Salvation, in all of its
aspects, is a given. Here in my opinion are some of the logical steps that
proceed from that analysis:
- Firstly,
there a soulish urge to know our beginnings. That urge is in line with the
Genesis story that we were created in His image—that is, given special insights and desires, and a reflection of the desire to know ourselves.
Thus, if we truly know ourselves, we will truly know God. Such knowledge is, however, not exhaustive. Creation, including us, is within limits.
- So,
although, there is dawning that we are totally dependent on that causality
(we could not logically create ourselves) therefore, there must be a higher
power, and thus the necessity of a Creator.
- The pattern fits perfectly in the Genesis story, as mentioned, with God as the
spiritual catalysis that makes everything possible that we know or can be known. I’ll let it lie there, the process goes much deeper, but to know
God in all of His fullness is logically impossible. However, to put it
another way:
- Only
God truly knows God, our knowledge about Him is revelatory and is
therefore a given.
- That
given began when He created man, male and female, in His own image and
likeness, but not in His essence, since that would make us eternal also—that
is, without beginning, and of course, eternal in that sense. Unless we
are will to accept that Divine essence is somehow able to self-implode
into His own creation—a view, incidentally that Thomas Jonathan Jackson Altizer
(May 28,1927 – November 28, 2018) and the death of God movement seemed to foolishly
accept. Christ is not a self-implosion of God into creatureliness, but
rather a voluntary expression through the modality of humankind.
Then God said, "Let Us
make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the
fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and overall
the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." God
created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and
female He created them (ref. Hebrews 1:3).
And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature and upholds all things by the word of His power When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high
This is the book of the
generations of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the
likeness of God.
"Whoever sheds man's
blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.
Do not lie to one another,
since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the
new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the
One who created him …
With it we bless our Lord and
Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God …
"Therefore, you are to be
perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
But you did not learn Christ
in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as
truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay
aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of
deceit …
For those whom He foreknew, He
also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would
be the firstborn among many brethren;
For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF
THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.
But we all, with unveiled
face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed
into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
And He gave some as apostles,
and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and
teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the
building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the
faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure
of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
Now concerning Christ who is
both God and man:
He is the image of the
invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
And He is the radiance of His
glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the
word of His power When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the
right hand of the Majesty on high …
… who, although He existed in
the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but
emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the
likeness of men.
… in whose case the god of
this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see
the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
He made Him who knew no sin to
be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
For we do not have a high
priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted
in all things as we are, yet without sin.
For what the Law could not do,
weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh …
One thing that is manifestly
obvious in all of these verses is the overarching truth that we are totally
dependent on our Creator, and that our knowledge of Him is totally revelatory,
as we see an example of in Matthew
16:16-17:
16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven.
16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. 17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven.
Take care,
JimR_/
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