Have You Checked Your Image Lately? (Summary)

From our Sunday service on January 30, 2022, Colossians 3:1–17. Watch the full message: Have You Checked Your Image Lately? on YouTube.

The main thing God wants you to know today is that He wants you to be like Christ. We need to be conformed to the image of Christ. Three questions will guide us. First, what is the image of God? Second, where can we find the image of God? Third, once we know what the image is, how do we copy it and become more like Christ?

Spiky Hair Boy

I came up with a character in middle school called Spiky Hair Boy. I was very young, and I don’t know if you can see the resemblance, but I think it is there. When I started to come out of my shell a little more, I drew this character as a picture of myself. Spiky Hair Boy shows different attitudes. On the far right is the shining Spiky Hair Boy, who is confident, proud, and ready to go. In the middle is the confused one, who wonders what is going on. Further left is the curious one looking at a ladybug, and then the inquisitive one, who is investigating something because he is interested. I drew these in my notebooks through middle school, high school, and college. If you went through my notebooks, you would find Spiky Hair Boy everywhere, and every time you saw him, you would know a little about the mental state I was in when I drew him. In college I took a Spanish class, and the first day of my Spanish notebook shows Spiky Hair Boy super excited about Spanish. He has the sombrero and the maracas, and he is standing on a box, ready to go. A couple of weeks into the class, he is no longer holding maracas, and he no longer has the little Mexican hat. In school you sometimes make paper airplanes and throw them when you are bored, and here Spiky Hair Boy is a little distracted from his purpose. By the last week of the class, he is not doing well at all. Spanish was not my strong suit, and the class moved far too fast for me to keep up. The smiley face on his shirt, which he always wears, is missing the effort that went into drawing it. His eyes are looking two different directions because he has no idea what he is doing. You can see the downward spiral of my Spanish class experience through the images I drew in my notebook. As we talk about the image of Christ today, remember that the image you present to the world reflects you and your relationship with Christ.

What Is the Image of God?

Genesis is the book of beginnings, so if we want to find where the image comes from, we go there. God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” and let them have dominion. The Bible tells us that God is invisible and that God is a spirit, so the image of God is not physical. It is not like the picture of Spiky Hair Boy, and it is not a representation of what God looks like. Maybe the image of God has to do with personality or intelligence, with what separates us from the animals. But that cannot be the answer, because angels are not made in the image of God, yet angels have intelligence and free will. Look again at what the passage immediately associates with the image: dominion. The image is a representative role that God gave to us. In the ancient world, a ruler could not physically be in every area he ruled, so he set up a statue, an image, to represent his rule. When God created the world, He was saying, “I want man to be My representative, ruling this world in My name, with the love and the care that I have for this world.” If we are not conformed to the image of God, we will never be fulfilled in our lives, let alone be used by God in miraculous ways.

Where Can We Find the Image of God?

How do we know what it looks like to rule as God’s representative? Romans 8 says that all things work together for good to them that love God, and then it continues: He also did predestinate us to be conformed to the image of His Son. If you are saved today, this purpose has been assigned to you. 2 Corinthians says Christ is the image of God. We were originally created with God’s image. When we sinned, we distorted and corrupted it. It is still in us, but Christ is the exact image of God, so if we want to get the image of God again, we have to look to Christ. Hebrews says He is the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person. Colossians says He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. Christians are Christ’s representatives on the earth, and from the beginning we were meant to be God’s representatives on the earth. If we are to fulfill our original purpose, we must be like Christ.

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

Colossians 3:1–3

How Do We Copy the Image?

Paul tells the Colossians, “You are saved, but there is an image of Christ that you need to copy, and I want this image to be clear.” “If ye then be risen with Christ” is talking about salvation, and “seek those things which are above” means that if you have been reborn, you look toward heavenly things. Why? Because you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. God puts to death the old man. At that moment, the old, corrupt image is pushed aside, the image that was tainted by jealousy, envy, strife, regret, lust, and all kinds of other sins. It is shattered, broken, and twisted, and it is not what God designed. When Christ died, He died for you, so that you don’t have to live in that messed-up image anymore.

Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

Colossians 3:9–10

Putting Off the Old Man

Paul then tells us what to put off. Some of those sins are obvious, the ones people on the outside can see if you are walking down the street committing them. But he also speaks about sins that are not as obvious, sins inside you, in your heart. Anger is just being bitter about things. You can be an angry person inside and never let other people notice. Notice the wording, “put off.” Some people put off a lot of these things temporarily before they go to church, and once they are out of the church building and in the car, they put the anger and the wrath back on. Wrath is one step further than anger. If you are angry, you are personally upset. If you have wrath, you wish evil on that person. Blasphemy here is literally slander. We often think of blasphemy as only against God, but the word is also about slandering other people, gossiping, and talking bad about someone behind his back. Then he says, “Lie not one to another,” seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

Colossians 3:12–14

Putting On the New Man

Then we put on the new man. We clothe ourselves with mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If we put on these attributes, we will have the peace of God ruling our lives, and we will have unity. We put these attributes on every day, not just when we come into church and not just temporarily to get by and make people think we have it all together, but genuinely, every day, dying to self and clothing ourselves with Christ. Let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. How do we get that image? We have to be in the Word. We have to study the Bible and know what it says if we are going to be like Christ.

How Is Your Image?

So how is your image? Remember that in Spanish class, the image from the end of the class was pretty rough. If you looked at my notebook and saw that picture, you would know that guy was not doing well in his walk in Spanish class. When you walk around in your day-to-day life and people see you, do you look like that image? If your image is supposed to look like Christ but it is rough, you don’t look a lot like Him. Are you passive, just floating by, thinking, “Christ has forgiven me, and that is enough”? That is not good enough. Or is your image clear? When people see you, do they see the image of Christ? Do they see that the love of Christ drives you to be a better person? The good news is that a rough image is not written in pen. It can be reshaped. You can erase some edges, draw some new lines, and restructure it. Take a look at that perfect image of Christ and let it be your reference piece. Every day, get in the Word and see what it says about Christ. Take one attribute, say, “I need to work on that,” erase that line, and redraw it. Every day you will get a little closer, and then the world can see the image of Christ in you.