Image
How is it that we appear to those about us? Can someone see there is something different? Or do we look like everyone around, dressing in the worldly fashions that are immodest and unhealthy and looking like someone who we are not? Do we look like a Christian? Can people see that we are following Jesus just by looking at us? Jesus has given instructions to His children how to clothe the body. And how to prepare for eternal life.
Zephaniah 1:8
And it shall come to pass
in the day of the LORD’S
sacrifice, that I will punish
the princes, and the king’s
children, and all such as are
clothed with strange apparel.
1 Timothy 2:9
In like manner also, that
women adorn themselves in
modest apparel, with
shamefacedness and sobriety;
not with broided hair,
or gold, or pearls,
or costly array;
Jeremiah 4:30
And when thou art spoiled,
what wilt thou do? Though
thou clothest thyself with
crimson, though thou deckest
thee with ornaments of gold,
though thou rentest thy
face with painting, in vain
shalt thou make thyself fair;
thy lovers will despise thee,
they will seek thy life.
2 Kings 9:30
And when Jehu was come
to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of
it; and she painted her face,
and tired her head, and
looked out at a window.
1 Peter 3:3
Whose adorning let it not be
that outward adorning of plaiting
the hair, and of wearing of gold,
or of putting on of apparel;
1 Peter 3:4
But let it be the hidden
man of the heart, in that
which is not corruptible,
even the ornament of a meek
and quiet spirit, which is in the
sight of God of great price.
Our sins have brought decay and sickness of all kinds because we are so use to listening to Satan and his sly schemes. The Devil can have no control over us unless we let him. When we follow his suggestions then we are under his control even if we say we are just doing our own thing. If we are not obeying the Lord in all things then we belong to Satan. He is working overtime to destroy everyone he can. But Jesus is working hard also to save all who will accept His offer of salvation.
The Image of God is being very much marred and sometimes obliterated by the Devil and his workers, whether they be his angels or his human agents. In numerous ways the cartoons that are so prevalent deface the image of God. The horror of some of these pictures are nothing but demonic. Even Bible pictures are being made to be cartoons. This is most disgusting and an insult to our Creator. Children are fed these pictures and therefore are being taught falsehoods and lies for this is not God’s truth to make things look horrible. God is the lover of the lovely and beauty He made. It is the devil that causes things to be ugly. Children are to be taught the truth and fill the mind with beauty.
Also the Lord did not tell us to paint our face and mess up the way He made us. Make-up never made anyone beautiful. In the Bible painting the face is connected with wicked people that were put to death. It hinders the body from having healthy skin.
It is fine to have some updates on family portraits from time to time. But the making of these can become idolatry when done in excess and when the money should be used for the work of spreading the gospel of Jesus. We are to use pictures to illustrate the Bible and Bible prophecy to bring out the understanding better. God’s second book is nature and He wants us to enjoy His beautiful creations.
Youth’s Instructor November 5, 1896
Those sins which we would look upon as small are not so in the sight of a holy God. Even the very thought of foolishness is sin in his eyes. He wants us to put away from our lives the wrong words and unholy thoughts.
Reflecting Christ p 247
What do we want? A face that will reflect the sunshine of the glory of God, we want a face that reflects the likeness of the divine. We want a character reshaped. We want that the image of Christ should be restored to us. May God help us that we may . . . do our best in our lifetime.
Manuscript Releases Volume Seven PG 389
When we reflect Christ’s image, we shall love one another as He has loved us. We shall not love as we love our neighbor, but as Christ loved us. It is an advance to love as Christ loved. This is the perfection of Christian character. When we can say, My will is wholly submerged in God’s will, then peace and rest come in.
S.D.A. Bible Commentary Vol. 5 PG 1136
Satan’s Masterpiece.
The forces of the powers of darkness will unite with human agents who have given themselves unto the control of Satan, and the same scenes that were exhibited at the trial, rejection and crucifixion of Christ will be revived. Through yielding to satanic influences men will be merged into fiends, and those who were created in the image of God, who were formed to honor and glorify their Creator, will become the habitation of dragons, and Satan will see in an apostate race his masterpiece of evil–men who reflect his own image 1894 .
