Gospel of the Image
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· 14 viewsGod's image in us carries intentions and expectations which we are unable to fulfill, but the good news is that Christ has fulfilled them for us.
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Introduction
Introduction
What does it mean
Me vs. Manny vs. Ben
We have similarities but there are important differences
It would be silly to start doing Manny and Ben things
More true to reality, people sometimes reject who they are in order to pursue a different identity
This world has rejected their God-given identity
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
God made us in his image. An image is something that represents or depicts the original, like a portrait of someone or a president on a coin. The image of God is a little different though. God doesn’t have a body, it isn’t that we physically look like God. This is different, we represent God in a different way. Many times we talk about the attributes of God which he has shared with us, like the ability to love or to be creative. Those things are true as well, but the image of God in us at it’s very core is our identity. The attributes are just what allow us to live out that identity.
But the world doesn’t want to be defined by the image of God. We live in a society where identity is an extremely personal and relative concept. Each person creates an identity for themselves. What sets us apart as christians? What does it mean that we believe we are made in God’s image? I invite you to turn in your bibles to Romans 8:29.
But what does it mean that the image of God is our identity? I invite you to turn in your bibles to Romans 8:29.
More than attributes- it’s our identity
Sin cannot affect it, but it can stop us from fulfilling our identity
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this word today, but it is helpful to know who God is talking about. On the surface it would appear that this word means simply “to know before”, which doesn’t paint the whole picture. This isn’t just factual knowledge that God had about people, this is a word that also can imply deeper relational knowledge. The word “foreknew” does not occur many times in the New Testament, but it is often used as a kind of idiom for God’s chosen people. In the surrounding verses here we can see that it is closely related to the word “called”. So this passage is talking about believers, those who God has called to himself.
What does it mean to be made in God’s Image?
What does it mean to be made in God’s Image?
What does it mean that this is our identity as humanity?
"Foreknew”
"Foreknew”
I don’t want to spend a lot of time on this word today, but it is helpful to know who God is talking about. On the surface it would appear that this word means simply “to know before”, which doesn’t paint the whole picture. This isn’t just factual knowledge that God had about people, this is a word that also can imply deeper relational knowledge. The word “foreknew” does not occur many times in the New Testament, but it is often used as a kind of idiom for God’s chosen people. In the surrounding verses here we can see that it is closely related to the word “called”. So this passage is talking about believers, those who God has called to himself.
“Predestined”
“Predestined”
Now I know that when we read this verse that there are a number of people who start to squirm in their seats and get all nervous when the hear the “P” word. There are others who get ready to pounce with their well planned out theological arguments, because there are a lot of different views about what the bible means by this word and the debate can easily turn ugly. But I don’t want to talk about controversy today. We are going to look at this word in terms that everyone should be able to agree on. What this word tells all of us about this image of God in us is that
God has intentions for us (“predestined”)
God has intentions for us (“predestined”)
This may be one of the highest blasphemies to the secular worldview. How dare anyone say that any intention for my life outside of my own matters at all? We live in a society that has robbed objective reality from it’s power. I am going to find fulfillment and purpose in whatever I deem right for myself, and nothing outside of myself is going to determine anything at all, not culture, tradition, religion, not even my own biology, and most certainly not God. This is the worldview that is on the rise today that my generation is dealing with, and that generations below me will be immersed in as they grow up. If you are of an older generation, you need to know this as parents and mentors of the younger generations so that you can communicate the importance of objective reality (particularly that of God’s world).
If you are older, you probably have a different worldview that was impressed upon you growing up. Instead of finding fulfillment subjectively, it was found in objective standards, but not necessarily those that are Biblical. For many people it is the “American dream”. Our purpose in life is to get a good job, be successful, buy a house, and start a family. Those that fail to meet any of those criteria are really missing out. Other people identify most in their political party, their pride, their role role in society.
And it would be easy to condemn these worldviews without compassion. But what I see behind these philosophies, even the angry ones, is a sadness and a desperate plea to find significance and fulfillment in the world. This is something I think we all feel at some point in our lives. This is why people are constantly trying to reinvent themselves, or find happiness in their sexual identity or in their career or in their politics. We should be compassionate with these people because I think that we have probably tried to find fulfillment outside of God as well. We should be able to tell them that there is something that satisfies. Not a fleeting happiness, or passing enjoyment. When we find our true purpose and identity in the image of God it is far better than anything else. Like pastor Manny somewhat infamously illustrated, “if you are a spoon, don’t try to be hammer, you’ll just get all bent out of shape, if you are a spoon do spooney things”.
One thing that gets in the way of us communicating that finding our purpose in the image of God is better than other counterfeit purposes, is that we often take what we want and what we think our purpose should be and tell people that’s what God want for us too. This is where the prosperity gospel comes in. “God wants you to be healthy and wealthy”, “you can have your best life now.” But that isn’t always the case. You might have heard before, and you’ve probably heard verse 28 too, but sometimes we forget that these verses are connected, they don’t exist in a vacuum. The way we have mistreated verse 28 causes us to fall into the trap that God is here to give us whatever we think will satisfy us.
The reason I am pointing out these secular worldviews is because they tend to creep into our churches.
We know
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good”- sounds good!
“of those who love him”- thats me!
Sometimes we quote as though it guarantees happiness in this life. Sometimes it includes that , just don’t forget that the original audience of that verse lived in captivity in a foreign land, and that most of them never returned to the land of Israel. For them God’s intention was that they glorify him in a time of trial and punishment.
“who have been called according to his purpose...”- what now?
You mean that instead of curing our illness sometimes God intends us to trust him in it? You mean that instead of fixing my financial problems that God’s purpose is for me to rely on him? You mean instead of giving me the job I want God wants me to find my satisfaction in him?
So what then is the intention of God’s image in us? To reflect him. This is where some of those attributes come in.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
God told man to fill the earth, kind of like how God filled the earth, and to take care of the earth and rule over it, kind of like he does. God’s intention for our lives is to reflect him. So that when people look like us they think of him. Why does God intend this?
Because he is glorious
Because he is glorious
He is glorious and the only one worthy of praise!
Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom. One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts. They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty— and I will meditate on your wonderful works. They tell of the power of your awesome works— and I will proclaim your great deeds. They celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.
Psalm 145:3-
God is the highest and the most worthy! How do we reflect him? What are we supposed to do? The second truth we find in this is this:
God has expectations from us (“conformed”)
God has expectations from us (“conformed”)
Or “instructions” for us
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
For those God called his own he intended to be “conformed”
For some this is almost as blasphemous at the first truth. Everyone knows you’re not supposed to be conformed right? Then don’t forget not to conform to the non-conformists either. According to the world, the only way to be happy is freedom to do whatever you want. Not to follow stuffy old rules.
We rightfully talk about the Christian faith as a relationship and talk about God as loving, but we can’t shy away from the fact that God has rules. He has commandments related to his purposes for us. He intends us to conform. We already saw that God commanded Adam and Eve to fill and care for the earth and to rule over it’s creatures, but he also told them not to eat of the tree in the midst of the garden. In order to accurately reflect God, he set out some commandments for us to follow. The only way for us to live out God’s intention for us to live by his instructions for us.
When we go through our Bible reading plan, the second half of Exodus through pretty much Deuteronomy seem pretty strange to us because they are laws that were given to Israel, specifically so that they would stand out from the nations around them. Because of the difference in culture we don’t always know what all those laws really mean without the help of a good commentary. But the nation of Israel was given those laws to reflect God’s holiness (his “differentness”). That’s why God has expectations for us as well:
Because he is holy
Because he is holy
The good news!
The good news!
This is where the good news becomes bad news. If the only way that we can really be fulfilled as human beings is to live the way God designed us, and if the only way to do that is to live by his instructions for us, that’s bad news, because we aren’t able to that.
When God gave Adam and Eve the privilege of being made in his image and told them what to do, they didn’t want to reflect God. When the enemy came into the garden he told them that they didn’t have to reflect God, but they could be “like God”. In other words that they could be their own gods. And when they sinned they were separated from God and Paul says all of us with them. That same lie is being told today. “Does God really say that you have to reflect him? Does he really say that you can’t lie? That you shouldn’t love money? That you shouldn’t look lustfully at someone else? Well guess what, you can find happiness doing things your own way. You don’t need God’s instruction.”
God is the most glorious, and the most holy, the highest above all, and somehow we believe that reflecting him (the greatest and best that exists) will somehow not fulfill us. Will not be as good as something else.
These verses don’t exist in a vacuum. The beginning of Romans talks about all the ways that mankind has traded the glory of the immortal God for “images made to look like mortal beings”. That’s straight from 1:23. We trade God’s image for our own and end up with nothing. He reiterates that no one is righteous and that everyone is storing up wrath for himself. The tragedy is that our own sin is keeping us from being who God intends us to be. In chapter 7 Paul says
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
Romans 7:
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?
What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
But the book of Romans is about bad news. The book of the Romans is Paul’s great work about the gospel (which means good news). Let’s look at the good news in this passage.
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
The good news!
The good news!
We can’t fulfill the image of God on our own. But when we put our faith in Jesus he starts to conform us in his image. The image of Christ. says
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
He is the image of God. We are made in the image of God but Jesus actually is the image of God. Hebrews 1:3 says
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
Hebrews
Why is this good news? When we talk about the gospel the first thing we think about is that Jesus died for our sins. Okay thats good. At Easter we add in the resurrection, that Jesus rises to give us new life. Also good. But something that we tend to miss a lot is that Jesus lived. Jesus came and lived the perfect life for us just as much as he died for us. That purpose God has for us is inherent in Jesus nature. And those expectations that God has for us? He fulfilled those too. From his own mouth in :
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
Notice that my title is The Gospel of the Image. Gospel means good news, the good news of the image of Christ is that
Christ has fulfilled the image for us (“the image of his Son”)
Christ has fulfilled the image for us (“the image of his Son”)
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
Paul is saying that now we are benefitted from Christ’s righteousness because we become brothers and sisters to him. We receive the righteousness of Christ when we trust in him. Paul says later in
Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.
This is what the good news is at its core. This is what sets Christianity apart from other worldviews. In other worldviews you have to strive to be fulfilled. In Christianity, Jesus has done that for us. God is the one who works. Yes we must submit, yes we must follow him, but all the actual work of salvation is God’s. Look at the next verse in our passage:
And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
You see that it’s God who predestines, that is he gives us a purpose, before he even made us. It is God who calls us to himself. It is God who justifies, that is he makes us right in our relationship with him. And it’s God who glorifies, meaning that he guarantees our eternity in heaven. But don’t be satisfied with the fact that heaven awaits, we can begin to live our purpose now. We can experience real fulfillment on earth. Not always happiness, but in Christ we can be completely fulfilled in our purpose as the image of God. There are three ways the Jesus gives us aid, found in the book of Philippians. First, we can
Look to his example
Look to his example
In , Paul uses the example of Jesus Christ to teach us how to be humble. Since Christ fulfills God’s instruction perfectly, we can look to his example to see how to do it ourselves. The first and foremost way we can do this is by getting to know the life of Christ for ourselves. This means exploring God’s Word. But we need to make sure that we aren’t reading our own meaning into the text. We are seeking to be conformed to the image of Christ, not to conform Christ into our image.
If Jesus’ words never make you feel uncomfortable, you aren’t pay attention to what he’s actually saying.
Trust in his power
Trust in his power
I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
Jesus’ death and resurrection were not simply historical events, but they had an impact on our everyday lives. In a passage concerning the pursuit of holiness and of Jesus Christ, Paul interjects with faith in the power of Jesus and his resurrection. In Jesus we find the power to pursue holiness and to fulfill the role of God’s image. Just don’t ignore that Paul says we must also participate in his suffering and become like him in his death in order to gain resurrection of the dead. We must be ready to die to ourselves and our natural inclinations, that is whatever we think our purpose is and how we should act, so that we can reflect God by the power of Jesus.
Rest in his obedience
Rest in his obedience
Finally, and this is very important, we need to rest in his obedience. Like I said, this is the difference between Christianity and all other worldviews. We don’t need to earn it. We can’t earn it. Jesus has done it for us. Jesus was radically obedient for us.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
Some may look at this verse and say “see! That’s how we need to live!” and we do. But we can’t because we are imperfect people who will stumble and fall. We are going to fail in our God given purpose to reflect him and his glory. But never let that stop you from getting back up, confessing your sins, and to keep on going. We need to learn to rest in the obedience of Jesus Christ. Not to the point that we say “whatever, I’ll just do whatever I want”, because that would be evidence that we don’t truly know Jesus.
You see, yes, finding our identity in the image of God involves obedience to God’s instruction, but that’s not what it’s ultimately about. Christianity isn’t ultimately a set of rules. Christianity is ultimately about a person. Jesus Christ. And the closer we draw near to him as a person, hearing his voice in his word, speaking to him, trusting in him, the more that we will naturally be conformed to his image. When we come to Jesus, truly come to him, not the made up Jesus in our head, but to the real Jesus, then we can’t help but be transformed.
Conclusion
Conclusion
So whether you are here today without Christ, and you are searching for fulfillment, or you already follow Christ, but have been blinded to your purpose by the loudness of this world. Let me tell you that you were designed to reflect God as his image, that is the only place to find true fulfillment. And that the only way to truly live out your purpose, is to draw close to the person of Christ, to trust in him and his work.