After the Image of God

Prayer

Unto you do we lift up our eyes, you who dwell in the heavens.

You have filled the earth with good things. You have spoken, and the earth has brought forth

You are the God of the crops and the God of the colors and the sounds. You are the God of beauty and goodness. You delight in peace and order, in beauty and wisdom. And we are in a world of ever increasing ugliness.

We are in trouble. The rivers and the lakes are drying up. Fire season is approaching. There isn’t enough water. Rise, help and redeem us, Lord of mercy.

Be merciful to the farmers in South Dakota who need to rebuild.

You give the deer and the beaver and the racoon their food. You count the birds and know each hatchling, and you will certainly feed us. Open your hand towards us today. Give us our daily bread. We do not desire riches. We do not desire poverty. Lord you know what is perfect for us. Give that, we pray.

And above all, teach us to be content – with riches or poverty, with sickness or health – lift our eyes up to the heavens where our savior is, and remind us that our life is there.

But Lord, as we make our way through this vale of tears, we thank you for the times of laughter and the times of joy. The times of comfort and the times of feasting.

Give strength to the weary today. Many are in pain, many with regrets, with doubts, with illness, and all of us are in need. Lord fill us with every good thing. Give that which is necessary, which you know.

Rebuke if rebuke is needed, give wisdom is foolishness has the upper hand, goodness when evil seems overwhelming, and comfort to the restless.

May the kings of the earth prosper that we might live quiet and peaceable lives.

Be merciful to the families in Buffalo. Send a spirit of mercy, Lord – restrain wickedness. Tear down those who continually incite violence and hatred, whether from the radio, or the internet, or the pulpits.

The levels of hatred, conspiracies, outright lies, unrest seems to get more and more intense, Lord. White supremacy, racism, and hatred of all kinds drive more and more violence. Rise, help and redeem, for we are in trouble.

Give to Governor Newsom wisdom and understanding. Give our assembly a spirit of understanding and our law enforcement officers justice and wisdom. Bless our judges and our councils with insight.

And give to all protection and wisdom, that your kingdom would prosper – the gospel would be proclaimed. And Father, we pray that you would fill your ministers with your spirit, and put an end to the nonsense being spouted from pulpits in your name.

Give the ministers of the gospel the right words this morning. Tear down the walls of stubbornness and anger and give rest through your gospel. And deliver us from every wicked device formed against your word, that your kingdom would come.

Uplift and uphold each one today. Thank you for the stars that light the night sky, for the rice fields and the apricots, the cherries and strawberries. Thank you for the corn and the wine.

Thank you for mothers and for beauty. Thank you for music and sound. Thank you for the fireflys and the butterflies and the rainbows.

Thank you, Father, for the reminders of your wisdom and your beauty and your goodness. For the ears that hear the music and the eyes that see the lightning and the fingertips that feel the textures.

Thank you for the smell of rain on dry ground and the scent of flowers and new born babies.

Thank you that you have revealed yourself to men and women. Father, now fill us with understanding and discernment. Lift our hearts in joy and thanksgiving.

For unto you do we lift up our eyes, o thou that dwellest in heaven.

Amen.

Scripture

Genesis 6:1–8 NKJV

1 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. 3 And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” 4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. 5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Sermon

God created, and called it good. “Good” and “beautiful” are the same word in Hebrew. Last week, I preached on the connection between holiness and beauty. We worship the Lord because he is holy. We also worship because he is beautiful.

God made a beautiful universe, the center of which was a most beautiful garden. It was the Holy of Holies, the Most Beautiful Place; the most holy place. God’s sanctuary; his temple, his dwelling place. And Human was created – male and female.

Be fruitful, and multiply.

Make more image-bearers, reflecting God’s glory – his beauty, his holiness. The glory of God – his wisdom, his praise, his beauty, his righteousness, was to radiate from men and women as they spread Eden throughout the whole world. They would cultivate Eden. Have children in the image of God and gradually spread throughout the whole world.

God created a world full of beautiful things and created humans with tongues and noses and hands to taste and feel and hear and see that beauty – and worship the creator who made them.

Have you heard music that takes your breath away? Have you stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon? Have you seen El Capitan when the sun hits it just right? The trees in the fall? The fjords of Norway? The Northern Lights?