S.D.A. Bible Commentary Vol. 6 PG 1105
Every Faculty to Reflect the Divine Mind. It was
a wonderful thing for God to create man, to make mind. The glory of God is to be revealed in the creation of man in God’s image and in his redemption. One soul is of more value than a world. God created man that every faculty might be the faculty of the divine mind. The Lord Jesus Christ is the author of our being, and He is also the author of our redemption, and everyone who will enter the kingdom of God will develop a character that is the counter-part of the character of God. None can dwell with God in the holy heaven but those who bear His likeness. Those who are to be redeemed are to be overcomers; they are to be elevated, pure, one with Christ. 1895
That I May Know Him PG 134
How glorious are the possibilities set before the fallen race! Through His Son, God has revealed the excellency to which man is capable of attaining. Through the merits of Christ man is lifted from his depraved state, purified, and made more precious than the golden wedge of Ophir. It is possible for him to become a companion of theangels in glory, and to reflect the image of Jesus Christ. . . . Yet how seldom he realizes to what heights he could attain if he would allow God to direct his every step!
The Youth’s Instructor October 13, 1892
The youth are called upon to copy the pattern given them. They cannot do this in their own strength; for human nature is erring. Through studying the life and character of Jesus, desire is awakened in the heart to have the mind of Christ, to learn of him meekness and lowliness of spirit. Jesus said, “I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified.” It is his desire that his followers shall reflect his image. One unsanctified act on the part of our Saviour, would have marred the pattern, and he could not have been a perfect example for us; but although he was tempted in all points like as we are, he was yet without one taint of sin. He proclaims his character by the mouth of the prophet, saying, “I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight.” All who profess the name of Christ should delight in these things, by conversation and conduct making manifest to the world that they are copying the Pattern.
Sons and Daughters of God PG 148
The Majesty of heaven identifies His interests with that of suffering humanity. Our associates and companions are in need of heartfelt kindness and tender sympathy. . . . It is impossible to grow up into Christ our living head, unless we practice the lesson He has given us of sympathy, compassion, and love. It is impossible to reflect the image of Christ unless this love which is of heavenly birth, is in the soul. No one will pass the portals of the city of God who does not reflect this attribute.
The Gospel Herald December 1,1899
Catch the divine rays of light from Christ and you need not try to shine; for you will reflect his image, which is formed within. You can not help shining. Others will see the Christ side of the character revealed. There is a great deal of rough work to do, but the grace of Christ will be revealed in spirit, in speech, in experience. The salvation of souls is the grand object to be kept before us, and mental and spiritual improvement will be seen in all our ways, habits, and practises. They will be fragrant with the atmosphere which surrounds Jesus Christ. We all have now, and ever have had, the sympathies of the divine intelligences. Heavenly beings co-operate with us in the battle as we advance against fallen angels and fallen men to press the battle into new territories, even where Satan’s seat is.
S.D.A. Bible Commentary Vol. 5 PG 1130
The Incarnation an Unfathomable Mystery.
In contemplating the incarnation of Christ in humanity, we stand baffled before an unfathomable mystery, that the human mind cannot comprehend. The more we reflect upon it, the more amazing does it appear. How wide is the contrast between the divinity of Christ and the helpless infant in Bethlehem’s manger! How can we span the distance between the mighty God and a helpless child? And yet the Creator of worlds, He in whom was the fullness of the Godhead bodily, was manifest in the helpless babe in the manger. Far higher than any of the angels, equal with the Father in dignity and glory, and yet wearing the garb of humanity! Divinity and humanity were mysteriously combined, and man and God became one. It is in this union that we find the hope of our fallen race. Looking upon Christ in humanity, we look upon God, and see in Him the brightness of His glory, the express image of His person. July 30, 1896
S.D.A. Bible Commentary Vol. 7 PG 933
Entering the Sanctuary With Christ.
This is the great day of atonement, and our Advocate is standing before the Father, pleading as our intercessor. In place of wrapping about us the garments of self-righteousness, we should be found daily humbling ourselves before God, confessing our own individual sins, seeking the pardon of our transgressions, and cooperating with Christ in the work of preparing our souls to reflect the divine image. Unless we enter the sanctuary above, and unite with Christ in working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, we shall be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, and shall be pronounced wanting. 1898
The Signs of the Times March 23,1888
We need to be refined, cleansed from all earthliness, till we reflect the image of our Saviour, and become “partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” Then we shall delight to do the will of God, and Christ can own us before the Father and before the holy angels as those who abide in him, and he will not be ashamed to call us brethren. But we shall not boast of our holiness. As we have clearer views of Christ’s spotless and infinite purity, we shall feel as did Daniel, when he beheld the glory of the Lord, and said, “My comeliness was turned into corruption.”
