Is, Was and Will Be – The Unknown Character of Christ and His Word » Revelation 1:8 "I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty

And the Word Was God

- FAQs

Mike Vinson
14 years ago

Dear Mike,

It is my observation that when the New Testament says that one thing is another, it means either that the one thing represents the other, or else that the other thing represents the one thing said to be the other. Thus Christ is not literally an anatomical head over an anatomical body, but he is represented as a head over a body because these things are illustrative. Christ is not literally a door, his body is not literally bread (nor any breads literally his body). Thus it is unlikely that John intended for his readers to infer that the Word is literally God. The Word is God in the sense that a photograph of a person is that person. When we see a photograph of, say, the President of the United States, we say, “Oh, that’s the President!” In the same way, when someone with spiritual eyes sees the Word, he recognizes the image of the invisible God. Indeed, Christ is called the exact image of God; and a thing cannot be both the image and the thing of which it is an image. Christ is to be worshiped because he is the exact image of God and accurately represents Him, just as one would cherish a photo of a loved one because, however poorly, it represents someone they love. Does this sound right to you?

Warmest Regards,
I____

Hi I____,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

The answer is, yes, this sounds exactly right to me. We are not being conformed to a typically middle eastern image when we are “conformed to the image” of Christ. What is happening is that we are taking on his mind and heart, in the place of our old man. As we come to better know Him, we are transformed into His image. But if we think He is something He is not, then we are being conformed into worshiping that wrong and deceitful image.

Col 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
2Co 3:18 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.
Rev 13:14 And [ the beast that came up out of the earth] deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
Rev 13:15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

It is “the image of the beast” that speaks and causes us to worship that image. God is working all things, but He has empowered the beast to cause us all to conform to his image before we are given the grace to die to that image and be conformed to the image of His son, by taking on the mind of His son.

Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [ is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Rom 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Your thought in this e- mail are very much in line with the knowledge of God on this subject, and that is a very good place in which to abide.

Joh 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue [ Greek – abide] in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
Joh 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

May God continue to bless you in the knowledge of Him.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike

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