Imago Dei Series: The Church, The Body of Image Bearers

Well, good evening.

I want to encourage you to take your Bible and go with me to the book of Ephesians in chapter 2.

Ephesians 2.

And for those of you that are here for the first time this evening, welcome to you.

Glad to have you here.

We are in the middle of a series that we've titled Imago Day, which means the image of God.

And it goes all the way back to the book of Genesis, in which God speaks about humanity and says that He created male and female in the image of God.

In God's likeness, he created them.

So we've been unpacking that for the past several weeks, and we're now coming to a new new place this evening, which we'll be looking at.

Tonight I want us to look at something that often sits quietly under the surface as we think about the Christian life.

Over the last several weeks, we've been looking at the image of God, and we've traced the story from the very beginning of the Bible, from the beauty of God's creation and the making of male and female in his image, to the fracture of that image in the fall, to the glorious realization that Christ is that perfect image, and how God in his grace is restoring that image by saving us, and then imprinting more of Christ upon us in sanctification.

And as we've walked through that, I'm sure you've all felt the weight of that, the glory of the beginning, the dignity of what God intended, the sorrow of what we've lost, the hope that can be found in Christ and salvation, the wonder of Christ who is the image of God, bearing that in human flesh, and also the yearning of it within our sanctification as we grow up into Christ Himself.

And so there's a question that we haven't answered yet, and it's a question that's pertinent to this, and it is where does that image grow?

What is the environment in which the image of Christ is developed within us?

So, where does that restored image live?

What does Christ's likeness look like when it takes shape in human form?

And how does that new man grow into maturity?

So we're going to look at the scriptures and answer that.

And the biblical answer, in short, is not in isolation.

The Bible doesn't bring us to a private spiritual life.

It doesn't bring us into individual effort.

It in short speaks to us that the answer to those questions is the church.

We've established that Christ is the image of God, and we often speak about the church as the body of Christ, but we don't often put the two together, that the image of Christ is going to be imprinted on the rest of his body, which is his people.

And so the church is, as we'll see, is the corporate expression of that restored image.

And that is why the New Testament refuses, absolutely refuses, to talk about the Christian life as an individual spiritual journey.

It never does that.

The restored image is not just an individual reality, it is a corporate community reality.

It is a church reality.

And if I can risk sounding hyperbolic, I would say this.

You cannot become like Christ without the body of Christ.

You cannot reflect the image of God alone.

You cannot grow into maturity apart from other people of God.

Now I know that wrinkles our independent American spirit, but it needs to.

Because I'm not talking about a limitation that God has given us, but a gift of one another.

Because the church is not a club, it's not simply a week of weekly event, and it's not a collection of like-minded people.

It's something unlike any other gathering.

It is the new humanity that God has brought about through Christ.

The regenerate people of God that are created after the likeness of Christ, who are indwelt by the Spirit, who are reconciled to one another, and are destined to bear the image of the heavenly man in glory.

We are a different people.

And so we're going to see this evening that the church is the place where the fractured image finds its healing, that the church is the place where the new man grows.

That the church is the place where Christ's likeness becomes visible.

That the church is the place where the Spirit forms us together into the likeness of Christ.

And so that's why this message is part of our Imago Day series.

And I think a vital part of it.

Because our growth in Christ's likeness depends on what we're going to see this evening.

So here's where we're going.

And we're going to look at five movements within this.

And I've likened them to a bit of picking up a little pollen from five different flowers.

Each of them are necessary to go.

They might feel a little like one another, but in the collective whole, we'll be able to discover the sweetness of the five together.

So we're going to see the new humanity that Christ has created.

We're going to see the interdependence of the body.

We're going to see the unity and diversity of the new creation community.

We're going to see the corporate maturity that God intends for us.

And also relational Christ-likeness as we live out our lives together as the body of Christ.

Like I said, each of those taken alone might feel small, but collectively they give us an immense understanding of what God is intending right among his people.

Not only here, but in every place where people are gathered in the name of Jesus Christ.

So let's begin with this.

Let's begin with the new humanity.

And look at Ephesians chapter 2 as we see regenerate people created in the image of God.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

And if you look with me at this passage, beginning in verse 14 all the way through verse 22, you'll see Paul as he begins to describe the people of God that are being formed through the work of Christ.

And he doesn't talk about a loose collection of individuals who happen to share a common faith.

He speaks something far deeper.

He reaches back into creation language and he reaches forward into glory language.

And he speaks of a new humanity born of the Spirit, reconciled through the cross and created in the likeness of God.

Let's take a look at verse 14 and 15.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who are far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For he is our peace, who has made both groups one, tore down the dividing wall of hostility.

