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Romans 8: Conforming to the Image of Christ
Romans chapter 8. We are wrapping up our series on Recovering the Image. Follow along. I’ll begin at verse 1. — RECITE (Romans 8)
What to share from this great chapter. We could simply focus on verse 29—conformity to the image of Christ. That is what this series is about. But here’s the thing. Everything that comes before is marshaled to that cause. And that which comes after is the guarantee that it will indeed happen, calling us to press on through whatever trials may come, whatever powers seek to derail us. Because God is working all those things—verse 28—to see to it that Christ is indeed formed in you.
So where do we begin? Well perhaps it’s particularly helpful for us to look at the role of the Spirit in our being conformed. But with that said, the Spirit doesn’t work apart from the Word. The Spirit isn’t off doing His own thing. The Spirit is given for the purpose of producing Christ in you by applying the work of Christ to you.
Yet, so much of our understanding of the Spirit is often clouded by concepts and ideas that are completely detached from what Scripture teaches us concerning the Spirit—churches promoting strange aberrations of Spirit-filled life that have absolutely nothing to do with becoming more Christlike.
But here’s the thing. The Spirit has one ultimate purpose—to glorify the Son of God—and everything the Spirit does works towards that end, and only that end. The Spirit works to conform you and me to the image of Christ that Jesus might be all the more gloried in our reflecting Him. And the Spirit conforms us into greater Christlikeness by applying Christ’s work of salvation to us.
The Spirit wasn’t given for people to make a mockery of Him by spouting off ecstatic utterances that fail to give any distinct sound to where not even the angels in heaven can comprehend—people losing control of their bodies and faculties as if possessed and overtaken by something outside themselves. But In fact, Paul says that exact opposite. The believer has received the Spirit of sound reason and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7). The Spirit causes Paul to beat his body and make it obey, not to lose control. God didn’t make robots or puppets; he made persons!
I only bring this up, not to pick on the charismatics who have utterly distorted the understanding of the Spirit and His work, but because this is the Spirit who leads believers to put to death the deeds of the body in order that we might live, the Spirit who ascribes sonship to us believers, the Spirit who enables us to suffer with Christ, for only through our suffering with Christ will we be glorified with Christ, the Spirit who intercedes for us with groanings to deep for words—but not nonsense—but according to the very will of God.
We can err on two sides. We can dishonor the Spirit in distorting His person and His work. But we can also downplay the role of the Spirit as if the Spirit is just some add-on to the Trinity. Apart from the Spirit, there is no conforming to the image of Christ, because apart from the Spirit there’s no salvation. The Spirit is absolutely necessary for us to know the transforming power of the gospel.
Verse 2. The law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Without the Spirit, we’re still a slaves to the law of sin and death. But through the illuminating work of the Spirit that our eyes are opened to the work of salvation—that God sent his own Son in the likeness of our sinful flesh in order to condemn sin in the flesh. But whose flesh was sin condemned in? It should have been ours, but instead that condemnation was poured out on the Son who took on our likeness. Now there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
The Spirit applies the work of Christ to us, uniting us with Christ in His death and resurrection, that we might have Christ and every blessing that Jesus has secured for us. Calvin, in his institutes says that Christ, in giving us His Spirit, effectually unites us to Himself… giving us Christ Himself. But so long as Christ remains outside us, we don’t belong to Him. His suffering, His payment, His conquering sin, death, and the devil, remain utterly useless and of no value to us.
So, how does the Spirit work in uniting us to Christ? Well, first, the Spirit opens our eyes to see Christ and His work of salvation on the cross to be infinitely glorious, rather than an unfortunate tragedy. If you see Jesus’ life and death as glorious, that’s the Spirit’s work in opening once blind eyes, because the rest of the world doesn’t see Jesus as glorious.
That’s why we have events like what took place for the opening ceremony at the Olympics, where drag-queens sought to reenact a parody of Da Vinci’s Last Supper. We can be outraged. But what do you expect? They’re blind. Their minds are hostile to God. They are void of Christ’s Spirit.
Praise God, not that you find such a mockery repulsive, though you should, but that your eyes have been opened to see Christ as so glorious that there’s nothing you desire more than to know Him, love Him, honor, Him, be with Him that you might gaze upon the King in all His beauty. Because if Jesus isn’t your greatest treasure, if you don’t find Jesus to be the most glorious person ever, it’s likely you’re not all that different from those at the Olympics. You just express your displeasure and indifference towards the Son of God in a way that’s a bit more tasteful in the world’s eyes. Don’t think that indifference to Christ isn’t every bit as repulsive to God. Those in the flesh cannot please God.
Only those in the Sprit can even recognize the heinousness of sin for what it actually is—that it’s not just some moral lapse of oughtness, but that it runs entirely contrary to the nature of the God who formed us in His likeness.
Without the Spirit, O we tend to notice other’s sin, though we likely wouldn’t even call it that, but we fail to notice our own moral and spiritual corruption, just how defiled the image of God has become in us, and how desperately we need, not only the penalty of our sin covered, we need a total-Spirit-makeover—a spiritual rebirth.
Only through the Spirit can we receive God’s Word as God’s Word to where we now submit to God and His Law. The Spirit realigns us to agree with God as to what is good and evil, where before we sought to determine good and evil for ourselves according to our own particular interests. Those who struggle with the Bible’s stance on things like sexuality, like we looked at last week, need to ask themselves, does Christ’s Spirit truly dwell in me, or is my spirit the ruling authority as to what’s good and evil.
Now, to be clear, the total makeover doesn’t happen in an instant, as we’ll see. But there should be a growing conformity to where we agree with and submit to God’s Word. Because the Spirit doesn’t work through abstract ideas and impressions out of nowhere. The Spirit applies God’s Word, especially God’s Word as it points to Christ—which you all should know by now, all of God’s Word points to Jesus.
The Spirit isn’t out there zapping people who have never heard the gospel making them Christians. The Spirit applies the work and Word of the gospel, and the heart once hardened towards God suddenly becomes softened. In the same way, the Spirit sanctifies no one apart from this Word—not because He can’t, but because that isn’t God’s plan. The Spirit shows us Christ in the Word, that we might gaze upon His glory and be transformed from one degree of Christ’s glorious likeness to another. Sanctification apart from the Word of Christ brings no glory to Christ. And the Spirit’s one concern is glorifying the Son of God. Period.
All other aberrations are not that of the Holy Spirit but rather strange teachings of those dissatisfied with Christ as He is presented in Scripture, as if we need something more glorious. Only in having our eyes opened to see Christ as he is, nothing short of the perfection of beauty, will we be conformed into that same likeness.
As mentioned last week, wrath will never move anyone to long-term repentance. The fear of God’s wrath sanctifies no one. O knowledge of it is absolutely necessary in order for the weight of God’s glorious mercy to have its effect. But it is the removal of wrath that leads to our sanctification, not the fear of it. It’s the removal of wrath due to the Son taking that wrath upon Himself that brings about the heart change within, to where we’re no longer hostile towards God, but moved to adore Him beyond anything we’ve ever known or experienced before.
Consider Uncle Bob. You grew up thinking, man what a killjoy, what a sour-puss Uncle Bob is. Never any fun. Always so serious. He even warned you not to fool around on his tractor, that it was one thing off limits at the farm, that you weren’t mature enough to handle it safely. What a stiff. O how you despised Uncle Bob.
Well, family reunion around, and great, it’s going to be on Uncle Bob’s farm again. No big deal. You’ll show Uncle Bob and everyone else just how mature and capable you are. So you grab the keys from off the barn wall, fire up the tractor, and take it for a spin. But it quickly gets out of control where to where you soon tear Uncle Bob’s Garden to pieces, endangering others on his property, until at last, the tractor over turns.
You wake up in a hospital bed days later. All you remember is wrecking Uncle Bob’s tractor and his garden, and who knows what other damage you may have caused. You just know, he’s going to be angry. And you are completely terrified of the consequences, which only leads you to despise Uncle Bob even more, completely setting aside that Uncle Bob did nothing but try to protect you and others, as well as the property from unnecessary harm.
As you become a little more alert you notice pain around your chest and stitching. With somewhat labored breathing you ask the nurse what happened. She says, “The accident crushed your lungs. You’re very fortunate to be alive right now. But a live donor gifted you one of their lungs. I believe he’s your uncle, oh what’s his name, um… oh yeah, Bob.”
Let me ask. What takes place inside you at that very moment? Every thought, every feeling you ever had towards Uncle Bob is forever changed. He is not at all who you thought he was. He loves you more than you thought was even possible, even though you only ever showed hostility towards him.
