Imago Dei Series - Christ: The Perfect Image of God

Genesis chapter one.

Genesis chapter one.

When we read Genesis chapter one, it's easy to pick up a rhythm that runs through this chapter.

God speaks, things are brought into existence.

And so God forms and fills, and then he blesses and he declares that it's good.

There's that rhythm, that pattern that repeats as he goes through the days.

And then when you get towards the end of chapter one, things start to slow down.

There's something important about to be said.

The rhythm breaks in order to bring an emphasis to what's about to happen.

And when you look at verse 26, he says, Let us make man in our image according to our likeness.

And then in verse 27, a repetition.

So God created man in his own image.

He created them male and female.

Now those words are not decorative words, but rather are the bedrock of our identity.

They tell us who we are and why we're here.

We're here made by God in order to think his thoughts after him, in order to love the things that he loves, in order to walk in his ways, in order to fulfill all of his purposes that he's given us in sweet fellowship with him, in harmony with him, in harmony with one another, and in harmony with all things created.

And this tells us something very important about who we are: that our dignity and our identity and our purpose are all rooted in God's creative activity of who we are, made in his image.

We don't have to earn our dignity, it's granted to us.

We don't have to sort of look for our identity.

It's already stated here.

Our purpose is provided for us, rooted in the God who made us.

But it doesn't take us very long when we look at our world and even look at our own hearts that something's a lot different with us and the world than what we read in this chapter.

We feel the ache of something's gone wrong in this world.

And all we have to do is turn over a page or two to Genesis chapter three, and we discover that we who were made as image bearers have come into a place of disobedience and brokenness.

In Genesis 3, those very image bearers are brought into a place of temptation and they sin against God, thinking that God's goodness and is not good enough, and that God's righteousness is not right enough.

And so they question God's goodness and they question God's love.

And the consequences are immediate and they are lasting and reverberating into our day.

When you read Genesis 3, you see shame enters in verse 7, fear in verse 10, blame in verse 12, division in verse 16, and death in verse 19.

Now those are words we're familiar with.

Sadly.

Fear, shame, blame, division, and death are all words we are all too familiar with.

And we feel the fracture of this still.

We feel the sense of both Genesis 1 and Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

We still sense the brilliance and the beauty of God's design in humanity.

And yet we also feel the confusion.

We see the division, the violence, the pride, the fear, and the longings of our hearts.

We see people searching for their identity in places where it could never provide them an identity.

Just as uh the prophets talk about broken cisterns that can hold no water, so those places they go to find identity can't give it to them.

There's no water in that well.

Or we'll see culture telling us, you know, just make your own way, reinvent yourself, define yourself, curate yourself, but can never tell us what we really were meant to be.

Because they don't have an answer to that question.

And if we're honest, we feel it still in ourselves.

We feel the sense of Genesis 1 and Genesis 3 tugging within us, a gap between how God designed us, what we are, what we should be.

We feel the fracture in our desires.

We sadly see it in our deepest and closest and most precious relationships.

We see it in our work and our worship.

There's longings within us for clarity and for wholeness.

The very things that the scriptures say even creation itself longs for.

Those longings are not accidental.

And so tonight, as we return to this series, we're going to come to the center of it all.

This is really the hinge point of it all.

Everything that we've talked about up to this point, and everything flowing out of tonight all really finds its hinge right here.

And as we go into this evening, the question we want to ask ourselves is this where do we look to see the image restored?

Where do we look to see what humanity was really meant to be?

And we're going to see that tonight because scripture gives us an answer.

And the answer is not in some philosophy, it's not in some religious system or practices of devotion.

It's found in a person.

Tonight we're going to lift our eyes to Jesus, who is the perfect image of God.

And like I said, everything flows toward this and out of this.

And as we behold him, we'll not only see who God is, but we'll also understand who we were meant to be, what we were created to be.

And also, as believers in Christ, what we will become.

And that's something to be very encouraged about.

So let's work through this.

First of all, I want us to see Christ as the perfect image of God.

Let's go to Colossians chapter 1.

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

And there in Colossians chapter 1, we're going to see the language that Paul uses because it's really foundational to what we're going to be looking at this evening.

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

In Colossians chapter 1, as you may can find your way there, I'd like you to look at verse 15.

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

Colossians 1:15 talks about Jesus Christ, and he says, He is the image of the invisible God.

Colossians 1:15

Now that's not metaphorical language.

It's not saying that Jesus represents God like a prophet might represent God.

He is saying that the God that no one could see, the God that passed by Moses, and Moses had to hide himself and only capture just the glimpses of his glory.

