Image of God
Notes
Transcript
Image of God
Image of God
I don’t know how many of you have met or seen my dad, but I look a lot like him.
So much so that the other day Corrie was looking at some pictures with the kids on the TV at home.
I was sitting in my chair and I just happened to glance up and I could have sworn I saw my dad.
But it wasn’t my dad, it was me.
Some of us have this blessing/curse of looking like our one of our parents.
But even crazier than that sometimes our kids inherit not our physical traits but our character traits and mannerisms.
There’s little more exciting in life than watching your children imitate you in the way that you love and care for people.
There’s little more infuriating in life than watching your children imitate you at your worse.
Whether we like it or not children are a reflection of us.
They are our little image bearers running around making us proud and making us furious.
Whenever my mom comes to visit I always ask her, “Was I like that when I was younger?” and inevitably she will say yes.
So for better or worse, our kids are a reflection of us to the world, because they are made in our image.
Humans are made in the image of God we were created by God to be a reflection of him in this world.
So what does it mean for us to be made in the image of God?
That’s what we are going to talk about this morning.
Let’s Pray.
First off, how do I know that we are made in the image of God we looked briefly at the verses last week so let’s look at them again.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Created in God’s Image
On the sixth day of creation God created the land animals.
As a bonus he created man.
Humanity was the crown jewel of creation.
The stage was set for God’s world to be brimming with live and vibrancy.
I don’t want us to miss this that all humanity is made in God’s image.
Male and Female.
We are valuable b/c we are created to reflect God.
How do we get that?
Well if you’ll notice in the rest of the creation story, God says let there be…and then there was.
But here there’s a shift.
In stead of God saying let there be, he says Let Us Make.
So there is a subtle but dynamic shift in the mode of creation.
Where now God is a personally involved in the creation of humanity.
(As an aside, if you are new to the bible and you have questions about this whole, Let Us make man in our image quote. I want to assure you, that you are not alone.
In fact, for many years as a new Christian I struggled with it.
Here’s what I want you to know, this is the first allusion to the trinity.
That is God in Three Persons. Father, Son, and HS.
This is not anything that is looked over or forgotten in theology.
If you remember, when we talked about creation last week and I quoted from
John 1:1-3 “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
This is the first picture in the Bible we get of Jesus being with God, creating.
The fact that verse 27 begins with “So God created man in his own image” leads some people to teach women are less valuable or less human than men.
The author’s intent though seems to be clear if they just read to the end of the verse, where it reads, male and female he created them.
The truth is the first “man” you read in v.27 is better rendered humanity so as to not cause confusion.
God created humanity in his own image.
That means that you aren’t more valuable b/c of you gender.
A person’s skin color or ethnic background doesn’t change their value and worth.
Our worth is not based on the color of our skin, the content of our chromosomes, or the cognitive ability of our brains.
We have value simply because we are made in God’s image.
Even the people you disagree with.
Even the people you think are morons.
Even the people who hate you and make your life miserable.
All people. In All places. At all times. Have value b/c they are image bearers of God.
So when we see injustice or the image of God being demeaned or decimated we should never be afraid to stand up.
We should be outraged by injustice.
If someone is abused, trafficked, or murdered we should be affected b/c a person who is made in the image of God is hurting.
Anytime that someone is made to feel less than human by the color of their skin, their sexual orientation, age, or something else that is simply not okay.
This doesn’t mean that we have to agree with all their choices and decisions.
But we do have to know and see that they are valuable image bearers.
The church, as a whole, can and should do better.
We have relinquished our calling and others have filled the gap.
Then we sit back and complain b/c they aren’t doing it the way we want them to.
I know that we can’t fix the world’s problems.
We can’t change people’s minds.
Not everyone will see things the way that we do.
But we can love people.
We can show them dignity and respect.
We can tell them about the God who can change their hearts and desires.
We can’t fix everything, but we can impact people.
We can love people.
Because they are made in the image of God
And it is only through this understanding of creation and God that we can say emphatically that people have value.
That people are important.
That people are worth our time, energy, and love.
The reality is every other worldview that doesn’t hold to the creative and personal God of the Bible cannot say that humans are inherently valuable.
The most popular understanding of humanity’s creation in the western world today is Darwinian Evolution.
That we happened to evolve from some lesser being over many millions and billions of years.
If we are just products of evolution, then we have no more reason to hold value than a bunch of broccoli.
Unless you are viewed by some arbitrary value system created by some arbitrary group.
They get to decide if you are valuable, based on what you believe, how you vote, or how you align with them.
There is no basis for value if we are simply a cosmic goop that happened on accident.
In that worldview, you are only valuable as long as you contribute to society or fit their agenda.
Nevertheless, we should desire that all of people come to know, understand, and love the God that created them.
Remember last week when we talked about other creation stories.
That in these other stories man was created by the gods either accidentally or to serve the gods by providing them with food.
