Being

Gen 1:27 so God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

 The beauty of existence is in the beauty of being. Being alive, Being happy, being complete and being every other good thing that God created us to be.

God created us in his own image and likeness. God created us in his own being in other words. It’s not fair therefore to define mankind by what he does. Human beings are human beings and not human doings.

The core of existence of man is to be like God, in his own image and likeness. The truth lies that just like God is that is how we were created to be. To display his splendor and his being.

The integrity of being; image and likeness

Eph 1:4: For he chose us in him before the foundation to be holy and blameless

Perhaps we should go to the definition of man that goes before Adam. We have been for a long time been defined by a definition that is a derivative of the fall .

I have heard comments that man is just carnal sinful, evil; No matter what he does he can not reach perfection. We have lived in the crevices of Adam and we have been robbed of a perfect life, a breath taking recovery that is ours in Christ.

God created us to be like him. All his divine perfection is to be captured in us in a un interrupted display of life. For God chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless.

The integrity of image and likeness reveals everlasting innocence. The true identity of man lies in this; a realm of blamelessness and holiness. Just as God is Holy, he declares ye also shall be holy.

Adam lost that glory because of disobedience and he single handedly catapult humanity into a dungeon of sin. Jesus although restored us to the glory of God. Jesus restored us to the being of God. We are the holiness of God, the righteousness of God.

Col 2:9-10 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.

For in Christ all the fullness of the God head dwells/ resides in totality and we are filled of it. From his fullness we have received grace upon grace.

This is all from God in whom is birthed the initiative, the passion and the foresight of reconciling the world to himself. 2^nd cor 5:19

 We are the chosen, the ones who are his treasured possession. Is this only for Christians? Did Jesus die for Christians alone? I bet not, I bet the world does not consist of Christians who have separated themselves. The world is humanity and the fullness therein who all belong to God. Psalm 24:1

Man is not defined in doings but being

The same lie which the first couple succumbed to in the Garden of Eden is the same lie that prevails today. The lie as we know is that if Adam could do something then they would become like God knowing Good and evil. They partook of that tree and I bet you can tell what the results were till this present age.

The reality is that Adam and eve had the image and likeness of God without having the need to do one extra thing.

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil tells us that we become like God by what we do. Have you been told that you will become holy when you pray enough? When you become devoted enough? And when you reach many other standards that are set before you?

It’s shocking that the thing that even made man to fall in the first instance is not a desire to do evil, to become disobedient, but a desire to become like God by doing something.

Why is this lie very devastative? It’s because it usurps who you are and who God is. It negates how God created you to be. God made us in his own image and likeness. To derive his being out of the abundance of our being in him, not by what we do.

The truth is that you are not a human doing but a human being. You are not what you do; rather who you are determines what you do.

You are not a sinner because you sinned rather you sin because you are a sinner. As a result of inheriting a being, people do what they do. The truth does ntot end there though; similarly because of Christ we are believers not because of what we do but because of who we are, new creation.

If therefore anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old is gone and behold all has become new. 2^nd cor 5:17

  Realize your being; Christ.

2^nd cor 5:16-17From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Paul makes a fair calculation; not to regard any man according to the flesh. He does not say this to believers and that to the heathens out there. He makes this fair calculation; that all have been represented in Christ.

This gives a limelight to evangelism. Evangelism is preaching reconciliation That men are reconciled to God and this message is to be received by a glorious response by faith which is also the working of God to actively persuade us of his goodness.

The gospel is awakening, not new truth. Christianity is not another kind of life that people graduate with and become a wild people. This has been made so by religion which makes Christianity a doing thing and makes people abnormal and seem to be in a hurry to please a distant God.

Christianity is the simplicity of being. We inherit the new life in Christ and become anew creation. Our point of departure is being. Being in the likeness of God as revealed in Christ. The power to function and to do good works as a Christian is in your being.

Churches should have the abundance of teachings that tell people who they are rather than directing people to abundance of things to do.

Bask in your being in him for nothing shall separate you from the love of God. Nothing shall separate you from the revelation of his love, that defines you that reveals your being in him.

You are no longer the victims of doings, you are released in the freedom of being. Your actions are an overflow of who you are in Christ.

You are no longer under the supervision of the law, as though you are a doing machine. You should realize your freedom of being a son(Gal 4:1-4)