That’s what the gospel does, but to an even greater degree. In our defiance and rebellion, we tried to take the one thing that was off limits because it would only cause us and others harm. You and I made a wreck of God’s Garden—a mess of His creation. But rather than places the due consequences on your and me, God placed them on His Son. There is no condemnation—only grace—for those in Christ Jesus.
We were as good as dead. Our rebellion had crushed our lungs to where we had no breath of life left in us. But Jesus’ death on the cross gives us new life, filling us with the breath of life anew, filling us His very Spirit.
Our attitude goes from being hostile to God to being warm and affectionate to God, and overwhelmingly so. That’s what the Spirit applies to us. We are filled with the mind and attitude of Christ. We don’t simply begin to believe certain truths about God that even the devil knows. No! We believe something more—that God is good—that He has withheld no good thing from us, not even His Son.
So, the gospel isn’t something simply for unbelievers. Nor is it an ongoing regimen of vitamin supplements. The gospel is the very air believers breathe; it is the breath of life itself. And because the gospel is the very air we breathe, our setting the mind on the things of the Spirit is not a Sunday event, or a morning quiet time event. It’s an all the time event—a way of life.
It impacts how you eat and drink, and work and play, your conversations, your isolation, any and everything that has to do with life in this fallen world, those with the Spirit are to set their mind on the things of the Spirit. And those of the Spirit, who die to themselves, have the power of resurrection life now, and the guarantee of resurrection life to come.
Verses 12-13. These are two of the most important verses on sanctification and the recovery of the image.
Verse 12. So then brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh to live according to the flesh.
We owe the flesh absolutely nothing. But we owe Christ absolutely everything! You don’t owe your lustful eyes that second glance (or the first.) You don’t owe your insatiable appetite that craving or desire. Your mouth isn’t obligated to speak those words in your own defense. Your ears aren’t obligated to listen to that gossip. Your feet aren’t obligated to go along with the crowd. Your hands aren’t obligated to ambitiously seek your advantage. Your mind, your imagination, whatever category you want to fill in—you owe your fallen flesh nothing. This is the first line of waging war. The gospel reminds us who we are indebted to, and to whom we are not. NO MORE, you owe it to yourself. That’s the flesh speaking.
Verse 13. For if you live according to the flesh you will die. But if by the Spirit, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
First, notice the conditionality. If you do this—that is live according to the flesh you will die. But if by the Spirit you put to death, you will live. It’s an either or. Sanctification is not optional.
But not only is it conditional. It’s also a promise. There’s an assurance tied to both conditions, to the warning and the hope. Those who continue living in the flesh are going to die—not merely physically, but eternally. But those who put sin to death by the Spirit, they are promised life eternal.
There’s also a duty prescribed here. Debtors to Christ have a duty to put to death the deeds of the body by Christ’s indwelling Spirit. This isn’t some passive sanctification—let go and let God. Not at all. We’re called to play an active part in putting sin to death.
To paraphrase John Owen, those who have been assuredly set free from the condemning power of sin ought to make it their business, all their days, to mortify the indwelling power of sin. You’ll either be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.
But the believer, while obligated to wage war against the flesh, isn’t waging war on their own. The Spirit of Christ is the effectual agent who dwells in you. At the same time, the text in no way suggests the battle is ever easy, or that it is a one and done thing. It is an ongoing war that will take nothing less than the Spirit of God Himself to move the battlelines forward, reclaiming enemy territory in the recovery of the image. Still recovery for those waging war by the Spirit is guaranteed. We will see our commanding officer face-to-face, and then our transformation shall be complete when we see Jesus as He is.
But again, that guarantee is for those waging war against their own sin, only those who have the Spirit of Christ. If indwelling sin isn’t your greatest burden, you may need to ask yourself if Christ’s Spirit truly dwells in you. Because the believer wants nothing more than to glorify the One they are imaged after by reflecting Jesus’ likeness to the world. And that will only happen if you’re putting sin to death, because sin is not part of the likeness of Christ.
Believers wage war against sin. Unbelievers don’t. The difference between the sin of the believer and the sin of the unbeliever is the absence of war. Sure, unbelievers seek to be more outwardly righteous and moral. Many are even tormented by the harsh yoke of slavery sin binds them under, as they watch their corruption gnaw away at their life and those they love.
But they aren’t waging war to the glory of God, nor do they have a desire to do so. Why? Because the Spirit doesn’t reside within them. O they hate the effects and consequences of their sin. But they don’t hate their sin. Otherwise, they’d wage war against it, not be at ease in it, and certainly not celebrate it.
Verses 14-17. The gospel recovers the who you are and the whose you are. We are children of God and fellow heirs with Christ.
Earlier this year, in Colorado, someone stole a 200-year-old portrait of Geoge Washington. I don’t know if the thief was ever apprehended or not. But had the thief been apprehended, what do you think the owner cared about the most? Justice being done to the thief? I don’t think so. No. What the owner likely cared about was whether or not his portrait was recovered.
We’re not talking about the painting of a dead president, as important as he may be. We’re talking about the image of God Almighty. The enemy came only to steal, kill, and destroy. And justice will indeed be done. But what the Owner of the image cares about is that His portrait is recovered. That’s what the Spirit does. He reestablishes who we belong to, but also who we are—children of God.
Now sonship entails likeness. Adam was—in a sense—a son of God but failed to resemble God as a son. What Jesus purchased for us, among other things, was a place in the family. But to be a member of the family, you and I must bear the family resemblance—bearing Christ’s likeness.
Verse 17. And members of the family are heirs with Christ. That’s a huge aspect of our union with Christ. But the verse doesn’t end with us being heirs, does it? Provided we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him. O that’s unpopular. I pass a sign of a particular church often. Stop enduring life. Start enjoying life.
Now, I believe the Christian life is to be one of joy. And I may be unfair in my interpretation of their billboard. But what I do know is that prosperity preachers abound. And the one thing they do is seek to eliminate the unpopular news that to follow Christ is a call to come and die. We are to suffer with Christ. Otherwise, don’t expect to be glorified with Him. You’re either united with Him in all things or none.
But, O the next verse, verse 18, the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glories we await. The sufferings are preparing us for glory, because our joining in Christ’s sufferings is part of the process in conforming us to His likeness, finishing the work in us—helping us finish the course.
Think of a ship on the calm sea. It suffers no hostile waves, no tempest, no trials. But spread the sails as one may, without the wind that brings the tempests, the ship will never reach its harbor. Without the Spirit wrought trials, we will not finish our course in recovering the image.
Jesus sent the disciples into the storm, not so they could show how adequate they were in themselves, nor to test them in the sense that they could prove how great their faith was, or how equipped they already were for the journey.
Jesus sent his disciples into the storm to show them just how inadequate they were, to show them just how little their faith—which they were prone to boast in—was, to cause them to come to the end of themselves so that they might call upon the only One who could save, the only One sufficient to bring them through the tempest.
Our sufferings are designed to increase our faith, that we might look all the more upon the One who commands even the winds and the waves, and through gazing upon His glory, be transformed more and more into His likeness.
We could continue on through the rest of the chapter. How it is the Spirit who helps us in our weakness, because we still fall short. No matter how long you’ve been walking with Christ, He’s still working to conform us to His likeness. But His grace continues, nothing can separate us from His love. He will finish this work He began.
Why does this matter. Because the quickest way to derail our sanctification is to think we are ever somehow in less need of God’s grace than when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, that we are somehow not as desperate for God’s continued grace to see us to the end. Oh how many begin by faith and then seek to finish by the flesh, as if we can put to death the deeds of the flesh by the flesh.
But that’s like those who claimed Jesus was casting out demons by the prince of demons. Our fallen nature can’t cast out that which is fallen. It is only by the continued grace of God’s Spirit dwelling within us that we will finish this race.
The same God who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, will also give us all things with him—including the trials and sufferings we need to fully be conformed to the likeness of the Son. Those whom he called, he also justified, and sanctified, and glorified, and nothing can separate us from that golden chain of salvation—sealed by the crimson blood of our precious Savior.
O the power of no condemnation. Who shall bring any charge…
Who is to condemn….
What can separate us from the love of Christ… NOTHING!
We are more than conquerors. Not because we are somehow sufficient in ourselves. But because Christ’s Spirit is at work in us, to see to it that we are indeed conformed to His likeness.
And all the trials, all the powers, even those set against us, God is working to that end, that you might reflect the beautiful image of the Son, that His glory might shine forth to all creation.
