Stephen De Young

“Through His death and Resurrection, Christ has restored human nature in its function as the image of God. This restoration brings about the descent of the Holy Spirit, which fills human persons in whom the image of God has been restored through baptism into Christ. It is in this way, the Holy Spirit coming to indwell the Christian, that human persons are empowered to serve as God’s image in His creation. It is through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that human persons come to participate in the working of God in the world, to do the works that He has prepared in advance for them to do (Eph. 2:10). These are God’s own works, and so God can look on them and declare them to be good. In its turn, serving as God’s image by participation brings about growth into God’s likeness (Phil. 2:12–13). It is transformative of human persons, both restoring and healing them from the effects of sin, and ever more conforming them to the likeness of Jesus Christ.”
― Stephen De Young, Religion of the Apostles: Orthodox Christianity in the First Century

“various Old Testament visions and events indicate is that in pre-Christian Judaism, the Word of the Lord was perceived and understood as a divine Person who had appeared and spoken to the prophets in bodily form. This Person was both distinguished from and identified as Yahweh, the God of Israel.”
― Stephen De Young, Religion of the Apostles: Orthodox Christianity in the First Century