Beauty leads to worship. Beauty makes us gasp and tremble, beauty makes us long and desire. Our problem is that we worship the wrong thing. God created great beauty because beauty points to God, who IS beauty. God created, and called it good.

But beauty requires that everything be in its place.

Beauty is only beauty because God makes it so. When we try to separate the concept from the God who made it, it becomes ugly, vain and twisted. There is no goodness, no beauty, other than that which reflects God himself.

A beautiful woman without discretion is like a gold ring in the nose of a pig – no offense to pigs…They are clever and handsome and tasty critters, but a gold ring in the nose would be out of place. So also a beautiful but foolish woman. It is out of place.

A handsome man without wisdom is a fool. A beautiful fool, but a fool none the less.

Beauty requires that everything be in order – holiness requires righteousness. Righteousness requires wisdom.

One can only create beauty by reflecting God’s radiance. So God used a teaching method to teach our first parents this lesson.

Every tree, every beautiful thing, every stream and every jewel and every deposit of gold – I have given to you to cause your hearts to rejoice and to sing and to live.

But they are MY gifts. You will live as long as you maintain the distinction between the creator and the creature – you are an image-bearer. You reflect ME, not the other way around.

God created the world beautiful and created men and women and placed them there for one purpose. To live with him. To share in the beauty. To share in God’s statement, “Behold, it is very good!” Every beautiful and every good thing comes from the Father of Lights and is designed to lead us to worship and delight.

But the first humans tried to separate God from goodness and beauty.

Genesis 3:6 NKJV

6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

The primary meaning of the tree was its connection to the word of God. Don’t eat from it, for the day you eat from it you will surely die.

Eve tried to disconnect the meaning of the tree from the word of God. She saw. It was beautiful. She took.

But God did not give that tree to her. So she did not get what she thought she would get. She did not increase in goodness and wisdom and beauty. She was deceived.

Adam, on the other hand, sinned willingly - he took and he ate and sin and death and misery and ugliness entered the world. He wanted life without God, and so he got life without God which is death.

And now we are now ugly. We cannot bear the thought of something beautiful that is simply beautiful for beauty’s sake.

Evil twists beauty, so that it becomes something to be taken, crushed, devoured, destroyed.

Just like Eve, we see, we acknowledge beauty, we take. And in our taking, we think we will increase in wisdom and stature, in joy and delight and in worship. We sink into shame and loathing, and we take and take, more and more, and never learn to rest.

And we see beauty, it points us to God our maker. But the cry of our heart is “WE WILL BE AS GOD”.

Shame and disgrace and fear cannot truly fathom beauty.

This we see in our text:

Genesis 6:1–2 NKJV

1 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.

Moses uses loaded terms, based on Genesis 2, to show how far mankind had fallen from the honor in which they were created. Man was created out of the dust of the ground, and God breathed into him the breath of life. He had a connection to the ground - in one sense, like the animals. He had blood and a heart and a liver, he had an appetite for food and drink and shade and comfort and sex and connection.

But he was so, so much more, as Adam’s search for a suitable helper showed him. He was a image bearer of God. A Son of God.

To be a son of God, when it refers to Adam and his descendants, means that he was created by God to bear his image, and to reflect the attributes and characteristics of God. And so the suitable helper must also be an image bearer of God - fully equal, with choice, dignity, personhood, gifts, abilities - everything that is involved with being human.

In the Garden, God saw the Son of God and that he lacked a bride. So he made a daughter of men - a fellow image-bearer taken from his side with all of the characteristics of Adam - human - and brought her to him.

And he rejoiced. He shouted, “At last! This is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone.”

And they rejoiced in beauty. They made love. They delighted in the garden. They worshiped God in the beauty of holiness. And they fell.

Now look at the contrast - look at what happened

The Sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful, and they took.

The same language that was used for Eve when she saw the fruit and took.

Instead of women being image-bearers of the almighty, reflecting his beauty and his wisdom and personhood - they saw them just as Eve saw the fruit - objects to be taken and devoured to satisfy their own lusts.

Our of all the ways that Moses could have chosen to describe the corruption of the world, he chose this one. He could have said, they murdered, they lied, they fornicated, they practiced sodomy, they didn’t keep the Sabbath -

Why did he choose this one? For two reasons - one, to show just how deeply mankind had fallen. And two, to point to a redeemer, who would come for his bride in a far different way.