In his flesh, he has made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace.

He did that so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death.

What is this language?

It's the language of new creation, is what it is.

That the cross is not God simply forgiving individuals, but his intent is to form a new people.

And this is why Paul moves so very naturally from this reconciliation language to construction language, if I could put it that way.

Take a look at how he describes this.

He said, We're no longer foreigners and strangers in verse 19, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household and built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone.

In him the whole building being put together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

And in him you're also being built together for God's dwelling in the Spirit.

So he goes from us being dead in trespasses and sins and being saved by grace to this understanding of people who are separated with animosity and hatred and hostility for one another, brought into a brand new creation, a new man, if you will, a new created humanity, and that we are built together and indwelt together by God for his glory.

And all of that imagery pulls things together.

We're not just forgiven, we're joined.

We're not just joined, we're built.

We're not just built, we're indwelt, so that the presence of God Himself would be seen among the people.

In verse 24, where this is deepened a little bit.

In verse 24, he says, put on the new self, the one created to God's likeness, according to God's likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.

Now, this creation, I dare say, is not merely individual because he's addressing it to the church.

But if you want to see the corporate focus of it, take a look at the next verse.

Therefore, putting away lying, speak the truth with each other to his neighbor, because we're members one of another.

The image is now restored in a people who are brought together: one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one spirit, as he introduces this chapter.

And we have one hope.

And so we have to begin here with this that when God is building the likeness of Christ, He's building this among his people in this new humanity, in which he's brought us into one body, he's given us one spirit, he's given us one hope, and we are meant to be the one place where God dwells for his glory.

And so that tells us a lot about church.

A lot of us, yes, we got up and we went to a building, and there are other buildings that we could go to, and we think about gathering as people, much like we might think about gathering in other of the assemblies that we have in this world.

All sorts of things that we do together in different places.

Some shared interests, some shared uh endeavors, some shared occupations, some shared sports.

We gather in all kinds of different ways, but there's something extremely unique about gathering together as people, because we are people who have been made alive by God and joined together by Christ for his dwelling place.

And so there's something as we'll see in a few moments that we reflect together, that we can't even reflect on our own.

And so in our day, we feel the pool of isolation, don't we?

We feel the weight of private struggles, we feel the pressure of personal expectations, we feel the quiet assumption that our spiritual growth is something that we must manage on our own in our personal devotions.

We even use private language to do that.

But the scripture here tells us something a little different, and as we'll see, importantly, that the new humanity actually grows together, that the restored image takes shape within community, and that the likeness of Christ becomes visible as the people of God walk together, as we bear one another's burdens, as we forgive one another, as we speak the truth in love with each other.

That is, I would dare say, even more important than our private, personal devotions.

The church is a new humanity, the regenerate people created after the likeness of God.

That's the first flower that we're going to land on.

We've got four more flowers that we're about to about to come into.

The second one is that the image of God is expressed through our interdependence.

Our interdependence.

And I'd like for us to go to 1 Corinthians 12 for this.

1 Corinthians 12.

Now, Paul here is moving on from what he did in Ephesians, where he showed us that Christ has made one new man.

But now in this chapter, in 1 Corinthians 12, he shows us how that new humanity functions, how it's lived out.

And he doesn't picture a crowd of isolated believers who are simply walking down parallel paths.

And that's often how we think about this.

I'm a believer, I'm walking with God, you're a believer, you're walking with God.

Paul doesn't talk about simply a line of people on their own individual journeys.

He uses a different image here.

In 1 Corinthians 12, he talks about a body.

Let's look at verse 12.

1 Corinthians 12.

He says here, for as just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many are one body, so also is Christ.

For we were all baptized by one spirit into one body, whether Jews or Gentiles, whether slaves or free, and we were all given to drink of one spirit.

Indeed, the body is not one part, but many, and on it goes.

What is Paul saying here?

He's picturing a living organism, he's picturing a body that is interconnected, in which every member belongs to the other, and every member contributes to the other, and every member depends on the other.

And he uses this very simple but profound observation at the end of verse 12.

Though we are many, we are one body.

And that little phrase carries the whole weight of this chapter.

The church is one because Christ is one.

And the church is many because the Spirit distributes giftedness variously among the body, just like we have our constituent parts of our body.

The unity and the diversity within the church is not attention, it's God's design.

We're made different, not uniform, so that we might live in harmony with each other.

The restored image is not monochromatic, it's actually multifaceted, and it's beautiful.

And Paul presses this further by naming some of the temptations that rise up within us.

