DBS 183 - Jesus Exact Image of Father 4 - Oct 27 2023
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Problem: One of the leading causes of weak faith amongst Christians is having a wrong image of Father God. It is easy for people to like and trust Jesus because He only did good things in the gospels; however, they believe Father to be the one who makes people sick, brings curses, kills, punishes with brutality, etc. Because of this mixed image of God, many Christians find it hard to believe in much more than forgiveness of sins for eternal life salvation. Therefore, they find it difficult to reap the full salvation benefits that Jesus paid for, because there’s contradiction with their image of Father.
Purpose: The purpose of this teaching is to enhance our image of God by focusing on Jesus. Jesus in the gospels is the revealed image of God. One of Jesus’s missions was to reveal the Father to us, because as He said, no one has ever known, seen, or heard Father God at any time. Because people never really knew and understood the true character of God, when Jesus (the exact image of God) came to this earth, the people did not recognize Him as being God because He was so different from their OT warlord image of God.
Approach: This teaching is intended to reform our image of Father as gently as possible to get to a common ground about His goodness, while avoiding as much conflict & division as possible. This can be done if we focus on Jesus as the revealed image of God. Additionally, we need to realize that we are called to be ministers of the new covenant – the covenant of spirit & life, and we are not called to be ministers of the old covenant of law & curse – the ministry of death & condemnation. We need to believe, preach, and teach the new covenant alone and the image of God in it.
Unbelievers: An additional problem & purpose is that many people are unbelievers because of a wrong image of God that is presented to them. They refuse to worship a God that has a reputation of killing & cursing – rightfully so. This teaching will equip us to have a conversation with such people and reveal the true nature of God to them (via the character of Jesus), thus enabling their salvation.