In His Image

Introduction

I want to begin this morning with a question. We often do that, don’t we? This morning’s question is, what’s the third question that’s always asked when a new child is born? What’s the third question that’s always asked when a child is born? We’ve been blessed here at Bumby recently to have the birth of many new newborns. And we’ve rejoiced with father and mother and have seen some of those, and we’re looking forward to seeing some that we’ve yet to be able to see and to hold and to spoil.

How much did it weigh? I don’t know why that’s important, but we want to know that, don’t we? Or at least the women among us want to know. How much did it weigh? How long was it? And then the third question that is asked is, who does it look like? And again, I don’t know why that’s important, unless one of the parents are ugly. It shouldn’t really shouldn’t matter, but we always ask, who does it look like? We recognize that for better or worse, children take on and resemble many of the both physical as well as personality aspects of their parents, don’t they? For better or worse, your children will to some degree be like you. They may carry some of your physical traits. Sometimes remarkably so, isn’t it?

That’s how much children resemble one parent or the other. And again, better for worse, your children will take on some of your personality traits. Whether it be a short-fused temper or a compassionate spirit. But mixed in with the genetic mixture that makes us much like our parents is our own inherent free will. That though we might not be able to, short of surgery, change how we look and resemble our parents in that way, we have a choice to become our own person. And all of this has a spiritual application. And this morning we want to talk about being children of our Heavenly Father. And what does that mean when the Bible tells me that I was made in the image of God? What does that mean?

And how does that affect me? In real practical ways, what does it mean, and how does it affect me when the Bible tells me that I am made in the image of God? And I want you to personalize this lesson this morning. I may be talking about myself a lot, and that’s not because I’m conceited, but that’s because I want you to insert yourself into this language. And I want you to think about what it means that I am made in the image of God. Let’s start at the start. Turn with me in your Old Testament to the book of Genesis, chapter 1. You may have already beat me there this morning. Genesis chapter 1, the creation scene. And it’s difficult for us to fathom what all took place in those six days of creation.

1. Made in the Image of God’s Spirit

Of everything that was created. In fact, the skeptic would say it’s so much had to be created that it couldn’t be done in six 24-hour days, but they discount the power of an all-powerful God. It’s difficult to imagine what all was created in that week of creation. But one creation stands apart of everything else, as beautiful, as the Bible describes it, as good as all of God’s creation was, one creation stood apart. And that was the creation of mankind. Look in Genesis chapter 1, verses 26 and 27, that makes this part, and again, personalize this, that makes this part of God’s wonderful creation most unique and special is Genesis 1, beginning in verse 26. And God said, Let us make man in our image. According to our likeness.

Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created them, male and female, he created them. Three times in those two short verses, it is emphasized that mankind, no other living creature, no other aspect or part of God’s creation, but man and woman were made in the image of God. That is stated at the beginning for a purpose. And that statement that man and woman were made in the image of God sets the stage for the rest of the Bible story, doesn’t it? For why God interacts with these people in a way that is different than his interaction with any other of his created beings.

I know you’ve heard this before, but that doesn’t mean necessarily that we look like God. That God has a nose and ears and eyes and fingers and toes like we have. That’s not the sense in which the scriptures mean that we were made in the image of God. You remember two passages, we won’t have to turn over there, but you’ll remember two very familiar passages from the Gospel of John that speaks of Jesus, God in the flesh. The first one is in John chapter 4, verse 24, when Jesus is speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well and talking about worship and how God is to be worshipped, he says, first of all, God is spirit. And that the emphasis, he goes on to say, paraphrasing, the emphasis is not upon the physical, the physical location of where God is to be worshipped, because God is spirit, and so he is to be worshipped in a spiritual way, in spirit and in truth.

And so when it says that we’re made in the image of God, maybe there’s a hint in John 4, verse 24, of what that means. Another hint is found earlier in the Gospel of John, John chapter 1 and in verse 14. He had said in the beginning of that chapter, the beginning of that gospel, the Gospel of John, that in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jesus was God. And God is spirit. And because of that, it says in verse 14, later in that chapter, that he became flesh and dwelt among us. Because Jesus was God and God is spirit, in order to partake in the full sense of this physical creation, he had to become flesh and blood.

He wasn’t already flesh and blood. He had to become flesh and blood in order, as the Hebrew writer would argue, in order to become like us. But God is a spirit. And so when we’re made in the image of God, that means that we’re made in the image of God’s spirit. It’s a spiritual comment, not a physical one. And that’s important for many reasons. It’s important because, and we need to understand this, and it’s easy for us to get sidetracked and forget this point, is that we are spiritual beings. I can’t see my spirit in the mirror, though. And so it’s easy for me to become distracted and think that I’m a physical being. We might think of it this way, and we’d be wrong, is that we are a body with a soul inside it.

