That grace or holiness, which is the effect of the ordinary influence of the Spirit of God in the hearts of the saints, is that wherein the spiritual image of God consists; and not in these extraordinary gifts of the Spirit. —The spiritual image of God does not consist in having a power to work miracles, and foretell future events,but it consists in being holy, as God is holy: in having a holy and divine principle in the heart, influencing usto holy and heavenly lives. Indeed, there is a kind of assimilation to Christ in having a power to work miracles, for Christ had such a power, and wrought a multitude of miracles (John xiv. 12) — " The works that I do shall he do also." But the moral image and likeness of Christ does much more consist in having the same mind in us which was in Christ ; in being of the same Spirit that he was of; in being meek and lowly of heart ; in having a spirit of Christian love, and walking as Christ walked. This makes a man more like Christ than if he could work ever so many miracles.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
The image of God and miracles
Jonathan Edwards, in his classic Christian work on love called Charity and Its Fruits, gives charismatics a good reminder "wherein the spiritual image of God consists" in the following excerpt:
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