PRAY
Romans 1:18-32 Corruption of the Image
I invite you to turn to Romans 1. This is week 3 of our series in Recovering the Image. We began this series by looking at what it means to be Created in God’s Image. Last week we looked at the Casting aside of the Image. This week is the Corruption of the Image.
So, if you came in here this morning hoping for some warm fuzzy talk, looking to be entertained, seeking unquestionable affirmation for your every pursuit, to hear about just how wonderful you are, well, this isn’t that message. In fact, if that’s the message you came in looking for, then this is likely the message you need to hear. Because I assure you, Paul has recorded this first chapter of Romans, as the emergency cardiac MRI needed to diagnose our failing heart condition before it’s too late.
Our focus is going to be on verses 18-32, but we’re going to begin our reading from verse 16. So, if you would stand in honor of God’s Word as I read from Romans chapter 1 beginning at verse 16.
READ: (Romans 1:16-32)
After introductions and expressing his obligation to preach the gospel to all peoples, Paul launches into the longest, most systematically organized and reasoned articulation of the gospel in all of Scripture. It’s important that we grasp this because the next eighty-some verses—the bulk of these first 3 chapters—are the case against mankind. And it is horrific, condemning, and hopeless… if the letter merely began in verse 18 of chapter 1 and ended with verse 20 of chapter 3.
But Paul’s goal with these verses isn’t to condemn. It isn’t to leave his readers hopeless. It’s to show us our desperate need for the gospel, and the world’s desperate need for the gospel. So, if we get the purpose of these verses wrong, we’ll use them wrongly. They aren’t given to us to condemn others but to show us the dreadful state of our condition, that we might take the gospel medicine made available through the blood transfusion of Jesus Christ.
Paul is not ashamed of the gospel. Because the gospel is the only cure for the horrific state of mankind. So, let open heart surgery begin.
Verse 18. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. God’s wrath isn’t against nothing. God isn’t angry over nothing. God isn’t some short-tempered father, who is set off by the wrong word or look that just happens to offend him, and so he starts hurling objects upon the earth to show his uncontrollable frustration.
God is indeed patient and slow to anger. But just because God is love, doesn’t mean God is absent of wrath. His wrath is His settled righteous disposition against sin and the harm it causes, especially to His image-bearers.
Imagine a young child being bullied, or worse, molested on the school bus by an older kid. What kind of father finds out about it, and simply smiles saying, “don’t worry about it honey, I love you. And I love the kid that did those things. So, you know, I really can’t be angry, because love doesn’t get angry.” You and I both know that is a sorry excuse for a father. Righteousness requires anger at such an act.
For God to fail to show His wrath, as if sin is really no big deal, would demonstrate God to be indifferent regarding justice. Remember, God is the perfection of every good quality, and it is good to be angry over the harm done to others. God must display His wrath against sin. God is indifferent about nothing.
Now, we look around, we see injustice taking place all the time. We have court systems because we’re concerned with justice. And even as divided as our nation might be, neither side wants to set aside justice, even if we might not agree on what justice is. So, to ever think we don’t want a God of justice is contrary reality.
But we don’t just want justice, we want people to be upset about injustice along with us. So, what would make us think we don’t want a God who is upset about injustice. That doesn’t even make sense. The difference is that God’s anger is always perfectly righteous. Our anger rarely is.
But what could have gone so wrong? How have we become so corrupt?
Verse 19-23, explain how we exchange the glory of God for the lesser glory of created things, and that such an exchange is utterly inexcusable.
God created us in His image to image Him. Sounds simple enough. We covered that for the past 2 weeks. But instead of seeking to image God, we decided to do our own thing, actually reflecting the image of the serpent instead of the Creator. In fact, look at verses 22-23. Claiming to be wise, they became fools.
Do you remember the first instant of this? In the garden. Eating will make you wise like God. Verse 23. And they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. That word, creeping things, can just as easily be rendered reptiles, or things that slither.
In the Garden, Adam and Eve, formed in the glorious likeness of God Himself, decided to reflect the thoughts of the beast. And when we decide we’ll live according to our own wisdom, rather than submitting to God’s, we do the very same thing.
I know there are things in this Book that some of you don’t agree with, some things I’m going to touch on in just a minute because it’s part of our text. But the problem isn’t this Book, the problem is that you’ve decided you’re somehow wiser than God. And so, when we find our opinions in opposition to God’s Word, we need to repent.
Moving on. The case Paul makes, isn’t that we don’t know what God looks like, so well, it’s understandable that we just aren’t sure what we’re supposed to reflect. I mean, no one’s ever seen God. So, therefore, I guess we’re off the hook. It must be God’s fault that we’ve strayed so far from the Image. Not even close.
Verse 19. Paul makes the case that we know exactly what we are to look like, because what we need to know about God has been perfectly revealed to us, because God Himself has revealed it to us.
Verse 20. God’s invisible attributes… Paul knows we can’t see God… but that which can’t be seen of God, has been perceivable through God’s workmanship throughout all of creation, in order that all of mankind would be without excuse, or beyond defense.
This is where we get our word apologetics from. Mankind has no reasonable defense to offer for failing to know God and thus reflect God. The issue is not that we have no idea of what God is like, but verse 21, having known God, we didn’t glorify Him as God or give thanks to Him.
The issue isn’t informational. O we just need more proof. Perhaps someone can fashion better arguments for God’s existence. Then maybe we’ll believe. Listen. If you won’t believe God’s plain revelation of Himself within the created order, you’re not going to believe, even should you see someone rise from the dead.
You see, the case Paul is making, is that you don’t need a Bible, you don’t need God’s Word to know the most essential spiritual truths. What can be know about God, that which is most essential to know, God has made plain in creation.
Remember, I’ve been saying how we need the physical in order to comprehend the spiritual. That’s exactly what Paul is stating. God gave us the physical created order that we might know something about Him through it, that we might be in awe of Him who created all of this. From the beginning of creation God has been revealing Himself through the created order.
The atheist who denies the existence of God is without defense when he stands before God. Even should he never have access to the Bible. Because he doesn’t need a Bible to know that which is most basic regarding God. The heavens declare God’s glory. All of creation shouts God’s magnificent workmanship, His power, His goodness, His order, His grace, and His loving-kindness. In fact, the Bible doesn’t even argue for the existence of God. Scripture assumes… or better, asserts that everyone already knows. The world knows; it just suppresses the truth.
Now, let me back up, just so I don’t have to answer a dozen questions about not needing our Bibles. First, you didn’t see me just toss my Bible aside, did you? That’s good.
Here’s what I mean. God’s fingerprints on creation are enough to render everyone inexcusable for their sin. But creation can’t save, nor can it point anyone to salvation in Christ. We don’t need our Bibles to know the most essential truths about God. But we do need our Bibles to comprehend the breakdown and what the remedy is. Apart from God’s Word, we can’t know the gospel, and we can’t know Christ.
So our sin isn’t due to a lack of information, that we somehow didn’t know what we were to reflect. Our sin is due to a heart issue. From our lack of gratitude stems spiritual blindness. Turning away from God’s glorious splendor leaves our hearts in darkness. We’re unable to discern spiritual truths because we can’t see anything clearly apart from the light of God’s glory.
To see how this works, let’s return to the Garden. Thinking that eating the fruit would somehow make us wise, proved to demonstrate our foolishness. Eating was an act of turning from the wisdom of God and trusting in the wisdom of the creature.
Someone might say, But I wasn’t even in the garden! Well, let me ask, do you submit to God’s wisdom? Or do you seek to call your own shots? Only those in submission to Christ, are even capable of submitting to the wisdom of God. Outside of Christ, not only can we not submit; we’re hostile to God. Even in Christ, we still wrestle with this as believers. Otherwise, we’d never sin.
The church is full of episodes when people seek to reason that in this or that situation, they know better than God. I mean, I’m not entirely dismissing God. I’m sure He’s right on most things. And for others, well, they’d probably do well to listen to God a bit better. But as for me, this situation is different. I know my situation and what’s best for me. And God’s Word on this matter just isn’t it.
Perhaps it’s a relationship that’s clearly against God’s will. Well, my wife doesn’t pay the same attention to me as that girl at the office. Maybe it’s taxes. The government has no right to take my money.
But the issue is that we exchange the incorruptible treasure of serving and glorifying God for the corruptible treasure of earthly wealth. We’ve exchanged the imperishable beauty of the King of the universe, for the beauty that will fade.
That girl at the office may have your attention now. But it’s a relationship that won’t last no matter how many years you both have left. But loving your wife to the glory of God as a reflection of Christ and His Bride… that represents something eternal.
