I CAN'T WAIT TO BE LIKE JESUS!

GOD'S GOAL IS YET TO BE FULFILLED!

Genesis 1:16-27 - And God said, Let Us make man in Our image,* after Our likeness:**  and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.  So God created man in His own image,* in the image* of God created He him; male and female created He them.

Genesis 5:1-2 - This is the book of the generations of Adam.  In the day that God created man, in the likeness** of God made He him; male and female created He them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

Notes:  * Hebrew tselem, image, as a photo; a copy.  ** Hebrew demuwth, likeness, as to character.  Because Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit (Gen. 3:6), they ceased to be righteous, or "like God."  And although the King James Version says there is "none like God" in six verses (Ex. 8:10; Deut. 33:26; 1 Sam. 2:2; 2 Sam. 7:22; 1 Chron. 17:20; Isa. 46:9), none of them contain tselem or demuwth.  Even the "new birth" described in John's Gospel does not remake man into God's likeness.  It simply provides the basis for justification, and therefore, salvation.  Man will not be "like God" again until we actually see Him.  Note the future tense in the following verses:

1 John 3:1-2 - Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons (children) of God:  therefore the world knows us not, because it knew Him (Jesus) not.  Beloved, now are we the sons (children) of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be:  but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.

IN THE MEAN TIME:

Romans 7:18-25 - For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwells no good thing:  for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.  For the good that I would I do not:  but the evil which I would not, that I do.  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:  but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  O wretched man that I am!  Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

Philippians 1:6; 2:13 - Being confident of this very thing, that He Who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ . . . . For it is God Who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

SO,  IN THE EYES OF THE WORLD,

ALL CHRISTIANS ARE HYPOCRITES;

WHAT THEY FAIL TO SEE IS THAT

WE ARE SAVED BY GOD'S GRACE!