Male and Female, Made in God's Image

Father, sometimes your word goes against the grain of what is said in our culture.

Sometimes, Father, you call us to be a peculiar people,

saying and believing things which don't fit in well with polite conversation.

And, Father, you know how timid we are.

You know how we turn away from this because we want to fit in.

And we ask, Father, that you would bring your word home to us in a very deep way.

And as your word is brought home deeply to us, may you grant us healing, may you restore us,

and may you help us to live in a way that blesses this city and brings you great glory.

And this we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen.

Today's reading, some of you might be wondering what's the fuss about Genesis 1, 26 to 31,

but today's reading directly touches on the issue of abortion,

doctor-assisted suicide or euthanasia, same-sex marriage, and the entire transgender movement.

In other words, nothing controversial in Canada whatsoever,

and nothing by which the Bible might disagree with what would be just taken as common sense knowledge

by basically every media outlet in the country,

at least official or the institutional media,

or in university campuses, or in the judiciary, or in the government.

Nothing controversial at all.

So let's get our Bibles out.

Let's look at it and see what it is that the Bible says,

and why is it that this is sort of, you know, from one point of view, dynamite in a good sense,

from another point of view, dynamite in a bad sense.

And we'll just have a look at it.

And as I said, yeah, there's Bibles there.

Feel free to grab one.

And we're going to begin by looking at Genesis 1, verses 24 to 25,

Genesis 1:24–25

because it's all part of the sixth day of creation.

And so Genesis is the very, very first book.

In fact, it should probably be in most of your Bibles, the very first page in your Bible.

And we'll read these very simple but very profound verses.

And here's how it begins.

Verse 24.

And God said,

Now, just a, you know, a very, very simple thing here.

God gives a, it's going to be sort of relevant to what we're going to see about what happens when God speaks to human beings.

But God, basically, he makes all of the living, all the things that have breath that are on the land.

And it's really important to notice that the Bible doesn't use scientific language.

If a biologist was to try to use this division to classify, you know, bugs and other things, it's not helpful.

But one of the wisdom, one of the things which is so wise about this biblical account is it uses the language of perception.

And the language of perception is never out of date.

You know, if this was written by the way science would classify different animals in the 1500s, in the 1600s, they'd laugh.

And then they'd laugh at how we would do it in the 1600s, in the 1700s, and on and on and on.

And however scientists do it today, if Jesus tarries, in 100 years, the scientists in 100 years would laugh at the way it's done today.

They'd view it as primitive.

And it's really interesting about how the Bible is written.

It's written from the language of perception.

And that doesn't change.

You know, you've got animals you care for.

You have beasts that are out everywhere else.

You have things that crawl.

I mean, that's a pretty simple division.

And they're given the command to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

But then, look at what happens in verse 26.

And it's a very, very simple two words.

Then God said.

Three words.

Then God said.

But it's very, very significant.

Because what happens is that, and we're going to see it later on in the text, about how on one hand, human beings are like an animal.

But on the other hand, there's something which is completely and utterly different about human beings.

And when in verse 26, when it says, then God said.

It's as if God's drawing a huge line between animals and human beings.

In fact, it's not just a line.

And it's definitely not a line in the sand.

A line in the sand.

Some people will refer to that.

But a line in the sand is just arbitrary.

God is describing a grand canyon chasm between the animals and human beings in a very significant way.

And this is really important because it's been lost in our culture.

There's been a thing in the press just recently about a woman on trial for giving water to pigs.

And that's not particularly significant.

But what's significant is what the newspaper coverage, the language was that to give water to pigs going to slaughter was the same as giving water to Jewish people going to be killed in the gas ovens under Nazism.

Now, just apart from the unbelievable insult to compare it from a Jewish perspective, an unclean animal to a Jewish person, which just shows that they don't know what they're talking about.

That's an idea which, I mean, most people would just sense that that's wrong, but not be able to articulate why it is that you can't make equate a pig and a human being as of the same value.

And the Bible teaches why that is a wrong idea.

There's this grand canyon-sized chasm with these three simple words, then God said.

So let's read it.

Verse 26.

Then God said, let us make man, and I'm going to continue with the singular here, the ESV.

It's very helpful.

I'll explain why in a moment.

It's actually a singular collective.

And in fact, actually, the word man here is actually Adam.

Because in the original language, Adam can either mean human beings, all human beings, or it can be a name of a person.

And to try to make it not overly confusing that uses the word man here rather than Adam, but in the original Hebrew, it's the same word.

But I'm going to stick with it.

I know it's not proper English in Canada in 2017, but it's trying to capture a very powerful biblical idea.

Then God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

So that's a very short description of the nature of human beings.

It's going to be continued next week when we look at a certain part of Genesis 2.

And then it gives the vocation for human beings.