That money you supposedly saved yourself by fudging just a little on your taxes, whatever you buy with it will one day rot. But honoring the immortal God by finding your satisfaction and sustenance in Him will endure into the ages.
In our idolatry, we’ve sought to fashion the God who can’t be contained into images that need us, rely on us. But a dependent god is no god whatsoever. But that’s what we have sought to reduce God to… a god that can be contained so that we might have our own way. But do you know what the greatest act of judgment is this side of hell? God giving us over to our sin.
Verses 24-25. Because mankind had exchanged the truth about God for a lie, worshiping and serving the creature rather than the Creator, God handed them over to the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. Mankind, buying into a lie, has corrupted his glory bringing utter dishonor upon himself.
Verse 26-27. God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Women exchanged natural relationships for those contrary to nature. And men likewise departed from natural relationships with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
God gave them up carries the idea of putting into custody, handing over to authorities, or even delivering to prison. It is important for us to realize that the sexual perversions and its culture of death is in a very real sense an act of God’s judgment. Although God has restrained much sin, He hasn’t restrained all sin. God gave people over to their lust, and the consequences of those lusts.
They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, now they live out a lie. And the most obvious lie is that which runs contrary to God’s created order. O the suppression of truth it takes to live contrary to what is so obvious in creation.
It doesn’t take science to know that male and female bodies bear uniqueness that allows them to fit together in a particular way in which they are unable to do in their sameness. It doesn’t get more basic than that. No sane person could possibly argue that male and female body parts weren’t obviously designed to fit together, whether they choose to use the word “design” or not.
Male body parts are not designed to fit with other males. Female body parts are not designed to fit with other females. The world even proves its recognition of this fact in its naming of hardware and plumbing. Two ends bearing male threads do not make a union. Period.
God designed male and female union to produce life. There is no life created by entering a waste canal full of decaying matter. The only thing such acts produce is shame. The text says that shame is the due penalty for such unseeming behavior. That’s not Josh’s opinion, that’s the Bible!
Even a Darwinist who buys into natural selection is forced to recognize the logic that going against certain natural norms puts one on a path to their own destruction. Simply because technology has enabled a woman in a same-sex relationship to be impregnated apart from heterosexual intercourse does not negate the need for a male partner. That’s true regardless of whether the male partner is known by name or simply a numeric code that identifies the source of the sperm.
The same is true regarding that of two men in need of an egg cell… and a uterus for that matter… which neither are able to provide.
Back to the beginning of our text. God has made this plain to everyone! God’s created order testifies that a society of same-sex relationships will lead to the extinction of that society. Do we now simply justify such relationships because technology has allowed us, in some measure, to bypass this natural order to accommodate our passions that go against that same order?
A society that promotes the validity of same-sex relationships is ultimately a society turned against its own existence, a society waging war against the natural ordering of life… human life… that God has fashioned after His likeness.
There’s no greater evil than defacing God’s image, because to do so dishonors God and is a crime worthy of an infinite penalty. As such, shame, stigma, and dishonor are woven into the fabric of sin’s natural consequence.
Try as it may, society will never remove the stigma and shame that comes from such sexual confusion and distortion. O they may seek to normalize it. But creation itself testifies against it.
Now get this. Paul’s not singling out the LGBT crowd in this letter, although some of the aberrations today, the apostle Paul likely couldn’t have imagined. Paul’s point is not that these perversions are worse sins than others. But he is making the point that such distortion of the natural order should serve as a wake-up call as to just how far we have gone astray.
Because you likely don’t struggle with this particular sin. But that’s not the point. The point is that your sin is every bit as disordered and unnatural as trying to reproduce life through the waste emitting anal canal. Our sin is just as disgusting. Our sin breeds the same destruction and death, because our sin fails to reflect the One who is life.
O how so much of the church prides itself in condemning certain sins yet fails to recognize that the sin of homosexuality is a portrait of sin’s unnatural nature.
Paul’s case is that the exchange we see in sexual relationships between men and women is a picture of the exchange we have made in our worship of the immortal God, exchanging the truth for a lie.
Paul will go on in chapter 2, further making his case that we have no excuse, because we who judge practice the same. The point isn’t that we shouldn’t judge, but the exact opposite, that we obviously recognize some behaviors to be wrong, to be against the God’s glorious image we are to reflect, and that such discernment is self-condemning because we know better. You teach others; shouldn’t you teach yourself!
Paul is about to give a list in the next few verses, a list that is by no means comprehensive, but that is representative of the corrupted image.
Our boastful demeanor, seeking one’s own advantage, the desire to be noticed, seeking the spotlight, disobeying your God-appointed parents, quarrelling, hatred, explosive anger, speaking ill of your neighbor, slandering Biden or Trump or any other image-bearer… is every bit a distorted reflection of God as same-sex unions.
It's not enough to condemn abortion, as obvious an evil as killing the most innocent and vulnerable is. Our sin is just as evil, and just as obvious, because God has made such plain to us. Every sin requires a suppression of the truth we plainly know but hate, because it stems from a hatred of God, finding God unacceptable in our sight.
So we’ll play god! We’ll eat this fruit!
Outside of Christ, mankind is guided solely by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. Because man has rejected the God of creation, he has no guiding light, but only darkness. The image has become corrupt beyond recognition.
Lives that disorder God’s image become disordered.
Verse 28. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. The Greek carries the idea that mankind examined God and found Him unacceptable to hold in recognition. Therefore, God handed them over to unacceptable minds to do that which is unbefitting of image-bearers.
You see, if you find the God who is total perfection in all His attributes to be unacceptable, then the only thing left for you to find acceptable is that which is not a reflection of God, and all that remains is that which is debased.
Last verse, 32. Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. Paul ends this passage where he began. The world knows. We are without excuse. We know that the God who created all of this, will bring people to account for disordering His good creation. And yet, even knowing, our sin suggests that we find God unworthy of our approval.
And anytime we defend someone’s else’s sin, we are giving approval to the defacement of God’s glorious image. But that’s exactly what the world does. It offers approval to those who practice rebellion against God. Why? Because the fallen human nature hates God. The flesh is hostile to God. We have believed a lie about God, believing that casting off God’s image offers freedom. But instead, we have become slaves to our own passions, passions that will destroy us.
Please don’t hear me as attacking those enslaved by such passions. The world doesn’t need our attacks. It needs our tears. Our hearts should break for such individuals who are on a quest for happiness that ultimately leads to their own misery and destruction. Trying to supposedly find themselves, they run everywhere but to the One who created them.
That’s why Paul has recorded this horrific account of man’s corruption. So that we might see the dreadful state of our fallen condition and turn to the hope of the gospel. That we might be reminded of the horrific consequences of sin, not only for ourselves, but for the weak and vulnerable.
We can’t sit idly by on the sidelines, watching the sick and wounded perish. We have an obligation just as Paul did, because we have the only medicine, the only gospel. The world needs to hear this, no matter how unpopular it might be! Because it is the only hope, the only remedy!
God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of mankind. And that wrath will be finalized in hell. Time is running out. For many, their time will run out today.
But God’s revealing of His wrath against sin will never move a single soul to long-term repentance. Revealing His wrath won’t restore the image that has become so corrupt, that it’s almost unrecognizable.
The only hope of restoration isn’t God revealing His righteous wrath to an even greater degree, but in displaying His perfect mercy by venting the fullness of His wrath on His Son instead of on us who deserve it.
That’s the gospel. That’s the remedy for our heart condition. That’s the only hope for this lost and dying world. The immortal incorruptible Son of God came and endured for you and me and the world the full fruit of our corruption… by taking on a corruptible body in the likeness of our sinful flesh, that He might take upon Himself… on the cross… the fulness of the wrath and judgment we alone deserve.
PRAY
Genesis 3:1-8 Casting aside God's Image
I invite you to turn to Genesis 3. We’re continuing our series: Recovering the Image. Today, we’re looking at the casting aside of God’s image, in which we’ll look at one of the most devastating passages in all of Scripture, and the most fundamental passage for our understanding of what went wrong.
READ (Genesis 3:1-8, 20-24)
There’s no greater calling than the call given to all of mankind, to image God throughout creation. No more exalted calling exists. This is the highest call of any creature. Period.
But in Gensis 3, we see mankind cast aside their call to image God.
FAIRYTALE
To the world, Genesis 3 reads like a fairytale, with a talking beast. The world certainly writes it off as such. But Genesis 3 captures more succinctly than all of man’s best attempts, what went wrong.
You see, if all this brokenness is simply the product of evolution or some other natural physical explanation, then we can’t rightly call any of it broken or wrong. Every moral foundation has been gutted if the world is nothing more than a series of accidents and physical events. Even one’s perception of right and wrong is nothing more than electrical and chemical synaptic transmissions between nerve endings if the physical is all that’s needed to explain why the world is the way it is.
Next week, we’ll look at the suppression of truth that it takes to hold to such a worldview. Most of the world hasn’t bought into that particular lie, but the lie that we can be like God in a particular way other than how God created us. But don’t think this isn’t the same lie that stands behind the atheist’s worldview. They may seek to write God out of the picture, but for the exact same reason, to cast aside God’s image in an attempt to take God’s throne, the one thing that has not been granted to us.
PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE TEXT
Moreover, Genesis 3 isn’t simply capturing the physical. Yes it’s a historic event that happened in time and space. But it’s more than that. Just as man was created as both a physical and spiritual being, there is both a physical and spiritual aspect to Scripture.
God’s Word is written in such a way that our finite minds can put flesh on that which we can’t see. As finite beings constrained by time and space, we can’t comprehend the spiritual apart from the physical.
So whatever you want to make of the serpent, whatever your hermeneutic is for reading this passage, it must take into account that what’s recorded here is more than mere history; it’s a theological rendering of history. The author of Genessis has recorded history in such a way that we might understand history’s theological significance. That’s the case with every passage in this entire book. That’s why it’s in here!
The significance of Genesis 3 is that from this single willful volition to displace God, stems a history of grave consequences for the entire human race.
CREATION MANDATE
Recall the creation mandate from chapter 1:28. Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over all of it. I have found it helpful to summarize the creation mandate as spreading God’s righteous reign throughout all of creation for creation’s good and God’s glory.
DOMINION OVER THE SERPENT
Now, God gave mankind dominion over all of creation and every creature, including this serpent that slithered into Adam’s newly appointed dominion, the Garden. In fact, verse 1 of our text makes it a point to inform us that this beast, this serpent, is under Adam’s dominion. The word translated “beast” is the same word used for the living creatures God gave man dominion over in Genesis 1:28.
WORK AND KEEP
What’s more, in chapter 2 we find that the Lord God places Adam in the Garden to work and keep it. Both of those terms display an aspect of what Adam’s exercise of dominion entails. Adam is not to be passive in his role, but an active agent. He is to work and subdue creation. And the word, “keep,” carries the idea of guarding and maintaining.
So Adam was to actively work to further subdue creation as God’s vice-regent. Adam was also to keep, that is, guard and maintain the order which God had established. But in the first 5 ½ verses of this most catastrophic event, Adam appears to be altogether absent.
So, the serpent, as cunning as he is, is a beast, a living creature under Adam’s dominion. And the fact that Adam has taken a backseat shows that the stage was set for the dismantling of God’s rule and order before Eve ever took the first bite, because Adam had already, at least in part, abandoned the role God had given him.
DISMANTLING
So, let’s see how the dismantling of God’s rule unfolds, leading to the dismantling of the image itself. In your outline, I used the following progression: Questioned, Distorted, Contradicted, Cast aside.
Questioned:
First, we see God’s command called into question. Verse 1, Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?”
So subtle. The snake doesn’t come right out in opposition to God’s Word. Rather, the serpent raises doubts as to the woman’s understanding of God’s Word, what it actually means, and how to apply it. This may seem small and insignificant at this stage, but it had the exact effect the snake intended, as we’ll soon see.
Distorted:
After calling God’s command into question, we see God’s command distorted.
Verses 2 and 3. We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God did say, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden… neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”
The woman’s given interpretation of God’s command is clearly distorted. And there are a few possibilities for this.
One: Adam could have failed in communicating God’s Word to Eve accurately,
Or two: Adam could have failed in making sure Eve understood the command. (This has everything to do with discipleship.)
Three: Adam could have misunderstood God’s command, though doubtful. I’m confident that God would have left Adam with the perfect example of discipleship as He communicated His commands to Adam.
Four: Adam himself may have distorted God’s Word when communicating it to Eve, as a means of supposedly fulfilling part of his call to keep the garden.
Think of it like this. If I’m called to guard something, but I tend to be passive in my duties, I might add some extra deterrents, so I don’t have to constantly concern myself with the daily duty I’m charged with.
This happens all the time. So much of our innovation comes from a desire to sit back and relax, so that I can enjoy a little more ”me time,” rather than always taking an active role. Of course, this often proves futile. Nothing is truly maintenance free. Often, the effort that goes into sparing future effort doesn’t spare as much effort as hoped.
(Consider the thief who exerts so much time, talent, and energy to do that which is dishonest, rather than putting that towards lawful and honorable ends.)
Five: It’s possible that Eve could have been seeking to stay the serpent’s hand—in a metaphorical sense, of course—in her correcting the snake and then adding her own addendum.
We tend to do this ourselves. We apply God’s Word in a way we think right, and when others have a different application or interpretation, we’ll quote Scripture… plus some. But God’s Word doesn’t need our addendums. If our applications and interpretations rightly stand upon the Word of God, then God’s Word is sufficient to back them up. I’m not suggesting proof texting. But rather, rightly dividing the Word of truth.
Whatever the case, in seeking to make the point that every other tree was good for food, the truth regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was distorted.
Why does this matter? Because the point of the tree was the recognition that while mankind was given dominion over all of creation, there was still a sovereign over man.
PSALM 8
I find Psalm 8 helpful. When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings. You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet.
You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings. Is that saying that mankind is actually under the authority of angelic hosts? I don’t think so. I understand that the author of Hebrews quotes the Septuagint, and it does read in that way. And that’s too long of discussion than we have time for here. But the Hebrew actually reads, You have made him just a little lower than God.
God established mankind’s reign over everything… just a little lower than God himself. Why? Because God made man His image-bearers.
JOSEPH
Remember Joseph, after he is sold into slavery in Egypt, he later rises to power, installed by Pharoah himself. This is what Pharoah has to say. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you…
Then Pharoah takes his signet from his hand and places it on Joseph’s. He even clothes Joseph like royalty and has Joseph ride in his second chariot, with the people calling out before him, ”Bow the knee!”
Pharoah continues, I am Pharaoh, and without your consent, Joseph, no one shall lift up a hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.Pharaoh even gives Joseph a wife, just as God gave Adam.
It’s really a striking parallel. And that’s the authority God assigned to Adam. Adam was to represent God. Only as regards the throne, was Adam placed lower than God Himself.
Even Paul says, writing to believers, Do you not know that you will judge angels? The only thing not put under the reign of Adam was God Himself. And that’s exactly what the tree represented.
But the serpent’s question causes Eve to distort the meaning of this tree for that of food, rather than that of authority. What? Is the tree poisonous? Why would God create such a thing? Well, yes, Eve. To eat from the tree is to ingest poison, but not at all in the way you’re thinking.
Contradicted:
The serpent’s not finished. The third step in dismantling God’s rule is that of contradiction. Verse 4-5. The serpent responds, You shall not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God.
DEATH
Now, with the woman already distorting God’s good command, the serpent moves the issue back to that of authority. O Eve, forget what God said about death. Have you even seen death? How do you know death is a thing? Or what death even is? Whatever the consequence is for eating, you needn’t bother yourself over it.
This is all too familiar. O how we go about casting aside any concern for the consequence of sin, But that’s exactly what’s taking place when you give into sin? You set aside your concern for sin’s consequence, as if my action here is worth whatever consequences may follow. Otherwise, we wouldn’t do it. We fall for the same lie Eve fell into.
BLIND
The serpent continues with blindness. Eve, God’s rules have blinded you. But eating, defying the command of this God of yours will open up a whole new world of possibilities that you haven’t even imagined. Forget all these rules about this or that being off limits. Reach out and take it! Show your God what’s truly off limits to you! You can have it all!
That same tune resounds today. Rather than deny yourself and take up your cross, the world sings, Take it! Don’t deny yourself. You deserve this!
LIKE GOD KNOWING GOOD AND EVIL
And the serpent has one last thing to say. Eve, the real reason God doesn’t want you to have this, is because eating will make you like Him`, knowing good and evil. You don’t have to live under God’s thumb. You can determine good and evil for yourself. You too can be like God!
GOD’S ESSENCE
Isn’t that what we often boil God down to? The One who gets to determine what’s good and evil? As if God is nothing more than some Being who determines what’s right and wrong. Yet that’s so often how we view God, even as believers.
