God and the Individual

Genesis 1:26-27

Introduction

Several weeks ago we compared the individual to the collective.

We noted the ultimate individual nature of our relationship to God.

That while we are certainly part of collectives and even have responsibility to those collectives, ultimately, we are individually responsible for our own actions within those collectives.

And so we really ended up highlighting the individual by way of responsibility rather than freedom (though the two go hand in hand).

But there is a strain of thought about individualism that is radically dangerous and is taking our culture into the abyss.

The Honor of the Individual

We are each bearers of the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27).

This is where our greatest value is found (Gal. 3:28).

Historically, this concept of the value of each individual has been trampled by various societies in various ways.

Race, wealth, intelligence, class, and many other factors have determined ultimate value.

This is the most important argument against abortion (Gen. 5:3)

The argument has moved to what makes personhood.

Or perhaps it is about potential.

But the truth is that it does not matter what the tangible or earthly measure of the value of a person, because every person bears the image of God.

If we place value anywhere else, chaos ensues.

Because we have this sense of the equality of all men, but we have thrown out the basis for that equality, we seek to create it in other ways.

Distinctions between groups of people must be ignored or erased.

We pretend away physical distinctions in men and women.

We pretend away cultural distinctions between various cultures and instead look for villains to explain away disparities.

Men and women must be made the same or even interchangeable.

All characteristics of all people and even all choices of all people must be considered as equal if all are to truly BE equal.

The answer is not that all are not equal but to reiterate the reason we are all equal which is the one thing most energetically rejected. The image of God.

When we accept that THIS is the foundation of the true value of every person, then we can be honest about the inequalities without offense (1 Cor. 7:21-22).

We can say, this person has this disability. That makes him of NO less value but it will be a great hindrance in this life.

We will not say the ridiculous thing that this is no handicap at all.

We can say that this culture that I belong to and have been raised by is full of all sorts of wickedness. But I am of no less value for that association because I bear the image of God.

We need not say that this culture that is so corrupt is just as good as that other culture which is less corrupt.

The Boundaries of the Individual

Those who deny the creator will elevate the creation (Rom. 1:25).

We live in a society that has banished public acknowledgement of a creator.

I don’t think we realize the consequences of such a decision and have taken it rather in stride.

People who reject the creator strive to become their own creators.

They seek to form their own images of themselves.

They create their own identity.

But, they show how flimsy their claim is by how desperately they crave our stamp of approval on their creation.

Being creation comes with inherent limitations (Gen. 1:27).

Our bodies come with all sorts of limitations (Lk. 12:25).

But technology lets us pretend that we don’t have limitations.

Even with all of that, life remains incredibly limited.

God has placed moral limits in place (Gen. 2:16-17).

We can certainly ignore these moral limits but again, only for so long.

God is not mocked.

We keep striving to overcome the consequences of sin in our culture and it is like playing whack-a-mole. You cannot keep consequences from coming.

Those moral limits, it turns out, are more like laws of gravity than we realized.

When the Supreme Court decided to allow homosexual marriage, it set aside these moral laws as mere arbitrary prejudice.

Pornography has taken the sexual act meant to procreate and form a deep bond between husband and wife and made it into mere individual entertainment.

I went to the Garden of Love,

And saw what I never had seen:

A Chapel was built in the midst,

Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of this Chapel were shut,

And 'Thou shalt not' writ over the door;

So I turn'd to the Garden of Love,

That so many sweet flowers bore.

And I saw it was filled with graves,

And tomb-stones where flowers should be:

And Priests in black gowns, were walking their rounds,

And binding with briars, my joys & desires.

They want to suggest that religious moral codes cannot be considered in the court of reason, but to throw out the moral edicts of the creator is simply to trade the one true God for pretend gods who wear black robes.

We think if we can just get free of some of these rules, paradise is waiting just outside those boundaries. And at every transgression we find we are farther and farther from paradise.

Man is farthest from paradise when he is trying hardest to create it on his own terms.

Being true to “self” has become the highest ideal (Rom. 12:1-2).

This starts with the notion that the “true” self is buried down inside of us by all of the corrupting influence of society.

That our true self is restricted by all of these arbitrary rules and if we could just get rid of those we could be our true and glorious selves.

This removes identity from the external and makes it purely internal.

This promotes the ideal of youth over age because youth is closer to that glorious state of nature.

But it turns out that the very part they say is changeable is actually rather fixed and the part they say is our unchangeable identity is the part that we are called to make changes to.

Self denial is actually the highest ideal (Phil. 2:5-10).

In fact, denial of self is what guarantees gaining self (Matt. 16:25).

And there are a million smaller ways ought to deny self.

Ultimately, self is sacrificed in conformity to Christ (Gal. 2:20).

Conclusion

You are special because you are created in God’s image.

But you and I must also carry the weight of that honor.

How well are we bearing that image.

One day we will come before Him and we will be seen more truly than we are even able to see ourselves.

So find yourself indeed, and when you find him (yourself that is) crucify him, and rise up an entirely new self that reflects the one whose image you bear.