Imago Dei (Pastor Aaron Trelfa, 03/18/23)

We're going to continue our sermon series. We're actually going to go

backwards now from last week. If you were here last week we looked at how God

created everything good and very good and what that meant and because it was

communion how God creates good and very good and how it kind of worked with our

communion service. This week we're going a little bit prior to that. We're going

to pick up from where we ended I guess sometime last month in our creation

account. So from the beginning to the end we have been looking at the account in

Genesis, Genesis chapter 1. We're still in Genesis chapter 1. We haven't gotten

Genesis 1 · chapter mention Genesis 1 · chapter mention

out of it. The last time that we were here we looked at the days of creation

until the first part of day six. So the land animals, the creeping things, the

the bugs and the beasts and the dogs and the cats. Today we're going to pick up

from there and we're going to look at the second half of day six. Before we do

that though do we have the... all right before we do that though we want to talk

about Pablo Picasso. Pablo Picasso a famed 20th century artist. His paintings

go for untold dollar amounts. People like to get a hold of him. He's usually known

for more of his abstract depictions of things. I look at him and I just go well

that's kind of neat but it seems like even I can do that and I don't have a

whole lot of artistic talent. People who know what they're looking at tell me

that even in the abstract arts like like him and some of the other well-known

artists that there is still a talent and a depth and a layering to the abstract

that because again art is not my thing I'm not talented in that I can't quite

see it. Those with a discerning eye can. I did not know though until recently that

he also has a fairly lengthy collection of self portraits beginning with his

first one at the age of 15 there on the left and then his next one at the age of

18 there on the right. What what we're looking at is we're going to see a

progression of his self portraits how he viewed himself and how it translated

onto his medium as he aged because if we're going to consider perhaps what he

saw of himself how he portrayed it what kind of image does he have about himself.

There he is at the age of 20 and then at 24 can we already see a shift in his

depictions a little less like maybe a real image or capture of himself into

something slightly more abstract even just the difference between the two the

skin color is different the hair style is different the eyes look a little bit

more empty and blank. We can go on to the next one there at 35 and then at 56 a

leap in a couple of decades and can you see a very stark contrast. By the time

Picasso had gotten into his 50s he was really working a lot with his what he

has become most famous for his abstract art things that are just a little out of

where if you and I were to take a photo of it it would it would not look like

his drawings and they have nothing similar to his earliest ones in terms of

can you could you even tell that this was a Picasso if you just had that and

you didn't know that he drew it. At 83 and 85 he's actually getting closer to

the end of his life and and just me critiquing it maybe that's why we have

less hair on the top of the head a few more wrinkles in the brow maybe those

are his ribs showing through if he's losing a little bit of weight as he as

he ages. We can go to the next one there at 89 and then at 85 so maybe think of

those in other ways this is really starting to look more humanoid and less

human really kind of looks cold doesn't it little I mean awfully dark and you

have non-descript lines on that one on the right more shadow and I can think of

confusion or anxiety when I look at lines like that and then our next one oh

it does stop there okay

that's fine he's got one he's got actually several when he was 90 he passed

away shortly after those last ones we're done with this he passed away shortly

after his last couple of pictures and they are even less human than these his

image of himself as he aged as he really found his own in whatever drew him to a

more abstract style of art I believe affected his self-image and when you

look at the ones where he was drawing at 90 and when he's really saying I

believe his last one was titled something like self-portrait facing death

or something like that the face that you see is one of a man looking at the end

of his life there's less color to the skin there's there's less brightness in

the eyes there seems to be more questioning or

doubt he seems to be a little less upright in his posture a little bit more

hunched a little bit more down faced if you will and and maybe I'm reading too

much into it but you look at it and you go this is how his image shifted and

changed as he aged I wonder if we do that I wonder if when we're trying to

portray who we are to those around us one do we go through phases two how well

do we do it and three how often do we reserve ourselves because we don't

really want our real image put out there or our real selves put out there let me

phrase it that way we would rather have an image kind of in our likeness and we

reserve who we really are I believe we do that sometimes I think that's

appropriate I don't think you should should really bear everything certainly

not in the kind of social media age that we have everything is permanent online

and everyone sees that nothing is private if you haven't figured that out

even on the so-called private forums but when God was looking at the end of his

creation process in Genesis we introduced the idea early on that he

wasn't just arbitrarily putting land and arbitrarily putting water and air and

and creatures and beauty and form and all of that he wasn't doing that just

because he was in a good mood that week I believe that God knew what the crowning

