Page 10 - Christ in You - The Hope of Glory

Everything brings forth after its own kind. Having demonstrated this principle the Lord
then declared:

Genesis 1:26-28
"Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness...” And God created man
in His own image, in the image of God He created him...

Yahweh brought forth something after His kind. Does it not follow logically that man
is a god, even as his Father is God? Man is not merely a beast. Man is not the evolutionary
equivalent of a glorified ape. The original thought of Elohim, the triune God, was to create
a being fashioned in His own image, after His own likeness, bearing such a likeness to
Himself in all aspects that He could say, “This is My son!”
Satan, the great deceiver, has done such a profound work in diminishing mankind’s
understanding of the intent of God in forming man, that many Christians who have sat in
churches and studied the Scriptures all of their lives recoil at such a straightforward
declaration of God’s design for man. Some hearing the words that man is a god, would cry
“blasphemy!” They would pick up stones to cast at the one who would make such an
assertion. The Jews did so when Christ suggested the same, and the Christian religious
mentality does so today.
I have come across many Christians on Internet websites who proclaim that the
message of sonship is heresy. They warn other Christians to stay away from those who
proclaim a message of sonship. I do not doubt that some who have taught on this topic have
entered into error. There is leaven present everywhere, for “we know in part and we
prophesy in part” (I Corinthians 13:9). Some in their exuberance in understanding a truth
they had not previously seen, run with such enthusiasm to share the message that their
words outstrip their actual revelation.
Despite this tendency, it is very ill advised to cast out a doctrine that is pervasive
throughout the Scriptures. Just because most have not understood it, or because the
orthodox teaching of the day does not include it, is no reason to decry it as heresy. If God
says something is so, and He declares it repeatedly, then it must be so.

Psalms 82:6
I said, "You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High.”

Who is in view here? Some have declared that it must be the angels, for the suggestion
that it is a reference to mankind is offensive to them. To say that man is a god goes against
their understanding of the word humility. Humility, however, is not thinking lowly of
oneself. Humility is agreeing with God’s thoughts. It is seeing things as God sees them. The
man who understands that all things were created by God, and nothing of value in man’s
makeup was arrived at by his own power and effort, will refrain from boasting before God.

James 1:17
Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from
the Father of lights...

Man does not need to see himself as a worm in order to be humble. Man can discern
that he was created in the image and likeness of God, and confess it to be so, and be humble.