The God who descended in fire and Mount Sinai in Exodus 19, in which the people quaked with fear as the mountain shook, is visible in Jesus Christ.

And when you read the Gospels with that in your mind, you feel the weight of what Paul is saying here.

Just think about it for a moment.

When Jesus touches a leper in Mark chapter 1, what you're watching is the embodiment of the compassion of God.

Mark 1 · chapter mention

When he calms a storm in Mark chapter 4, you're seeing in human form the authority of God speaking.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

When he forgives the paralytic in Mark II, you're watching the mercy of God in human form.

When he welcomes children in Matthew 19, you're seeing God's gentleness in full view.

And when he weeps at Lazarus' tomb in John 11, the heart of God is visible with tears, just like ours.

Paul strengthens this as we go forward.

Look a little further in this verse.

He says, He is the firstborn of all creation.

Now, that word comes with a modern understanding, which, if we hold to it, will not lead us into the fullness of what this is saying here.

I happen to be the first one born from my mother and father, and I have two sisters and my brother who passed away a few years back.

So there's a sequence to that.

Who's the first in your family?

Doug is.

Who's the greatest in your family?

Doug is.

Right?

You know, that's what I would tell them, but they never listened.

Especially my sister Sandy.

She's, of course, knows she's the best.

And we think of sequence as firstborn.

That's not what this is saying here.

This is not talking about sequence.

It's talking about status and rank and inheritance.

It's that kind of idea.

The firstborn in the in this world would have been the one who stands in the place of highest honor.

It would have been the one who receives the inheritance.

It would have been the one who represents the family, the one who exercises the authority.

That's the firstborn.

And so you see this pattern even in the Old Testament.

And I won't bring you there, but you can look at it later.

In Psalm 89, the psalmist speaks about David the king.

And in verse 27 says this I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings on the earth.

Now David wasn't the first king of the people of Israel, was he?

He wasn't even the first son born of his father.

He was the last son born of his father.

He was such a lowly young shepherd that when Samuel came to anoint one of Jesse's sons as king, he didn't even bring David out to put him on display.

So firstborn really wasn't even an idea there.

But here the psalmist says, I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.

So what is that?

God sets him in the highest place of rank and of authority and of inheritance.

That's the firstborn.

God gave David the throne, God gave David the covenant, God gave David the promise that his lineage would endure.

He's the firstborn, not sequence, supremacy.

So go back to Colossians 1:15 and just look at that again.

Colossians 1:15

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

So what he's saying here is not that Jesus is the first thing created, but rather he is supreme over all creation.

And Paul makes that perfectly clear in the next phrase in verse 16.

For everything was created by him in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, supremacy, not sequence.

And so Jesus here is identity and his authority are marked out for us.

He's the rightful heir of all things.

He's the one to whom all things have been made.

He is the sovereign Lord over it all.

We see glimpses of that authority in Jesus.

In John 6, when he multiplies bread, what are we seeing there?

We're seeing his creating abundance out of nothing, turning water into wine in John 2, exercising the same power as creation.

When he restores sight to the blind in John 9, he is bringing light and life where there was none.

And if you know anything about eyes and medicine, speak to a doctor.

It's a fascinating thing.

It's not just about saying there's light, there's a reordering into the brain in order for the brain to even perceive and to catalog and understand the things that are coming through the optical nerve.

It's a complete rewiring of that whole person.

This is Jesus.

And take a look at verse 17 as it continues.

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

The Jesus who sat at a table, and the Jesus who walked down dusty roads, is the same Jesus that holds the galaxies in their place, and in whose hand all history lies.

The one who healed the sick and welcomed the weary is the one who upholds the whole universe.

That is amazing.

And Hebrews 1 adds to it this in one three.

Radiance is a remarkable word.

And I think the best way to understand radiance is to think about something like seeing the sun.

None of us actually see the sun.

What we see is the radiance of the sun's intensity there.

And this is Jesus.

He is the exact image of God, and the radiance of God is seen by him in human form.

We get a little glimpse of that in like the trans transfiguration of Matthew 17, when his face shines like the sun.

But that's not like a spotlight from heaven.

You're just sort of kind of beaming down on him.

That's glory bursting forth from him.

And just think about that.

This God who sustains all things by his powerful word, heals the sick, welcomes the weary, weeps with the grieving.

He's the full, full likeness, the exact imprint, the undiminished, perfect revelation of God.

Now, this is more than just telling us something about God.

This is also telling us something about what humanity was meant to be.

And we'll get there.

