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Imago Dei: Man in the Image of
God; or, The Heights of Humanity, the Depths of Depravity- Part One
Rev. Charles R. Biggs
Text: Genesis
1:26-28
Scripture Reading:
Psalm 8; Genesis 2:4-25
Introduction
What is man that God is mindful of him?
Quite an insignificant chap considering the size of God's great and vast
universe! What insignificant lives in insignificant houses with
insignificant people we lead, most of us probably believe. What good might
one find within them? The question is not merely What is
man, but What is man- - that is, what or who is man, and what is his
significance? The question longs for immediate answers - we ask this
question repeatedly in one form or another!
We search all our lives for significance
because we truly long to leave behind a heritage. We long to be remembered
after our flesh has again turned back to dust. We want a legacy to leave
behind after our deaths. How much should a man (using the term generically
as in Genesis 1 to refer to humanity by the way), focus on himself for
answers? If our esteem is built up will that curb the hunger of our
longing, and fulfill the significance for which we search? Is man a
worthless, merely a worm, or is he valuable, sufficient unto himself (i.e.
Man the Measure)? How do we understand man between these two polar
extremes? When we consider this question, in this way, we are getting close
to what Blaise Pascal wrote in His Pensees:
“It is dangerous to make man see
too clearly his equality with the brutes without showing him his greatness.
It is also dangerous to make him see his greatness to
clearly, apart from his vileness.”
Man has always wanted to know himself.
In fact, the great Socrates' burning statement of purpose was “Know
Thyself”. Man wants to know himself, but how - well, that is the
question! If all men are made in God's image, then there is only way to
know thyself, or to know God, or to know anyone, or anything else according
to Genesis chapter one. Here at the apex, the pinnacle, the culmination,
and the ultimate moment of God's creation: God creates man his Prince. The
Prince will rule as Vice-Gerent over God's creation by ruling or having
dominion over the creation. Man is personally in communion with his Great
and Sovereign Creator - -there is no relational distance between them, only
the ontological distinction between THE Creator and his creature. Lord
willing, the next two sermons will be on the Imago Dei, in two parts. We
want to consider the heights of our humanity and the depths of our
depravity!
I. "Image of God, Likeness of God" - Let
us make man in our image, in our likeness (v.26).
A. What it is not…
1. No difference between
Image and Likeness - hendiadys.
2. Roman Catholic
Doctrine of Donum Superadditum
(Superadded Gift).
"
Roman Catholics have
historically taught that image and likeness were different. This has
brought them to the position of theology that a man still can choose, or
will to follow Christ and to do good works. You see, for the Roman
Catholics, the image remained in man, but the likeness was lost. Part of
this image was the ability to reason and to think ultimately, the likeness
was the extra-added gift of holiness and righteousness. In other words,
likeness was an "added gift of grace."
"
Because they make a dichotomy
between image and likeness, man still has the ability to think and choose
the good. Since holiness and righteousness were super-added gifts, they
were not necessary gifts for a relationship to the Creator. This theology
paved the way for the possibility of Pelagianism
and Semi-Pelagianism in the Ancient Church, and Arminianism, from the Reformation to
the present.
3. No Greek dichotomy
between body and soul-spirit. "
Contrary to Greek
thought, man as body/soul-spirit make up a
duality, not a dualism! Our hope is the redemption of our bodies, not a
release from the prison house of the body!
B. What it is…
1. Man in his entirety
(body/soul-spirit) made in God's image.
Genesis
5:1 This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created
man, He made him in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female,
and blessed them and called them Mankind in the day they were created. 3
And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own
likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. "
Although the body
reflects God's glory, the "chief seat" of the divine image is in
the mind and the heart (cf. The Greatest Commandment), yet as Calvin
teaches, "there is no part of man in which some scintillations of the
(inner) image did not shine forthin the body
there was a suitable correspondence with this internal order."
John Murray wrote
concerning man's body reflecting God: "It is man in his unity and
integrity who is made in the image of God. Man is body, and it is not possible
to exclude men in this identity from the scope of that which defines his
identity, the image of God."
