The Image of Christ
The following is Day 22 in A Word in Season: 50 Days of Hope for Hard Times.
“And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.”
1 Corinthians 15:49
You may have heard of a doppelgänger, a person’s living double. Perhaps you use the phrase “spitting image”—the son who looks, walks, talks, and acts just like his father. People emulate their heroes by dressing up and acting like their favorite characters from books or films.
The truth is that we all bear someone’s image. The Bible clearly states in 1 Corinthians 15:49 that “just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.” By nature, we all bear the image of the man of dust. Some of us remain with that image, along with its corruption, dishonor, and weakness. By nature, we are all in Adam. He is our representative before God. We are descended from him, not only physically but also spiritually. It is in him that we find our nature and our identity. This is the reason for our sinfulness and our need for salvation. It explains why, ultimately, these bodies will die, return to the earth, and be consumed.
For believers, there is something more: Though we are by nature in Adam, by grace we are in Christ, and now we live in him. We enjoy union with him. He is now our spiritual head, the one in, through, and because of whom God has all his dealings with us. Thus, the promise in 1 Corinthians 15:49 arises: “As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.”
At times, we feel the weight of this corruptible body. It not only sometimes wears us down but also drags us down, and we find that when we desire to do good, evil is right there with us. Although the spirit is willing, the flesh remains weak. However, we know that our redemption encompasses all of our humanity. What, then, is our hope? If this body dies before Christ returns, how then are the dead raised? And with what body do they come? (Those were the questions that the Corinthians were asking.)
Paul emphasizes that the Christian has this expectation: that “as we have borne the image of the man of dust,” the man of the earth, this natural body, so—at the return of Jesus Christ—“we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.” What a wonder that is! What a prospect, utterly defeating our finite mortal reasoning—that we shall be like Christ in the resurrection! He has a Spiritual body (you see that you need to put that with a capital “S”). Christ has a body that has been crafted and is characterized by the work of the Holy Spirit in power. It is not an immaterial body. It is a body that is entirely characterized and influenced by the Holy Spirit. And we too shall live in that kind of body, so that our souls—now renewed and being perfected at the moment of death—shall have these perfected and glorified bodies in which we shall live: then, no more corruption, but raised incorruptible; no more dishonor, but raised in glory; no more weakness, but raised in power. We will be sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body, bearing the image of our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, in that moment when the entirety of his redeeming work is known in all our redeemed humanity. The result will be that in both body and soul, we shall be like him in purity and perfection.
In the midst of all the sufferings, sorrows, pains, problems, weaknesses, and weariness of this world and in this body, let God’s people look forward with eagerness to the day when—though we currently bear the image of the man of dust—we shall bear the image of the heavenly Man.
Meet the author:
Jeremy Walker
Jeremy Walker serves as a Pastor of Maidenbower Baptist Church in Crawley, England. He has authored several books and is grateful to preach, teach, and write as opportunities allow.