But before we do, I want us to make a contrast and comparison between Christ and Adam.

And so we need to go to Romans chapter 5 for just a moment.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

As we go to Romans chapter 5, we see Paul making a contrast comparison between two men, one Adam and one Jesus Christ.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

And he puts them side by side.

We'll have a few questions to answer, see how your personalities might come out.

It's not just grabbing two people out of the crowd and saying, let's just compare and contrast these two.

What we're talking about is a comparison and contrast between two heads of humanity, between two representatives of humanity, between two people who split the human race into two different directions.

Let's begin with Adam here, just a little descriptor of him.

We know him.

He was created in God's image, Genesis 1.

He was placed in the garden that was overflowing with God's generosity.

And when he was there, he was entrusted with a calling that was both royal and relational.

He was to reflect God's character.

He was to rule and exercise dominion under God's authority.

He was to relate and walk with God in unbroken fellowship.

And he was to do so acting like God in righteousness, in godliness.

But when the serpent whispered a different story, a story of autonomy and self-rule, a story that really did question the goodness of God, Adam listened.

And in chapter 5 and verse 12, we get this word about it.

Just as sin entered the world through one man, that's Adam.

And death through sin.

In this way, death spread to all people.

That one act wasn't an isolated act, it was a representative act.

It shapes every heart that came after him, and it introduced a fracture that runs all the way into our day.

Like we said, Adam hid from God.

He blamed Eve.

His son Cain murdered his brother Abel.

And by the time we get to Genesis chapter 6, this statement, indictment, tragic lament of human humanity, the every imagination of the thought of his heart was only evil continually.

Genesis 6 · chapter mention

You can't get any deeper into the problem than that.

The image wasn't erased, it was distorted.

The mirror remained, but it was fractured and cracked.

We couldn't reflect the God who made us.

Now keep your eye on the text because we're going to see this contrast comparison in verses 15 to 19.

Paul holds up these two portraits before us, and he tells us essentially this just for time, I won't read it, but he says, through Adam, trespass.

By way condemnation came.

Through Christ, obedience, through whom justification came.

In Adam, many were made sinners.

In Christ, many are made righteous.

In Adam, the image is fractured.

In Christ, obedience brings, Christ's obedience brings restoration.

And so when we turn to First Corinthians fifteen, Paul makes a comment about Jesus.

And he isn't just another Adam.

He is, as he says in First Corinthians 15, 45, the last Adam.

So Adam stands as the father of humanity, and the last Adam stands as a father of a new humanity, of which there will never be another of another kind.

He is the last Adam.

One fell, one succeeds.

One brings the fall of humanity, and one brings the restoration of a new humanity.

And you see that very well in Matthew chapter four at the very beginning of Jesus' public ministry.

Just like Adam, he comes face to face with the tempter.

And the tempter speaks to him with the same kind of whispers that Adam heard.

Whispers of doubt, whispers of autonomy, whispers of a shortcut to glory.

All the exact temptations are given to Christ.

Not in a garden, not in the fullness of fellowship, not in the midst of harmony, but in a desert.

After being fasting for 40 days and 40 nights alone.

So take away all the possible benefits that Adam had in the garden, in the fellowship with his wife, in this glorious place where sin had never been, and strip all that away and put Jesus there and give him the same temptations.

What happens?

Adam says, Not your will, but mine.

And Jesus says, Not my will, but yours.

In the middle of it all, Jesus obeys.

And so Adam's disobedience brings death to us.

And Jesus' obedience leads him to the cross where he dies, so that we might live.

And where Adam's failure spreads death to all, Christ's triumph brings life to all who believe on him.

And this is why Paul says in Romans 5.19, and this one we'll look at, for as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Jesus is not just making a small correction to humanity.

Jesus isn't there just to simply give a little boost or a help of his mercy to get us back on the way that we were trying to get on anyway.

No.

This is a brand new beginning.

So brand new, you could call him the last Adam.

It's a new creation in him.

And this is where the passage settles.

Adam shows us what we lost, but Jesus shows us what will be restored in us.

The more clearly we see that contrast, the more deeply we will feel our hope.

Our story doesn't end with fracture, it doesn't end with longing.

It doesn't end with brokenness.

It ends in Christ with restoration.

And that brings us to our last point: Christ as the true human.

And this will be important for us next week and the week following as we come to understand it.

So let's go over to John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

There in John chapter 1, we see how the apostle begins the gospel.

John 1 · chapter mention

And he doesn't start with Bethlehem, he doesn't start with the shepherds, he doesn't start with the angels, he doesn't start with Mary, he doesn't start with Joseph.

