Word for the day by Christian Education Forum

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 GLORIOUS DIVINE CREATION

1 Corinthians 15: 35-49
Vs 49:  And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.

All bodies are not alike. Human bodies are different from birds and animals are different from aquatic bodies. Even the very nature of their flesh is different. There is a visible difference. In fact, science confirms this. There is such a difference that a trained scientist can tell whether a single cell comes from a human, an animal, a bird, or a fish. This is a wonderfully truthful and accurate scientific statement of that fact.

Some of the sweetest and deepest promises of God are also some of the most neglected, often because they either feel too great to grasp or because they don’t seem to immediately intersect with life today. For instance, is any promise more staggering and yet forgotten than what God says about our glory? The one worthy of all glory not only commands us to glorify him in whatever we do, but he also vows, almost unthinkably, to one day glorify us.

Paul tells us in these verses that there is a difference in the glory of celestial bodies. There is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars. Some shine brilliantly, while others are very faint and dim. What is Paul saying about all this? Well, he is saying that all this has its parallel in the truth of the resurrection.

Jesus rose from the dead, and yet upon his body still were the marks of crucifixion by which his apostles could absolutely be sure that it was the same Jesus in the same body. And yet what a difference! His body had been glorified, transformed. It was functioning at a different dimension and level of existence. Our old, corruptible, aging, deteriorating body will be changed into a new, perfect incorruptible body. This mortal body will be changed into the immortal state for flesh and blood cannot enter the kingdom of God. But just as we, who have been saved by grace through faith in Christ were born in the image of the man of dust - so too, we will also bear the image of the heavenly man - for He Who started a good work in us at Salvation will complete it in the day of Christ Jesus.

Our spirit has already been regenerated. Our soul is being conformed into the image of Christ day by day from glory to glory and the day is coming when we will finally reflect the full image of the heavenly Man. Let us reckon ourselves dead to sin by keeping the old sin nature nailed to the cross by faith and let us reckon ourselves alive to Christ as we allow His Holy Spirit to direct and govern our lives - to His praise and glory.

                                                Prayer
Thank You, Lord, that by grace through faith in Christ I have been transformed from the old creation in Adam to the new creation in Christ.
 

Thought for the Day

It is only by faith in the sacrificial death of Christ that our spirit is regenerated and new life breathed into us at Salvation. The old sinful life cannot be renewed, but a new God-breathed life is given at salvation, so we become a new glorious divine creation.
 

Anish Thomas
Marthoma Church of Greater Washington 

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