And let them, and this is very accurate, uses the singular man, but it's obvious that the word man is referring to all human beings.

That's why here it says, and let them, it's plural.

And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

Now what's going to happen in the rest of this, from verses 27 to 31, in a bit of a boring grammar geeky type of moment.

But we know who the, you know, we know who we are, the boring grammar geek types.

What Paul, what the writer is going to do now is he's going to loop back and unpack the nature of human beings and their vocation.

And verse 27 is going to clarify and expand upon what it means to be in the image of God.

And then 28 to 31 is going to clarify what it means to have dominion.

And in our cultural moment, all of the bombs and mind, all of the minds and bombs and the controversial bits are primarily in verse 27.

And I'm just going to read it and we're going to talk about the vocation of human beings.

That's 28 to 31 first, but then I'm going to loop back.

I'm not going to ignore the, you know, the controversial bit.

Okay?

So that's what we're going to do.

Let's just read verse 27 to 31 and I'll just comment on it and we'll sort of summarize what it means.

So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God, he created him.

Male and female, he created them.

And God blessed them.

And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

And God said, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth and every tree with seed in its fruit.

You shall have them for food.

And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.

And it was so.

And God saw everything that he had made and behold, it was very good.

And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

So here's the thing which this text is, this thing about the vocation of human beings.

And if you could put up the first point.

The first point is this.

The cosmos was made for humanity and humanity was made for the cosmos.

This is a very, very, very, very, very, very important idea in the whole Bible.

And it's a very important idea in terms of what it means to be human.

And it's a very countercultural idea.

You know, in fact, in just about everything that is done here, I could do a sermon, a whole sermon on each of these different points.

I really could because there's an increasing move of thought within our culture that somehow or another human beings are the problem on the planet.

That we're the problem.

We're the virus.

We're the germ.

But the Bible says it's something completely and utterly different.

And it's to understand here.

So when the Bible is giving us our vocation, what is our vocation?

If you look down to verse 28 again, it's to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

That's the first thing.

What does it mean to have dominion?

Well, God made us to be here.

And the cosmos itself needs us.

Rather than us being the problem, per se, by our nature.

Okay, we're going to get into why it's a bit of a problem.

But by our nature, God made us for this planet and not just for the planet, for the cosmos.

And we are to fill it and to multiply.

As an aside, for those of us who are married, who can still have children,

and physically we can, this is a profound encouragement to see children as a blessing.

And to have children.

Like to not listen to our culture that says that children are just an adornment to our life,

something that we have if it's convenient and fits, and we should have very few.

This is an encouragement to view children and being able to have them as a great gift that we should rejoice in

and not turn away from.

So the first aspect of what it means to have dominion over the created order is that we are to be fruitful

and multiply and fill the earth.

And the second is subdue it and have dominion.

I know this is a very, very uncomfortable idea,

but it's this idea that God wants us to tame areas that are very, very wild.

Like if you were in Holland, it's a good thing that some land was reclaimed by putting dikes out into the ocean.

Like it's a good thing to take what would normally happen in a field and to turn it into a garden,

to subdue it and have dominion over it.

That when we're looking at a beautiful garden, if you go to PEI,

and one of the wonderful things about driving through PEI is just how well-ordered the land is,

how it seems as if most of it has been cultivated, and it looks so beautiful.

And that sense that it looks so beautiful is in a sense that the Genesis 1 here,

in a good sense, is being practiced.

And it's right for us to rejoice in it.

It's not right to say it's terrible,

because think of some of the animals that can no longer live there.

That's a wrong way of understanding it.

And then the third thing is to notice that God gives it.

So look at verse 28 again.

And God blessed them, and God said to them,

Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it,

and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens,

and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

And God said, Behold, I have given you.

I have given you.

Okay, God gives it.

This is really, really, really, really important.

If you could put up the next point.

Human, humanity was created to be God's stewards of the cosmos, of the planet,

not to be self-appointed dictators and tyrants.

Humanity, human beings were created to live in this home,

and the world needs us.

And we are to understand ourselves that the world,

the trees, who ultimately owns the trees,

not the state,

not the United Nations, but God.

Who owns the rivers?

Who owns the ocean?

Who owns the sky?

Ultimately, God.

And some of that is put under our care,

either individually because of private property,

or in some collective way through the state,

or some business or corporation.

But in every case, we're ultimately stewards,

because God gives it, but doesn't relinquish being God.

He doesn't stop being God when he gives it to us.

And that means that we are to understand ourselves as God's stewards.

But what has happened is, we're going to look at this,

and it's really not going to be until two weeks from now,

when we look at Genesis 3,

where we talk about the tragedy that has befallen the human race

by human beings rebelling against God,

so that now the image of God,

our nature is bent, and it's marred,

and our rule, and our place in the planet,

it's now, we're too prone to become dictators.