He starts with in the beginning.

Huh?

Sounds like Genesis, doesn't it?

The last Adam.

In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

And John reaches all the way back to Genesis chapter one, not just to echo the language of creation, but to show us the one who steps in the world who made creation, Jesus.

And in verse 14, we see this.

He brings the eternal glory of God right into our world.

The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.

This is not just a statement, though, about God coming near.

It's a statement about humanity being revealed.

Because when the eternal Son took on flesh, he didn't simply put on a human body like we put on a sweater or a jacket or whatever.

He took on human nature, fully God and fully man.

He entered into the full experience of human life, not with the brokenness of sin like we have, but the fullness of what humanity is meant to be.

And in Hebrews, I love this verse in 2.17.

He was made like his brothers in every respect.

He was human.

You know that carol we sing, no crying did he make?

That's just baloney.

That's just poetic nonsense.

I love singing Christmas carols, but sometimes their theology is a little suspect.

And that one just got it wrong.

Jesus cried.

He wasn't partially human, not symbolically human.

He was fully human.

And so when you watch Jesus moving through the Gospels, you're seeing something remarkable.

You're seeing human life as it was meant to be lived.

That's what we were to be.

And by the grace of God, that's what we're going to be.

You see a man in perfect fellowship with the Father, whose life is not distant from God, not distracted by the world, not divided by all the animosity in the world.

You see him in Mark 1:35, rising up early, and in communion with God, the Father.

Mark 1:35

You see him in John 5.19 saying, I do nothing apart from the Father.

You see him in Luke 10, rejoicing in the Spirit with unclouded joy.

He's in perfect harmony with the Father as a human.

You see him loving everyone, even the unlovely, stopping for a blind man in Luke 18, touching a leper in Mark 1, eating with tax collectors in Luke 5.

You see a man who tells the truth, and he does it without being cruel.

He speaks to a rich young ruler in Mark 10, who turns away from him, but he speaks to him with honesty and love.

In fact, it even says, Jesus loved him.

You see him confronting the Pharisees, yeah, sharp, clear words, but not with the bitter malice that often taints our tongue.

You see a man who serves without seeking applause, taking a basin and a towel to wash the disciples' feet without trumpeting anything to let everybody know just how wonderful he is to be a servant.

You see a man who obeys without hesitation, resisting Satan with the word of the Father.

You see a man who prays with dependence, with drawing in times of deep decision before he acts, seeking the Father's will.

You see a man who walks with purpose in Luke 9, setting his face toward Jerusalem like a flint, knowing it meant his death, but he was going to do the will of the Father.

You see a man who suffers without sin, silent before his accusers, absorbing injustice without retaliation or bitterness.

You see a man who entrusts himself to his father even when he's dying unjustly.

Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.

That is not just the perfect image of God, it's the perfect revelation of humanity.

This is what Adam was meant to be.

This is what Israel was called to be.

And this is what we were created to be.

And as we'll see next week, this is what God is restoring us to become.

To become.

But it's a doctrine to affirm, to see it as a window into the life that we were created for.

To see Jesus move to the broken with compassion and seeing what kind of compassion we should have.

To see him resist temptation in the wilderness and see the kind of strength humanity is meant to walk in.

To see him kneel with a towel and wash his feet, is to see the kind of humility that we're meant to embody.

And when you see him pray in Gethsemane, not my will but yours be done, you see the kind of trust that we're meant to live by.

What's wonderful is this Lord loves us, and he is doing a great work to redeem and to regenerate and to restore in us that very image.

And we'll see that next week.

He knows our frailty, he knows our limitations, he knows the weight of living in this world in which we groan, but he stands with us, and by his grace and mercy, he is going to make sure that his very image is stamped on us.

Because Romans chapter 8 says, and we all know verse 28, right?

Romans 8 · chapter mention

But what does verse 29 say?

That we might be conformed to the image of his son.

This is what salvation is headed toward, so that everything you see Jesus to be is everything you will be.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you that what we've seen tonight is Christ, the perfect image of God, the last Adam, and the true humanity.

And we thank you with great anticipation for that day in which we will be conformed to the image of Christ Himself.

To know that this restoration of the image is not something that was a good idea once, but never to return to human history, but that it is the very, very purpose of your deliverance, to bring us to the place where you made us to be, to be in the likeness of Christ, who is the image of God.

Father, we pray that our hearts might be comforted by this tonight.

And we pray that our hearts might grow with an anticipation to understand how that's going to happen within us as we discover more from your word next week.

And we pray this in Christ's name.

Amen.