God is Spirit. Contrary
to our Mormon friends, he does not have a body. But nevertheless, there is
something about the body of man as man, complete in body and soul that
reflects the Creator. Man in his wholeness is made in the image of God.
Genesis 2 further describes the creation account from man's perspective
(Gen. 1 is more from God the Creator's transcendent perspective).
Gen 2:7 says: 7 And the
LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. "
Gen. 2:7 teaches us that
both body and soul created by God was good and man is incomplete without
both of these qualities.
Illustration: What we want to be aware and prayerfully avoid
is any kind of Greek dualism or what was known as Ancient Gnosticism.
Ultimately, dualism asserts that materiality, or the physical created
things in the world are evil, but the realm of ideas or pure spirit is
good.
Margaret and I once
attended a marriage seminar as new Christians a very large Southern Baptist
Church in the South. The couple that taught the seminar, rather than
explaining the fall and evil that we must overcome in the Christian life,
explained marriage as an understanding that we are spiritual beings in
earth suits. Supposedly this was to account for our longing to go to heaven
and to be without the suits- - naked in pure spirit I reckon!? The point is
that Greek dualism teaches that matter is evil and spirit is good. It is
common today when well-meaning Christians withdraw from engaging and
influencing the world or culture in the arts, education (particularly the
university), politics, science, etc. and remove themselves to create their
own enclave or subculture.
This is a dangerous form
of dualism. There is a denial of the body that can be good when
understanding our passions, such as fasting, prayer, and other spiritual
disciplines, but this is not to disconnect oneself from our embodied
existence. It is to focus on worshipping the True God in Spirit and Truth
as embodied people of Christ! The incarnation should wipe away any Greek
notion or dualistic concept of the body!
Illustration: Dehumanizing Gnostic effect of modern technology:
mouses and remote controls.
Bavinck said: "Humanity (is) where the spiritual
and material world are joined together."
Calvin and the Ancient
Fathers described man as micro-cosmos- -"a world in minature."
2. Man is unique in his
being created in God's image.
a. Calvin wrote that the
image of God in which man was created, "is evident in the whole
excellence by which the nature of man surpasses all the animal
species," and he added that "there was no part of man, not even
the body, in which some rays of its glory did not shine."
Read Gen. 1:24-25: Let
the earth bring forth… (compare this with v.26- man's creation.
b. As we learned last
week, the animals were not made in God's image, and man was to rule over
the animals not to be like them.
c. Darwinian evolution
teaches the contrary. Man is like the animals, in fact, he is an evolved
animal himself. i. Depersonalization of man (even
if he is the highest of the animals), leads to the dehumanization and brutalization
of man.
Illustration: If man is merely an animal, even the highest of
the animals, then slavery should be acceptable theoretically and ethically,
because we work and enslave our animals against their will, so there should
be no argument against the act of slavery or the will of the powerful, etc.
In other words, the Napoleons, Nietzches, and Hitlers, should be no surprise to us!
Illustration: Also, to be self-assertive and "looking
out for #1" would be the right path for one to ferociously pursue
their own individual agendas - -it is indeed swimming with the sharks as
one writer commented recently in a very popular self-help book! There is no
reason for so-called "random acts of kindness" we ought to be
devouring each other, trying to steal the bone from the other dogs!
3. Man is a Personal
being requiring fellowship.
a. …Male
and female he created them (v.27). Man was made male and female. This is a
mirror of the "I-Thou" relationship in the Trinity. There is
unity in man, but also diversity. There is equality ontologically (being),
but functionally, the roles are unique within the Divine Godhead. So, also
in man.
Read: 1 Cor. 11:7
b. …Be
fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it…
(v. 28). Man is not an island, he requires
fellowship with God and other men. Man was to "be fruitful and
multiply" in family, society, as the people of God. i. In contrast, animals are individuals, but they are
not persons!
c. Individualism-
individualism is dehumanizing in its effects. It leads to a culture of
narcissism where there is no responsibility neither to God, nor our
neighbor- - only a commitment to oneself. This the
modern atmosphere for encouraging self-fulfillment, self-gratification, and
self-affirmation!
