Being Transformed into What We Adore
By Michael Cloy
McDowell County
The Apostle Paul understood what it meant to adore God. He encouraged the Philippian Christians to imitate him as he imitated Christ (Philippians 3:17). Paul understood being made in God’s image and likeness (Genesis 1:26) as the reason why we as Christians have a Spirit-generated desire to adore God and the ability to imitate Christ. “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Ephesians 5:1-2
By God’s creative design, Adam and Eve found deep soul satisfaction in imitating and finding themselves in their Creator’s identity. Through the admiration of God and his divine attributes, Adam and Eve adored God and worshipped God. This is because God made us to become what we adore. God created us to become what we worship. When we worship the Triune God, we find our identity in God the Son. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17.
Unfortunately, once sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, our adoration for God died. Romans 1:18-25 states that all men suppress the truth of God and exchange the truth of God for a lie. Said another way, all men suppress God’s adoration and exchange the adoration of God with something other than to Him. In our sin, we worship ourselves and the objects in this world and not the true and living God. “But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the earthquakes, and the nations cannot endure his indignation.” Jeremiah 10:10
The good news of the Gospel is God restores us to worship in the righteousness of Christ when Jesus saves us from our sins and the indignation or anger of God the Father. Once we are restored to God through Jesus Christ we no longer suppress God’s worship and exchange it for the worship of ourselves. Through God-centered worship, God transforms us into the image and identity of God the Son. 2 Corinthians 3:18 describes what happens to us when we worship. “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.”
At Landis OPC, we admire what Christ has accomplished in each of us. Therefore, we appreciate each other because we know that each of us is being renewed in Christ. When people really get to know us, we hope that they will see how deeply we love our Savior. We rejoice and worship God, knowing that He is progressively transforming us into the image of His Son by His Spirit. We invite you to come worship with us and become remade into the image of Christ by the power of the Triune God whom we adore.
If you would like to know more about Landis OPC, you can see who we are in our welcome video found at vimeo.com/491464277. You can also contact Elder Mike Cloy at opcmikecloy@gmail.com.
Mike Cloy is an Ordained Ruling Elder on the Session of Landis, OPC, Landis Presbyterian Church, OPC. You can contact him at opcmikecloy@gmail.com
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