ASEITY
So, let’s back up. I mentioned it last week, but it bears repeating. The essence of God isn’t found in His prerogative to determine good and evil; it’s found in His aseity, His self-existence. God simply is. He’s in need of absolutely nothing. He is utter perfection and cannot be added to. Hence, the reason God is unchangeable.
We even covered that God exists in community, which means that God isn’t lonely. God didn’t create for companionship. You and I have nothing to offer God that benefits Him in the least… not even our obedience. And yet, out of the overflow of who God is, He created all that is.
In fact, I don’t even think it’s accurate to say that God determines what’s good and what’s evil. Rather, God declares what good and evil.
What’s good is God Himself and everything that flows from Him. God’s sovereign reign emanates from who He is, and likewise, the tree that represents God’s reign is good so long as it is not eaten from. But to eat from it is evil, because to eat doesn’t reflect who God is.
Determining good and evil wouldn’t make mankind like God. Adam and Eve were already like God in the way in which they were able to be like God. They couldn’t be anymore like God than they already were!
CAST ASIDE
But the seed of discontentment was sown. God’s righteous rule, displayed in not eating from the tree, was cast aside, and the woman ate. Sin always takes place in the heart before it is acted upon.
DECLINE
We see this same progression, this same pattern again and again. God’s commands are questioned, then distorted, then contradicted, and finally cast aside. And with the dismantling of God’s rule, we see the decline of God’s image follow the same progression.
Verse 6. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
QUESTIONED:
The question is raised in Eve’s heart. She saw that the tree was good for food. Why would God hold this back if it’s good for food? Is this what it means to image God? To hold back from others that which is good?
DISTORTED
After questioning comes distortion. Eve finds desirable that which God finds abhorrent. O the tree could very well have been beautiful to the eyes. Indeed, what the tree represented was nothing short of beauty. And so long as its fruit remained uneaten, it represented submission to God’s rightful authority. So, in that sense, the tree was a thing of beauty.
But Eve was now looking at the tree through a distorted lens, no longer imaging, no longer reflecting the righteous thoughts of her Creator.
CONTRADICTED
The questioning of God’s image, the distortion of God’s image, now, the contradiction of God’s image, that eating would somehow make her wise like God. But eating would be the exact opposite of wisdom, and the opposite of what it means to image God.
To image God’s wisdom is to think God’s thoughts after Him. God gave us His Word, not for us to determine good and evil for ourselves, but so that we might think like God does, appreciate what God does, desire what God does, recognize good and evil as God does.
But instead of seeking to think God’s thoughts after Him, Eve sees an opportunity to determine wisdom for herself. Rather than reflecting God, Eve begins to reflect the beast. O how we trust in our own finite wisdom rather than the wisdom of the All-knowing One.
CAST ASIDE
And with the decline of the image comes the act that fails to be a representative of God at all. In fact, we can define sin in reference to the image. Sin is any act that fails to reflect God to His glory… a failure to represent the One we are imaged after… image-bearers acting contrary to who they are to image.
Whatever Eve is representing at this point, she may still be God’s image-bearer, but she isn’t reflecting the God she’s been created to image.
And in our sin, neither do we.
ADAM’S ROLE
End of verse 6. And she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
Before Eve ate, Adam had already failed at his responsibility to represent God well, to image God well.
Adam didn’t speak up when the serpent questioned God’s command. Adam didn’t correct Eve’s distorted representation of God’s command. Adam didn’t step in when the serpent flat out contradicted God’s command. Adam didn’t even stop his wife from casting aside God’s command and eating.
In fact, he doesn’t even rebuke her after the fact! Far worse, he accepts the rebellion directly from her hands, and eats too!
EGALITARIAN COMMENTATORS
I’ve come across many commentators recently, who seek to negate Adam having any responsibility to protect Eve. Perhaps it’s due to our ultra-egalitarian society that seeks to dismantle any perceived gender roles, completely casting aside God’s complimentary roles for men and women. But to set aside Adam’s role to protect his wife is to fail to do justice to the text, especially Genesis 2.
And Scripture doesn’t hold Eve responsible for the Fall; it holds Adam responsible. Jeremy read earlier from Romans 5. Sin came into the world, not through one woman, but through one man! And because of that one man, death has spread to all of mankind.
DEFACED
It’s through Adam, that the defaced image has been passed on to all mankind.
QUESTIONED
When Adam received the fruit from Eve and ate, he obeyed the voice of his wife rather than God. The complimentary gender roles, both of which bear God’s image, were called into question. Rather than leading and protecting, the husband follows the lead of his wife. Rather than being a helper fit for the man, Eve has become a stumbling block.
And what’s true here in the account of the Fall, is prominent in countless households today, even among those of the church.
DISTORTED
Verse 7. Their eyes were opened, and they knew they were naked.
Upon eating, Adam and Eve now have a distorted view of the image. God will ask, who told you that you were naked? The man and woman now see the image of God as a shameful thing, which leads to…
CONTRADICTED
…the contradiction of the creation mandate to fill the earth with the image of God. Instead, what do they do? They cover the image, seeking to hide their beautiful God-given complimentary differences. They already distorted those differences in their roles. Now, they’d hide their physical differences too.
This is becoming quite scary in many public sectors today. You go out to eat at Red Robin or shopping at Lowes, and you’ll be hard pressed to make out whether this person’s a male or a female. God’s image has been severely defaced.
CAST ASIDE
But worst of all, Adam and Eve seek to cast themselves out of God’s sight, and God from theirs. Verse 8. When they hear the sound of the Lord walking, they hide themselves from His presence among the trees.
They hide themselves from the One they are to image! The world hides itself from the one we’re called to image. But so long as we hide ourselves from God, how are we to image Him well? It’s only in gazing upon the Lord that we can even know what we’re supposed to look like. And yet, we hide!
The only way to recover the image is to recover the relationship with the One whose likeness we’re created after. But as the Psalms and Romans make clear, no one is out there seeking after God, not the true God. Instead, the world hides behind idols set up in the place of God, even if such idols are godless such as the atheist’s worldview.
QUESTIONED
At the end of the chapter, we find the man and women clothed in animal skins. They listened to the beast, they acted like the beast, they might as well be clothed as one. That’s how questionable the image has become. In listening to the beast, we have become more beast-like than God-like.
DISTORTED and CONTRADICTED
We’ve become like God in the exact wrong sense in which God created us. We’ve became like God in a distorted way.
We know good and evil in a way that completely contradicts what God intended.
CAST OUT
And now, those who cast aside their call to image God, were themselves cast out of the Garden sanctuary God had prepared for them. Others, cherubim, would now take the position man had rejected, that of guarding God’s earthly sanctuary.
CONCLUSION
So, how do we wrap this up? If nothing else, the Fall shows our desperate need for a Savior if this defaced image to be recovered.
The first Adam, passively stood by as his wife ate, and then passively received the fruit of disobedience from her guilty hands.
The second Adam, Jesus Christ, stepped in as the active husband who defends His Bride—not passively receiving the fruit from her hands, but actively taking the fruit of His Bride’s sin from her guilty hands along with all of its consequences.
“Can you drink the cup I drink,” Jesus asks his disciples. Jesus drinks the poison from the cup of sin, not in passive neglect, nor as falling for the lie of the serpent, but as an act of obedience to the Father in order to save His Bride. And he drains that cup of the curse of sin to the dregs.
Jesus didn’t hide from his Father, covering himself with fig leaves like Adam did to hide the shame of sin. Instead, Jesus allowed himself to be stripped naked on the cross to bear the shame of sin.
And Jesus received the scourging and blows that marred the very face of God. At the end of that scourging, Pilate marches Jesus out and announces, “Behold, the man.” That’s what we had done to the image. That’s the marred image Jesus came to crucify, in order that the image might be restored in us. We’re not quite there yet. But that’s where we’re headed.
PRAY
Genesis 1:26-28 Created in God's Image
PAINTINGS:
My family and I have grown fond of painting over the past few years. Our latest was of a large sailboat or maybe it’s a ship, on the sea reflecting a purple and orange sunset. We’d pull up a video where someone walks us through step-by-step. By the end of the process, while not looking anywhere near as incredible as the original, we’re generally fairly pleased that our paintings look quite similar to the original they were modeled after. They’re not the original. But in many ways, they bear a likeness to the original. Well, you and I… we are the image of God.
SERIES OVERVIEW
We’re beginning our July Series, Recovering the Image. Now, the title, Recovering, implies that something has been lost or damaged, misplaced or forgotten, and to a degree, I think that’s a fairly accurate depiction of the effects of the Fall.
Mankind was created in God’s image. But something happened to that image that requires repair, restoration, recovery. We need to understand what went wrong and what the solution is. But before we can get there, we need to back up and look at just what it is that needs recovered in the first place. So, we begin at the opening chapter of Genesis.