The current creation narrative is that we are a cosmic accident.
The story of creation in the Bible runs contrary to that narrative.
Humanity was personally and intimately created by a holy and loving God.
Humanity is like God.
Humanity is a representative of God on earth.
He chose us to represent him on earth.
The Hebrew word for image “tselem” is the same word that is used to identify the idols that the pagans used to worship their gods.
That’s why God is so against us making idols and worshipping them.
He knows that we can’t create something that represents him b/c he already created his image in humanity.
He created us to steward the earth he has given to us.
God purposefully created humans to be his image bearers to look like him and to rule over his creation.
28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.
30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Purpose of God’s Image
God gave the first humans 3 edicts or commands on how they were supposed to live.
First, they were to be fruitful and multiply.
Second, they were to subdue the earth.
Third, they were to have dominion.
Be fruitful and multiply is pretty straight forward means that we are to have kids.
Obviously not everyone will have or can have children.
But it is wired in our DNA procreate.
And God gives us guidelines on how that is to be.
It is to be within the confines of marriage, between one man and one woman.
That is the design God has set forth.
But sometimes we try to work outside of that design and it can be chaotic.
But again people have dignity.
So if you are remarried. You are valuable to God.
If you were or are a single parent. You are valuable to God.
If you stay single your whole life. You are valuable to God.
Your circumstances don’t dictate your value.
Secondly, Adam and Eve were instructed to subdue the earth.
This means that they were to bring order out of the chaos.
They were to organize and order the world according to God’s design.
I don’t know how much thought you have put into the creation narrative, but here lately I’ve been reading and studying it a lot.
One thing that we often read over and don’t recognize is that the whole of Eden wasn’t a garden.
8 And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
That the whole of Eden and the rest of the earth needed to be organized and ordered.
It had to be made habitable for humanity.
Have you ever been somewhere that the plant life and wildlife have overrun.
Man isn’t to destroy creation, but bring order to creation.
Not only that, but we are to organize ourselves.
We organize ourselves into neighborhoods, communities, towns, and cities.
Where we fight for the good of those we love and care about.
Thirdly, we are to have dominion.
This is specifically kingly language.
We are to rule the world the way that God created it to be ruled.
So when we have farms, ranches, water systems, and governments we are to be ruling the way God has established.
Here’s another cool little tidbit.
This language of humanity being made in God’s image and being called to rule over creation spits in the face of the way ancient people viewed their rulers.
In ancient Egypt, Babylon, and other civilizations the King or Pharaoh was looked up to and worshiped as being in the Image of God.
But here God shows us that his image has be democratized.
Meaning that his image isn’t just for the kings and rulers, but for all people.
This also means that if all humanity was in perfect relationship with God and they listened and obeyed his commands then there would be no need for governments b/c each person would rule over their own land and family.
Having dominion over the other created creatures means that we are to respect them and treat them as important to God’s creation, but not over value them.
They are resources.
This plays a huge role in what happens in Genesis Chapter 3.
1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden,
3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”
4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.
5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
Stained Image
Have you ever thought about why it was a Snake?
Why did Adam and Eve fall prey to a snake?
Moses could have just wrote that Satan tempted them to eat.
But I believe that what he is really showing us is that Adam and Eve weren’t doing their job of having dominion over the animals of the land.
Instead of ruling over the serpent they listened to the serpent.
And how does he deceive them?
With doubt:
“Did God actually say...”
With a half truth.
“You will not surely die”
With distortion of God’s Word.
“You will be Like God.”
God’s Word is always for our benefit.
So it is important to know what he said.
Even when we don’t like it, the culture doesn’t like it, our feelings get hurt, or we are challenged.
We have to know what God said in order to fight against temptation.
This is what Jesus did in the Wilderness after 40 days of fasting.
Satan comes at him with temptation and Jesus doesn’t rely on his own thoughts, or his own musings.
Rather to fight back against temptation he quotes Scripture.
What we put into our minds is what will flow out in times of stress, pain, and temptation.
If we are feasting on the Word of God when life squeezes us the goodness of God comes out.
I want to talk to the youth for just a minute.
The world, social media, and people at school will tell you all sorts of things that run contrary to what God says.
They will tell you that if you really love someone you will do whatever they want.
They will tell you that in order to be happy and valuable you have to have money, cars, and influence.
That having fun, getting drunk, going to parties is the true way to live your life.
But God has much more in store for you.
Don’t listen to the others when they say that if you don’t have these things, you can’t be happy.
And if you don’t want these things then you shouldn’t be alive.
These are all lies from the pit of hell that want you to turn away from God.
People will say and do mean and hateful things to you.
They will say things that aren’t true.
They will try to make you hate yourself.
I want you to know that God truly loves you.
Each person in this room loves you.
That your value and worth isn’t based on what people say about you.
That your value and worth is tied to who Created you.
The serpent also said that “they would not surely die”
Their bodily death was not immediate. But it was inevitable.
