Imago Dei Series: Finally Home - The Image Perfected

So we're in the last of our series that we titled Imago Day, The Image of God.

We started it back in February.

And on that Sunday evening in February, I offered five scenarios of five different portraits of people.

One was a young professional, spent her whole day at work, had finally gotten in the car, was driving home, pulled into the driveway.

And as she sat there in the driveway before she got out of the car, she asked herself the question: why is my life just feel so directionless?

Introduced a teenager taking his phone and scrolling through social media and asking himself as he was doing that, what is my life meant to be?

And then a man in his midlife, looking back on the past 20 years of a career, and asking himself, is this all there is?

And then we looked at a scenario of a widow who was sitting around an empty table, looking out the window, and in the middle of her loss and loneliness, wondering, Does my life matter anymore?

And all the way down to a child who asked a very simple yet a very profound question, why did God make me?

We began to look at those scenarios because they're human questions and they are uh our questions often.

They're questions I know I've asked myself in various times of life.

And we began to answer those questions by going to a very what is now familiar passage of scripture to us in Genesis chapter 1, where it says this, where God said in 126, let us make mankind in our image.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

We've been inside that verse and inside the truth of that statement, that we, humanity, have been made in the image of God since February.

We've traced it all the way from the time when God announced it to his creation of Adam and Eve, to the rebellion of human uh sin, to the fracturing that that brings into all of our life, to the reclamation in the representation of Christ, but also in the redemption that comes in Christ, and then all the implications that that has for us as the gathered body of Christ to display his image in this world, to various areas about the dignity of human life, to our very bodies, and all sorts of different areas.

And this evening we're going to take that question and bring it to its final end, to its destination, not the journey so much as what the final place is, the arrival of that question: who am I?

Why are we here?

Where am I going?

And we're going to be looking at a place that is already arrived in the mind of God who made us, already arrived in the work that Christ has accomplished.

And waiting for that day when the morning comes, and all of it will be the point of arrival, entrance into the fullness of why God designed us.

And we're going to be looking at that in various ways this evening.

In February, when we started that first series, I said there were three things.

We were made by God, we were marked by God, and we are to manifest his glory.

And so we talked about God's design in making us.

We talked about our purpose in uh in why we're marked by God, and then the destination that we have, in which we are to be fully manifesting his glory.

And so tonight I want us to show each of these three things and where they're answered in the destination that we come to, where God has made us, our body, and where that ends up, how God has marked us, and how that ends up in a face-to-face knowledge with God, and how we manifest his glory by living our life to the full expression of his glory in everything that we do.

So that's what we're going to be looking at: the image glorified, the image home, and the image finally seeing God face to face, that image in which we were made.

So the first thing we're going to be looking at is 1 Corinthians 15, that the image will be glorified.

And the Apostle Paul brings us into a discussion about this in this passage.

Like I said, in February, we said that we're made by God.

We're not accidents, we're not biological accidents, we're not made by the random collision of atoms across vast stretches of time, but we're made by divine deliberation, Father, Son, and Spirit, determining to make us and not just bring us into life, but to give us his image.

That's where this series began.

And the question that we perhaps have been wrestling with is if I've been made by God to be in the image of God, what does God intend to do with what he's made?

My body.

We realize we live in this mortal frame.

This world is still groaning under the weight of loss and decay.

And we've been holding on to that with our body for some time.

A couple of weeks ago, we recognized that our bodies are made by God's craftsmanship.

And last week we looked at the idea that we needed to hold our body in hope of a future resurrection.

But a question underneath all of those that Paul answers here in 1 Corinthians 15 is what is God's intended end for us?

Our very bodies, this that He's made, what's going to happen?

Well, in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul, in a very condensed, concentrated way, gives us an answer to that question.

And I'd like for us to read verses 42 to 44, because in this very breathtaking way, he tells us that the what the body is now and what the body will be like on that coming day.

Listen to verse 42.

So it is with the resurrection of the dead, sown in corruption, raised in incorruption, sown in dishonor, raised in glory, sown in weakness, raised in power, sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body.

In just three verses, Paul gives us four drastic contrasts between who we are right now and what we will be on that day of completion.

Listen to that.

Corruption, incorruption, dishonor, glory, weakness, power, natural, spiritual.

And he's not describing two separate categories of things.

He's taking this body that we're in now and saying that this very body is not going to be replaced with something completely different, but the very material of us is going to be transformed.

That this body, which is corrupt, dishonorable, weak, and natural is going to be changed into that which is incorruptible, glorious, powerful, and spiritual.

This very body of ours.

And take a look at verse 49.

He talks about Adam and the second Adam.

And here he says, just as we born the image of the man of dust, so we also will bear the image of the man of heaven.