4. Man's purpose is to
glorify God and enjoy him forever. " Ovid
wrote in his poem Metamorphoses: …while mute creation downward
bend their sight and to their earthly mother tend, Man looks aloft, and
with erected eyes Beholds his own hereditary skies. a. Man was made upright…in order to glorify God and enjoy him (Ecclesiastes 7:29). i. Knowledge,
Holiness, and Righteousness- Knowledge of God and knowledge of man; God's
holiness, man's holiness (moral responsibility), righteousness of knowing
what is good and evil. Concerning the knowledge of God and man, Calvin has
exposited and explained one of the most profound and sublime biblical
truths found in Scripture: "
"Nearly all the
wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two
parts: the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves. But, while
joined by many bonds, which one preceeds and
brings forth the other is not easy to discern" (Institutes, I.1.i). b.
…
But they have sought out
many devices…and do not seek to glorify God,
nor to enjoy life as God intended! (Ecclesiastes 7:29)
i.
G. K.
Chesterton has said: "When man ceases to worship God, it is not that
he doesn't worship nothing…he worship anything and
everything."
ii.
Romans 1
about man being the religious man, but he has misdirected his worship of
the True and Only God. Man is an idol factory because he
worship- - he longs to worship because he is made in God's image.
iii.
" Calvin has
written of man's knowledge of God: "No human can be found, however
barbarous or completely savage, untouched by some awareness of religion. It
is evident consequently that all of us have been created in order to
acknowledge our Creator's majesty and to receive it and esteem it, once
acknowledged, with all fear, love, and reverence." -Calvin's
Catechism, 1538. "
iv.
[Man] cannot
cease to be what he is by constitution, namely, a creature formed in the
divine image. It is a truth that he may attempt to deny or to cover up, but
even that he can attempt only because of the unique powers which set him
above the rest of the animal creation. These powers…are
evidence of the stamp of the divine image at the core of his being…The powers that are man-perverted (rational,
scientific, artistic) are still God-given. In fighting against God, man is
fighting against himself. He cannot escape from what he is. iii. Worship of
God = "Worthship"
v.
We should
and ought to love the LORD our God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and
strength and our neighbor as ourselves, but alas, we do not…and
ought never implies can (ought or should never
implies the ability to do a thing). This was part of the consequence of the
fall of man.
vi.
Implications
of man's created in God's image: the death penalty discussion- Love thy
neighbor; kill thy neighbor. " Some ask me
about the death penalty and why it is required, 'even if' someone becomes a
Christian. They usually ask how someone can become a member of the Church
(the elect), but can be sentenced by the state as a member of society. I
say that the main reason is that God required death for anyone who took the
life of someone made in God's image. After the flood, God gives another
creation mandate as he did to Adam to have dominion and multiply:
Genesis 9:1 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them:
"Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 "And the fear of
you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every
bird of the air, on all that move on the earth,
and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. 3
"Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you
all things, even as the green herbs. 4 "But you shall not eat flesh
with its life, that is, its blood. 5 "Surely for your lifeblood I will
demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and
from the hand of man. From the hand of every man's brother I will require
the life of man. 6 "Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall
be shed; For in the image of God He made man. 7 And as for you, be fruitful
and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth And multiply in it.
We
must remember that by killing someone who had killed someone else, you were
actually protecting thy neighbor. In Exodus 20-23 and Genesis 9, the
importance of the death penalty is keeping in line with God's commandment
of loving God and neighbor as self. "You shall not murder" is the
sixth commandment and if you remember from the Westminster Larger
Catechism, this has positive as well as negative implications. Not killing
a neighbor is not only the avoidance of killing another, but doing
everything in one's power to protect the neighbor from any harm. Once someone
has taken a life, we must kill that person because he is always a continued
threat to the living. This the state takes care of
in our day, in theocratic Israel, the elders took care of it. A person who
takes a life can repent, be placed in the Lamb's book of life, be on the
roll as a new church member, and still be on death row for a crime. This is
true and biblical justice. It is the living, not the dead that we should be
concerned about primarily!
