15 Aug Image Bearers of the Trinity Part Two
In my previous post, I wrote about how we may relate to God the Trinity, by briefly outlining how we may be image bearers of the Trinity through mind, body and spirit, which I would now like to unpack in more detail looking at us as image bearers of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Image Bearers of the Father
“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9 NIV).
All that Jesus said and did in his life was a physical reflection of God the Father. In his book, ‘The Pleasures of God’, John Piper describes this idea of image bearing between God the Father and the Son by alluding to a mirror, “God’s delight in his Son is a delight in Himself, for the Father and the Son are one. When God the Father contemplates the Son of God, he enjoys the perfect reflection of Himself.”
While the relationship between our physical selves and our minds cannot fully compare to the relationship between Jesus and God the Father, it does provide an opportunity for us to pause and consider how our physical selves and all its associated actions and behaviours reflect our inner minds. Jesus was, is and always has been perfect, because he was, is and always has been the tangible reflection and representation of God the Father.
If we think of our physical lives as representations of our minds, then it becomes clear that we need to pay attention to what is happening in our minds and how they are reflecting the mind of God the Father, “Do not conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:2 NIV)
I am personally guilty of focusing too much on what I’m physically doing to the extent that I disregard what is happening in my mind. While I do have dedicated daily quiet time, I find that I am far too engaged with secular content throughout my day outside of this, whether it be social media, music or watching series on streamers in the evening. That is not to say that secular content is always a bad thing, but we should be conscious of whether it impacts our closeness with God. I tried to think of a metaphor to illustrate my point, and thanks to the help of ChatGPT, I found the following analogy: if we think of our mind as a garden where every thought occupies a plot of soil, when we fill it with things where God is absent, we limit the room available for seeds of spirituality to grow and therefore limits how our minds may reflect more of God the Father.
“Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8 NIV)
Of course, our minds are not only influenced by things we consume, but things that come from within and I especially allow far too many negative thoughts about myself and how others view me to occupy my mind. I sometimes struggle to fully believe God’s love for me and I know it’s because I allow too much clutter in my mind that negative thoughts – and lies – slip in unnoticed. If we could all fill our minds with thoughts of His love for us, we would be able to recognise imposters more quickly and not harbour ill feelings towards ourselves and others, “How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered.”
Image Bearers of the Son
“For by one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made Holy.” (Hebrews 10:14 NIV).
We know that Jesus was fully human and yet fully God too, because he died a physical death, and yet defied all physical laws and rose again, proving his deity. This was done for our salvation, because he died a physical death in our place, paying for our sins, and yet he was a perfect sacrifice because though he was fully human, he was without sin. We are therefore set free from legalism through his grace and great sacrifice, but it could not have been accomplished unless he became fully human. Therefore we should never underestimate the importance of our bodies. And yet I think we do so often under-estimate this importance because our bodies can seem ‘unspiritual’.
Nothing can be less true in light of the incarnation. This is why sins against the body are so grievous to God and should be to us.
When we think of sins against the body, our minds might turn to heavier subjects such as sexual immorality, addiction, physical assault against others and even self-harm, and we are right to consider these things as deep offences in light of the body that God not only created, but himself took on in order to save us. This is why these days I cannot watch content with violence, because though it’s not real, I find the visual destruction of the human body abhorrent. It’s bad enough that in real life such heinous crimes have been committed against the body through genocide, murder and even the torture and murder of our own saviour, making light of it through entertainment is even more abhorrent to me!
Yet there are milder sins against the body that I know I for one am guilty of daily, comfort eating being the prime example. Though indulging in a sweet treat or a favourite type of food is not sinful, depending on it for comfort and over-indulging in it is not only placing it above God as a thing I turn to, but it is not healthy for my body. And there are other examples where we may take our bodies for granted such as neglecting physical exercise, overworking, neglecting sleep and general poor stress management. As image bearers of Jesus in bodily form, we should consider how we reflect Jesus through the care of our bodies without becoming legalistic in how we do it.
But this is not to limit our reflection of Jesus to the physical care of the body, because we are called to live our lives as reflections of Jesus. While he did suffer and die for us, he also modelled for us the ultimate humility and surrender of the body to God’s will. We may not all be called to extreme sacrifice such as selling all our possessions, celibacy or martyrdom, but we should certainly be aiming to reflect Jesus’ heart of surrender to God’s will, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34 NIV).
This may seem heavy, but the last thing we should do is mistake a life following Jesus’ example as burdensome or oppressive. He came to bring us joy and free us from lives of religious rule-following. But he also came to free us from sin by showing the joy lived in relationship with the Father and intimately knowing the Father’s mind and heart. Because everything that is not of the Father’s mind and heart, though it may at first appear to be harmless fun, leads to a grieving and oppressed spirit. We need only speak to an addict who was once ‘free’ to make their own choices, but now find themselves stuck in a cycle of destruction and oppression, to see how this is true.
Image Bearers of the Holy Spirit
This leads me to what I believe to be the deepest essence of who we are: our spirit. Our spirit relates to the Holy Spirit, who is tragically overlooked by many Christians. I say tragically, because I’ve found through this exploration of the trinity and how it relates to our image bearing, that the Holy Spirit is the key to us being faithful image bearers as Christians. We don’t reflect the Holy Spirit, because we are empowered by the Holy Spirit, and the more we live by Him, the more the Father and the Son are reflected, but not through our own efforts, but through His power.
Before we accept salvation, one may say that we have individual spirits that can be compared to the Holy Spirit. We have our own intuition we use to guide us. We have lovers and friends where the connection is so deep, we describe them as our ‘soul mates’. We feel things so deeply that they go far beyond just the physiological. When we are saved, we are given the Holy Spirit, who comes to live within us as our counselor, who is close to us and feels our deeper, inner thoughts and not just our actions, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:30-32 NIV). This suggests a wonderful intimacy with the Holy Spirit, who is also our connection to the Father and the Son. The Holy Spirit comes to replace our own intuition and instincts, and the more we surrender to Him, the more our spirits living independent from God die, and therefore the more room the Holy Spirit fills within us, which is when we bear more fruits of the Holy Spirit.
This means that if we fail to acknowledge the presence and kingship of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are essentially neglecting the power chord that connects us to Jesus and the Father, “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” (John 16:7 NIV). It is the Holy Spirit that reveals God’s truth to us in the first place, and therefore it is by His Holy Spirit that our minds are renewed, and our bodies empowered to follow Jesus’s example.
In other words, it all culminates in our relationship to the Holy Spirit, which makes sense because our eternal destination is determined by the state of our souls, that are similar in nature to the Holy Spirit. When our lives are lived predominantly by the power of the Holy Spirit, we reflect the Father and the Son, with no effort and under no burden because we are fuelled by power and joy which lives in the essence of who God is.
I am a volunteer blogger with a passion for God and writing. My hope is to help others choose faith – or to walk deeper in their faith – through my own introspections and observations.
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