act of his creation was going to be before he uttered those first words let

there be light I believe he knew that once all of that was done once it was

all shaped and pieced together that that the purpose of all of that was so that

his final creation at the end of the week would have a home would have land

would have something to do would have a dominion etc. was all leading to this our

scripture reading today tells us exactly what happened after God called forth the

living creatures the other animals in nature apart from what our verses have

said because in Genesis 1 and 26 God said let us make man in our image after

our likeness so right out the gate just because someone asked very recently if

this was a comment on the Trinity it's not it's a comment on the plurality of

God again you don't have a full understanding of the Trinity until you

get to the New Testament you can't do it only and exclusively with the Old

Testament but it's certainly a plurality idea about God let us make man that's

mankind that's humanity in our image after our likeness this word for image

at Salem in the Hebrew is a meaning of something carved or cut out something

carved or cut out that would be like this like what Picasso had done if he

were to make a self-portrait using wood or a marble that would be Salem in the

Hebrew after our likeness makes much the same point in that God made man like

himself though not divine that was what that is one thing that is only reserved

for the Godhead exclusively God alone is holy the Bible tells us but we can learn

a little bit quite a bit actually about what it is to be made in the image of

God what does it mean when God says that what should we look for back then and

right now in humanity what is it to be made in the image of God bearing his

likeness defining us as like him though not divine John Calvin puts it this way

man remember resembles him and that in him that's man God's glory is

contemplated as in a mirror that was a very nice way of phrasing it so in other

words we're going to look at when we look side by side at each other and we

are contemplating mankind when we're contemplating one another what do we see

in how it relates to God one to be made in the image of God it does speak to

form note that I said form not body and there is a difference the Bible tells us

Jesus tells us in John chapter 4 and 24 that one God is spirit and we worship

John 4 · chapter mention

him in spirit and truth God is spirit but in all of the theophany accounts that

the Bible records the appearances of God before prophets or his people God has a

form God is always described with a head with a chest with arms with something

like legs and I say something like legs because that's often the language it

seems that when the prophets in vision are beholding the majesty of the heavens

they're using the best human language that we have to describe the indescribable

divine something like legs something like arms a form but not a body always

depicted upright always depicted as as regal in appearance always as

brilliant always as as sure of himself and how he's shown so it's it's good to

know that there we can draw something from the image of God and how it relates

to our form but I believe it would be wise to stop just shy of saying that God

has a definite body because the Bible doesn't actually tell us as such

mankind we certainly have a body and a form and in our body and in our form it

speaks of dignity and a healthy human body has a dignified presence about it

when you are fit when you are walking and you're upright and your shoulders

are back and you are you you are not weighted down or burdened or have some

other reason to not walk like the way that that God created us it speaks of

dignity and ability that is beyond the rest of created nature our unique

structure with our appendages and our balances and our eyes and what we can

hear and sense it might not be quite what a dog smells or hears or quite how

fast a cheetah can run but there is a beauty and a dignity that takes mankind

even beyond the best that the animal world has to to be made in the image of

God includes our mind Augustine proposed the image of God resides in man's memory

understanding and will he was attempting to find in man's mind some sort of

commonality with the Trinity so the three persons of the Godhead and here's

the three elements of the mind the memory understanding and will I would

add that there is at least a fourth I don't know if it's a subset of the will

but our reason God has said come and let us reason together humans have

different than the rest of animals we have a memory in the short term and the

long term that definitely outpaces the best of the animal world the only thing

I don't quite understand is salmon getting back to there that must be

something really ingrained and they've met they don't know where they were

born but they make it back up those rivers our understanding our our ability

to know things goes way beyond the most intelligent animal way beyond and of

course only in humans do we find a will the ability to be able to choose to go

in this direction or to go in that direction reason it out and understand

why we can resist another person's will we can push our own will on someone else

and that's different than animals they just kind of have their instincts and so

on and then of course our reason the ability to think deep and high and broad

thoughts God did not say let us come and feel together as important as feelings

and emotions are and I actually think that's one other common thing that we

have in our image of God with him but God has placed our logic and our reason

as that higher order Christ in being called the Logos Logos is not just word

it is also our root for logic God is a logical rational reason reasonable

reason-bearing being and man has been created in like manner we could also

think of man's self-awareness and our personalities which are of a higher

order than animals I have two cats and a dog and they all have a personality they

are nothing as deep as the people I know I've kind of figured out what the cats

and the dogs are going to be like it didn't take long my wife after 20 plus

years of marriage still surprises me and I love that about her my parents after

all of the years that I've known them still surprise me sometime and I have

dear friends that that also will surprise me in their personality in how

they change a little or in how they have grown in their self-awareness we also

have a conscience and we are capable of moral decision-making God clearly is

both of those things man alone worships God among the creatures we alone worship

God with a spiritual awareness you can look at all the various animals and in

the various accounts nature responds to God but we don't ever read in the Bible

how nature seeks after God to worship him that's unique to humanity the wise

man in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 in verse 11 says that he has made everything a