READ (Genesis 1:26-28)
CENTRALITY OF THE DOCTRINE
Few doctrines are as central as what it means to be created in God’s image. Apart from it, we don’t understand who we are or our purpose in life. We talk about it often. But how well do we truly understand what it means. Can you explain it or summarize it to your kids, your neighbor, your co-worker, your friends you do sports or jujitsu with? Now to be honest, this doctrine isn’t any easier to comprehend than that of the Trinity. But the fact that this doctrine challenges our finite minds doesn’t let us off the hook. Because apart from this doctrine, there’s no need to concern ourselves with the gospel. In fact, if you’re not created in God’s image, you have no reason to concern yourself with sin or any moral norms. Because it is only in our being created in the God’s image that sin is so horrific, and that sin can even be called sin.
Our understanding of being image-bearers undergirds absolutely everything about us and how we are to live our lives—from how we spend our waking hours, to how we sleep; from how we live in community, to what we do in isolation; from how we treat others and the environment. And it has everything to do with our relationship with God.
CREATED
In fact, we can start there, with our relationship to our Creator, because what is perhaps most essential to our being created in God’s image is the very first part of that phrase, the beginning of verse 27, So God created man… We are created, meaning we are creatures, and therefore dependent… dependent upon our Creator for our life and being.
We talk about God’s holiness a lot, and how the thing that sets God apart from absolutely everything else is that God is the only uncreated being. God is self-existing. Everything else is created, including us. You and I are first and foremost creatures dependent on God for our existence.
EVOLUTION’S DOWNGRADE
Now, that might strike some of you the wrong way. The world certainly finds such to be repulsive. How much better it is to think we evolved from some cosmic sludge and bacteria over billions of years, than to be even the slightest bit dependent on another! But look around, and you’ll quickly see the fruit of such narcissistic autonomy.
But such a worldview is an infinite downgrade from what we actually are—what we’re created to be! Because not only are we creatures dependent on God, we’ve also been fashioned in God’s very likeness! No other creature can say that—even if they were given the power to speak!
MASTERPIECE
Our sailboat paintings weren’t originals. But they were fairly decent representations of the original. And here’s the thing! They only look as good as they do because of what they were modeled after. And these were done by amateur artists. God is by no means an amateur painter. He paints perfection with every stroke and word. And the subject for His masterpiece… His subject for humankind… is Himself.
Can anyone truly think it’s better to be modeled after sludge and lower life forms than fashioned after God! The only reason for such thinking—which we’ll look at next week—is because we want to be accountable to no one. It’s not enough to be made in God’s image. We want to be God. And we won’t settle for less than that which is utterly impossible.
NOT GODS
God created us in His image. He didn’t create us as God or even as little gods. First, it’s impossible to create God, even for God to create God, for God in His essence is uncreated! This is why idolatry is so absurd! To make a god is for it not to be God.
Nevertheless, what God created was nothing short of a masterpiece, designed to display His glory, unlike anything else. All creation radiates with God’s glorious fingerprints. But only mankind bears the marks of God’s image. So, while mankind is a creature, he’s the most exalted of all creatures. You’re not just made in the image; you are the image of God.
PERSONS
So, we’re creatures, meaning we are created and therefore, dependent on God. But we’re also persons, meaning we have a type of independence, especially as regards the will.
FREEWILL
Now, the term many prefer is “freewill.” I don’t particularly care for the term because it’s rarely defined, and the way most use it often suggests something beyond the freedom Scripture assigns to humanity. However people may seek to define freewill, it does not entail absolute freedom. That’s not just because of the Fall. That’s true in Christ. And it will be true in glory.
Such neglects the fact that we’re also creatures who are, in many ways, dependent. Still, there is an independence in our wills, even if free might not be the best word to describe our wills, especially after the Fall.
ACCOUNTABLE
Because we’re persons, we’re accountable for our actions in ways the rest of creation isn’t. We live in Middle TN, and we face some unbearably hot days. But the sun isn’t accountable for making the days too hot. The sun is simply doing what God designed it to do, all to the glory of God.
DOGS
What about dogs? Many of you have pets. When your dog tears up your slippers, even after clearly teaching him, don’t eat my slippers, you might seek to prevent him from doing it again. You might even try to help the dog equate some form of discipline or consequence with chewing up your slippers. But we all know that the dog isn’t accountable for its actions. He’s doing what dogs do. And he does it to the glory of God.
The dog doesn’t have personhood, no matter how much you may want to treat it as a family member. Some of you might be offended by me saying this, but if you are, then your idea of humanity is warped. And every time, as a society, we seek to exalt animals to the position of humans, we don’t exalt the animal at all. But we do profane the image of God.
OCTOPUS
We recently watched a couple episodes of Secrets of the Octopus. Let me say, octopuses or octopi whatever you call more than one octopus, they are fascinating. They are fascinating to the glory of God. But those producing the documentary gave the impression that the octopus is quite a bit like us, constantly comparing the intelligence of the octopus to that of humans. But here’s the thing. The octopus wasn’t making a documentary on us!
We can be in awe about how the octopus has such a level of intelligence that it uses “tools” such as using an old, abandoned shell for a shield or a means to ambush its prey. But the octopus wasn’t holding a multi-thousand-dollar video camera underwater recording the marine biologist! God created the octopus for His glory. And the octopus lives out its purpose perfectly. But the octopus, as fascinating as it is, doesn’t have personhood. It doesn’t bear the image of God. It bears God’s fingerprints, but not God’s image.
CREATURES AND PERSONS
So, in one sense, we’re creatures, which means we’re not like God in every respect. But in another sense, we’re persons, which means we’re like God in certain respects, which set humanity apart from the rest of the created order. Indeed, being a person lies very much at the heart of what it means to be the image of God.
God is personal. He is a person… or actually three persons in one essence. God possess personhood in perfection and has created us in His likeness to possess and express personhood. So, our personhood seems to be at the core of our being the image of God.
COMMUNITY
In verse 26, God said, “Let us make man in our image.” Let us reveals something about God that has been communicated to us in our personhood. God exists in community: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. When God creates mankind, He fashions us in His likeness to exist how? In community. Verse 27. Male and female… He created them.
GENDER
Gender is not irrelevant to the image of God. God didn’t create us as nonbinary beings. He created us male and female in order for us to reflect an aspect of the Godhead, that God exists in community. God designed us as male and female as a portrait of community. And do you know what the first community is that God created? Marriage! Marriage is the first community in creation. And from marriage comes family—the expansion of community. Marriage is necessary for us to fulfill a major aspect of the creation mandate to be fruitful and multiply.
OVERFLOW OF COMMUNITY
In fact, it’s from within the community of Himself that God creates us to be in community. The text doesn’t say, “let me make man in my image.” It’s not just the Father who made man in His likeness. The entire Trinity, out of the overflow of the Godhead’s community, created mankind in the likeness of that community. And only through the community of marriage do we reproduce what God has created us to be.
MARRIAGE AND GENDER
So, for a culture that has sought to diminish and destroy the concept and import of marriage… for a society that has sought to distort and redefine male and female… marriage and gender are essential to displaying the image of God. Male and female together display the image of God more fully than man does by himself.
NOT GOOD
If we jump into Genesis 2, the first thing in all of creation said not to be good, is that of man being alone. By himself, man fails to image the intimate community of the Godhead. With that said, neither male nor female is any more or less the image of God. Both image God because both male and female have been created in God’s image.
MALE AND FEMALE
So, we’re creatures—not completely like God. We’re also persons, making us very much like God. And our maleness and femaleness are essential, but not in a way that makes one sex more or less the image of God than the other. Which raises the question of physical characteristics. Because obviously, men and women have different physical features. And if we look around the room, at the person beside you, in front of you, and behind you, you’ll notice that while we have many similarities, there are quite a few differences too.
PHYSICAL FEATURES
Although those physical features we’ve been designed with aren’t irrelevant to the image, we need to recognize that the physical is not what makes us the image of God. We can ask it like this: Does God have physical features? No. At least not until the incarnation.
God is Spirit. We learn that from John 4, and the account of the woman at the well. This Samaritan woman seeks to debate with Jesus as to where the correct place to worship God is, as if God is somehow confined to a locality. But what is Jesus’ response. ”God is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth.”
DISPLAY THROUGH PHYSICAL
So, it’s not our physical features that make us the image of God. Still, we do display the image through our physical features, through the members of our body. Or we might say, the physical is not in and of itself the image but is for the manifestation of the image.
