Picturing Theology

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P i c t u r i n g T h e o l o g y

The Center and Circumference: Christianity Is Jesus Christ (continued)

B. God’s design is that Jesus be the first, the head, the center, the heart of all that he communicates and does. To know God is to know Christ, to please God is to become like Christ, to obey God is to follow Christ’s example: he is our example. John 13.13-16 (ESV) - You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. [14] If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. [15] For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. [16] Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. C. A number of texts in the NT clearly reveal that God’s purpose is to conform us to the very image of Jesus Christ, to join us to him, and then to make us like him. God intends to make Jesus the head of a new human family which will be conformed to his person and his destiny. • Rom. 8.28-29 (ESV) - And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.[29] For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. • 1 Cor. 15.49 (ESV) - Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. • 2 Cor. 3.18 (ESV) - 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. • Paul commands in Philippians 2.5 (ESV) “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” • In Philippians 3.20, Paul says that our citizenship is in the heavens where we look for the person of our Lord, Christ Jesus who, according to Philippians 3.21 (ESV) “will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”