2. Every One Is Made in the Image of God

And that’s not really a good biblical description of who we are as having been made in the spiritual image of God. Better way of saying it is we are a spirit that temporarily possesses a physical body. And so we need to reverse our thinking and emphasize that we first and foremost, because we’ve been made in the image of God, that we are a spiritual being. Look with me in the New Testament now in the book of Acts, chapter 17. This has some implications. Or some ramifications. In Acts chapter 17, Paul, in his sermon on Mars Hill, is emphasizing God, the true God, not the false gods that he saw all around him in the city of Athens, but the one true God is the God of everybody.

There wasn’t a God, there wasn’t intended to be a God of this nation, a God of that race, a God of this people, but there was one God over all, and he is one God over all because everybody is made in the image of God. Look in Acts 17 and in verse 29. Acts 17 and verse 29 says, Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone or something shaped by men’s devising. We are the offspring of God. Now who’s the we there? Back up to verse 26. And he, speaking of God, the God that they didn’t really know about, but should, and he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings.

We’re the offspring of God. We’re made in the image of God. And Paul emphasizes that means everybody. Every nation. Every race. Every one is made in the image of God. That verse alone deals with the sin of racism, doesn’t it? Now there’s other verses we could include, but that verse alone tells me that everybody, now we use the term brother in a spiritual sense, but I’m using it now in his physical sense, because in that sense, in the creative sense, we’re all children of God, that we’re all related, we’re all connected to one another simply because we’re connected to our mutual Father. And so that includes all life has been created in the image of God. And now go to the Old Testament to Psalm 139.

The scriptures widen that net to include not all life, not just all life as we might normally think of it, but think of the implications of Psalm 139 verse 13. We’re made in the image of God, that is a spiritual statement, and we are all the offspring of God, one blood, every nation. And now look at Psalm 139, verse 13. You speaking to God, the psalmist, David, is speaking to and praising God because of his power, specifically his creative power, when he says in verse 13, you formed my inward parts. You covered me in my mother’s womb. If I am made in the image of God, and if God formed my inward parts and covered me in my mother’s womb, then this would include what we might call the unborn in that umbrella statement of who has been made in the image of God.

3. How I’m Going to View You and Treat You

And so the fact that we’re made in the image of God deals with the sin of racism and it deals with the sin of abortion. Both of those things are sin because I’ve been made in the image of God. Now there’s some further implications of understanding that I’m made in the image of God. This means something. It doesn’t just mean that I’m made in the image of God and it ends there. There are some spiritual and some moral implications from the fact that I’ve made in the image of God. We’ve already hinted at this a little bit, but if I’m made in the image of God, and if you’re made in the image of God, then this fact affects how I’m going to view you and treat you.

Let’s look at three passages of Scripture, old and New Testament, that spring out of this idea. Go back Old Testament with me to the book of Genesis, chapter 9. Genesis 1 said God was going to make man and woman in his image. Genesis chapter 9 deals with an implication of that. Genesis 9, verse 6, Noah and His family are exiting the Ark. And in this, what we might call the recreation of earth, some instructions are given. In Genesis chapter 9, look at verse 6. He has told him that the animals that he brought on the ark were brought on the ark because he has dominion, man had dominion over them, and they’re to be food for you. But look at chapter 9, verse 6. Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed.

For in the image of God, he made man. What makes human life valuable? What makes human life more valuable than plant life? Or animal life. One thing. And we might be as bold to emphasize and to say, only one thing. It’s not because of your value to society. It’s not because of the sentimental attachment you might have to friends and family. But what makes your life valuable is that you were made in the image of God. And so, unlike the swatting of a fly or the uprooting of a weed in the garden, eradicating your life means something to God.

Because you were made in the image of God. That’s the stated reason that murder is wrong and is punishable by death itself. Because you’re made in the image of God. Read on further in the book of James, chapter 3. We might expect, based upon the language of the Sermon on the Mount, that this might have a broader spiritual application than just the extreme result of taking someone’s life. That God actually demands more of us because we’re made in the image of God. Look in James chapter 3 and in verse 9. Not only murder, but he’s now going to say cursing our fellow man is wrong. And why is it wrong? James, James 3, verse 9, with it, speaking of our tongue that’s difficult to tame, he says, with it we bless God, our Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the similitude of God.

Your translation may say, have been made in the likeness of God, and you’ll say at the end of verse 10, this ought not to be so. Murder is forbidden because my fellow man was made in the image of God. And James now says that cursing my fellow man is wrong. Because my fellow man was made in the image of God. Look in the book of 1 John. John will tell us another thing that is forbidden, because we have all been made in the image of God. 1 John 4 and in verse 20, much like James, and saying it’s inconsistent. James says it’s inconsistent, certainly for a Christian, to curse his fellow man and yet bless God when his fellow man was made in the likeness of God.

James says that doesn’t make sense. John tells us something else that in God’s eyes, at least, it doesn’t make sense. In John chapter 4, verse 20, if someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he’s a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? That’s not just an argument from proximity. It’s not just saying, how can you love something you haven’t seen and hate something you have seen?

It’s a connection between the one whom we have not seen, God, and the one whom we have seen, who was made in the image of God. And so the scriptures condemn three actions, three negative actions toward our fellow man, because you’ve been made in the image of God. I can’t hate you.

