BECOMING LIKE GOD
(week 47/12)
OLUBI JOHNSON
Exodus 7:1 NIV: Then the LORD said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.
Here God tells Moses he will make him like God to Pharaoh: Moses would have God’s wisdom and power to cause Pharaoh to submit to the will of God to free Israel from the bondage of slavery.
The Lord Jesus echoes this same thought in John 10:34-35 quoting from Ps. 82:6
John 10:34 KJV: Jesus answered them, is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
Psalms 82:6 KJV: I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.
So just like God made Moses like God to Pharaoh to set his people free, today God is making us like God to set men free from the bondage of sin, sickness, poverty, ignorance and spiritual immaturity (Eph. 4:14), so they too can grow (Eph. 4:11-13, 15) in God into the perfection and fulness of Christ; And in turn set others free as they have been set free (Jn. 8:36).
All mankind and creation is eagerly waiting for a company of Christians who have grown to become like God: mature Sons that can set men and creation free from the bondage of corruption.
Romans 8:19-23 AMP: For [even the whole] creation (all nature) waits expectantly and longs earnestly for God’s sons to be made known [waits for the revealing, the disclosing of their sonship]. (20) For the creation (nature) was subjected to frailty (to futility, condemned to frustration), not because of some intentional fault on its part, but by the will of Him Who so subjected it–[yet] with the hope [Eccl. 1:2.] (21) That nature (creation) itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and corruption [and gain an entrance] into the glorious freedom of God’s children. (22) We know that the whole creation [of irrational creatures] has been moaning together in the pains of labor until now. [Jer. 12:4, 11.] (23) And not only the creation, but we ourselves too, who have and enjoy the firstfruits of the [Holy] Spirit [a foretaste of the blissful things to come] groan inwardly as we wait for the redemption of our bodies [from sensuality and the grave, which will reveal] our adoption (our manifestation as God’s sons).
Isaiah 25:9 KJV: And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
Isaiah 45:14 ESV: Thus says the LORD: “The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over to you and be yours; they shall follow you; they shall come over in chains and bow down to you. They will plead with you, saying: ‘Surely God is in you, and there is no other, no god besides him.'”
How then do we become like God?
By the diligent application of the blood, the Word and the power of the Holy Spirit using the wisdom of God (Pr. 9:1).
Hebrews 13:20-21 MKJV: Now may the God of peace (who brought again our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant) (21) make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
1John 2:5 MKJV: But whoever keeps His Word, truly in this one the love of God is perfected. By this we know that we are in Him.
1John 4:12-13 MKJV: No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected in us. (13) By this we know that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.
In our article next week, we will see how to use the wisdom of God to become like God: grow into perfection.
