Even though we wandered from God, He has made a way through Christ’s sacrifice and the Spirit’s indwelling for us to be fully restored to the Manufacturer’s original design. We will experience this through gradual, daily transformation in this life (and the more we cooperate, the greater will be that growth) and then one day we will be exactly like He is.
God created men and women at the earliest dawn. We are the height of God’s creation, and He made us like no other being. The design of man and his purpose are summed up in one simple verse.
Let us make man in Our image and let him rule… over all the earth (Genesis 1:26)
We were made like no other creature, with a soul and a spirit, so that we might be just like God. And He designed us on purpose, with a purpose: that we might rule over the earth with Him.
Here is the foundational truth about us. Read the following sentence several times.
He made us like He is so we can do what He does!
John’s Testimony
The beloved Apostle, John, testifies in his first letter that God sent Jesus to restore us to God’s original design even though man fell and was separated from God. Christ’s payment for our sins on the cross and our trust in Him brought us back to God. And at the moment of our salvation, He comes to literally live in us through His Spirit. We can now fulfill God’s original purpose. He now says this about true followers of Christ.
“As He is, so also are we in this world.” (1 Jn. 4:17)
We are a “little lower than God,” the Psalmist said (Psalm 8:5), and in our redeemed condition, we have the capacity to rule over this world. Before we were restored to Christ, the world, the flesh, and the devil ruled over us. We were powerless to overcome them. But then, God saved us by His grace and came to indwell us. This transformed us, giving us what we needed to fulfill the original design.
We can allow the world, our flesh, and the devil to rule over us if we are not wise and cooperating with God.