Verse 21, he said, The eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you, or again the head cannot say to the feet, I don't need you.

There is within us a temptation to think, well, I'm not really necessary, am I?

Or we might think, I'm really necessary.

Or we might think that, well, their gifts really don't matter.

My gifts matter a whole lot.

And Paul just dismantles all of that with with some pastoral care and integrity.

It says because I'm not the hand, I do not belong.

The I can't say that to the hand.

Everybody needs every part, or every part of the body needs every other part of the body.

And the restored image requires everyone, all of us.

The new humanity is diminished when we focus just on parts of it rather than appreciating the whole of it.

And that means something for us.

It means, first of all, that the Spirit is not working within us simply for our personal good.

He's working within us for our collective good.

That our spiritual growth as a person matters to our spiritual growth as a people, that our presence matters.

Because, well, it's not because we're impressive, but we're indispensable, and there's a big difference between the two.

It means the places where we might feel weak in ourselves, God has already worked in someone else to be the strength in our weaknesses, and God is already working in us to be the strength in their weaknesses.

That's how we depend on each other.

And it also means that the part of the body that seems less visible are actually just as vital as the others.

A lot of attention can be put in a bulletin or behind a pulpit or behind a lectern somewhere, or on over here singing.

A lot of attention can be drawn there.

But what about the stopping and coming alongside someone to say, I may be reading this wrong, but I think you might be discouraged today.

And I'd just like to pray for you.

I'd like to share a promise from God's word with you that might be of encouragement.

See someone who's feeling a bit anxious, and you you inquire as to why, and you find out that things in life have just gone sideways, and you think, you know what?

God's given me extra money in my bank account today.

I'm going to help this person pay that bill.

Those things that are unseen, those things that are just not noticed, they're vital.

They're vital.

I was talking to someone this afternoon after the church service, and she's gone through a really difficult time.

And she's dealt with some family issues that have just been really hard and enduring.

And she said, as we were talking, she said, I just don't know where I would be if I hadn't felt the prayers of God's people here.

How vital was that?

And nobody sort of went up on the platform and said, Let's trumpet about that we're praying for this person.

Those were quiet prayers that nobody saw but her and God, and they mattered a lot.

So when we read these passages, we're not talking about sentimental language, we're talking about the lived reality of the new humanity.

That the Spirit binds us together in a way that's unlike any other place on earth, where the joys and sorrows of one another are shared as the joys and sorrows of all of us.

It's embodied in the way we carry one another's burdens, the way we share one another's victories, and the way we walk through long seasons of challenge and difficulty and grief and hardship.

We feel the pressure to be independent.

And it really came home to me one day when I saw a picture of about 14 boys from Africa.

It was a beautiful picture, it was a top-down shot, and the picture had nothing but the boys from their knees down to their feet.

That's all it was.

And all 14 of the boys were laying down on the ground with their feet pointing to one another, and there was a little patch of dirt in the center that was the circle, but the circle was formed by 14 pairs of feet, sort of wrapped around each other.

And I thought, yeah, get 14 teenage boys from Garden City to do that together.

It's never gonna happen.

Why were just too individualistic?

But those boys there found a lot of unity in one another and being together and shaped by that community.

Spirit.

The American culture, the Western culture, is something that the scriptures speak about, not simply embrace.

So it's before we move into the unity and diversity, we need to recognize that the church is the new humanity and that the church is interdependent on one another.

So now let's go to Galatians 3.

And we want to see a third flower here.

The image reflected in a reconciled people.

And we see this in Galatians chapter 3.

Galatians 3 · chapter mention

A lot of places, but we'll just go to this one.

In Galatians 3, verse 26, Paul makes a statement about us.

Galatians 3:26

He said, Through faith you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus.

And then in the next verse, he says, For those of you who are baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.

Now that language is very, very deeply personal.

But I also want you to see how communal it is.

Because he's not just describing what happens to individuals, he describes what happens to a people whose unity is rooted in Christ and whose diversity is held together by the Spirit.

So just for a moment, let's step into the world of the early church by taking a look at the next couple verses.

There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female, since you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Paul is speaking here about something that we may not fully appreciate.

The Jews and the Gentiles of that day didn't simply misunderstand each other.

They distrusted each other.

They had generations of suspicion, generations of resentment, generations of cultural pride.

The Jews saw the Gentiles as unclean, idolatrous people, and the Gentiles saw the Jewish people as strange and exclusive.

And both groups believed that they were the superior.

Both believed that they were truly the center of concern in the world.

And both believed that each other was beyond reach.

They were that exclusionary.

But here's what Paul says about this.

If you belong to Christ, there is no Jew or Greek, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

That is an astonishing statement to them.