We're too prone to become tyrants.

We're too prone to say,

it's my bleepity bleep piece of property,

and if I want to bleepity bleep,

put chemicals on it, or do this to it,

it's my bleepity bleep business.

And that's the language of a despot, of a tyrant.

It's of a dictator, self-appointed,

a refusal to acknowledge that ultimately,

the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

That the heavens declare the glory of God,

and the firm proclaims his handiwork,

and we as human beings are his stewards to sing his praises

and to care for things in a way so that the entire planet flourishes

to the glory of God and to the good of people,

because we are God's stewards.

We are God's stewards.

Now, the naughty or the awkward bit.

Let me just share with you something.

I'm, you know, I think some of you have heard me share before

that I'm not very naturally religious.

Left to my own devices, I think if I hadn't become a Christian,

I like watching football.

I like watching sports.

You know, I like exercising.

I like reading books.

I like doing what I like to do.

And probably most of the time,

it wouldn't involve anything religious or spiritual.

I'm just confessing to you.

And, you know, there's been many, many times in my Christian life

that, you know, I want to go along with something in the culture.

I have this idea, and I go reading the Bible,

hoping that the Bible is going to validate what I believe

or what I want or what I think is wise.

And I've had many experiences throughout my Christian life

as I come to the Bible and to my horror and my shock.

I can remember different times where I've gotten red in the face

and a bit sweaty under the armpits

because it's dawned on me that what the Bible says

goes against what I want

and what I believe and what I think is wise.

I've had that experience many times.

So I can sympathize with those who are present

who've helped facilitate an abortion

or helped who are same-sex attracted

and are living it out or want to live it out

or those who are very, very uncomfortable

in their biological sex

and hope that when they go to the Bible,

because they still have a desire to know God and to love God,

and when they go to the Bible to their horror,

what they desire is not what they find.

And that's what we're going to find here

for all of those different classes of what I've just described.

And so this isn't a political rally.

This isn't an us versus them.

Every single person here in this room,

whether it's being same-sex attracted

or being uncomfortable with your gender and your biology,

or whether it's abortion,

not a single person in this room

has not been touched by it either directly

or with loved ones or co-workers or neighbors.

And so this is God's word to us.

It's not a political rally,

and it's not a time to make jokes.

It's not necessarily a time to have long faces.

It isn't.

Because ultimately, in every case

where I've come to the Bible

and it's gone against what I've wanted,

over time I've come to believe

that the Bible, in fact,

has only good news and is wise.

So it's just really,

look at verse 26 and 27.

Notice at the beginning of 26,

then God said,

let us make man in our image,

after our likeness.

And in the original language,

image and likeness,

there's no words in between them.

It's just image and likeness.

And it's basically just,

it's reinforcing the same idea

with slightly different words.

It's not two technically different words,

image and likeness,

not like some theologies.

And the big idea is this image.

And then jump down to verse 27,

and this is the dynamite.

And it's interesting.

It's a short little poem,

three lines of poetry.

And on one hand,

it's the simplest thing in the world

to understand.

On the other hand,

it is something that

if we were to meditate upon it,

if artists and poets and philosophers

and musicians and composers,

they could spend the rest of their life

meditating upon the world,

that these three simple lines open up to us

to explore it.

So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God,

he created him.

Male and female,

he created them.

Say it again.

So God created man in his own image.

In the image of God,

he created him.

Male and female,

he created them.

To memorize this verse

would be very helpful.

So here's the,

and you'll notice at 26,

it says,

made in our image.

And then just a few verses later,

a few lines later,

it says image twice.

So in three times,

in a very short span,

this idea of human beings

being made in God's images

is spoken,

spoken,

spoken.

It's very,

very important.

And here I just want to try

to unpack a little bit.

If you could put up the first point,

the next point,

only,

and I put it in bracket,

in quote marks,

just to try to help bring it out.

Only man is created by God

in his own image.

That's what the text is saying.

Only man,

and here it's referring to the human race,

it's using one singular word

to emphasize,

it's a very,

very important here.

That's why I didn't use the word humanity,

and I understand why

English translations

who are helping us

just read the text for ourselves

will put in the word humanity.

But humanity is sort of too diverse,

you know?

Man really brings home to us

this commonness

that human beings share.

It's in fact

a profoundly important text.

This text,

only man,

is created by God

in his own image,

means that all slavery is wrong.

It means that all oppression

and persecution is wrong.

It means that all racism is wrong.

It means all attempts

to view castes in society

is wrong.

All attempts by elites

to think that they are better than others

is wrong.

All focus on social class

as indicating that some people

are better than others

is wrong.

It is,

governments can give rights

and courts can give rights

and they can take them away.

And it's not entirely clear

if we have just evolved

randomly

why it is exactly

that all human beings

have a value

and a dignity

and worth.