The Signs of the Times February 8, 1892
But sometimes those who profess to be followers of Christ will say, “You must not be surprised if I am rough, if I speak bluntly, if I manifest temper, for it is my way.” You ask us not to be surprised. Is not heaven surprised at such manifestations, since the plan of salvation has been devised, since an infinite sacrifice has been made on Calvary’s cross, that we might reflect the image of Jesus? Will your way enter heaven? Suppose one comes up to the pearly gates and says, “I know that I have been rude and unkind, and it is my disposition to lie and to steal, but I want an entrance into the heavenly mansions.” Will that way find an entrance into the portals of the heavenly city?–No; it is those who keep Christ’s way that will enter there. He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” If anyone thinks he can climb up some other way, he will find that it will not lead him to the mansions of glory.
The Signs of the Times March 14,1895
Jesus is the Light of the world, and those who claim that he broke the law of God are in the darkness of error.â¦â¦If the followers of Christ do
not derive their life, their fragrance, and their saving qualities from Jesus Christ, they have no spiritual worth. But all who conform their life, their heart, their mind, fully and ungrudgingly to his service, reflect his image, and shed the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness into the darkness of a world that lieth in wickedness.
Sermons and Talks Volume One PG 63
God designs that every minister of the gospel shall increase in efficiency. He designs that they shall have more power in prayer, that they shall become more intelligent in handling the Word of God, continually growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; and the more that they think and talk of Christ, the more they will meditate upon the blessed Saviour and the Word He has given them to obey, the morethey will reflect the image of Jesus Christ; and by so doing they will become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Reflecting Christ PG 20
To be sanctified is to become a partaker of the divine nature, catching the spirit and mind of Jesus, ever learning in the school of Christ. “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” It is impossible for any of us by our own power or our own efforts to work this change in ourselves. It is the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, which Jesus said He would send into the world, that changes our character into the image of Christ; and when this is accomplished, we reflect, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. That is, the character of the one who thus beholds Christ is so like His, that one looking at him sees Christ’s own character shining out as from a mirror. Imperceptibly to ourselves, we are changed day by day from our ways and will into the ways and will of Christ, into the loveliness of His character. Thus we grow up into Christ, and unconsciously reflect His image.
In Heavenly Places PG 86
In Jesus Christ there is fragrance of character. There is the developing of nobleness of character, of refinement and purity, for by beholding you reflect the image of Christ. Sons of God, daughters of God, we must be like Him, and in this close relationship to God we receive power and heavenly endowment that we may work the works of God. . . .
In Heavenly Places PG 285
Oh, how happy will those be who have made themselves ready for the marriage supper of the Lamb, who are robed in the righteousness of Christ, and reflect His lovely image! They will have on the pure white linen which is the righteousness of the saints, and Christ will lead them by the side of living waters; God will wipe away all tears from their eyes, and they will have the life that runs parallel with the life of God.
Reflecting Christ PG 123
The less we see to esteem in ourselves, the more we shall see to esteem in the infinite purity and loveliness of our Saviour. A view of our sinfulness drives us to Him who can pardon; and when the soul, realizing its helplessness, reaches out after Christ, He will reveal Himself in power. The more our sense of need drives us to Him and to the Word of God, the more exalted views we shall have of His character, and the more fully we shall reflect His image.
Advent Review and Sabbath Herald
September 16,1890
In the pathway of all who seek the crown, is the cross. If we would become partakers with Christ of his glory, we must be willing to share with him in his sufferings. If we would reflect his glorious image, we must be submissive to the divine molding; we must follow in the footsteps of the Man of Calvary. God has claims upon every one of us. He created us, he redeemed us with an infinite sacrifice. He has promised the overcomer the great rewards of eternity. Why do we cling to anything that is offensive to him? Why not separate from every sin, and perfect holiness before him? The only reward for sin is unutterable woe and death; but the righteous shall be at his right hand in fullness of joy, in his presence, where are pleasures forevermore.
The Upward Look PG 70
The standard of character which Christ has made it possible for us to reach . . . is a perfect standard.
———————————————————————–
The human race was created in the image of God by our wonderful Creator. It is an awesome thought that we were so important to Him that He made us to resemble our Maker and not another species of some type of creature. That image has very much deteriorated over the years because of sin and are no longer the perfect likeness as was our father Adam.