It's not just a call for tolerance, it's not an appeal for civility.

It's an announcement that the cross has created a new humanity.

And that all those old hostilities no longer define you as a person.

That you are now brought into a whole new realm, a realm of reconciliation with people that you once thought were the worst people on earth.

Ephesians makes that clear.

Just to go back to those verses we looked at at the beginning, I'll just quote them.

Christ has created one new man in the place of two, and that he's reconciled both in one body through the cross.

Christ is not just making us at peace with God, he's making it us at peace with one another through Christ.

Those who were once former enemies are now brothers and sisters in the same family.

The restored image is not just personal transformation, it's relational transformation.

It's the healing of divisions that once seemed unmovable by us.

This is something the world longs for and thinks that they can achieve, but they never can, and they never do.

But here it's possible.

As I was telling Big Al one day, at the foot of the cross, the ground is level.

Every one of us are on the same place at the foot of the cross.

Every one of us.

But this means something about our identity as God's people.

That means our identity is not held by shared preferences, it's not held together by similar backgrounds, it's not held together by cultural familiarity, even.

It's held together by Christ.

The only way this can be explained is because Jesus is the Lord of all of the people gathered in his name.

Otherwise, it would fall apart.

It means the unity that we enjoy, however, is not fragile either, because it's rooted in Christ, who is Lord over all.

And it means that the diversity that we experience is not a problem to solve, but rather a gift that's been given to all of us.

It means that we can be multi-ethnic, multi-generational, multi-gifted, multi-voiced, and still have one heart together.

Because Christ is set as Lord over all of our hearts.

And this is really meaningful, I think, here among our congregation.

Because our church isn't homogeneous.

It's not a single demographic, it's not one age group, it's not one ethnicity, it's what not one economic bracket, it's not one life stage at all.

If we were to do a demographic survey of our church, we would find we're probably fairly evenly spread across all of the spectrums.

But what we are is not accidental.

It's the work of the Spirit.

Because He means to be to bring people from every tribe and tongue and nation.

And by God's wondrous mercy, we happen to have a small sampling of that here.

And so that leads us to another flower.

And I'd like for us to go to Ephesians 4 and see how this corporate image grows and matures together.

Paul describes here the growth of the new humanity.

And again, Paul does not picture a group of individuals pursuing private spiritual improvement.

He pictures a body being formed, being strengthened, and maturing under the headship of Christ.

The movement of this passage is absolutely unmistakable.

As we read Ephesians chapter 4, and we get deeper into it, we realize that what is happening here is that Christ is ascended in his glorious ascension, which happens to be today, Ascension Day.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

And he equips through his ascension his body with various gifts.

Now, those gifts are not to do the work of the ministry, but to equip the rest of the body for the work of the ministry.

And through the work of the ministry that all of the parts of the body do, this one body grows together.

And the result is maturity, not simply individual maturity, but corporate maturity.

He gave some to be apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers to do what?

To equip the saints for the work of the ministry.

Right?

So that the equipped saints can do that work.

How?

By serving one another, by speaking the truth to one another, and by strengthening one another through all of the supply that the head who is Christ gives.

And so this new humanity, look at verse 13, is meant to go somewhere.

Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God's Son.

Stop right there for just a second.

Again, not a sentimental unity, a doctrinal unity, a theological unity, a God-provided unity that's rooted and shaped in our understanding of Christ and shared in a common commitment of Christ as Lord.

Not held together by personality or preferences, but a people that are gathered by Christ Himself.

And we are to deepen in our knowledge of Christ and align ourselves with his character.

Now notice how that goes.

We're still moving.

Verse 13.

Growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ's fullness.

Again, a corporate maturity.

A people who together reflect the fullness of Christ.

And so that means that the restored image is not complete when one believer grows.

It's complete when all of the body grows.

The new humanity is meant to look like Christ, not just isolated glimpses on the third row.

All of us.

And he says here that the corporate strength is found in verse 14.

Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown about by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.

Immaturity will leave us unstable.

It'll leave us susceptible to confusion.

It'll lead us to deception and distortion of the truth.

But maturity that is found in Christ will lead all of us to stability.

That all of us will have spiritual clarity.

That all of us will be able to discern truth from error.

That all of us will be able to walk in the way of Christ with confidence and joy.

And in verse 15, it gives us the operative way.

By speaking the truth in love.

Let us grow in every way into Him who is the head, Christ.

So this new humanity, we as the people of God grow through our conversations that strengthen our faith, conversations that encourage our obedience, and conversations that remind us of our hope that we have in Christ.