Additionally,
it is interesting how God requires the death of animals for crimes against
humans as well (cf. Gen. 9 and Exodus 22-23). If God requires the death of
animals for usurping authority over their princes (man)- -that is, for
killing a man...HOW MUCH MORE, will God require the death of his princes
made in his image when they usurp God's authority and take life and death
in their own hands (that is, except in the case of protection of another).
1.
"God's Idol" over creation.
a. ANE Kings who placed idols over their territory.
b.
We are the icons of God, creatures made with a unique capacity to mirror
and reflect God's glory in the world. This is why the LORD God instructed
Moses to strictly forbid the making of all images of God (same word used in
Genesis to describe man made in God's image): Exodus 20:4 " You shall
not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is
in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth… Deuteronomy 4:16 "lest you act corruptly
and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure: the
likeness of male or female Numbers 33:52 Then ye shall drive out all the
inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures,
and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high
places
c.
Israel's "First Worship Service"
d.
God's Image and false images- Scripture teaches that anything that is an
image of God is an image of false gods and the worship or dedication of
one's heart to idols and demons. It is interesting to note that while God
made man in his image and therefore, man in this sense is God's idol, false
idols pull man away from the worship of God to a substitute. Notice in
Revelation 21, those who are cast into fire and brimstone are those who not
only worshipped the Beast, but his image: Revelation 19:20 Then the beast
was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his
presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and
those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of
fire burning with brimstone.
C.
The Effects of the Fall- Man was tempted to be LIKE GOD (iniquitous),
rather than like God (virtuous).
1.
The subtlety of Satan in the temptation.
2.
The great consequences of the fall: a. The marring of God's image.
Augustine
wrote: "God's image has not been so completely erased in the soul of
man by the stain of earthly affections as to have left absolutely no
vestiges of it what was imprinted on men's hearts when they were
created in the image of God has not been wholly blotted out the
image has become tarnished." ii. "Mirror is fogged" since
the Fall (mirror is still a mirror, it has been fogged). "Brass is
tarnished" since the Fall (to use Augustine's metaphor). James 3:9
says: With [the tongue] we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse
men, who are made in the likeness of God.
James
reminds us of the importance of remembering that all men are still created
in the image of God. They are to be supremely regarded and respected as we
shall seek further to understand in part two! iii. Disobedience fails to
bring in God's promised consummation of all things upon perfect obedience
to God's commands: the renewal of the bodies, man's permanent confirmation
in perfect glory, incorruptible and immortal! The reality of the estate of
sin and misery.
D.
The Redemption in Christ 1. Christ restores us in God's image because he is
the True Image of God
a.
2 Corinthians 3:18-4:6: 18 But
we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord,
are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by
the Spirit of the Lord. 4:1 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we
have received mercy, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced the
hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of
God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to
every man's conscience in the sight of God. 3 But even if our gospel is
veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of
this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of
the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.
b.
Romans 8:28-32: 28 And we know that all
things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the
called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also
predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the
firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He
also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He
justified, these He also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these
things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare
His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him
also freely give us all things?
1 Cor. 15:49 And as we have borne the
image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.
2.
The Glorious Resurrection
a.
It is important to remember that the incarnation was a rescue operation. It
is important to never separate creation from redemption. "
The redemption of Christ was to re-establish the purpose of creation
- Consummation: Rulership over the creation (or
dominion), incorruptible, resurrected, glorified bodies, and eternal life
in communion with God forever!
21 For since by man came death, by Man also came
the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ
all shall be made alive. 23 But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His
coming. 24 Then comes the end, when He delivers
the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all
authority and power. 25 For He must reign till He has put all enemies under
His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be destroyed is death… …47 The first man was of the
earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As was the
man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly
Man, so also are those who are heavenly. 49 And as
we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of
the heavenly Man. 50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. 51
Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be
changed -- 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and
we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and
this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible has put on
incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then
shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is
swallowed up in victory." 55 "O Death, where is your sting? O
Hades, where is your victory?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the
strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing
that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
CRB
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