Who Are You

The New Year & The New You

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Created in God’s Image.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, the whole earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” So God created man in his own image; he created him in the image of God; he created them male and female. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28)

What is the Image of God?

Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being (Genesis 2:7).

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Victory Over Darkness Workbook

What Happened to the Image?

The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Genesis 3:6-8

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We All Have Been Affected�

1. Romans 3:10-11 as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.
2. Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, in this way death spread to all people, because all sinned.

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Live According to Sinful Desires.

God Provides a Way to Restore Us to His Image.

I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel (Gen. 3:15)

He Would Be Born through a Woman

The man named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living. The Lord God made clothing from skins for the man and his wife, and he clothed them. The Lord God said, “Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove the man out and stationed the cherubim and the flaming, whirling sword east of the garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life (Genesis 3:20-24).

Restoration is by Faith

1. Romans 1:17, For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith. Romans 1:17
2. Romans 3:22, The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction.

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Those of Faith Live the Crucified Life

1. Galatians 2:20, I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
2. Galatians 5:24, Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
3. Galatians 6:14, But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. The world has been crucified to me through the cross, and I to the world.

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We Are New Creations in Christ�

2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

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Restoration of Spirit of God.

• The image of God as “the indwelling of the Spirit” was standard teaching until the Medieval period (Irenaeus of Lyons). During this period, the early theologians handled the Scriptures with wild allegory and a mixed Greek Philosophy.”
• The rule of faith before this charge was Jesus assumed humanity to lay down His life as the penalty for humanity’s sin and to restore God’s Spirit to believing humanity ( Athanasius).
• In recenet years, there has been a view that understands John’s use of Logos for Jesus in the Gospel to portray Jesus as the “Word and Wisdom of God,” as Paul clearly states in I Corinthians 1:24, “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (I Cor. 1:24).

A Biblical Theology of the Restoration

1. The biblical narrative clarifies that humanity's restoration and new creation is a work of God’s Spirit, as foretold in Ezekiel 34 and 37 and Jeremiah 31:33-34.
2. Jesus spoke of the Spirit’s future work (John 13-14). He explained to Nicodemus that one could only enter the Kingdom if born again of “water and spirit," as stated in John 3.
3. In John 20:22, the resurrected Lord breathes on the disciples and instructs them to receive the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2 and Romans 8, the gift of the Spirit acts as both a product and evidence of salvation. Likewise, Ephesians and Colossians illustrate the Spirit’s work, enabling one to “put the old man to death and put on the new man through the renewing of the mind.”
4. Paul emphasizes that the renewal of wisdom comes from God’s Spirit, which grants us the mind of Christ in 1 Corinthians 2:6-11 (i.e., Logos Wisdom).

Life Surrendered to the Spirit of God.

The New You is Found

by grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18).

Life Moment

• How would you classify your daily living?
1. Rebellious/ Fleshly Life : Just living for your desires and wants
2. Defeated Life/Religious Life: Trying to Please Jesus in your might and strength?
3. The Victorious Life/ Relying on Jesus's Work and the Spirit's Power.
4. The Victorious Life leads to a Sanctified life, allowing the Spirit to conform you more and more each day to God's image.

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Sunday, February 02, 2025

Recognizing Spiritual Strongholds