This is not just a catchword for saying, you know, Billy, I've got some tough things to say, but I'm going to do it in love.

And we just sort of blast him with what we wanted to say, and using that little phrase as just a little like spiritual cover for letting loose on a person.

Speaking the truth in love means that we take Christ-like speech into our relationships, that we serve one another in humility, that we speak to one another's encouragement and growth and hope.

Because that's precisely how Christ speaks to us.

Yes, sometimes exposing those places that need the light of his truth, but not saying, you know, I gotta speak the truth in love.

So let me just say it right now.

It's no, it's something completely different than that.

And he says here in verse 16 that as we do this, from him the whole body fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.

That's a mouthful.

I wish we could speak just on that for several weeks.

But one thing I want you to catch here is this is very deliberate language, that the growth is not the result of a few key individuals within the congregation, that the result of maturity comes in the contribution of everybody in the body of Christ.

The new humanity flourishes when every believer brings themselves, their gifts, their presence, their encouragement, their faithfulness within the context of the body of Christ.

Because we all matter and we all need one another to become that mature, come to that place of maturity.

So, what does that mean?

Your means of spiritual growth are found by the people sitting next to you.

That's one thing it means.

It means that the church grows together, that we do this, and we need one another to do this.

And I want you to show sort of the end result of that by looking at the last flower, that the new self is found in relational Christ-likeness.

And we'll go to Colossians 3 for this one.

As the new humanity matures, as each member participates in the body, the restored image will become visible as the people of God speak in truth and serve in humility and walk together under the headship of Christ.

And here in Colossians chapter 3, we see the relational Christ-likeness that's meant to be seen.

Colossians 3 · chapter mention

Verse 9 and 10.

Do not lie to one another, since you've put off the old self with its practices, and it put on the new self.

You're being renewed in the knowledge according to the image of your Creator.

In Christ, there's not Greek or Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free, but Christ is all and in all.

Here's this renewal that's ongoing.

The Spirit's work, and it's happening in the context of our relationships.

He says about this new humanity, something that we'd read before in the book of Galatians, that we're not to look at ourselves in our old ways of thinking, whether we're Greek or Jew or circumcised or not, or barbarian or scythian, or slave or free, that those distinctions that once divided us no longer determine our place in the community of Christ.

That the new humanity is a reconciled people whose unity is rooted in Jesus Himself.

But now he turns to the relational expressions of this new humanity in verse 12.

Therefore, as God's chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another.

If anyone has any grievance against another, just as the Lord has forgiven you, so also you are to forgive.

These are not abstract virtues, these are relational postures that we're to have as one people.

Compassion when someone's hurting, kindness when someone's struggling, humility when misunderstandings arise, patience when we all grow at different speeds.

A restored image becomes visible by the way we respond to one another.

That is the display of Christ-like maturity.

And in verse 13, he makes that explicit.

Just as Christ has forgiven you, so also forgive.

The forgiveness that we receive becomes the pattern of how we relate to one another.

The new humanity is not marked by perfection, the new humanity is marked by grace.

It's a reflection of a community that knows how to forgive, that leans in toward reconciliation, that knows how to walk together even when relationships at times can be strained.

And that's why in verse 14 he says this above all, above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

Why?

Because that perfect love is something that we've received in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

It is that Christ-shaped commitment that seeks the good of one another, that serves each other without recognition, that listens to one another with patience, that speaks to one another with gentleness, that carries the burdens that aren't our own.

That's the love.

That's the atmosphere of a maturing people.

And in verse 15, if there was any doubt that he was pulling this together into this corporate Christ-likeness, take a look at verse 15.

And let the peace of Christ to which you were also called in one body rule in your hearts.

The peace that comes when the gospel is meant to shape our interactions.

The grace that comes into our life is meant to govern our responses.

And when Christ's character becomes the pattern of our life, that's when the new man shows up on earth.

And that's when the world will say, they will know we are his disciples by our love for one another.

Because there's nothing else on earth that can explain what they're seeing.

This is why the church is a vital place for us.

It's how Christ is seen in among us and in this world.

It's how we come to maturity.

It's what brings us our reconciliation with one another.

And it is the fact that we are truly a new humanity.

Let's pray together.

Father, we do pray that you would help us to grow more into what we actually are, to recognize that we are not just formed in isolation, but brought into community.

And help us to realize just how important that is.

That the restored image doesn't just grow in isolation, it grows in among your people.

And so, Lord, make us truly what we are, that new humanity created in Christ, reconciled through the cross, and dwelt by the Spirit, and destined together to bear the image of the Heavenly.

And we pray this in His name.

Amen.