Made in God’s Image: For Relationship

This past Sunday I had the privilege to teach at my home church. I love to teach the Bible, and, well, there’s no place like home!

I picked up a topic that I have been studying for the bulk of this year – what does it mean, and what does it look like, to be made in God’s image. Here are some more thoughts about that! 

You were made in God’s Image for Relationship

You and I have a need for intimacy! We long to be deeply known, and to deeply know another. We want to be connected. We long for the “inner circle” where there are “inside jokes” and the safety to share our heart without being misunderstood. 

Do you know, Jesus wants that for you, too? He longs for you to be included in his inner circle! 

[20] … I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, [21] that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. [22] I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: [23] I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. [24] Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. John 17:20-24

This prayer is for you. The cry of God’s heart, the price paid by Jesus on the cross, was so that you and I could share in the intimate fellowship that God has. God is a relationship, he is a community of three distinct, diverse persons, perfectly united. God’s desire is that we, as distinct and unique as we each are, would be intimately united through Jesus, in Jesus, and with Jesus in the Godhead.

God did not create people because he was lonely! He was already a community, a relationship! What if God created you simply because he wanted to share the awesomeness of his community with you! And for you to be part of what was happening, a partner in the dreams and heart of God! 

Intimacy can only happen between those designed for intimacy.

Imagine trying to share your goals and dreams with one of your pets. You might get some purrs or tail-wagging, maybe a meow or bark, but no animal has the same capacity as you and I to be intimate. People are designed to have and share goals, dreams, feelings, desires, and love. We can entrust those deep, vulnerable parts of ourselves to another person, because that person is like us in design. 

So we, made in God’s image, have been designed as he is, with the capacity to know God intimately, and be known intimately. The word know used in the Bible is often the same word used in the verse that says, and Adam knew Eve, and they bore a son… This word is used for this type of intimacy many times, and it is used to describe the intimacy that God desires with you and I.

Intimacy creates new life.

Through intimacy with God the seeds of his Word will be planted in you, incubated and grown, and will transform you as new life is brought onto the scene! God wants to partner with us to bring his nature and character to the world we live in. Draw near to him, listening daily to the instruction of his Word, and allow the seeds of God to be planted in the soil of your heart.

Here is a link to the podcast of the message, God’s Image Bearers on 10/20/13. This is an overflow from a message by the same name on 7/14/13.