The G. Campbell Morgan Archive

XXXIII MAN LIKE GOD IN CHRIST
he final fact in redemption is that of the restoration of man to the image and likeness of God. Underlying every creation of God is a most definite purpose. This it may not always be easy to trace, but the general principle is most certainly revealed in the vast majority of cases, and therefore it is reasonable to believe it to be universal, and the fact that it is beyond the power of human intelligence always to discover the reason, is to be accounted for by the limitation of that intelligence, rather than by the absence of the purpose. The purpose of angelic life is certainly that of service. In the great Psalm of thanksgiving, angels are referred to in such a way as to declare the very meaning of their existence:—
"Bless Jehovah, ye His angels,
That are mighty in strength, that fulfill His word,
Hearkening unto the voice of His word,"
nd the writer of the letter to the Hebrews asks, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation?" while all the sacred history reveals them as occupied ever in serving in gladness the will of the King.
he purpose underlying the creation of man was far sublimer. He was made in the Divine image, in a sense that angels never were, and in the very nature of that creation there is revealed its purpose. Man was intended as a medium for the Divine manifestation, one through whom, because of his likeness to God, it would be possible for God to express Himself to other creations more perfectly. Redemption therefore is only complete when man is restored to the perfection of his own being, and thus to fitness for the fulfillment of the Divine purpose. This then is the ultimate issue of the work of Christ in man. For the accomplishment of this, vital restoration is the power, and restoration to knowledge is the process. The life of Christ imparted to man by the Holy Spirit is the constraining, transforming power, and the new vision of God in Christ is at once the pattern, towards the carrying out of which the power works, and therefore the governing principle to which the will of the saint being submitted, the Christ life is the product. The first fact in redemption, that of restoration to God, was perfected in justification, the second, that of restoration to the knowledge of God, is being perfected through sanctification; the third, that of restoration to the likeness of God, will be perfected in glorification. Redemption is thus seen to be the restoration of man to fellowship with the Father. John, who writes most minutely of the great subject under this aspect, affirms that as to standing, that fellowship is accomplished. "Now are we children of God," that as to finality it will be accomplished, " we know that, if He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him;" that as to process the work goes ever forward, " every one that hath this hope set on Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure." ' The foundation fact is created by the reception of the Christ life in germ, the experimental advancement is being caused by the mastery of the whole being by that ever-conquering life, the final fact will be consummated by the complete comformity of the whole life to the Christ. Therefore as Christ is the express Image of the Father, in perfect likeness to Him, man will fulfill the primal Divine purpose, by becoming restored to the image and the likeness of God. Thus it is evident at once that the present life is, by comparison with the life to come, as utterly insignificant, as the days of school are, when compared with the sternness and importance of the days for which they are but preparatory. And yet this view of the finality, in another sense, lends new meaning and urgency to the life that now is; for school-days very largely determine the place to be occupied in the maturer opportunities of life.
n considering this last phase of the plenteous redemption, difficulties confront the mind, which it is better at once to recognize, as John did when he wrote, "It is not yet made manifest what we shall be." It will be perfectly safe, however, to accept the certainty as declared by John, "We know ... we shall be like Him," and within that assurance, consider first, man becoming like God in his realization of the character and conduct of Christ, second, man becoming like God in his realization of himself; third, man becoming like God, becomes a revelation of God.
I. here is no necessity to deal with the close relation existing between character and conduct, save to declare the fact as necessary to an understanding of the line of the present study. It must, however, be borne in mind that they are necessarily and indissolubly connected. Conduct is always an expression of character, and character therefore is the cause of conduct. Character is the condition of being, while conduct is the expression thereof in doing. In both these, Christ was the Revelation of God, and in proportion as man is Christlike, he is therefore like God. Zacharias, filled with the Holy Spirit, referring to the coming of Messiah, declared that the purpose of His coming was that man should serve God "in holiness and righteousness." These words cover the whole fact of life as to its general trend, holiness referring to character, and righteousness to conduct. It is at once seen that these words belong primarily to God, the first declaring the supreme truth concerning His character, and the latter that concerning His conduct. He is holy, and therefore acts righteously. Both these facts are however the result of another and profounder one, that namely, of the love which is of the very essence of His Being. Holiness of character is the result of the nature of love, and so also is righteousness of conduct. In Christ these facts concerning God have been revealed, and always in this setting and proportion. The holiness of the character of Christ was the inevitable necessity of His Love. His righteousness of conduct was the immediate outworking of His holiness of character, which resulted from Love. By the impartation of His life to man, and its realization progressively, man is subdued by Love, and obedience to this new nature issues in holiness of character, and righteousness of conduct.
he finality of all this is that man's essential nature being transformed into perfect conformity to that of God, his holiness of character will be forever established, and he will then be perfectly prepared for all that exercise of life, which expresses itself in righteousness of conduct, which is always that of cooperation with God. Here the point of difficulty is reached, because it is impossible to know to-day along what line the activities of God will be continued, in the ages lying ahead. There are certain principles however which may contribute at least to a lofty conception of what the activity of redeemed man will be. The question of character need not therefore be discussed because conduct is its outward expression. It may therefore be affirmed that as the activity of God is constructive, and never destructive, man in union with Him will cooperate in the expression of the Infinite Energy, along the pathway of perpetually perennial manifestations of that essential Love, which is fullness of joy, and pleasure forevermore.
or to-day man's likeness to God, in likeness to Christ, is manifest in his approximation to the character of holiness, and his cooperation in the work of redemption. Said Jesus, "My Father worketh even until now, and I work." The work of God and the work of Christ are identical, and the proportion in which man is already like God, is manifest by his cooperation with Him in the sublime and serious enterprises of seeking and saving the lost. Man is only equal to this cooperation upon the basis of likeness to God in character, and he is only holy in proportion as he is indwelt and impulsed by love.
II. his consideration demonstrates without need of argument that man being restored to the likeness of God in Christ, is therefore restored to the essential possibility and purpose of his own being. Referring once again to that analysis of human personality, which was considered in the earlier chapters of this book, intelligence, emotion, and will, it will be seen how in becoming like God, man becomes himself in all the spaciousness of that primal intention. The intelligence having passed from underneath the eclipse which was the result of sin, is able to set all things in their true perspective, and to value them in their right proportion. Not in measure or degree, but in method and direction, the human intelligence now apprehends with the Infinite Intelligence. In this realm, as in every other, all things have become new. The new understanding of God has issued in a new appreciation of man and of all that creation which is apparent to the mind, but which is now known to be a window through which the Infinite is seen; and which, consequently is of less value than that which it reveals. The feverish restlessness resulting from limitation ceases, as the mind recognizes that beyond all natural phenomena there exists the one Eternal Verity, of which all phenomena are but the transitory expressions.
he emotional nature having been freed from its degradation, now operates in conformity with the Divine Love. Affections are set upon the things above, the upper things, the dominant, the eternal. Every movement of love is henceforth conditioned by the relation of the object to God, and all its operation seeks the highest good of the loved one.
he will is restored to its relation to the true governing principle. It does not cease to be, and therefore its activity is not discontinued. Now however instead of choosing and deciding upon the false basis of rebellion against government, it perpetually elects to act under the compulsion of that Eternal One, Whose essence is Love. Thus by redemption man becomes a being, whose will decides in answer to the impulse of pure affection, in the light of unclouded intelligence. The centre and throne of personality being thus restored to the true Divine order, all the powers and capacities conditioned can be directed and employed at their highest and their fullest. The sense of beauty, expressing itself in music, or in art, becomes dominated by that unswerving holiness, which is the character of love. Wherever this is so, all discords cease, and harmonies are perfected; all that is grotesque and untrue is corrected by the lines of undeviating loveliness, and the colours of undimmed beauty. The capacity for investigation is now enlarged, and science emerging from the mists of mere hypotheses, affirms with actual accuracy of statement, for which she has so long sought, and yet been unable to discover. At this point again the understanding of all that lies in the future for man is necessarily limited, but it may surely be affirmed that "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honourable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report," in human nature as we know it, will not be lost in the hereafter, but rather found and fulfilled in all power and perfection.
he present application of this consideration is that even to-day the measure of man's appropriation of the redemption in Christ Jesus, is the measure in which, what he is in the essential of his Divinely created being, is realized and ennobled, and through such realization and ennoblement man is seen to be Godlike. The expression of this likeness here, as in the former case, will be found in the consecration of man's own redeemed personality to such cooperation with God as shall move towards the future perfect unfolding of the Divine in the human.