Ecclesiastes 3 · chapter mention

beautiful in its time also he has put eternity in their hearts only mankind

has the ability to think in that way and that is a that is a high and lofty

description to think in eternal matters is to be made after the image of God

number three in verse 27 of Genesis 1 we see that God created man in his own

image in the image of God he created him male and female he created them male and

female both comprise the image of God in the original creation it was purely

equal in all regards when it comes to bearing the image of God that has not

changed when it comes to our morality when it comes to our value when it comes

to what we are charged with doing and what we how we worship who we worship

all of the rest of what we will talk about it's equal between the sexes along

the way where where men and and some women certainly got a little confused in

that and thought that only the male comprised the image of God and the

female had to only bear it because of him etc that's faulty thinking don't

think like that male and female he created them the differences between the

sexes do not detract from this image but uniquely and together they bear the

image it's good to know number four what we also see in this male and female is

that we are communal not merely individual as we read it through the

Bible we find the three members of the Godhead Father Son and Holy Spirit they

work in harmony aside from the time when Christ was dead in the grave those three

have not known separation from each other time in memoriam I don't understand

it but I have faith that God's Word is true and just like they have a community

with each other mankind was created for a knee or with a need for community we

are intended to be together isolation and hyper individualism does not bear out

well in in the population it doesn't that's why we have laws that restrict

how long a person even in prison can be in solitary confinement that's why when

when people are stranded alone on an island and we hear these stories usually

there's some account of them personifying something that they then

kind of talked to the the Tom Hanks movie castaway might bring that he had

his little little beach a little beach ball volleyball Wilson he personified a

volleyball but that maintained in his mind that relationship the community

that we all need you can see terrible results right now in what happens when

you forcefully interrupt that for any lengthy period of time with the

lockdowns from kovat and everyone being told to go home and being told to stay

apart from each other and being told that if you get near one another you

just are going to kill them all of that breaks down broke down that community

the community need and an image and and thing that's deeply rooted in us and that

has borne out in skyrocketing prescriptions for antidepressants

anti-anxieties ADHD drugs an explosion in in addictive behaviors and an

addiction to social media and the depression rates and the suicidal

thoughts and people being stunted in in vocabulary and language and social

interactions all of that all of that is still being felt and we really don't

know how long it's going to impact our society especially our little kids you

can't just take how God has created us forcefully smush it down and then think

everything is going to be okay which is why the Bible talks about in Ephesians

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

chapter 4 and then in Hebrews I'm going to turn to those really quick I forgot

to put a marker there Ephesians chapter 4 verses 15 and 16 rather speaking the

Ephesians 4:15

truth and love we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into

Christ this is speaking of the body of Christ from whom the whole body joined

and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is

working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love the

body of Christ is intended to be held together knit together and grow up

together not apart from each other and then Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 25

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works not

neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some but encourage one another

and all the more as you see the day drawing near from the beginning God

intended humanity to be a community creature and we need to continue

practicing that number five in verse 26 we see that God created man to be a vice

regent over the rest of creation let them have dominion over the fish of the

sea over the birds of the heavens over the livestock over all the earth and

over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth you see God has a dominion

