Page 99 - The Christian Life and the Church Life_Government of God

Living under Authority and Representing God 98

ONE WHO HAS BEEN APPOINTED BY GOD TO BE
A DEPUTY AUTHORITY NEEDING TO BE A PROPER
REPRESENTATIVE OF GOD
One who has been appointed by God to be a deputy authority must be a
proper representative of God (12:3-8; 16:1-5, 28; 2 Cor. 5:20). The first thing
I want to bring to your attention is a very familiar verse, Genesis 1:26 and 27.
I would draw your attention to the sequence or the order here. “Let us make
man in our image according to our likeness and let them have dominion.”
Image is first. That is the expression of God. Only one who expresses God can
represent God. Because actually the expression becomes the representation.
It is a huge mistake to just leap over to this, “I had this from God. I had that.”
Please learn from our history, do not repeat it. Do not self-destruct over this.
There is one reason why He created us — He wants us to recover the earth
for His kingdom so His will can be done on earth. He wants us to represent
Him with His authority to deal with the enemy usurping the earth. He wants
us to be His representative properly, but that depends on the image. If you
express yourself, you cannot represent God. You can use words with doctrinal
precision, you can quote this and that from the ministry or a verse chosen
selectively for your case, but the more you do that the more you express
yourself and disqualify yourself. That is why we need to be transformed into
His image from glory to glory.
In Exodus and in Numbers 12 and 16, Moses
Representing God in a Proper Way
In Exodus and in Numbers 12 and 16, Moses represented God in a
proper way. Now we have a section on Moses’ failure. Most of us are familiar
with this but I believe a fresh review will be helpful. Moses was called the
“meekest man on the earth.” What a responsibility he had starting at the age
of eighty to bring perhaps two million people out of Egypt to the wilderness
into the good land. What kind of weight of responsibility is that and the things
he went through again and again, and the rebellion against him and Aaron!
Then there is the case of Nadab and Abihu. Also, the earth swallowed up and
the fire consumed the two hundred and fifty, all of the people rebelled and
said, “You killed them.” He humbled himself before God. But he made one
mistake and that one mistake was a sin unto death. Let me read it then we
can learn from it. In Deuteronomy he refers to it in a very objective way. He