III. hus the redemption that is in Christ Jesus will finally make every individual a revelation of God, in the measure that is possible to each individual capacity. Here, however, again there breaks upon the consciousness that larger vision of the Divine purpose which consists in a race made up of individuals, each one contributing something to the final perfection, through which race, all the glorious fullness of the Deity is to have its perfect outshining. This also is according to primal intention. The creation of the first man was the creation of a race, and while he was in the image of God, it was in the larger creation of the whole family that the supreme manifestation of the glory of God was to be made. This is the true doctrine of the solidarity of humanity, and the inter-relationship of individuals. Towards this, man is ever attempting to grope his way, and ever signally failing. Perfect human society has never been realized outside the economy of grace, because perfect human individuality does not exist. In the redemption of the individual, Christ prepares for, and makes possible, the final realization of the race, through which the Divine glory will be manifested. The sublimest arguments concerning this are to be found in the writings of the apostle Paul, whose vision of the Church in its consummation was ever that of a society dominated by the One Life, walking in the One Light, obeying the One Love. The ultimate victory of redemption therefore will consist in the realization of the first Divine purpose in a race which, being composed of individuals, each of whom perfectly answers the Divine ideal, will in its entirety reveal God, and thus be His supreme medium of manifestation throughout the coming ages. Christ will only be completed in that whole race which united to Him, is to form His body.
wice at least the apostle Paul uses the word Christ with reference to that whole race, including the Head and all the members. In writing to the Corinthians he said "for as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ." Here evidently the reference is to Christ and the Church, the complete fulfillment of the Divine thought and purpose.
nd again, in writing to the Ephesians, he speaks of the building up of the body of Christ, "till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." "Christ in this passage (so full of the idea of the oneness in, and with the Lord of His mystical body) is, in effect, Christ and His Church. The Lord the Son becomes in accomplished fact all that He wills, and is willed, to be, only when He is the Head, of a perfected mystical Body, which lives by His sacred life, and is His incorporate 'limbs,' His immortal vehicle of action, if we may so speak. So He and they are guardedly and reverently spoken of here and there as One Christ with full reservation, from other Scriptures, of the truth of the undying personality of each individual 'limb' of the glorious Head, and of His Divine Personality." The specific purpose of this unity is declared by the apostle in the glorious doxology with which the first part of his Ephesian letter closes. "Unto Him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations forever and ever. Amen."
t is not, however, sufficient to declare that redemption's final victory is that of the realization of this primal Divine intention. While that is true, it must not be lost sight of that the peculiar and marvellous plan of the victory lies in the future, that this result is produced by Christ through victory gained over the original failure. The glory of the first ideal was great, but the glory of the realization of that ideal, out of all the awful results of human sin, is infinitely greater. Perhaps the note that now wakes the profoundest wonder in the mind of unfallen intelligences concerning the issue of redemption is that suggested when in speaking of the glories of Christ in his Colossian epistle, the apostle refers to Him as "the First-born from the dead." As to all creation Christ is the First-born, but the added wonder with regard to the new creation is that it has been created by the emergence of the last Adam from the death which resulted from the failure of the first Adam, and His having brought out of that death, members of the new race. Thus redemption's greatest victory lies, not merely in the fact that through the new race the glory of God is to be manifest, but that the profounder truth will be revealed that His greatest glory lies in the mighty working of His wondrous grace. The sublimest and profoundest song of all will be that ascription of praise, which occurring in the first chapter of the Apocalypse, prepares for, and includes within itself all the subsequent numbers of that majestic oratorio, the subject of which is the movement to finality of the dispensations of God. "Unto Him that loveth us, and loosed us from our sins by His blood; and He made us to be a kingdom, to be priests unto His God and Father; to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen."