29th June 2021
Text: Genesis 1:26-27
Preacher: Pst Sola Ogidan
‘To create’ is different from ‘to make’. To create is to bring out of nothing just like God created heaven and earth. In making, you use what already exists to fashion out something. God wanted to arrive in a destination where He can produce a man that will be like him (image) and looks like him (likeness) so that he can partake of His glory. Image is more of an internal reality; it is the composition of a person inwardly though it finds expression in character. God wanted man to be like Him.
Revelation 4:3 and Hebrews 1:2 give us better understanding of the difference between the words ‘likeness’ and ‘image’. The Bible says God wouldn’t share His glory with anyone. The accurate interpretation would mean that God is the only One that can carry His glory and He can only share His glory with one that is like Him. Hebrews 1:2-3 shows that he had shared his glory such that if we can attain his image, we can partake of it. He is ever willing to release dimensions of his glory to us.
When the issue of dominion was to come in the beginning, God had to sow a seed for that purpose. The whole kingdom project began with a seed. He made man in His image so that they can have dominion. God creating man in His image was like sowing a seed. It was a foundational work that God did with an intention. It was a work that God did to begin a journey of man partaking of His image.
Matthew 13:31
Jesus compared the kingdom of heaven to sowing a mustard seed which grew into a big tree. When a seed is sown, fruit is not reaped in the same moment; it is a process that requires time. God created man in Genesis Chapter 1 and made a body for Him in Chapter 2. He initiated His dominion project by creating man in His likeness and image.
Matthew 13:18
You will fail at the word if your first disposition to the word is to understand it. Your first disposition to the word is not supposed to be understanding but faith (1 Corinthians 1:18-23). In the New Testament, God is doing again that which He has done and He is going through the process. He starts with sowing a seed and this seed in the New Testament comes through faith; it is the planting of God’s nature in you and you becoming a new creation (John 1:10). He gave us power to be made the sons of God.
John 1:10-13
The word ‘son’ as used in this portion of scripture talks about being children by birth meaning that they carry the same nature as the Father. The concept here is not talking about adoption but the transfer of nature. Conversely, 1 John 3:1 talks about adoption, it is about being called. According to John 1:12, God planted His seed in us, He made us sons. Hence, our exposure to the word is not for us to first understand but to believe. Understanding may come later but the first disposition must be to believe that we are who He made us to be (Hebrews 11:3). Faith opens our mind, it opens our portal for revelation. Faith is not the seed but it impacts the seed. The seed is the new birth but we come into the reality of that seed, which is the new nature, by faith (John 3:3).
The first disposition of a natural man is to understand and then believe but we cannot understand if we do not have faith. It is through faith that we understand. Our capacity to comprehend the workings of God is because we believe. In every one that is born again, God has already sown the seed of His kingdom.
There is a foundation which is about your faith (Philemon 1:4-6). According to Ephesians 2:8, we do not have the capacity to be saved; God has to give us the capacity to believe. The journey started as a gift but did not end as a gift, it is a process. A seed has been sown and the harvest will require time. You must understand that walking in the fullness of God’s glory is what God has in mind but it will require a process.