Because you’ve been made in the image of God. I won’t curse you. Because you’ve been made in the image of God. And I won’t take your life. Because you’ve been made in the image of God. And so the challenge comes how do we overcome those things that might otherwise cause me want to hate, curse, and even kill you. Two things. Number one is I need to get closer to God. And number two, I need to change the way I view you. I don’t view you. Remember how we started this lesson. I don’t view you as just a physical being. I view myself and you as a spiritual being who’s just temporarily possessing this physical body and a spiritual being, most importantly, who is made in the image of God.

4. How I View Myself: Connected to My Father

And this all connects it to God. I don’t love you because of who you are. I don’t refuse to curse you because of who you are. And I don’t even abstain from killing you because of who you are. Because if you think about it, I don’t have any problem with those three actions to people who are lovable and nice and good to me. But I, as a Christian, refuse to do any of those things to my fellow man. Because I see them as a child of God. We’ve been made in his image. And my proper interactions and reactions to my fellow man are because of God. But this also affects how I view myself. If I’ve been made in the image of God, this not only affects how I’m going to view and treat you, but it also will affect how I view myself.

Go back with me to the book of Acts, chapter 17, Paul’s sermon there on Mars Hill. And let’s go back to verse 29. I must always understand the implications of the fact that I have been made in the image of God. And the primary implication of that is that connects me to my Father. Acts 17, verse 29, again, the inspired speaker says, Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Now, Paul is arguing it a little bit in the different direction than we are. In fact, he’s arguing in the opposite direction we are. Not an opposite point, but in the opposite direction. Paul is saying, God made you in his image.

So do you think God is some lifeless being, some stone structure, some wooden idol. All you have to do, he says, is metaphorically, look in the mirror. You’re not a piece of stone. You’re not a piece of wood. You have a brain. And you have motion and activity. And so if we’re the offspring of God, then that tells us something about God who made us in his image, doesn’t it? That God’s a living being. That he has a mind. Unlike all of these idols that he was looking at. Well, let’s argue the other side of that. The divine nature, he says, is within us. That does not mean we are gods in and of ourselves. But we have a spark of the divine nature in us.

5. Sin Has Marred the Image; Put On the New Man

That connects me to God. And as Paul is arguing here, that lets me know something about God. That it’s the spark of divine nature that gives me the ability to think. Now understand, I do all of these things in a diminished way from a perfect God. But it’s the divine nature within me that gives me the ability to think and to reason and to dream and to love. Being made in his image connects me to him in such powerful and profound ways that I am my Father’s child. It also places me, if I am in the right thinking child of God. Look with me in Ephesians chapter 4. It sets before me a challenge. That I realize that through sin in the global sense and sin in my individual sense, that I am not what I ought to be when man was originally created in the image of God.

That sin has marred this image, the spiritual image.

Begin with me in verse 17. It says, This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened. You see, he, all the language he’s using is the idea of something that’s been changed and diminished from what it used to be and ought to be. These Gentiles, speaking of the sinful world, have their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness in their heart, who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness and to work and to work all uncleanness and greediness. He says, You, the sinful world, you’ve taken the image of God and you’ve diminished it.

You’ve blinded it, you’ve darkened it. You’ve made it past feeling. All of those aspects of the divine spark of nature, you’re killing them within yourself. Verse 20, but you have not so learned Christ. If indeed you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus Christ, that you put off concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Let’s pause there. Remember, that’s the part of us that was made in the image of God. You be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Verse 24, let’s finish this reading. And that you put on the new man, which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

Through your sinfulness and your selfishness, you’ve corrupted and diminished the image of God that’s within you. And so it’s time to put on a new man. The old man is how you corrupted the image of God that’s within you. The new man is really the old man in the sense that this is the way God really created you to be. Notice the language again of verse 24. You put on the new man, which was created according to God. That’s what God originally wanted you to be. And so become that again, which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. And so if I’ve been made in the image of God, that connects me to my Father. And it lets me shamefully see how I’ve corrupted that image.

I’ve changed it, and I’ve become less and less, through my sin, less and less like my God. But thanks be to God in Christ Jesus that there’s a way that I can cleanse that inner man. And be made over in his image again. Think about how many passages in the New Testament talk about us becoming like God. The God who created us in his image originally. And I want you to think of one more passage in 1 John chapter 3, verses 1 and 2. John tells us that in the resurrection, in 1 John chapter 3, he says, Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God. Therefore, the world does not know us because it did not know him.

Conclusion

Beloved, now we are the 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. We were created in the image of God. When we become a Christian, we are to be recreated in the image of God, so that in the resurrection we’ll be like him. Fully in the image of God. Would you become a Christian this morning and become that new man? To recognize the destiny, the fortune that God had for you in creating you in his own image. It’ll affect how you treat others, it’ll affect how you view God, and it’ll affect how you view yourself and live your own life.

If you’re subject to the gospel invitation, and we can help you in any way to be made over in the image of God, then why not come right now as together we stand and sing.

Would you have him bear your burden, carry all your load? Let him have his way with thee. His fire can make you what you ought to be. His blood can cleanse your heart.