A Worthy Life

In the Image of God

Created in His Image

English Standard Version Chapter 1

Gen.1:26 -27

English Standard Version Chapter 1

Gen.1:31

In six days, God created the earth and everything in it. Why did he create man last? It seems to me, God prepared a place, a home for a special creation. A creation made in his image. He would give this creature dominion over all that He made and charge him the responsibility for caring for His good creation. We see in the text that God saw everything He had made and it was very good.

My Dad was fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God, and that alone make his life worthy of remembrance. As an image bearer of Christ, he had purpose. We see in the book of Psalm,

English Standard Version Psalm 139

Psalm 139:13 -16

Do you notice in verse 14, it mentions “my soul”. Humans are also special in this way, we are created with an eternal soul. This is the part of us that knows God very well. The most inner part of man that has a fear or a reverence towards God. It is the part of every man that longs to worship . In verse 16 we are told that God saw us before we were ever formed and he knew the days that were formed for us before they ever existed.

God knew all the days of my Dad’s life before he was put together. He had a purpose and plan for him before his life began and like every one of us here today, Dad made real choices that had real consequences.

2. The Fall of Humanity

English Standard Version Chapter 3

a.

b. Ps 58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray from birth, speaking lies.

Who are the wicked? Surely not I. Really? When did you tell your first lie? Almost immediately after you learned to speak and understand vocabulary you uttered your first lie. Think about it, the first time your mother asked you a simple question, for instance, “ Who made this mess?”. Knowing very well it was you, what was your answer?

See the problem is, we don’t see our sin as something serious. We don’t consider ourselves wicked.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made, and God made us good, but in the garden something happened. We all know that the serpent, Satan, is the author of lies and a deceiver from the beginning, but I want to focus on mans responsibility. Remember God prepared a place for man to live. He gave man every good thing he needed to live and gave him dominion over all of His creation. He gave man the responsibility to tend and care for His creation. and we all know how Adam fell, but have you ever considered why?

The key is in the text. “It was a delight to the eyes,” and “ desired to make one wise.” We are told in Proverbs,

English Standard Version Chapter 2

Proverbs 2:6

The first humans walked in the garden with their creator. They were taught and tutored by the very word of God. He gave them all of the knowledge and understanding necessary for life. The problem with them and all of us, is that we think we can live better lives on our own. We lean on our own understanding. We fail to acknowledge Him, and we are wise in our own eyes. We follow many crooked paths and we follow after evil.

c. Rom 3:10–12 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

My father was no different than you or I. Although he was fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God, like all of us born in the flesh after Adam, he was a sinner. He wasn’t a sinner because he sinned, he sinned because he was a sinner. His life and his death serve to remind us all to consider the state of our life. Although God knows all of the days of our life, we do not. We must be honest with ourselves and realize that we are inherently wicked. On our own, leaning on our own understanding, we all fall short of the glorious image of our creator. Without His divine intervention, we are on our way to hell straight from the womb. But God in his wisdom and love for us had a plan. Before he created the first molecule He had a plan to save us from ourselves and from an eternity of torment in Hell, and make a way for us to live with Him forever. In John 1 we are told that the Word was God and the Word was with God in the beginning. We are also told that through the Word, everything was made and without the word, nothing was made. And John 1:14 states,

3. God Condescends

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Phil 2:5–8 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

2 Cor 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

God tells us in His word that He had a plan from the beginning. The very Word that created life would one day humble himself and condescend to live among us

4. Jesus lives for us

2 Cor 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Heb 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

1 Pet 2:22 He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

1 John 3:5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

5. Jesus dies for us

1 Pet 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

Phil 2:8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Rom 5:8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

6. Jesus rose for us

Matt 28:1–10 Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said.

Col 1:20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

7. All who believe

Heb 12:2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

John 11:25–26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”