomes a place of encounter, not just a place of information. 00:29:24.480 --> 00:29:30.079 Prayer becomes a place of reorientation, not just a place where the eloquent can perform. 00:29:31.119 --> 00:29:37.920 Worship becomes a place of realignment, not just a place where we feel better. 00:29:39.200 --> 00:29:44.640 Community becomes a place of shaping and not a place of comparison. 00:29:46.240 --> 00:30:03.519 These are not tasks to complete, they are gifts of God who had operating through scripture, through prayer, through worship, through community, as the Spirit activates those things in our heart to bring us into a deeper display of Christ Himself. 00:30:04.559 --> 00:30:19.599 And even our troubles, as the Apostle Paul discovered, when he went through grave difficulty and speaks about in 2 Corinthians, and he realized that in his weaknesses Christ's strength was made perfect. 00:30:19.920 --> 00:30:27.680 And even in the troubles that he was bearing, God was operative to show him something about Christ. 00:30:30.559 --> 00:30:36.400 So Paul says here, we're being transformed, but listen to how he says it. 00:30:37.279 --> 00:30:46.880 We're being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, from glory to glory. 00:30:48.240 --> 00:30:50.000 What is he describing there? 00:30:50.240 --> 00:31:06.720 Some people think the Christian life is some sort of springboard up into the real Christian life, and that there's some higher plane and some higher level in which you just all of a sudden feel and experience and come into. 00:31:10.079 --> 00:31:24.319 He said we're being transformed into the image of Christ from glory to glory, from one degree of glory to another, which tells us that the spirit operates in a steady-driven movement. 00:31:24.720 --> 00:31:29.759 A movement that begins with beholding Christ and continues with beholding Christ. 00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:43.279 And as we behold Christ, we are restored as that image becomes clearer and clearer to us, and clearer and clearer to our motives and desires, and clearer and clearer in the way we act our lives. 00:31:45.119 --> 00:31:47.680 That is how He works. 00:31:48.480 --> 00:32:00.559 So this evening we'll close with that, to see how these larger pieces sort of move in the foundation, beginning with the people of God that God creates through new birth. 00:32:00.799 --> 00:32:14.240 That the restored image doesn't rise out of our effort, but it rises out of God's intentions in new birth, to make us alive and to create the new man, to plant resurrection life where there was once death. 00:32:14.559 --> 00:32:21.759 And then to see that his purposes aren't there simply to save, but to conform us to the image of Christ Himself. 00:32:22.559 --> 00:32:30.640 And if that's God's intent, then our growth is not fragile and our transformation is not left in uncertainty. 00:32:30.960 --> 00:32:35.359 We are resting on God's steady purposes and intents. 00:32:36.160 --> 00:32:43.119 And then the means that we're transformed by beholding the glory of Christ. 00:32:44.240 --> 00:32:48.400 Because the Spirit is going to shape us to be like the Son. 00:32:49.200 --> 00:32:55.119 And those three movements are the foundation for this restored image, but they're not the whole story. 00:32:55.359 --> 00:33:09.680 And so next week we will look at the process that God uses, the power of God to bring that about, and what God's final purposes and intents are as we wake up into the presence of God like our Savior. 00:33:09.920 --> 00:33:11.359 So let's pray. 00:33:13.359 --> 00:33:36.319 Father, what a wonder it is that you would take death, our death, our spiritual insensitivity and deadness, and transform us by giving us new life in Christ, so that we might be able to say, The new is come, the old is gone, though we are a part of a new creation. 00:33:37.519 --> 00:34:04.400 Father, not only to bring us into that kingdom, but to make us like the king, and to give us such riches that we will call ourselves co-heirs with Christ, to receive all the things that Christ has gained for us, to be recognized as a kingdom of priests to our God, and that the image of Christ will be stamped upon us. 00:34:04.799 --> 00:34:07.279 Father, how we long for that day. 00:34:07.519 --> 00:34:15.679 And so, as we do long for it, we pray that you would bring us more and more into the likeness of Christ Himself. 00:34:16.239 --> 00:34:18.719 May we not rest where we are today. 00:34:18.960 --> 00:34:21.440 May we not be proud of what we know. 00:34:21.840 --> 00:34:33.280 May we press forward, as Paul said, that we might apprehend that for which we've been apprehended, that we may know Him and the power of His resurrection. 00:34:33.840 --> 00:34:43.199 And so, Lord, accomplish this and help us to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. 00:34:43.440 --> 00:34:44.079 Amen.