The corruption of sin

To be human is to be like God in every way that it is possible for a creature to be like God. We will never be gods. We won’t ever be infinite, eternal, unchangeable, omnipotent, omniscient, omnisapient. But we were created to reflect who God is as creatures of the highest dignity.

We were created with dignity, personhood, will, minds, beauty, wisdom, choices

And we were given a remarkable thing - the gift of speech. Speech can cause the heart to flutter when a young man and a young woman first say, “I love you”.

Speech can tear down and destroy when those same tongues are used to say, “I hate you.” With our tongues, we can bring heaven to earth. Or we can ignite the fires of hell.

What a great thing speech is, how noble is mankind - and at the same time, how brutal, degrading, and cruel.

Our text - the sons of God took the daughters of men.

Instead of brides, they sought objects to be devoured. Instead of lovers, they sought playthings.

Why did Moses use this example of wickedness - to highlight one tremendous fact.

When men and women hate God, they will also hate each other. They will devour and destroy each other as much as whatever power they have will allow.

They see that which is good, they take it all that they choose. The dignity with which they were created has been twisted into entitlement.

That is beautiful. I must possess it. I must consume it. I must use it. I must devour it. The worship of God is twisted into the destruction of beauty. That which I cannot possess, I must destroy.

I am entitled to it, for I am a God. I am, and there is none like me.

And so their power is used to kill. Whether they do it literally like Cain did, or whether it simply means to shut down God’s image, to destroy any remnant of God’s light - whether it is beauty, or choice, or personhood - shut it down. Crush it. Destroy it. Crush that personality and shut down those gifts, for you exist only to serve me and to satisfy my lusts, for I am God, and there is none else.

The same dynamic is seen in King David, when he is at ease. How did he use the power that God had given him? Was it to bless and to worship. Partly. But he was also fallen.

2 Samuel 11:2–4 NKJV

2 Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. 3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house.

He saw. She was beautiful. He took.

This is exactly what Nathan describes in his parable rebuking him.

2 Samuel 12:1–6 NKJV

1 Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. 3 But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. 4 And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” 5 So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! 6 And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.”

The rich man refused to enjoy and rejoice in what God had given. Someone else had something of beauty, which could not be allowed. He saw that beauty, and he took.

In the days of Noah, God allowed this entitlement to fill the whole earth, to show what men and women had become. The brutality and enslavement and cruelty. Until it got to the point where the flood was necessary. God’s earth must be cleansed. Man was created to spread order and beauty, just as God separated the water from the dry land and brought beauty and order out of chaos. But man failed, so the water must return.

But Noah found favor…God smiled on one man and promised to redeem. He had not forgotten his curse on the serpent - the seed of the woman was still to come.

So God would restrain that entitlement mentality by shortening life, by erecting opposition in the form of the state; by using the sword to restrain the wickedness of men. The covenant with Noah wasn’t the salvation of the world. But it would preserve the world until the true Son of God and the true Son of Man would appear.

Pointing to the redeemer

God brings beauty out of ashes, order out of chaos, and this is beauty.

He also created us to reflect that image – his glory, his beauty, his radiance, his creativity, his holiness.

God created man good and after his own image, that is in righteousness and true holiness, that he might know God his creator, heartily love him, and live with him in eternal blessedness, to praise and glorify him.

Luke traces the genealogy of Jesus all the way back to Adam - and he calls Adam “the Son of God.”

But we know what happened there. We reflected hatred and evil, rather than goodness and beauty.

So God sent his only begotten son to redeem what had fallen in Adam.

Jesus is true God and true man. Everything you can say about God you can say about Jesus. Everything you can say about man you can say about Jesus, except for sin.

So Jesus is the Son of God in two senses - one according to his divine nature, one according to his humanity.

He is the eternal natural Son of God,

Hebrews 1:1–4 NKJV

1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; 3 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

The express image of God, but not in the sense that Adam was, because Adam was not God himself. Jesus is. He is the light from light, the radiance of God’s glory, the revelation of God, he who is eternally in the bosom of the Father. The one who was with God who is God himself.

All things were created by him and upheld by his power - and he is the express image of the person of the Father.

And also he is true man. And as true man, he is the perfect image-bearer of God, radiating the attributes of God as a creature made of dust, just as Adam was supposed to. As man, he purged our sins, he sat at the right hand of God reigning over all things.

But there is only one Lord Jesus - true God and true man. This means that he, in a way far, far greater than Adam, is the image of God restored in mankind because he who is true God became flesh in the womb of Mary, for us.

