In His Image

Creation

Over the last few weeks, we unpacked the identity of the Trinity. This knowledge has built a foundation for how we can cultivate a relationship with God. However, it doesn't just end there. By understanding the Trinity, we can come to know how to cultivate a relationship with the world around us.

One of the common threads of their role is in Creation. The Trinity was present as our being was formed. The Spirit hovered around the chaos and brought it to order. God breathed the breath of life into Adam’s nostrils, and he (Adam) came into being.

The key phrase in Genesis 1:26–27 is our image, according to OUR likeness. It is in the Trinity that we find our true identity. To know the Trinity is to know our true purpose. Bold statement, I know, but think about it: our creation and very existence are purposed by a God who acted with love and glory.

I have come to know that God created us and this world to share His infinite happiness and joy with us.

What is that purpose? A life lived to love and glorify God with a love so profound that it points us away from ourselves and toward Him and others.

In fact, Jesus summed this up when asked what the greatest commandment was.

Matthew 22:37–40 “He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

As we connect with God, we find our identity in loving God and loving others.

Re-Creation

It is easy to look at creation and question: how can this be? With destruction and chaos everywhere, it would appear counterintuitive. If our created purpose is to be imitators of God—to love and connect with Him—then it stands to reason we would sense a compelling need to live to love Him and others, right?

Looking back at the whole story, I can see how our love of the Trinity informs us to not just love God but also love others.

Genesis tells us we were created in perfect harmony and innocence, but Adam and Eve sinned, and that marred everything.

Yet, in knowing all that happened, The Father gave you new birth through the death and resurrection of Jesus (1 Peter 1:3)

It is The Holy Spirit who serves as a seal or guaruntee of your salvation and who is conforming you to the image of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18 & Rom 8:29)

The Fall isn’t about how we got it wrong. It’s about God’s love demonstrated at its highest to make things right. After Adam and Eve sinned, they didn’t lose the image-bearing blessing that the Trinity gave. Even Lucifer, after he fell, didn’t lose his gift. God wasn’t caught off guard when that happened. He didn’t say to The Spirit, “Yikes, we didn’t see that coming, did we?” God knew this and planned it in advance. Ephesians 1:4 tells us that this was His Plan A.

Conforming as a community

But what does all of this have to do with us? How does this inform us to pursue good relationships with others?

Going back to the beginning, we were created for community and fellowship like the triune God. Scriptures such as:

Genesis 9:6 “Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person’s blood be shed; for in his own image God made humankind.”

James 3:9 “With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God.”

...inform us that God cares a great deal about how we treat others. The problem is, due to the Fall, our hearts are prone to seek purpose and fulfillment in so many ways outside of what God had designed.

Over 12 times, Jesus references the theme of unity—that we would be one as believers, the same way He is one with the Father.

We conform as a Community. We don't sin in a vacuum; our sin impacts others. And in some way, shape, or fashion, we have been negatively impacted because of the sins of others. Scripture informs us in James to, instead of hiding our sin, confess it to one another and bring it to light. To ask for help. Together you can ask God for help, and He will.

To Make The Father Known

When it comes to image bearing, I recognize that there has to be an originator. We know that God is love, and what He demonstrates through love is so divine that it can be viewed as unobtainable. He is God, and only He could do that, right?

Thank God for Jesus, because if there is anyone that we can look to as an example of love, it is Jesus. No matter the religion or belief, Jesus was the PERFECT example of what it means to love others—both friends and foe.

One of the greatest compliments Jesus was given came from an insult. Scripture tells us in Matthew 9:10-17, that tax collectors and sinners, MANY AT THAT, were sitting and eating with Jesus. This bothered the Pharisees, and they criticized Jesus.

Matthew 9:10–17 “And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.” Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”

Through the work of God the Spirit, because of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension—sending His Spirit to dwell in all His followers—we are the primary ways the world sees what God is like. Not everyone will acknowledge God or read scripture, which makes this such a unique opportunity for us. We are created in flesh and are being re-created in the Spirit. We may not be able to walk on water, heal the sick, or turn 5 loaves and 2 fish into thousands of meals. But we can:

Love the unlovable.

Befriend those who have no friends.

Make time and space for the marginalized. To love.

(pgs 175-176)

The Body - Free not to self but for others.

John 17:20–23 ““I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

We have learned in these five weeks that the Persons of the Trinity work together to accomplish the redemptive plan for humanity. In the same way, we were designed to do our best work in community.

As much as the Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, you alone are not capable of demonstrating God’s love in all the ways necessary. You are limited. You need community, we need community.

Romans 12 refers to us as the body of Christ with many members—each of us serves a unique purpose that, when done collectively, lives out the full image of God’s love. This is our purpose.

At times, things will be difficult, and for some, that has already happened. By the Power of the Holy Spirit, God creates joy and peace through those circumstances, and we embrace them, not alone but together.

Together we live in harmony This prevents us from living like the rest of the world with a amidst persecution. scarcity mindset.

We count others as more important than ourselves (Phil. 2:3-7)

Use our gifts to serve the church because in our serving we help mature others in faith.

We live differently:

Put off lies, put on truth.

Put off selfish anger and put on peacemaking.

Put off stealing and put on sharing.

Our words are treated as gifts. So slander, clamor, malice, foolish talk—these are all the bad gifts that we do away with. On the other hand, we give gifts of kindness, words of tenderheartedness, forgiveness, and thanksgiving.