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I. Man was created in the image of God. Righteous as God was righteous he saw God in his own nature; other intelligent creatures saw God in him; and God in His offspring saw Himself.

2. The image of God is now defaced. The substance remains, but its glorious attributes are gone. The form abides but the glorious features are not there.

3. To be right and blessed men must recover this image. Without likeness to God we are unable to appreciate His revelations, and incapable of filial intercourse.

4. By his own power or with the assistance of his fellows, no man can recover it. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," therefore he must be "born not of blood," etc., "but of God."

I. GOD HAS MADE PROVISION FOR THE RENEWAL OF HIS IMAGE IN MAN.

1. This provision consists in —

(1) The atonement which justifies God's interposition for man's regeneration. If without a sacrifice God had restored man, the idea of misfortune, not guilt, would have been associated with man's fallen state. But now sin appears exceeding sinful.

(2) The living Mediator is the way for man to God — as the source of life and light.

(3) The testimony of God's Word informs men of the atonement and Mediator. How can they avail themselves of what they have not heard?

(4) The Holy Spirit so acts upon the heart as to produce sympathy with the testimony of the gospel; and under His influence men believe God's Word and are born again.

2. There is provision: the recovery of God's image is possible. The aged cannot become young, the diseased healthful, the mutilated whole; but man may be renewed. Nature illustrates this. Trees shed their leaves in autumn, and remain in winter as though dead. In the spring the sap rises and circulates, the branches extend, and the foliage returns. The plumage of the bird loses its vigour and gloss, but moulting recovers strength and restores beauty. The human body is exhausted through the waste of its functional operations, and for its renewal we have provision in feed and sleep. And for the soul there is as real a provision. Let none despair. There is balm in Gilead, etc.

3. This provision is of God. He first thought of making it, not man; and He has carried out this design.

(1) The creative power of God is unlimited. "The things which are impossible with men," etc.

(2) Power connected with malevolence is a fearful combination, but how changed the aspect of power when the hand and arm of love. What benevolence is here. "Behold what manner of love," etc.This proves —

(1)  That God is faultless concerning the entrance of evil.

(2)  That He has no complacency in the evil of men.

(3)  That he has no pleasure in the death either of holiness or joy.

(4)  That He delights in mercy.

4. There is but one provision. If men could have restored themselves or each other, God would not have made provision. As you cannot respire by the light, nor see by the air, but vice versa, so you cannot be regenerated by intellectual or social education.

II. MEN ARE, THROUGH THE DIVINE PROVISION, ACTUALLY REGENERATED INTO THE IMAGE OF GOD.

1. Its sphere.

(1) Not the body, although regeneration does effect salutary changes here. Where vice has reigned, regeneration arrests disease and restores health. Where passions have been dominant, the countenance is changed. It also affects temporal circumstances by improving habits.

(2) The soul is its true seat, and the change consists in the leading forth Godwards of all its powers, and the awakening of all its susceptibilities.

(a) A renewed man thinks, and his knowledge is of God and Christ.

(b) He feels, and his affections are led away from the unlawful and are fixed on the good.

(c) His conscience is rectified and made sensitive, and His will and actions are brought under its control.

(d) Over the world he is a conqueror.

(e) He is made like Christ, and through Christ like God.

2. Its nature.

(1) It is radical and general. It penetrates to the core of the soul, and spreads itself over the entire surface. The likeness of a statue to its subject is merely on the face of the marble; as you get below you reach the unlike.

(2) Its perfection is a work of time. A man is born again so soon as he believes in Christ; but into the likeness of God he grows up. Conclusion: Such changes are ejected, and cannot be questioned. John 1:13, James 1:13, and 1 Peter 1:23 hold good to-day everywhere.

1. When the provision of God's mercy for the regeneration of the race is unknown, no such change is observed to take place.

2. When regeneration does take place, the remedial dispensation of the gospel is acknowledged as the means.

(S. Martin.)

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KJV: And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

WEB: and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator,