Like Christ, Thoughts on the Blessed Life of Conformity to the Son of God - Andrew Murray

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1884 edition. Excerpt: ... (c)n preaching (fffjriat our Sample, 'T ET us make man In OUE Image, After Our J-l Likeness: ' in these words of the Council of Creation, with which the Bible history of man opens, we have the revelation of the Eternal purpose to which man owes his existence, of the glorious eternal future to which he is destined. God proposes to make a Godlike Creature, a being who shall be His very image and likeness, the visible manifestation of the glory of the Invisible One. To have a being, at once created and yet Godlike, was indeed a task worthy of Infinite Wisdom. It is the nature and glory of God that He is absolutely independent of all else, having life in Himself, owing His existence to none but Himself alone. If man is to be Godlike, he must bear His image and likeness in this too, that he must become what he is to be, of his own free choice; he must make himself. It is the nature and glory of the creature to be dependent, to owe everything to the Blessed Creator. How can the contradiction be reconciled? --a being at once dependent and yet self-determined, created and yet Godlike. In man the mystery is solved. As a creature God gives him life, but endows him with the wonderful power of a free will; it is only in the process of a personal and voluntary appropriation that anything so high and holy as likeness to God can really become his very own. When sin entered, and man fell from his high destiny, God did not give up His purpose. Of His revelation in Israel the central thought was: 'Be ye holy, as I am holy.' Likeness to God in that which constitutes His highest perfection is to be Israel's hope. Eedemption had no higher ideal than Creation had revealed; it could only take up and work out the Eternal purpose. It was with this in view...