The Bible often speaks of God’s arm as in His might; or God’s hand as in His works; or God’s face as in His presence; or as Sherif has taught us, God’s nostrils, which depending on whether they’re long or hot, lets us know something of God’s anger and longsuffering.
So, while God may not have a body, your body is part of your being created in God’s image. You display God through your body. But that also means that the absence of any physical feature doesn’t make you any less the image of God.
FAMILY PHOTOS
One of the things I love to do when visiting anyone’s home is to look at their family photos. We were over at the Comb’s house a few months ago, and like most they had their family photos throughout the living room. And in some of the photos was a handsome young man with a full head of hair. Now, imagine Gayla, having a photo she carries around of Steve from his younger days, staring at that photo throughout the day, talking to that photo, hugging the photo, spending as much time as she can with this photo. But the photo isn’t Steve! It’s an image!
PORTRAIT VERSUS PERSON
There’s no community Gayla is going to enjoy with an old photo. O I’m sure it brings many fond memories to mind. But I guarantee, Gayla would rather spend time with Steve the person. The hair doesn’t make Steve who he is. Steve is no less Steve with or without hair. But that photo is no less the image of Steve. And get this, every picture of Steve in that house, regardless of the amount of hair, is every bit the image of Steve.
INFANT AND EMBRYO
You might find this a silly illustration. But we have a young couple who just had their first child, Mallory Elaine. Now, Mallory didn’t always have that name. There was a time she was awaiting her name. But even before the name was given, she was every bit Mallory Elaine then as she is now.
With today’s technology, you know what we’re able to do? We’re able to take pictures… images of little girls like Mallory before we even know she’s a girl, long before all her physical features have developed. Even then, the ultrasound was no less the image of Mallory. From before the earliest ultrasound… until the last breath of the 90-year-old dementia patient, a person is never more or less the image of God.
VALUE OF HUMAN LIFE
While the world may want to devalue life based on cognitive ability or one’s ability to contribute to society, the Bible places the value of human life as most precious at any stage of life, simply because mankind is the image of God. Which is why the Bible promotes capital punishment for capital crimes. Because it is a capital crime to do violence to the image of God. Even after the Fall, God says, “whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in His own image.”
VIOLENCE TO THE IMAGE
Whether murdering that image in the womb through abortion, or taking a life through euthanasia, to do violence to the image of God is to do violence to God Himself. To mutilate a girl or boy who is confused because of the godless rhetoric filling their young minds is to do violence to the image in which God created them. And those who commit such violence against God will be held accountable.
JUSTICE AND MERCY
O we praise the God of justice. Don’t ever think we don’t want justice but only mercy. That’s nonsense. We need both! God forbid that violence to His image-bearers would go unpunished! But praise be to the God who has meted out that justice at the cross. Because we are all guilty of doing violence to the image of God to one degree or another.
So, while God is spirit, our bodies are not irrelevant to the image of God. Rather, your body’s been designed in such a way that through it, the image of God is displayed outwardly and manifestly to creation.
BODY AND SOUL
But we’re not just bodies. We have souls. We’re not simply physical beings, but also spiritual. The term theologians use is psychosomatic. Psycho, meaning soul, and soma, meaning body. We are embodied souls. Or as Anthony Hoekema puts it, we are a psychosomatic unity. We aren’t divided between a body and soul as if there are two parts to us. We exist—body and soul—as a whole being.
Regarding this body/soul aspect, Calvin says, and I think he’s right, “The seat of the image of God is found in the soul. The inner person—that of the soul—shines forth in the outer person—that of the body.” In fact, due to the Fall, we will all , one day, unless the Lord returns first, shed these bodies for a time. But we’ll be no less who we are.
IMMORTAL SOUL
God created our souls to be immortal. Not self-existing as God Himself is, but immortal in the sense that the soul will continue on into eternity. Our persons will reap eternally the fruit of the works done in the body, whether for good or for ill.
I believe it’s safe to say that our personhood, we discussed earlier, is found in the soul, which is why, regardless of what happens to the body, or any of your physical abilities, you are no less you.
PERSONALITY
I have a dear friend, Eddie, who’s had his leg amputated. And although getting around may be more difficult for Eddie than in the past, he is still fully Eddie. Because his leg isn’t what makes him who he is. Eddie is a person who has a personality, and a beautiful personality at that. I think of the things that I tend to grumble and get frustrated over. And here, I have this friend who has it far more difficult than me. And yet, Eddie’s one of the most grateful and hopeful people I know.
NONPHYSICAL
Because God is spirit, and doesn’t have a body, many have equated or linked the image of God solely to the nonphysical attributes such as our rationality, creativity, self-awareness, ability to communicate and have intimate relationship with other image-bearers rooted in knowledge of personhood. And while I find all that helpful, let’s take one of those attributes, such as rationality, and test it.
RATIONALITY?
Is the image of God that of rationality? We can indeed rationalize like no other creature. That’s true. God is no doubt a rational being. The Son of God, the Logos, as in the Word became flesh, implies logic. But is rationality the all-important quality of our Creator?
God is many things beyond wise and rational. As such, our imaging of God goes beyond man’s intellect and rational capabilities. In fact, we could argue that with sin entering the world, man is quite irrational. And yet the Bible, even after the Fall, holds mankind to be the image of God, even if that image is severely marred. (Next week.)
PURPOSE
Which really means, if we are to understand what it is to be the image of God, we need to look at, not so much what exactly the image is, as much as what’s the purpose of the image. Because the answer to” what is the image of God” is quite simple. You are! What we need to know is why this matters. What’s the purpose of making us in God’s image? The answer is found in both our being and our function.
ONTOLOGICAL
As God’s image, we are, ontologically, a representation of who God is and what God is like. More than anything else, that’s at the core of what it means to be made in God’s image. The reason for the second commandment, not to make any carved image to represent God is because God has already carved His representation. You!!!
God created a mirror in which to reflect His image upon the earth.
MAKE GOD VISIBLE
In man, God becomes visible on earth. To quote Hoekema again, “To be sure, other creatures, and even the heavens declare the glory of God, but only in man does God become visible. … No higher honor could have been given to man than the privilege of being an image of the God who mad him.” (p. 67.)
To see what God is like, all creation should have needed to do was to look at you! Now that’s a high calling! And that’s the calling we shunned.
REPRESENTATION
But that’s what you are—a representation of God. And what you are goes hand-in-hand with your purpose, your function. Because you are God’s image, you are to image God. Because you are a representation of God, you are to represent God… and represent Him well.
To do anything less is to fail to live up to your purpose in life. Why do people often find life meaningless, running here and there looking for purpose? It’s because they reject the purpose for which they were made. We were made to image and represent God.
CREATION MANDATE
We see this in the creation mandate. Verse 28
When God created, He brough order out of that which had no order. And so God designs mankind to subdue creation, bringing order where there is no order.
As Creator, God has dominion over all things. So, as God’s representatives, He has given us dominion over the works of His hands. And that dominion extends to the heavens where the birds fly, to the depths of the sea where the fish swarm, to the ends of the earth and every living creature that roams upon it.
And just as God reproduced, creating in His likeness out of an overflow of His being, God calls us to reproduce image-bearers so that His image might fill the earth as the waters cover the sea.
HIGHEST CALLING
The creation mandate has everything to do with us being image-bearers. To whom much is given, much is required. Don’t neglect this most exalted of callings. Whether you head a nation or a household, whether you save lives as a paramedic or nurture lives as a newborn’s mother, whether you clean gutters or toilets, whether you change another’s diapers or find yourself at an age in life beginning or end, where someone has to assist you in changing, don’t be ashamed. The call for each is the same… that of imaging God, including His humility!
FASHIONED AFTER CHRIST
You see, when God fashioned Adam out of the dust of the ground in Genesis 2, we read later that Adam wasn’t simply patterned after some abstract idea of God, but that he was patterned after Jesus Christ himself. How could that be?
Well, Romans 5:14 tells us that Adam was a type, a copy, a pattern of the One who was to come. Even before Jesus was born as a babe in Bethlehem, God patterned all of mankind after the person of Jesus, the God-man himself, who is the exact imprint of God.
RECOVERING
You were fashioned after the likeness of Christ! O I hope you get that! Everything Jesus is in his humanity is what you and I were created to be! Everything! And O how far we had strayed from that image. But the story’s not over. The image is being recovered. So hang with us until the end. Because the goal is for Christ to be formed in you and me. And by God’s grace, we’re going to get there. Let us pray.
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255 Franklin Rd, Lebanon, TN 37087
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