And there it is.

We bear the image of Adam, the earthly man, the man of dust.

When God made us, he pulled up some dirt and blew the breath of life in it, and we became living beings.

We bear that image, made in the image of God.

But after the fall, that image fractured.

And Genesis chapter 5 says something extremely important to us about the transformation of the fall.

Genesis 5 · chapter mention

Listen to what it says.

This is the document containing the family records of Adam.

On the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God.

Grab a hold of that.

He made him in the likeness of God.

He created them male and female.

And when they were created, he blessed them and called them mankind.

So there it is.

Humanity made in the image of God, blessed by God, called out, male and female together, equal partners in this glorious image-bearing.

Now let's get to the man Adam.

Adam was 130 years old when he fathered his son in his likeness, according to his own image, and he named him Seth.

What Genesis 5 doesn't mention is Genesis chapter 3, that in between the time of God creating Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and now they bear children.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

And instead of passing on the likeness of God in its fullness as it was designed, they are now passing on to their progeny their fallen condition.

And so it says this.

Adam lived 800 years after he fathered Seth, and he fathered other sons and daughters.

And so Adam's life lasted 930 years and he died.

And when you read the genealogy of Genesis chapter 5, you have that same pattern.

Genesis 5 · chapter mention

And every time it ends with this, and he died.

And he died.

And he died.

And every human from that point forward has lived under the light of this fallen humanity.

Every one of us in this room, every one of us who have drawn breath today, are bearing the image of this man of dust.

And we bear the consequences of our fallness.

We live a life of woe, of decay, and death.

But listen to what Paul says here when he talks about those who are in Christ.

Yes, we have borne the image of the man of dust, but we shall bear the image of the man from heaven.

And he's there speaking about the second Adam, the one who is the true image, not created according to the image, but who is the image of the very God Himself, because he is God, the one in whom the image is never fractured, the one in whose resurrection body Thomas held and touched, the one who stood there on the banks of the waters and cooked food and ate together with his disciples.

Paul says we will bear that image as well.

Not a spiritual image in some metaphysical way that's just metaphorically describing some spiritual disembodied state, but we embodied people as we are will be resurrected to a newness of life that is radically different than what we experience now.

So much so that we could contrast it with weakness and power, mortality and immortality.

We can take all of those things and say that is where the destination is for us.

The body that was sown in weakness, sown in dishonor, who lives in the slow accumulation of everything that mortality has brought upon our human frame, will be the body raised in power, will be the body raised in glory, will be the body raised in incorruption, where death cannot touch it, and time will etch no mark on it.

Made by God.

Not a soul floating free of matter in some vague, pleasant spiritual state, but real people in glorified bodies, resurrected image bearers, fully and finally able to live the way we were designed to live in Genesis chapter one.

That's our design.

Think about that lady staring at the steering wheel, wondering why her life was so directionless.

She was asking an image question.

She was asking the very substantive question of who she was, what she was here for, and where was life going.

And without Christ, she had no answer, just gnawing questions.

But the scriptures tell us that those who are in Christ can understand that they're designed by God and that their destiny, even for their physical body, is one of hope and life.

This is the beginning of a story, the greatest chapters of which have not yet been written.

We have no idea just how magnificent that is going to be.

But here we're told that image will be glorified, made by God, remade by God, raised by God, and completed by God.

Let's look at the second point, not only about our body, but let's go to Revelation chapter 21, where we had talked about that first point, made by God, marked by God.

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

And here in Revelation chapter 21, we get an understanding of this dignity with which God has made us.

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

When I introduced that phrase, marked by God in February, what I was saying is the fact that we're made in the image of God invests us with a dignity that nothing that we do can acquire.

That the dignity that we have as humanity is not vested upon us because of where we were born or what color skin we have or how educated we are or how large our bank account is, whether we're capable people relationally or any of those matters, that we are invested with a dignity from God because he has stamped his image on us.

It's not ability or productivity, things that we can achieve or fail to achieve that will change that whatsoever.

We have been marked by God and have an inherent dignity about who we are that cannot be earned and cannot be lost.

But where is it going?

What does it look like in its fullness?

So here I want us to see in Revelation chapter 21 what the answer to that is, because Revelation 21 answers that very question.

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

And in Revelation chapter 21, John sees a new heaven and a new earth.

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

The first heaven and the first earth have been transformed and passed away.

And listen in verses 3 and 4 how he describes this.

I heard with a loud voice from the throne, Look, God's dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them.

They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.

Death will be no more.

Grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.

One of the most significant things about that is something that we need to let settle into our hearts deeper.

It says this the dwelling place of God is with humanity.

We possess an inherent dignity because we've been made in the image of God, but there's nothing so much so close to what the dignity would be to be actually received into the very presence of the Creator Himself.

