Restored Into God’s Image: Unveiling the Path of Sanctification and Gospel Transformation
Delve into the profound process of sanctification through which God deepens our roots, unveils our faces to His glory, and leads us to a flourishing life. Discover how salvation is just the beginning as we explore the transformative relationship with God that goes beyond mere belief. Explore the two halves of the Gospel and embark on a journey of renewal and restoration as we are shaped into the image of God.
Nine Ways to Deform Your Soul
During the fall of man, the image of God and human flourishing was severely diminished. Since then, God has sought to form our soul, mind, and will as believers, but He also has a higher work within us. That work is called sanctification, restoring God’s image in you.
Maryland Eliot, former Vice President of Community Formation at Asbury Theological Seminary, wrote on how to deform your soul due to the fall of humanity.
Nine Ways to Deform Your Soul
Blame everyone else for how your life is turning out.
Choose to believe people do not like you.
Get angry when your plans (even little ones) get interrupted.
Hold offenses close to your heart.
Refuse to share or give generously.
Be suspicious of people’s motives, even if they treat you well. After all, you never know.
Watch for signs that the people around you have more advantages than you.
Get mad at God when bad things happen to you.
Watch a lot of violent/inappropriate Netflix, TV, and movies.
[READ MORE: What is Sanctification?]
A Source Other Than Our Own
“Anytime you see life flourishing, it is because it is receiving nourishment from outside itself.”
If a drought affects a tree, it begins reaching deep with its roots to nourish itself. For example, there are many radiant oak trees where I live in Memphis. Those trees persevered through many severe seasons of drought because they’ve put down roots more deeply in the soil that is baptized at a deep level, with an underground source.
The point is the oak trees aren’t trying to be their own source.
This is an invitation to put our roots down deep in God. Then, as we grow in Christ, we can rely on human strength or the Lord.
“I, the LORD, have put a curse on those who turn from me and trust in human strength. They will dry up like a bush in salty desert soil, where nothing can grow. But I will bless those who trust me, the LORD.” Jeremiah 17:5-6
Once we invite Jesus to enter our lives as Savior, He goes to work to restore the original image. He transforms us to make us like Himself.
Unless and until Jesus’ forgiveness cleanses our sin-tarnished souls, God’s image is obscured in our lives. But when we trust Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, we are forgiven, and the restoration begins. As image-bearers, God is seeking to restore His image in each of us.
This is why, for Christians, we are being transformed into the same image of God from one degree of glory to another.
An Unveiled Face Before God
“And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:18
Question: Whose face is being unveiled here? God’s face or ours?
Paul is talking about us. In the Old Testament, when Moses came down the mountain and was glowing with the radiance of God, it was because he had been in God’s very glory and presence. The people told Moses to veil his face because they couldn’t handle this glory. So he had to cover his face, preventing him from being authentic.
However, Scripture tells us a different command: Unveil your face before you come to God.
Be real with God. “I need you. I am a fallen person and am prone to sin. When life gets difficult, or temptations arise, I will wander and leave the God I love.” Don’t pretend or be pretentious before God. Revel in His glory through truth and vulnerability.
The unveiled face beholds the glory of God, and that’s only possible when we are exposed to the Word of God. When we’re in His glory, we’re not pretending. Instead, we’re in a true state of our need for God. It’s through that process that we are being transformed into His image.
The Two Halves of the Gospels
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification;” 1 Thessalonians 4:3a-b
JESUS: “Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.” John 4:23
For many, the truth of knowing and worshipping God in the Holy Spirit and the Power of the Word of God has faded. To experience the transformation of Jesus Christ, knowing and worshiping Him in the truth and spirit of God is not something we need to let fade. But something that needs to remain brightly intent on our radar.
God is developing you through His word and the power of His Holy Spirit. You cannot fully develop without these two things working in your heart and life. [READ MORE: How Does God’s Word Transform Us?]
There are two halves to the Gospel. The first is salvation, which is when you come to know Jesus. The second half is sanctification. The first half is baptized by water, and the second is baptized by fire; that’s the radiance of light-giving power within you.
The first half of the Gospel is what He’s done for me, and the second half is what I do in Him for others.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
The second half of the Gospel issues from 1 John 3:16.
“This is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. Therefore we must lay down our lives for one another.” 1 John 3:16
| First Half | Second Half |
|---|---|
| He dies for me | I die for Him |
| I am loved | I am love embodied |
| What He has done for me | What I do in Him for others |
| He came to birth the Gospel | I go for the purpose of His Gospel |
| He loves the world by sending His Son | I love the world by being sent for the Son |
Sanctification Is Active
“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified.” 1 Thessalonians 4:3a (NIV)
Sanctification is not a passive gift. It is a work of the Truth of God in the Heart and mind, wed with the Spirit of God filling one’s inner being.
We see in Galatians 5 that the acts of the flesh are obvious (debauchery, idolatry, jealousy, rage, etc.). Paul warns us that those who live like this will not inherit the Kingdom of God. But he shares that a flourishing life comes from the truth and the spirit. [READ MORE: How to Overcome the Desires of the Flesh]
“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit. Let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking, and envying each other.” Galatians 5:22-26
We’re seeing that the work of the Spirit, the truth of God’s sanctification, is that we’re being freed from the dominion of sin. It doesn’t mean we become perfect, but it means we sin less. This frees us to allow the truth and the Spirit to rain in a life-giving way.
It is hard to imagine a person being justified and not caring about being sanctified. Anyone who rejects this way of living rejects God, who gives His Holy Spirit to you.
“For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you knows how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgresses and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore whoever disregards this disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.” 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 (emphasis added)
We Are Designed For Transformation
In regards to our sanctification, John Wesley said, “Our main doctrines, which include all the rest, are three: That of repentance, of faith, and of holiness. The first of these we account, as it were, the porch of religion; the next, the door; the third, religion itself.”
How often do we hear people say they’ve put their faith in the Creator of the universe in the form of His Son, yet there’s no life transformation? There’s no effect of stating they’ve met that Creator. We are designed for transformation.
English theologian John Owen said, “There are only two basic issues with which a minister of the Gospel has to deal. The first presents an evangelistic challenge: persuading those who are under the dominion of sin that this is the truth about them. The other? It is the pastoral challenge: persuading those who are no longer under sin’s dominion that this is who they really are.”
“Seek entire sanctification by faith. And because we receive entire sanctification by faith, we seek it as we hear this closely. We seek it as we are not after we think we have sufficiently gotten our acts together.” Kevin Watson, Perfect Love (pg. 102)
Let that be good news for you. Wesley once said in a sermon that Scripture is the way of salvation. If we don’t believe that we own our own source and we put our roots down, then we need the source. Holiness is not the way to Jesus; He is the way to holiness. It’s Him that we surrender to, and Him that we put down roots in.
TL;DR
Sanctification, which is the restoration of God’s image in us.
It’s important to put our roots down deep in God. As we grow in Christ, we can depend on human strength or the Lord, and our strength will never be enough.
Scripture tells us to unveil our faces or be very honest and vulnerable with God to behold His glory.
There are two halves of the Gospel: salvation and sanctification. You cannot have one without the other.
Sanctification is not a passive gift and is a work of the Truth of God in the Heart and mind wed with the Spirit of God filling one’s inner being.
Related Reading
The God Honoring Way by Rev. Paul Lawler
How Do We Come to God? by Bro. Chris Carter
Three Keys to a Better Prayer Life by Rev. Paul Lawler
How Do I Read the Bible by Grant Caldwell
