The Likeness of God
The Likeness of God
Genesis 5:1 through Genesis 5:3 (NIV)
1This is the written account of Adam’s line.
When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them “man.”
3When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.
Introduction: "One day as I was reading the second chapter of 1 John, I realized that my personal life's objective regarding holiness was less than that of John's. He was saying, in effect, 'Make it your aim not to sin.' As I thought about this, I realized that deep within my heart my real aim was not to sin 'very much' - Can you imagine a soldier going into battle with the aim of 'not getting hit very much?'"
- Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness, (Colorado Springs, CO: Nav Press, 1978), 96.
I. The Image Made
Genesis 1:26 through Genesis 1:27 (NIV)
26Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
A. Created In Harmony
B. Created In Holiness
II. The Image Marred
Genesis 6:5 through Genesis 6:6 (NIV)
5The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.
A. An image polluted
B. An image passed on
III. The Image Mirrored
Romans 7:14 through Romans 7:18 (NIV)
14We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.
A. The Law Provides a Look at the Proper image.
B. The Law Provides a Look at the Polluted Image.
IV. The Image Modeled
Ephesians 4:17 through Ephesians 4:24 (NIV)
17So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
20You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 through 1 Thessalonians 5:24 (NIV)
23May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.
Jeremiah 31:31 through Jeremiah 31:33 (NIV)
31 “The time is coming,” declares the LORD,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their forefathers
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,”
declares the LORD.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time,” declares the LORD.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
A. Through Man's Consecration
B. Through God's Cleansing