In The Image Of God

Intro:

One might ask a child, tell me of the image of God…

Oh but are we not made IN his image?

It is an incredibly philosophical question!

Genesis 1:26–27 NASB95

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Notice the language

“Let US make man in OUR image”

Never before in the text has God revealed himself via the pural form.

It was always, ‘let there be, let there be, let there be’

It was impersonal… no personal connection with the light, the water, the elements, the sun / moon / stars / earth. Not with birds or animals

UNTIL this point.

Gen 1:2… John 1:1…

When we read the scriptures, we are reading a book that is unfolding every page, a divine purpose for your existence, for my existence, and for the existence of this entire universe

Genesis tells us the origin of humanity

God makes the trees / rivers / sunshine / divides the days / fills the water with fish / the air with birds / makes all different creeping things / and all of these animals… and as He steps back and considers all that He had made He says: ‘That’s good’

But He hasn’t reached the pinnacle of His work… for He looks upon the birds / animals / trees / rivers and says, ‘There is nothing that bears my image. Nothing that has my likeness’

And so God said lets make one work of creation, who’s purpose is to be my image.

Genesis 5:1 “1 In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.”

We have a special capacity to be ‘like’ God

We mirror and reflect God’s glory

We display God’s character to all creation

We have been given all things under our dominion

Made in his image?

the Hebrew appears to mean: to carve or cut

We are shaped and formed like God, created after a heavenly pattern, a divine pattern, an ETERNAL pattern

Which is not true of anything else created

We bear His mark!

The simple meaning is: You and I were created to be like God.

How is it that we are ‘like’ God…

Man is a spiritual being

Zechariah 12:1 “1 The burden of the word of the Lord concerning Israel. Thus declares the Lord who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him,”

Man is an intelligent being

To participate in thinking, reflecting, deciding, learning, knowing, reasoning

Man is a creative being

Man is an accountable being… we are accountable to our maker

When you put these 4 things together, you basically have the answer to the question of: “What’s the difference between us, and anything else that God created”

We have great value

Philippians 1:21–22 “21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose.”

That’s why its so wrong for us to run off in our own direction trying to ignore God and live in accordance with the ethics of the world rather than the ethics we receive from God

God is the one who determines truth, goodness. And as image-bearers of God, we pursue truth, beauty and goodness, not to our own end, but for the ends to which we were created as image bearers of the one true God

A broken image

Romans 3:23 “23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

This doesn’t mean we’ve just fallen short of GOd’s glory… but that we’ve fallen short of God’s glory for MAN, all that He intended man to be!

A renewed image

As God is infinitely pure and holy, when man comes into being he is pure and holy, spiritually, morally, intellectually, we are made in the image of God.

It’s through sin that we lose the purpose of that divine gift, but it can be reattained in full through faith in Jesus

Romans 8:29 “29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son,”

2 Corinthians 3:18 “18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”

Colossians 3:10 “10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—”

Lesson:

Matthew 5:16 “16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”