what's his dominion saints everything all the universe and everything that it

contains but he here is created man in his image and then like himself he has

given man a dominion not a dominion apart from him but a dominion in God's

place a co-regent a vice regent over nature meaning that man exercises the

authority of another we exercise the authority in God's name over creation

we're supposed to keep animals in check and and be good stewards of the plants

and the streams and the fish and the birds all human beings are called to

represent God's kingship through the whole range of human life on earth God's

rule is not the rule of a despot but the loving nurture of a caring parent and

that's how we should rule over the rest of nature I'm not one for at the expense

of all things we preserve all the rest of nature I don't I'm not one for that

but I do believe God has called us to be this to be the stewards to be the

caretakers of the rest of this planet we should not unnecessarily waste we

certainly shouldn't unnecessarily use up resources beyond our needs we should

keep things clean we should help the animals that need our help we should do

all of those things don't abuse in nature God has said that that's our

dominion and I believe he will hold us account to much of what we have done

number six the image of God includes communion with God spiritual creatures

we are intended to live in harmony with a spiritual God animals are unaware of

him in the same sense that we are they neither seek after him nor do they

worship him Paul speaking to the church in Rome says for what can be known about

God is plain to them that's people because God has shown it to them he

reveals himself to us because he wants to be known and he wants us to know him

and he wants us to reveal ourselves back to him that's prayer that's devotion

that's that's taking a nature walk and looking at the beautiful flowers and not

going oh what a fine accident that happened seeing God's fingerprints on

the rings of a tree and so on he wants to commune with us and he reveals

himself to us Jesus in the gospel of John in chapter 17 says this is eternal

life that they know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent

eternal life salvation is in knowing God and not just intellectually but

relationally you have to you have to become a little intimate with your

creator he knows your ins and outs why not go ahead and be honest with him why

not share with him what you are excited about and what you're sad about what

you're looking forward to or what you're anxious over all of that openness

strengthens the bond between you and him much like in a marriage if you and your

spouse regularly hold back from each other only sharing the the generic or

the superficial maybe you'll stay married for a long time but if anything

comes up that challenges that how easily do the cracks form you want to grow

closer to each other and you want to grow closer to God we also see that in

in the creation method itself in the blessing that God poured out on his

creation we see this communion because in Genesis 1 and verse 22 it says that

God just blessed the birds and the fish he blessed them and he said let them be

fruitful and multiply in verse 28 of chapter 1 God also does the same thing

after he creates man he blessed them but he says and God said to them be fruitful

and multiply have dominion over the fish and the sea etc so the other rest of

animals they the the animals are created and then God God declares over them a

blessing and then that ends the day when God makes man and woman he declares a

blessing on them but then he also holds a conversation with them he speaks to

them and he says this is what you are to do he doesn't do that with the rest of

nature that is much more personal that is much more of a communion with our

creator number seven the image of God includes righteousness and holiness if

he's in chapter 4 and 24 says that we are created after the likeness of God in

true righteousness and holiness at the beginning in the beginning God created

man perfect we were righteous like him we didn't have to try it came naturally

to be righteous it came naturally to want to do what God asked us to do it we

didn't have to fight against it we didn't have to plead for the help we

didn't stumble and fall and and go boy can I can can God help me tomorrow maybe

tomorrow will be a better day in the beginning we were created like God

righteous and desiring to be holy like him we were created after his likeness

true righteousness and holiness this signifies that in the beginning we had

a right standing with God and holiness before him if you look at the sanctuary

process the tabernacle process from the outer court and the curtains to the wash

basin and the and the firm in the altar and then into the holy place and then

into the most holy place and so on that is a progress of how does an unholy

human enter into the presence of a holy God we have to do that right now because

we are broken and we are sinful it was not so in the beginning we could just

walk with God and we were not blinded by his brightness we could be in his

presence and not worry or fear about our existence because we were not out of

harmony with his holiness we were created in his image in that way why are

we considering all of this why do we look at all of this and we can we can

keep on going we could there are many other facets to humanity that you could

say is created after the image of God you could think of our creativity our

imagination you could think of our vocabulary and our ability to

communicate you can think of so many things but why do we even bother looking

at this our midweek study during prayer meeting has been going through some of

the basic Christian practices so we started with looking at the practice of

prayer why it was important different types of prayer that communication that

we need between us and our Heavenly Father we just started looking at Bible

study and our introduction this past week brought to mind some of the reasons

you study the Bible and one really important reason is you study the Bible

because the Bible gives you the biggest answer or the answers to some of the

biggest questions that mankind has been asking for millennia such as who am I

why am I here where am I going what am I to do while I am here and going if we

answer the who am I and why am I here we are living creatures made by God to bear

his own image why we're here says so the stamp of God is seen in our moral and

our spiritual nature it is seen in our shared love within community and in our

dominion on God's behalf and it's especially seen in our calling to

communion with God in knowledge and righteousness that's why we are here we

aren't here because of an accident we aren't here because fate said so we

aren't here to just discover ourselves like so many people want to propose

today that's that self-seeking attitude of who am I and I need to just well I

just need to go on a journey to discover myself and it's a lot of it's a lot of

narcissistic kind of thought in our world today the Bible tells us why you're

here you are here to bear God's image in bearing his image it includes all of the