I mean, just think about that in an earthly perspective.

I lived most of my life under the rule of Queen Elizabeth II.

And how wondrous that would have been.

And for those of you that don't know, I'm a dual citizen.

I'm a U.S.

and a UK citizen.

So I salute the president and I said to the Queen that she's she's also something worthy of my honor.

But to think about being in her presence, to be received into the very place where she would move, into the very throne room in which she held her court, where she would invite prime ministers in and ask them to form a government on her behalf, and to be brought into her presence.

And you would think there's no better place of dignity or honor than to be received in that kind of environment as a citizen of or as a person within the populace of the United Kingdom.

And here we are, created humans, made by God, and the highest place of dignity would be to be in his very presence, received into him where we might say, God is with us.

And this is what John is writing about here.

The God who walked with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening had been separated from his people after the fall, from that point forward.

He had manifest his presence in the temple and the tabernacle, and yet there was a dividing wall there only by sacrifice, and with the high priest only once a year, after himself giving up offerings for himself and for the people, and only for a short amount of time.

The veil now separate, us and God.

And yet, here is this time when God says, I am going to be with my people.

The distance that sin has created, the separation that's been there, is over.

We're brought into the presence of God, and we live forever with him.

And take a look at verse five as it goes forward.

It's one of the most quietly astounding sentences in Scripture.

The one seated on the throne said, Look, I am making everything new.

He's taking all those things that we call us and transforming them, remaking them, renewing them, glorifying them, not discarding them and replacing them, but taking them up and transforming them.

The God who said, Let us make mankind in the beginning is the God who says he is making all things new.

The maker becomes the remaker.

The creator becomes the grand restorer.

And he tells John these words.

Write it down.

Because these words are trustworthy and true.

This is not just a wistful hope or a dream of some special place and a special time in which we will all live in perfection, but a reality that God says is going to happen based upon his character.

And then in verse 6, he says this he said to me, It is done.

God speaks about it as the completed effort.

And everything that the fall has brought into our life.

By way of loss, tears, and separation and death being over, he said, Those things are done.

I am making everything new.

This is trustworthy and true, and it's completed, because the one who speaks is the Alpha and the Omega, the one who holds every moment of history in his hand, the one where the end is as certain as the beginning, because all things are held by him.

And this is where we find ourselves in that place of ultimate dignity.

Every person marked by God, no matter what place of weakness they might be in, are going to be brought into the very presence of God and received blameless and without fault in his presence and full of joy.

So whether we're capable or not capable in this world, whether our bodies are marked by sin or disabled in any fashion, whether our mental capacities can rise or cannot rise to our potential, whether we're able to succeed or not succeed in this life, whether or not society shines or sets its shadow upon us, in that day none of that will matter.

Because the ultimate dignity of dignities will be laid upon his people when he says, I am with you, and you are with me.

That is the ultimate of what it means to be marked by God.

And that day is as certain as the God who said it to be true, because he's the Alpha and Omega.

And that leads us to our last point: made by God, marked by God to manifest his glory.

God's determination and his design, God's dignity that he rests upon us, and God's determination for our ultimate destiny.

And I'd like for us just to turn one more page over in the book of Revelation to chapter 22.

And here in verses 1 to 5, we see the fullness of it all.

He showed me the river, the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the city's main street.

The tree of life was on each side of the river, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month.

The leaves of the n trees are for the healing of the nations, and there will be no longer any curse.

The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him, and they will see his face, and his name will be upon their forehead.

Night will be no more.

People will not need the light of the lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will give them light, and they will reign forever and ever.

We were made by God not simply to exist and not simply to bear an inherent dignity, but to have a destiny in which we reflect his character in everything that we do.

And for all of us, those aspirations to live to the fullness of our designed purpose have gnawed at us when we realize that our potential and our actual are very separate, that the things that we reach for and long for and want to do with life end up being a lot more like the book of Ecclesiastes than they are this passage of Scripture, where we realize that our aspirations falter and fail, that the race that we would run in this life doesn't end up the way that we hoped that it would.

And disappointment can often be our closest companion.

But here we find an existence in which there's no mitigation whatsoever of the bounty that's there and of the blessings that can be had, and that God's people are living in the fullness of life as it was meant to be.

And this is why the Eden imagery is put here again, where where we were created now becomes the place in which we thrive once again, where there is that place that's lush and full and healthy and beneficial, where God's presence is and where people flourish in all of their fullness, so much so that it says about us that we will reign as if we were holding dominion over everything ourselves.

That high school student who was scrolling through social media on his phone and saying, Where is my life headed?

was asking an image question.

