Dr. Dan Hayden •
Image is everything—so they say. You can’t just be good, you also have to look good. Package it right, and it will sell. So, what do you think about all this emphasis on image these days?
Romans 8:29 says that it is God’s purpose to conform His children into the very image of His Son. Actually the verse says “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son.” I guess God is into imaging, but not like we are.
I have a friend who works for a major U.S. corporation as a quality control agent, but his reports are routinely ignored in favor of cutting costs and speeding up production. Their rationale is that excellence in imaging will still carry the sales. Now you see, God doesn’t do that—in fact, excellence in quality is what His imaging is all about.
The word for image in this verse, is the Greek word icone–which refers to “an appearance, a likeness,” hence, “an image.” It’s from this word that we get the English word “icon”–an image especially a religious image painted on a small wood panel. Usually the icon has the appearance of a religious figure. It’s a likeness, an image.
In Romans 8:29, God is saying that your life is like that small wood panel, and all the circumstances of life—the good and the bad, the happy and the sad, the exciting and the dull–are His paintbrushes. And He uses all those varying colors of life to paint the picture of Jesus on your small wood panel, so that your life bears the “icon” of God’s Son. Now that’s quality. It’s the best image you could ever bear. To become like Jesus is to exhibit excellence in life and to bear the image of Christ is to look good in the eyes of God. “Conformed to the image of His Son.”
Did you know that God wants your life to be an “icon” of Jesus?