rest of what we've already talked about there is nothing that could grant a

greater dignity along with humility before God together with a higher sense

of calling and privilege than to realize that we are creatures designed to know

and be known by God and to love and be loved by our maker it's the greatest

dignity that we could have forget the CEOs and the millionaires and the

billionaires forget how well you work out or what awards you might win or what

treasures you have laid up the greatest dignity that we have is to realize that

we are creatures designed to know and be known by God and to love and be loved by

our maker that's why we're here and it's such a joy it's such a joy but we have

to also ask

is everything good in mankind today is everything going the way that it once

did back in Eden are we still getting along in harmony with one another and

with our God is the image of God even still present today and if so to what

degree what about the image of God in mankind after the fall in the

introduction of sin it has been proposed early on as Christians were wrestling

with this it has been proposed no the image of God is not present because sin

has depraved us so much that it's just squashed the image of God right out of

us and we are rebuilding that back and well God is rebuilding that back but it

won't actually occur until we're in glory some say yes some say yes it

hasn't diminished even though we're not perfect even though it's not really

ideal the image of God is still there I would suggest to you that it is both no

and yes it is both and not either or this is a fine quote we must state both

that after his revolt mankind remains mankind we didn't become some other

creature or some other creation we are still mankind and also that mankind has

radically changed I think that's fair that he is but a grisly shadow of

himself mankind remains the image of God inviolable and responsible but has

become a contradictory image one might say a caricature a witness against

himself so no and yes we are still humanity we are still mankind there is

no record that suggests that humans are now a completely different type of

species or a different genus or a different whatever you can certainly

find a variety and a spectrum of sizes and shapes and colors and abilities and

so on it's all humanity wherever you fall along that line we're all still

part of the human race no matter the this is I find it odd to say no matter

the corner of the globe as you find yourself from or in and those you

interact with you look at them and they look at you we're all part of the same

human race and that hasn't changed we are still that but we have to be

truthful in recognizing that we are radically changed from creation from

even Noah's time or the patriarchs time or so on we don't still talk about the

Giants that walk the land and I look like a grasshopper in their sight we

don't really do that anymore we have changed you can think of it this way you

can think of it kind of like a tempered gold piece a piece of tempered glass or

a vehicle window that gets a nick and spiders out it shatters it's still there

it still has its form and its shape but it is not what it once was it's cracked

it's distorted you can see it but you can't see clearly through it and if you

push on it too hard you can just kind of break it apart into pieces or you can

think of if you did a self-portrait maybe in some watercolor and and then

you got caught in a rainstorm and some rain drops fell on your watercolor

painting it might mar the image that you had put on to the canvas even if you can

kind of tell that there was once a person's face there similar things the

image of God has been distorted by our depravity we have lost our close

communion with him we can think through the rest of this list and we can say you

know we are not quite as healthy as perhaps we once were we have our aches

and our pains more so we can see that even our bodies are different some are

born missing an appendage or needing surgeries right away or some have a

propensity for cancers they have a predisposition from birth for cancers

that wasn't in the original nature we know that some have different mental

abilities some are very limited and handicapped and some are exceptional

that's a change that's different we can think of male and female our

relationships with one another have have certainly taken turns I mean the the

whole men are from what is it women are from Venus and men are from Mars kind of

idea shows that no longer do we have that harmony with the equality that was

there in at creation we don't our community is not in harmony with one

another more people seem very content with a really individual aspect about

themselves and their interactions and can I serve me not how can we all be in

unity people fight people argue people attack people are vindictive people hurl

insults at one another or worse the image of God has certainly been tainted

as vice regents we have not always done well in being good stewards of our earth

it's just plain and simple sometimes we've had some very catastrophic

natural disasters of our own making the most recent one that comes to my mind

would be the train wreck in Ohio that that was not good and the cleanup was

not good and I believe some of the lies that were told to the people were not

good health will be affected for years they're saying because of that that's

not good stewardship if we're just honest with ourselves of course we've

had our communion with God interrupted we cannot walk in his presence anymore

we do not talk with him in the cool of the evening like Adam and Eve is

certainly enjoyed and we do not have an innate bent towards righteousness and

holiness we now have a born with nature bent opposed to it we are now much more

inclined to scream and shout curses at God or at best we just resist the Holy

Spirit's urging we make excuses when we sin when we put our selfish desires

above the will of God we blame others for it you caused me to do this I don't

want to do what God has asked I don't even care that's where we naturally go

we need the promise of a new creation we remain at creatures designed to know God