The death that took place was a spiritual one.
One that would cut them off from God.
One that would cast them out of the garden.
One that would impact their life and the life of their children and the rest of humanity.
Finally, the serpent told them that “you will be like God.”
Here’s the rub.
Humans were already like God.
They were made in his likeness.
They were made to rule and reign over creation.
But Adam and Eve either didn’t recognize that reality or didn’t care.
This is why the image of God is such a foundational and important doctrine for us to understand and talk about.
Because when people understand their value and worth, and they understand other people’s value and worth we are able to share with them about the God that loves and cares for them.
Adam and Eve believed the lies and succumbed to the temptation.
This is also important to point out b/c many people blame Eve for eating the fruit.
But Adam is at more fault than Eve.
Genesis 3.6 “6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”
He was standing ignorantly and idly by while is wife was listening to the serpent.
He was not standing up for God’s Word.
He was not standing up and protecting his wife.
He was not subduing and having dominion over creation.
Rather he was being passive. instead of leading.
So, they ate the fruit.
And they knew good and evil.
There’s this refrain in Gen. 1 that is meant to be distorted now.
“And God saw that it was good.”
God is the author and definer of what is good.
In Adam and Eve’s rebellion and disobedience they now are going to have to make decisions as to what is good and what is evil.
And as we can look out at the world today, we are not good judges of what is good and what is evil.
Have you ever thought about the fact that we were never meant to know evil.
That we were only supposed to know the goodness of God.
That we were only supposed to know what God declared as good.
And one day we will know only good again.
But through disobedience and rebellion sin entered into the world and until the world is renewed that is a reality we have to deal with.
The creativity and care that was given to mankind to bring order out from chaos has now shifted into us creatively creating chaos.
Now I know that you wondering where do we see Jesus in this story.
The first thing I want to point out is that Jesus is the perfect unstained image of God.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
The Perfect Image
When we look at Jesus, we see God.
He is not just made in the image and likeness of God like humans.
He IS the image of God.
God is Spirit and doesn’t have a body.
But when Jesus came to the earth and put on flesh he shows us through his actions, life, and sacrifice what God truly looks like.
The point of an image is to point to the reality of what it represents.
Since we are made in the image of God we are created to point people to the creator.
But b/c of sin and rebellion we don’t always do that well.
Jesus came and through his life he shows us how we are supposed to live.
So if we want to know what it means to be fully human and to live how God designed us to live we don’t have to look any further than Jesus.
How does God want us to live revealed by Jesus?
Humility
Love
Service
Devotion
Sacrifice
So if we want to live the life God has for us we will live our lives following after and imitating Jesus.
But how do we live like Jesus.
How do we love like Jesus.
How do we imitate Jesus.
Because we are still stained by sin.
We are still broken images.
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—
13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
16 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.
17 For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.
18 Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.
19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
20 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
New Creation
Many people like to argue that it’s not fair that Adam and Eve messed it up for everyone.
Why do they get to set the tone for humanity?
How can I be responsible for what they did?
The reality is they were in perfect unity with God.
They were in perfect fellowship with God.
They didn’t know evil.
They only knew good.
And yet they still chose to disobey God.
What could possibly make you think you could do any better?
So God used them as a representative of all humanity.
And the disease of sin and death now infect all people.
But God has provided for us an antidote.
That antidote came through Jesus.
Just as Adam represents humanity in Sin.
Jesus Represents the path to new life.
Faith in Jesus brings new life.
He gives us birth not of the things of this world, but the things of heaven.
We can be made alive and restored through trust in Christ.
We can now bear the image of God.
No longer a stained image but the perfect image.
Restored image.
Jesus came to create a new humanity.
2 Cor 5.17 “17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
As this new creation we are called to
To be his representatives on earth.
To spread his kingdom on earth.
To call others to faith and trust in him.
To point people toward Jesus.
Matt 28:19-20 “19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””
We are to be fruitful and multiply.
Bring about justice and set injustices right.
Subduing the earth and having dominion.
Jesus is the new Adam b/c he came to set the wrongs right.
He is the perfect representation of what it means to human.
He is the example of what it means to be made in the Image of God.
And the reality is you are either a child of Adam or a Child of God.
You are still living in your sinful and rebellious flesh or a new creation b/c of Jesus.
So where are you?
Are you a new creation?
Or are you still an enemy of God?
If you are a new creation, how are you working toward cultivating God’s kingdom where you live, work, and play?
How are you being fruitful and multiplying God’s kingdom?
How are you making justice, love, and mercy reign?
If you are not a follower of Jesus, it’s time to make a decision.
Are you just going to play with God or the idea of God.
Or are you going to stand up and give your life to Jesus.
Submit your life to him.
Let him make you new.
Let him restore your heart.
If you need to place your faith in Jesus, now is the time.
Don’t delay.
He is calling out to you. Will you answer him?