Christian Living

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Larry Lilly's Letter Monday November 14, 2011

The other day I was looking at photos taken at Mt. Rushmore 22 years ago when Mrs. Lilly and I visited the monument sculpted by Gutzon Borglum. He is also famous for another sculpture, the head of Abraham Lincoln housed on the Capital in Washington DC.

I heard an story concerning the head of Lincoln. Borglum worked on the sculpture from a block of marble in his studio and the work troubled his superstitious maid to the point of near distraction as she was terrified by the gradually emerging figure. Borglum went on sculpting.

One morning the maid noticed the unmistakable image of Lincoln appearing in the marble. She ran over to Borglum and in a tizzy she asked, "Is that Abraham Lincoln?" Borglum nodded yes, and as he did the maid, an elderly woman, breathlessly asked, "How in the world did you know Mr. Lincoln was in that block of stone?"

Interesting story and even more so when an application is made relative to the life we who know Him have in Christ.

In the resurrection paean of praise Paul states in 1 Corinthians 15:49 "And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." The context teaches that as all humans bear the image of Adam, so all who are born again bear the image of Christ and this image will in God's time be completely set free from the bonds of the flesh the image of Christ planted within every believer will be fully revealed. Paul also mentioned this wonder in Romans 8:19 "For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God."

Years ago Dr. John Montgomery stated "In plain English this means that all of creation, including angels is standing on tip toe waiting to see the wonder of the final transformation of the creature into the full likeness of Christ."

When this work of Grace begins the flesh ever so slightly is being put off and this shedding of Adam will be finalized when we see Christ face to face.

This truth of Christ within, even within apparent blockheads of marble is how God works and He sees Christ in us, the hope of glory. This is the bases of God seeing Peter the rock inside Peter the unstable pebble. He also saw Paul The Apostle inside Paul the persecutor. He also sees You the blessing inside a curse, a pain, a near do well or out and out failure. Through Christ we become great in the spirit.

Through the work of The Holy Spirit, the Word, the influence of others, little pieces of marble (Adamic flesh) are being chipped away by the Master Sculptor as He knows what is inside. Praise be to the name of Jesus.

Larry Lilly Copyright © 2011 Use with credit

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