A question that's fundamental to who we are as humans, seeking purpose while flipping through people's manufactured realities on Instagram.

Bad place to look.

But here is the truth of God's word that speaks about the ultimate destination for us.

Where is your life really headed as a believer in Christ?

What is the fullness of this existence that I have?

It is to be in the very presence of God with all the fullness of God's blessing in an environment that is without any taint of sin whatsoever, where all of your expressions are pure to the full glory of God, and that you could literally do anything you want, and it would be in a place of maximum pleasure to God and ultimate display of your gifts and your human purpose.

That's what it's talking about.

Why did God make us to see his face and to live fully before him face to face without any loss or any fear, but to be in that place of that permanent destination, to see the one in whose image we were made.

Revelation 22 is the last chapter of the Bible.

And it shows us some of this imagery of the new Jerusalem and the fullness of the city that's designed as a garden in all of its completion and surpasses even Eden in its original state.

A river with the water of life and trees bearing fruit, and the throne of God and the Lamb at the center of it.

And that final statement to culminate, we will see his face.

Moses wanted to see God's face, and God said no.

He put Moses in the cleft of a rock and let him see his back as he passed.

And that was as close as any human got.

But here is this time in which Revelation says the rock is gone, the cleft is gone, the veil is gone, and the face is seen.

We will see him in a real relationship with real worship, with real knowledge, and real love, in which we will dwell fully in his presence.

Revelation 22 arrives.

In Revelation 21 and verse 26, it says, The nations will bring their glory into the city.

Everything that redeemed image bearers across all of history could make or build or cultivate or offer in obedience or creativity are now brought into the presence of God and received fully.

It's mind-blowing to think that way.

And I think getting a hold of that is what prompted C.S.

Lewis when he wrote The Chronicles of Narnia to end those books with this story.

When he talked about Aslan's country being finally entered and the old Narnia passing away.

And he said that the things that were about to happen he couldn't write about because they were too great and too beautiful to put into words.

And I think this is why the book of Revelation stops where it does.

Because, like the book of Acts, you're longing for another chapter.

You read Revelation chapter 22, and you're longing to understand, well, what's after all of this?

Revelation 22 · chapter mention

And this is how C.S.

Lewis, with his ability, wrote the things that began to happen after were so great and beautiful that I cannot write about them.

And as for us, this is the end of all the stories.

And we can truly say that they lived happily ever after.

But for them, this was really only the beginning of the real story.

All of their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page.

Now at last they were beginning chapter one of the great story, which no one on earth has yet read, which goes on forever, and in which every chapter is better than the one before.

That's Revelation chapter 23 and 24 and 25.

We were made in the image of God, designed by God, given a dignity because he invested his image on each of us and didn't ask us to measure up in order to gain that dignity, conferred upon us because we were made by him.

But we were also designed for a destiny that is more glorious than our imagination can ever begin to wrap around.

This is why the apostle Paul said, Eye is not seen, nor is ear heard, nor is it entered into the hearts of men, the things God has prepared for those who love Him.

These pictures in Revelation chapter 21 and 22 are simply taking imagery that we're familiar with to bring us to places we cannot yet imagine.

Revelation 21 · chapter mention

And this is where God is bringing all who are in Christ.

If you know Him, you this is your destiny, this is your dignity, and this is your design.

Those fundamental questions that get asked in the hollowness and the emptiness of our heart and our days have been answered by the living God.

And he has the most glorious answer to every one of them.

Hear him and live in hope and live in joy and live in gratitude because the fullness of it all has yet to be expressed.

It's coming.

And if you're here this evening and you don't know Christ, and those questions gnaw at you still, who am I?

Why am I here?

Where am I going?

This world will not answer those questions for you.

You'll drive by people's houses that look 10 times larger than the one you grew up in.

You'll see people with more degrees on their walls than you might ever acquire.

You might find in magazines peoples whose images look far more beautiful or handsome than you think you could ever make yourself.

And I want to tell you, underneath all of those degrees and all that house and all of all of those looks is someone asking the exact same questions you are.

Why am I here?

Why am I existing?

Because that question can only be answered by the living God who made you for himself.

Let's pray.

Our Heavenly Father, thank you for this time that we've shared together as your body to learn more about your designs and purposes in our creation.

And we pray, Father, as we go together through our life, longing and hoping for that coming day, may we encourage one another in this hope.

May we strengthen one another in faith, and may we be alongside one another when the woes of this world that we still live in, fractured by the fall, continue to weigh heavily on our hearts, to bear gently and kindly with one another, to pray with those and to weep with those who are in distress, and to rejoice with those who find the blessings of God in the land of the living.

But in always, may we cast ourselves toward you as we find ourselves marching on forward to Zion.

And we pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.

Amen.