What we can be is simply an extension of what we already are! Living in the image of God is not trying to be what we are not–it is just the opposite.
So I can live life saying to myself, ‘I am becoming what I am.’ This puts a whole new perspective on everything. If I see myself as I already am, because of what God has done for me, then I do not have to struggle for the impossible.
I can simply allow the blessings of God to work out through my life.
If I am already forgiven, blessed, adopted, graced, chosen, made alive, seated in heavenly places and so on, then I can accept this and live in the light of it. I simply become in practice what in Christ I already am.
Former plastic surgeon Maxwell Maltz relates how while some people who came to him for facial surgery were utterly transformed as a result, others were not. With them, there was no noticeable difference. It was as if they had a ‘scarred soul’.
Although the physical deformity was repaired, the people still saw themselves as disfigured.
How they viewed themselves determined how they lived.
This is generally true no matter who we are.
To read more on this topic see Living in the Image of God, Barry Chant (Miranda: Tabor, 2012 available in eBook and Paperback) from which this edited extract is taken.