and to respond to him in faith and praise that is true that's why we're not

totally depraved we can still respond to him so the promptings of his grace by

faith but now fallen man though we do still bear God's image we respond to

divine and knowledge by cursings and rebellion but is there hope is there

hope for the hot mess we find ourselves in is there hope for the depraved image

that we certainly are is there a time when it will no longer be the cracked

glass but rather clean and clear and put back together whole as it should be

Jesus shows that the answer is yes not because he just really said it but

because Jesus Christ is real and he was here and he walked among us and he showed

that harmony with with heaven and a human again in Jesus we know that the

answer is yes because in Jesus we know that we can have victory over the

depravity in Jesus we see the only way to forgiveness from sin that taints and

Mars and tears up and soils in Jesus we see the example of what we should have

been and if we model ourselves more and more after him that it does something in

us it is it is true that the more you practice something the easier it becomes

until it's much more of just a habit or your first thought or you don't even

think you just kind of do the thing that you're wanting to do exercise is a fine

example it's awful the first 30 days if you're out of shape it's awful you

creak you ache you don't want to get up lifting a can of soup after you've

worked out the day before it's tough your body reminds you that you haven't

moved that way or lifted that much and who knows how long and you want to give

it up but you get past that 30-day hurdle and then the 60-day hurdle and all of a

sudden it kind of happens this way you find that you miss it when you don't

have it you find that you don't get winded as easily when you walk the

stairs it's it's more natural to choose water instead of a coca-cola because you

know that you feel better with the one and the taste is good and the coca-cola

is just too sweet I can't drink coke anymore I haven't I don't really like it

I'm not there yet but I can tell you from personal experience if you drink a

lot of water you like it and the sodas are a lot less appealing it is that way

in your spiritual walk also it's not easy or comfortable to first open up the

Word of God and see high and lofty and holy things it's not always easy it's

not easy to get into the habit of reading something like this which is a

fine piece of literature with deep understanding not the surface simple

minded dribble that you get in most news outlets today this will challenge you

this will really get at you asking those really piercing kinds of questions the

Word of God is like a two-edged sword is it not but it's not easy when you first

do it prayer sometimes feels off or uncomfortable or awkward or well I could

be doing something else or am I praying long enough then your thoughts into your

mind stick with it because God is working in you his will both to love and

know and to do of his good pleasure and much like exercise 30 days 60 days 120

days if you are consistent with it it becomes a part of your life and that

image that we so long to have perfected starts to shine and you really do start

to again regain some of what sin has chipped away and clouded up Ephesians

Ephesians 4:22

chapter 4 verses 22 and 24 talks about putting off the old man concerning your

former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts

and be renewed in the spirit of your mind that you put on the new man which

was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness you get rid

of the depraved and you put on Christ's robe of righteousness that new man and

he will recreate you again after his image 2nd Corinthians 318 but we all

with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being

transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of

the Lord behold him and he will change you from glory to glory in Jesus Christ

our final quote who is both the Son of God and the image of God we are restored

to our humanity as true images of our Creator and more than images in Jesus we

are more than just an image of God in Jesus we are adopted into the heavenly

family and we are then the sons and daughters in God's family that's more

than just bearing an image we now have a title and a belonging and a relationship

and community and everything else you are now a son and a daughter of God in

Christ by the bond of that new covenant the covenant that we have in Jesus

Christ what a wonderful promise what a blessed assurance we are created in God's

image and it contains so many of those things and we haven't lost all of it but

the only way to regain it all back is to find it in Christ the Bible tells us

that he was the one who was the active person in creation he created us he

started humanity on our journey on earth he is also the one who redeems us and

recreates us back into that same image he is the beginning and the end for

humanity and I say praise God for being created in his image let's pray heavenly

father we thank you for the awesome privilege of being made in your likeness

or we praise you that after we messed up as a people and as we continue to mess

up today that you do not just shun us completely from your sight but rather

you humbled yourself becoming one of us living the life that we should have

dying the death that we rightly deserve but also conquering the grave for us so

that we might have a claim to Christ righteousness that we might have a claim

to eternity in you that we might have a claim to being called your sons and your

daughters not because we've earned it but because you so freely give it to us

in Christ's name or I pray that we would all claim it hold on to it and carry it

with us until we see Jesus coming to take us home Lord may that be our reality

today we pray in your name amen