The work of the Holy Spirit - pagina 283

THE IMAGE OF GOD The

Scripture repudiates

from and an atonement will not stop this evil

warp and woof

;

it,

IN

MAN

243

teaching that Christ is a Redeemer But a mere passing contradiction

for sin.

poisonous thread, running through the

this

of the Ethical theology, will not be pulled

from the

preaching until the conviction prevails that it is philosophic and pantheistic, leading away from the simplicity of Scripture.

But for the present nothing can be done.

man manuals now used by

Almost

all

the Ger-

oiir rising

ministers feed this error; hence the widespread prevalence of the idea that the image in which man was created was the Christ.

And

this is natural.

without

So long as

it

is

maintained

even

that,

man was

destined for Christ and Christ for man, it must follow that the original man was calculated for Christ, and hence was created after the image of Christ. sin,

For evidence that this deviates from the truth, we refer theologians to the writings of Augustine, Calvin, and Voetius on this point, and to our lay-readers we offer a short explanation why we

and

all

Reformed churches

reject this interpretation.

We

begin with referring to the many passages in Scripture, teaching that the redeemed sinner must be renewed and trans-

formed after the image of

Christ.

"We all are changed into the same even as by the Spirit of the Lord " and in Rom. viii. 29: "That we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son " and in i Cor. xv. 49 " As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." In 2 Cor.

iii.

18

image from glory

we

read:

to glory,

;

;

:

To this category belong all such passages in which the Holy Spirit admonishes us to conform ourselves to the example of Jesus, which may not be understood as mere imitation, but which decidedly means a transformation into His image. And lastly, here belong those passages that teach that we must increase to a perfect man, the stature of the fulness of Christ " and that " we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."

" to

;

Hence believers are

called to transform themselves after Christ's the final aim of their redemption. But this image not the Eternal Word, the Second Person in the Trinity, but the

image, which is

is

Messiah, the Incarnate Word,

i Cor. xv. 44 furnishes the undeniable Paul declares there that the first man Adam was of the earth earthy, i.e., not only after the fall, but by creation. Then he says that as believers have borne the image of the earthy, so they

proof.

St.

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