I LOVE Jen Wilkin. She writes with theological depth, precision, and beauty, and I’d enthusiastically recommend her books to anyone. Her excellent book, In His Image, explores ten ways we can reflect God’s character. Here are some of my favorite takeaways:
- We are not merely saved from depravity; we’re saved to holiness. Conversion entails consecration. (25)
– - Rightly perceiving ourselves to be the unworthy recipients of the agape [love] of God, we become willing to love our neighbor in spite of himself because God first loved us in spite of ourselves. (38)
– - As those who are the recipients of the good and perfect gifts of God, goodness towards others means generosity. It means we recognize that God gives us good things not so that they might terminate in us, but so that we might steward them on behalf of others. (51)
– - At the cross, God’s towering justice for the many, for me, white-hot and sulfurous, holy, equitable to the crimes it repaid, rained down from heaven on the only just human ever to walk the earth. Willingly, the just suffered for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. (66)
– - In view of God’s mercy, we sacrifice our bitterness and grudge-bearing for the sake of extending forgiveness. We also sacrifice our legitimate hurts–the pain of unfair rejection or the sorrow of a wound unjustly received. We entrust them to God, remembering that Christ endured the same from us and for us, and to a much greater degree. (79)
– - Whereas the law pointed us to our need for grace, now grace points us to our need for the law. Grace enables us to humbly submit to God’s good government. And God gives grace to the humble that they may do just that. (91)
– - Behind every temptation, great or small, stands the faithfulness of God eager to provide a way of escape. When we answer his faithfulness with our faithfulness, temptation loses both its glitter and its brawn. (104)
– - The church must be a bastion of patience. As the rest of the world chases the next new thing every eight seconds or less, we must be those who turn our eyes towards the long view. We must be known for our staying power when loving our neighbors takes longer than we expected and is harder than we thought. It takes patience to run with endurance, but that is the race the world needs to see us run. (118)
– - We can’t discern what’s false if we don’t train our eyes on what is true. The best weapon we have for discerning true teaching from false teaching and sin from righteousness is “the sword of the spirit, the Word of God” (Eph. 6:17). The Word of God is a weapon, forged to combat forgery. (130)
– - Everything we say or do will either illuminate or obscure the character of God. Sanctification is the process of joyfully growing luminous. Through Christ and by the Spirit, we have regained access to God’s presence. And the result is the glorious reclamation of the image of God in man. (153)