The Daily Word of Righteousness

Imputation and Transformation, continued

Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary. (Isaiah 40:31—NASB)

We must be perfect as the eagle. God has not called us to grub in the mud of the earth. Our church life must never become a routine, a business. We must pray continually so that our spirit soars before God.

Each one of us has one or more parts of our personality that must begin to grow and develop. To come short in one of these four principal areas is to be incomplete in the image of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Christ is Son of man, very man of very man, filled with compassion and holiness.

Christ is the Lion, the King of all kings. We are to rule as kings with Him.

Christ is the Ox, the Burden-bearer for the sins of mankind. Finally He was offered as a sacrifice. We too must bear the burdens assigned us on behalf of the Body of Christ. We must share His sufferings.

Christ is the Eagle of God. All night in prayer He soared in the heavenlies, for He was to come down on the new day to face the perversity and treachery of those who were religious but not godly.

Even today we have people who are members of the Christian religion but who are not Christians. They have never turned aside from their own life. They have not taken up their cross. They are not under the discipline of the Master and are not growing in His image.

The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. (Ezekiel 1:16—NIV)

The wheel in the middle of a wheel reminds us that Christ is in us and we are in Christ.

Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around. (Ezekiel 1:18—NIV)

To be able to see is the gift of God and it is given only to the righteous. The wicked are blind and walk in darkness.

I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking. (Ezekiel 1:27,28—NIV)

Compare:

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. (II Corinthians 3:18—NASB)

As we behold the likeness of the glory of the Lord we are transformed into the same likeness and image.

This fulfills the original Divine fiat concerning man that he would be in the image and likeness of God.

To be continued.