And he did it for us. So Paul tells is in Colossians 1:15-18

Colossians 1:15–18 NKJV

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

He is the head of the body, the church…so that as he is so we are. He, the firstborn (not according to his divine nature, for he is eternal, but as the one who inherits everything for us.

What the head inherits, we inherit. What the head is, so the body will be.

All things were created through him and for him - listen to that. Adam was placed in a beautiful garden, the sanctuary of God, to enjoy all the beauty of creation and fall before the creator in worship. It is so profound that I can’t find any adequate words for it.

But when he was cast out, the word of God became flesh and entered God’s sanctuary with his own blood and redeemed the creation that was created by him for himself. True God (creator) and true man (to walk in the garden in perfectly renewed fellowship).

How do you put that into words?

And he, like Adam, sought a bride - a fitting companion, suitable helper - taken from the blood and water of his side, like unto him in every way - Just as Eve was like Adam in every way.

But joined to him, flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone. And this suitable helper is the church, the bride of Christ - walking in the garden with Jesus, just as Eve walked in the garden with Adam.

Only far, far greater.

And Jesus didn’t come like the Sons of God in Noah’s time - he didn’t see and take. He woos. He invites. He makes alive. He restores. Like the good shepherd of Ezekiel, he didn’t come to devour the sheep, but to bless them, to give them beauty for ashes and to redeem them and give them back what Satan took away.

Their voice. Their dignity. Their will. Their beauty and wisdom and righteousness.

Matthew 11:28–30 NKJV

28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Because he is what our souls long for. He gives us back our awe and trembling, so that we can see unfathomable beauty without fear and we can look at that which is good and finally be free of our lust to consume and destroy, but to simply fall on our faces before our creator and say, “Behold. It is very, very good!”

Because Jesus is the Son of God, we are also Sons of God in him - whether male or female.

1 John 3:1–2 NKJV

1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

Practically speaking, it means this:

Colossians 3:8–11 NKJV

8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him, 11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.

Because the Christian life isn’t really about “doing what you are told.” Jesus didn’t come to gather mindless slaves. He came for a bride, renewed according to the image of God.

And when the image is restored in us, we are obedient because we love; because we are made alive. But that isn’t really the end result - the end result isn’t an army of cloned storm-troopers - but a bride resting in the bosom of the groom forever, fully restored as we were created to be. This is what gives rest to the soul.

In the meantime, we are to strive to be more like Jesus every day on this earth until we finally see him face to face.

So put off the entitlement mentality. That in you which consumes and destroys all which is beautiful. That in you which demands that others satisfy your own lusts. Beauty in men and women should drive one to worship God, who made men and women in His image. Beauty and goodness on this earth should drive you to worship and longing - not to possess and consume, but to join our voices together with God himself and all creation - behold, it is very good.

If husbands and wives viewed marriage more like Jesus did and less like the false “Sons of God” in Noah’s day, marriages would be a lot more blessed, honorable and joyful all around. This is what we should strive for. Not entitled households, but households that look like Christ and the church.

Now, I know that there are many who say, “Jesus used a whip and he is the sovereign Lord of the universe.” That is true. But it is unthinkable that he used the whip on his bride. He used the whip on those who were using the bride for their own lusts. You come after a good man’s bride, you might find yourself on the wrong end of a whip as well.

And his sovereign authority - he has always had that. The law commands, but doesn’t change the heart. What changes the heart is love - “Come away with me, my sister and my spouse. Come to me, and I will give you rest.” We will never have sovereign command, for we are not God. We do not imitate his command in our homes, but his love. Noah found grace. Favor in the eyes of God. And because of that, he was obedient because he believed the voice of the one he loved.

Ephesians 5:25 NKJV

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,

Husbands, when you wife looks at you - does she think of safety and rest and peace? This is what imitating the head of the church looks like - not like the entitled boss of an organization; but the restoration of the image of God in a sin-damaged world - for those who have ears to hear.

Some don’t have ears to hear, for they cannot think in terms other than “See and take”. But this isn’t how God created men and women. This is the damage of sin and it is what Jesus came to undo. To walk as he walked, to be a Son of God in this sin cursed world is to strive for beauty and goodness in all that we do - which drives us to worship.

Philippians 4:8 NKJV

8 Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

Be at peace.