The
Image of God Part 2
Absolute
Curriculum
Year 1, Lesson 9
Recap and Introduction:
In our last video we discussed the
image of God in man as it relates to human worth. That unlike sheep
or stars, rocks and rodents, moose and mountains, all of which
declare God's glory; man actually bears the image of God. The point I
emphasized in that video is the value that this imparts to humanity.
Of course, all of creation has value, but that of human beings, God's
image bearers, is immeasurably more. I thought that was an important
thing to start with, although what we're going to talk about this
week is what you might call a more foundational discussion.
Genesis 1:26a says, “ Then
God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”
This week I want to talk about the meaning of that it means to be
made in the image and likeness of God. Some people take those things,
image and likeness, to be separate ideas, but I think the way they
are used here that's it's safe to assume that they're synonyms. Okay,
so they mean the same thing...but what do they mean? I think this
quote from John Piper is helpful:
“Now, you know as well as I that the church has argued about
whether this nature, this image, your being in the image of God is
your rationality or your morality or your relationality. We argue and
we argue.What is plain, I think, and what is most relevant for me is that
images are designed to image. So, if you put up an image of Napoleon
in Paris, what you mean to do is to draw attention to Napoleon.
Right? That’s what they’re for. So the question would be, "Why
did God create and erect seven billion images of himself on the
planet?" Why did he do that? And surely the simple answer would
be to get attention, to draw attention to himself. You don’t put an
image of somebody up and hope nobody notices it, hope nobody makes
any connection between the image and the reality. You are in the
image of God in order to image God, to display God, to show God,
that’s what you’re about. That’s your meaning. That’s your
identity. You have a nature designed to image.”
Images image. They mirror. They point. So the question for us
becomes, what does that look like?
Three Areas of Pointing
1:
The first area of our imaging that I
want to look at, one that is made obvious right away in Genesis, is
man's imaging of God in his rule over
creation.
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.”...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.”...And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the
east, and there he put the man whom he had formed...The LORD God took
the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And
the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of
every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you
shall surely die.” Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that
the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now
out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field
and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what
he would call them. And whatever the man called every living
creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and
to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.
Man
was created to reflect God's loving rule over all of creation. God
gives man dominion over the fish, the birds, the land animals. He
gives him dominion over the land itself, to subdue and to cultivate
it. Man has the privilege and responsibility of sitting over God's
earth as God's vice regents, as it were. It is still God's earth, and
He sits as supreme. But man has a delegated authority here. A
responsibility to rule in a manner that reflects the character of God
toward His creation. Perhaps one of the clearest portraits of this is
in chapter two where God brings the animals before Adam to name. Here
are the multitudes of creatures which God has created, but rather
than naming them Himself, He brings them before the man for Adam to
name. They are God's creatures, but He gives Adam naming, ruling,
rights over them.
2:
The
second area where we are to image God in in our relationships
with other people. In
Genesis 1: 27 we read this,
So
God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
From
the very first day, man was not alone. We, as human beings, are meant
to live within relationship. And the first relationship which God
establishes is this bond of man and woman, husband and wife. The
first human bond God creates is marriage.
But
for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God
caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one
of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the
LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her
to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was
taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his
mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
God
makes them man and woman, with the goal that they be together. One
flesh here, while of course it has sexual connotations, is driving at
something still deeper than that. A union that is not only physical,
but also mental, emotional, and spiritual.
Of
course, marriage is far from the only human relationship which God
has ordained on this earth! Jesus Himself never enjoyed an earthly
marriage, so while the vast majority of you watching this are not yet
married, you don't have to feel like you're missing out on human
relationships. God has created friendship,
He establishes relationships between parents and their children,
between old and younger people within the church,
between governments and their citizens,
and the list could go on. There are a multitude of human
relationships where we are to reflect to one another the kindness,
goodness, justice, mercy, holiness, and love of God. Because God
Himself is a relational being,
many aspects of His image in us cannot be expressed outside the
context of human relationships.
3:
Finally,
I want to look at a third area in which which image God, that is, our
relationship to God Himself.
We call this worship.
Author
Harold Best has offered the following definition of worship,
“We
were created continuously outpouring. Note that I did not say we were
created to
be
continuous outpourers. Nor can I dare imply that we were created to
worship. This would suggest that God is an incomplete person whose
need for something outside himself (worship) completes his sense of
himself. It might not even be safe to say that we were created for
worship, because the inference can be drawn that worship is a
capacity that can be separated out and eventually relegated to one of
the several capacities of being. I believe is it strategically
important, therefore, to say that we were created continuously
outpouring—we were created in that condition, at that instant,
imageo
Dei.”
If
Best is right—and I think he is—we are made outpouring, all the
time. This reflects the God who is Himself always pouring into
Himself.
Now, Best's description of worship is not distinctly Christian.
Rather, it is distinctly human. We are always outpouring into or
toward something
or someone.
Where
the Christian idea, the biblical idea of worship is located is when
this outpouring is directed toward God Himself. We, unlike all the
rest of creation, are capable of purposefully and consciously
reflecting the image and glory of God, and to do so toward
Him.
This might sound clumsy, that worship is imaging God to God. How
could we image God in how we relate to Him. But think back to some of
God's attributes. Remember that He knows all things. All things would
include Himself, and thus God knows Himself perfectly. And because
God is holy, just, righteous, and good, He not only knows Himself
perfectly, but responds
to Himself perfectly. This is what happens within the relationship of
the Trinity. Now, as a human being, for me to reflect that would not
be to value myself or other humans or other created things about all
else,
rather it would be to see Him for who He is, to value Him rightly,
and to respond in praise, adoration, and worship.
In
Conclusion:
We
know that we don't live this way. And we'll begin to look at why this
is next week. But as we finish out today I want you to ponder and
reflect on what an immense privilege it is to be made in the image of
the Triune God, and to be able to reflect Him to other people, to all
of creation, and to consciously worship Him with all that we are. No
other part of creation has that ability. You do.
