Chapter 7 | The Image of God for the Children of God

This brings us back to where we started in this section – recognizing the fulfillment of Yeshua’s work to lead many sons and daughters to glory. This he has achieved; completing the new creation for the children of God which he started before the world began. Ultimately, it appears to me that God’s intent is that through the free will and moral discernment he’s given us, he desires that we come to have the same affinity and love for him that he has poured out on us. That love from us can’t be coerced but must be freely given, as a choice, if it’s to have any real lasting value, and we are talking about eternity are we not?

Though the process of the new creation in Christ is completed when Yeshua hands the kingdom over to the Father, it had numerous milestones throughout human history. It’s not accidental that all those who have a part in the new creation are conformed to the image of the Son of Man, the last Adam, and all were brought to that maturity through disobedience. It was always the role of the last Adam to bridge the gap for the children of God between the physical realm and the divine realm.[1] This is evidenced by all the countless millions now standing together with Christ in the new heavens and new earth. They are the fruit of the earth who’ve come from the kernel of humanity planted in the garden of God those many millennia ago. It’s time to view all the work of God in Christ, from beginning to end, as a constructive work; planting the wild seed of Adam,[2] blessing it to multiply,[3] watering it with the gift of grace in Christ, that it might be harvested in righteousness to eternal life.[4]

Seeing our first creation through the lens of the new creation in Christ is not that dissimilar from Christ’s refocusing of the law from that of the letter to the Spirit. This is the focus for the remainder of the book. It represents a higher view provided by the Spirit of God and applied to the work of God from beginning to end. It doesn’t replace the key elements of the traditional view of Genesis 2 and 3 as it relates to disobedience and redemption; it hones and refines the view. Like all things connected to the will of God and his work in Christ, it brings his divine light, truth, and wisdom to the forefront. It begins by revealing a great mystery.[5]