The Image of God - Jesus Series
1 Corinthians 2:2 (KJV)
2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.
Colossians 1:15 (KJV)
Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Searching for a Jesus Who Looks More Like Me
By Eric V. Copage - April 10, 2020
https://nyti.ms/2VhpH1H
A few of the findings…
The Chinese painter James He Qi (pronounced “huh chi”) depicts the gospel story of Jesus and his disciples suddenly caught in a storm. As the waves rise, the disciples turn fearfully to Jesus. With outstretched arms, he stills the winds and the water.
The inked strip of parchment from Ethiopia features a black Jesus at the Last Supper, an image ubiquitous in the country.
Greg Weatherby, an Australian of Aboriginal descent, depicts Jesus and his followers as Mimi, spirit beings with elongated bodies who taught the Aboriginal peoples practical life skills and gave them culture. “Jesus is crucified in front of Uluru (Ayers Rock), a place of mystery and magic for Aboriginal peoples,” Ms. Jones, the art blogger, said.
“By absorbing Jesus’s death into Aboriginal myth, Weatherby suggests that it, too, has sacred significance and is for his people,”
In the mid-1930s, students at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago voted a black and white sketch titled “Son of Man,” by the illustrator Warner Sallman, the most accurate portrayal of Jesus. Kriebel & Bates, a publisher of religious material in Indianapolis, bought the rights to the image and, in 1940, the copyright to Sallman’s color painting, “Head of Christ.” An industry was born.
“Wallet-sized versions were distributed to soldiers and sailors during World War II,” said Mr. Johnson, of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity. “It made its way to church bulletins, calendars, posters, bookmarks — literally hundreds of millions of them.”
This bold, soulful depiction of Jesus is by Sofia Minson, a painter of Swedish, Irish, English and Maori descent living in New Zealand. It shows him as a Maori man with full-face moko (traditional tattoo) and a huia bird, once native to New Zealand but now extinct, as a neck ornament. On her website, Ms. Minson says her goal was “to sense the fluidity and exchange of faith, wairua (spirit), culture, art and religion between people through the ages.”
Solomon Raj, “Jesus on the Lotus Flower” (1998).Credit…Solomon Raj
While Christian artists typically depict Jesus’s suffering, in Indian art he is often seen as peaceful. Dr. P. Solomon Raj, an artist and theologian, shows Jesus “as teacher, sitting on a lotus flower much like the Buddha, the lotus being a symbol of purity,” Ms. Jones said. He raises his right hand in a gesture of reassurance and blessing “whose Sanskrit name literally means ‘Do not fear’ — something Jesus said many times.”
It’s all the RAGE…
Trying to have God in our image, in our likeness.
In 1999 the National Catholic Reporter held a competition called
Jesus 2000
(Artwork to answer the question, “What would Jesus Christ look like in the year 2000?”)
NCR’s judges, among them the notable Sr. Wendy Becket, received 1,678 representations of Jesus from 1,004 artists in 19 countries from six continents.
(The Winner)
- Many people in our world right now have this issue…we are trying to remake God in our Image…instead of letting God’s glory shine through us.
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Genesis 9:6 Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
Why is being in the image of God a big deal?
The devil can’t stand
When Jesus came, like we read in Colossians 1:15, He was the image of the invisible God. Why? Because He was God, but God had become a man like everyone of us…the “firstborn of every creature” - because through Him and Him alone can we be reborn into the intention that God has for us - to display His glory!
Look at this confrontation that happened with Jesus…
Matthew 22:15-22 (KJV)
15 Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk.
16 And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men.
17 Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?
18 But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?
19 Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny.
20 And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?
21 They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.
22 When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.
Jesus tells them to render to Caesar what is Caesars and to
Every Jew that heard Jesus say this - the scripture says they MARVELED! Why?
Now the enemy is fighting hard to keep humanity from shining the light of God’s glory to those who would believe. The more
Just look at what Paul tells the church at Corinth
2 Corinthians 3:13 - 4:7 (KJV)
13 And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:
14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
16 Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 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.
1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
2 But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.
6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
The IMAGE OF GOD -
How does this happen?
The treasure in earthen vessels is what happens when we receive the Spirit of Jesus - the Holy Spirit into our lives.
Jesus told them to
When we do - we repent and turn from our ways of thinking to embrace what
Then we are buried with Jesus by baptism in His Name to have our
God fills us with His Spirit…and we are changed from glory to Glory…and we SHINE the glory and image of God to a lost and dying world that needs to see Jesus in human skin.
We need to seek after Jesus and look into the light of God’s Word - Like we are beholding our image and comparing it to His…and where we don’t measure up - we need to surrender that area to Him completely.