Heavenly Man
“As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.”
Today’s Text: 1 Corinthians 15:35-49 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
I long to live the life of the Heavenly Man, Jesus Christ, but so often I find myself living the live of the earthly man, Adam. At house church last Friday, someone shared from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. There is a time for everything under heaven.
If only humans could live as if from heaven, the time on earth would be good. There would be no time for uprooting, no time for killing, no time for tearing down, weeping, or mourning, no time for hating, no time for war.
Ecclesiastes expresses the conflict in my heart between my heavenly image and the earthly one. If I could give myself wholly to the heavenly image, I’m sure that my life would get so much harder. The Apostle Paul’s life was not easy. It was plain hard. The life of every one of the Apostles was extremely hard. It is because they bore the image of heaven here on this broken earth. But what glorious lives they lived!
If I can be really honest with myself, I have to admit that the true message of the word of God often has a difficult time gaining a foothold in my heart. And that is because the image of the earthly man in me is still eating from the the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The fruit of that tree to me still seems “good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom” (Genesis 3:6).
The tree of life is right next to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But I choose the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because my heart easily relates to the image of the earthly man but not to the image of the Heavenly Man.
Relating to the image of the Heavenly Man takes more work. Bearing the heavenly image is hard work, because the earthly image opposes the heavenly image. But it’s not that the work of bearing the image of Christ is hard in and of itself. His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30). But the image of Adam in me is constantly trying to take off the yoke of Christ. We don’t want to be yoked with Him in the work that He is doing. We’d rather spend our energy and resources chasing after the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And for that, I must repent daily, and keep my eyes fixed on Him.
Father, Your love, mercy, and grace are without limit. Pour out Your mercy on me, for I am a sinner. Grow my heart in understanding so that I won’t bear the image of Adam, but the image of Christ. Let His yoke be joyful to me on my back as I walk with Him in whatever He is doing. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
