The Chemistry of a Christian 01: Divine DNA

The Chemistry of a Christian 01: Divine DNA

Chemistry of a Christian 01: Divine DNA

The Purpose of This Project: To rediscover our supernatural and spiritual makeup.

Christianity has created a community that attempts to overcome by being combative and defensive as the first response. But we were designed to be image bearers and promote the elements of God’s character. It is those elements that change circumstances, release us from bondage, heal the sick, transform and give us freedom.

We combat addiction instead of embracing purpose.

We fight temptation as opposed to marveling over grace.

We deliberate over decisions against releasing ourselves in faith.

We buckle under depression all the while we have been given a sound mind.

Shame is not conquered by the irradiation of guilt but by embracing grace. 

A powerful life is more about what we need to embrace about God than what we need to despise about ourselves.

We live by what we can see taste and feel. Governed by the period table of natural elements and a tabulation of pain, hurts, and disillusionment we will for the purpose of this series call our periodic table of flesh elements.

We have forgotten we are not constructed naturally or as a flesh-bound organisms. We were built by the breath and creativity of a supernatural being and as such are spirit beings first, and we are crafted from a table of supernatural elements. 

The natural elements were constructed to support the supernatural creation of God. But the governance of all things was supposed to be based on the divine elements of the heavenly courts and His character.

Thinking Differently

It is why Jesus could think differently and why we are called to think differently and not according to the elements of nature or the flesh but from a different table of elements

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Romans 12:1 (NLT)

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2 (NLT)

Made from Divine Supernatural DNA

Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. Genesis 2:7 (NLT)

Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us… Genesis 1:26a (NLT)

So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27 (NLT)

This is the written account of the descendants of Adam. When God created human beings, he made them to be like himself. Genesis 5:1 (NLT)

“The image of God is not so much something that man has as something that man is. Humankind was created to be a graphic image of the Creator — a formal, visible, and understandable representation of who God is and what He’s really like.” John Piper

Sin Does Not Remove The Image of God

God’s commands to Noah demonstrate that the image of God was still in play even after the flood!

Post Flood Governance

“And I will require the blood of anyone who takes another person’s life. If a wild animal kills a person, it must die.

And anyone who murders a fellow human must die.

If anyone takes a human life, that person’s life will also be taken by human hands. For God made human beings in his own image. Now be fruitful and multiply, and repopulate the earth.” Genesis 9:5-7 (NLT)

Distorted and Lost

Though man is still in the image of God, in every aspect of life some parts of that image have been distorted or lost. (Systematic Theology p.444)

Moral purity has been lost. Intellect corrupted, speech degenerated and impulses controlled by selfishness. Elements like love have become second to offense and retribution.

Despite man holding the image of God in a broken, distorted, and watered-down form, man cannot lose the image of God. It is what keeps us redeemable and worth redeeming. With the image of God lost completely God would have had no reason to send Jesus, who called our attention back to the image of the Father. 

That the image of God has been given to us despite our brokenness is the very key to understanding the divine element of grace.

The Practice of The Image

Our born-again state is a renewed realization of the image of God. 

New nature and a new creation.

Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. Colossians 3:10 (NLT)

As we grow in being able to superimpose the divine table of elements over the flesh we are being transformed into the image of God and from one degree of glory to another.

So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.2 Corinthians 3:18 (NLT)

Knowing that we are made in God’s image affects not only our understanding of our Creator and our relationship with Him. It also sets the stage for understanding and defending the sanctity of all human life.

Every single human being, no matter how much the image of God is marred by sin, or illness, or weakness, or age, or any other disability, still has the status of being in God’s image and therefore must be treated with dignity and respect that is due to God’s image-bearer.

This has profound implications for our conduct toward others. It means that people of every race deserve equal dignity and rights. It means that elderly people … and children yet unborn deserve full protection and honor as human beings. Every flesh element causing the breakdown of our society today would be corrected and the effects mitigated if we could begin operating in the supernatural and divine elements of the image of God.

And that is our purpose: To live governed by the elements of God’s divine character.

In both instances, God follows the discussion of being made in His image with a purpose for humankind.

Genesis description in Eden (Genesis 1,5)

Post-flood description (Genesis 9)

26Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” Genesis 1:26-28 (NLT)

27So God created human beings in his own image.

In the image of God he created them;

male and female he created them.

28Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.” 

We do not embrace our purpose by overcoming sin, we embrace it by allowing ourselves to become image bearers.

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