But the Bible

says that,

what does it say?

It says,

so God created man

in his own image.

In the image of God,

he created him.

Male and female,

he created them.

And he does not say

that black people

bear it more than white people

or that Asians

bear it more than people

who are,

you know,

First Nations in Canada.

It does not have

any categories like that.

And it uses the singular word

to emphasize it.

It is a powerful,

precious word

and it is dynamite

to our courts

and our country.

So God created man

in his own image.

In the image of God,

he created him.

Male and female,

he created them.

Next point, please.

Here's also,

so we all like it,

it's against racism.

Look at that,

that singular word.

It's so good.

Oh, dang!

For many of us.

Because it does not say,

and so human beings,

when they are smart,

or human beings,

when they are powerful,

or human beings,

when they are young,

bear God's image.

No!

How do human beings come about?

We begin as a fertilized cell

in our mother's womb.

Some of us don't live very long.

Some of us don't survive the womb.

Some of us don't survive

the first year.

Some of us live to be,

who's that guy

who just died in Milton, Ontario,

86 or 84?

And just last year,

he set the age record

in the marathon.

Some of us live long lives

of being very handicapped.

But what is this text telling us?

From our beginning

as a fertilized cell

and to our death,

we bear God's image.

Down syndrome,

Einstein,

Usain Bolt,

equally bear God's image.

which is why it is

that the Bible

is so consistent

to say that it is wrong

to take innocent human life.

It means it is wrong

to kill a gay person

because he's gay.

It's wrong to kill

a transgender person

because they are transgender.

It is wrong to kill

a fetus in a womb

because it's a fetus,

because that's a human being.

And it's wrong to kill

an old person

because they're old.

And it's wrong

to kill a sick person

because they're sick.

I don't know

if any of you

have had a chance

to go to church on Wednesday,

but one of the really

great things

that Daniel has brought about

in church on Wednesday

is that after the sermon

has been preached,

there's a bit of a gap sometimes,

but then people can text

in their questions.

And you have to sort of

think on your feet.

And one of the things,

I've done this a couple of times,

I did it on Ash Wednesday,

and every time

that I've done it,

there's always been

at least one fairly wordy,

direct question.

And I'm 99% sure

as I'm listening to the question

that the person is hoping

who asks the question

that when I hear the question,

it's going to sort of

knock me back a little bit

and make me want to say,

well, you know,

maybe this, maybe that,

maybe this, maybe that.

And every time that it's come,

I've taken a bit

of a perverse delight.

And after the question's read,

I either say yes or no.

And then I'll say next question.

And I'm going to do that

a little bit right now.

George, are you saying

that the Bible is heterosexist?

Are you saying, George,

in this day and age,

don't you know

what they teach in university?

Are you actually claiming

that the Bible naively teaches

binary understanding of reality

in terms of human life?

Like, is the Bible

so completely and utterly foolish

to teach a binary understanding?

A heterosexist understanding?

That there's only two sexes

and a gender that goes with each sex?

Is that what you're saying, George?

Yes.

Yes.

So God created man

in his own image.

In the image of God,

he created him.

Male and female,

he created them.

And then I guess I'd say,

well, I want to take away

the accusation stuff.

But yes,

if you could put up

the next point, please.

Just to make sure we understand

this very simple thing.

So God created man

in his own image.

In the image of God,

he created him.

Male and female,

he created them.

If you've memorized that

by the end of the service,

I've done a great good for you.

What does this say?

God created only

two biological sexes,

each having its own gender.

Notice how it creates man,

biological,

male and female,

gender.

Notice that again.

Man and him,

referring to the biological reality,

male and female,

gender.

See, if it had just said,

so God created man

in his own image.

In the image of God,

he created him.

And then it went on.

We could wonder whether,

in fact,

there can be many genders

to go along

with the two biological sexes.

But this tightly worded poem,

this dynamite,

in a few words,

says that God created

only two biological sexes,

each having its own gender.

If you could put up

the next point,

here's it to say,

again,

the same thing,

the same way.

And by the way,

if you're interested

in writing these points down,

they'll be on the webpage.

And if you use your version,

it's part of the notes.

God did not only create

man and woman.

He also created the man

to be male

and the woman to be female.

God did not only create

man and woman.

He also created the man

to be male

and the woman to be female.

What's the text say again?

So God created man

in his own image.

In the image of God,

he created him.

Male and female,

he created them.

Now,

just as a bit of an aside,

I watched a really interesting

documentary on Netflix

a week or two ago

on Anthony Robbins,

the self-help guy.

And,

you know,

it's interesting.

The Bible here

leaves so much unsaid.

It gives us

a basic direction

to think,

but doesn't fill it in.

Obviously,

the Bible's going to go on

and say a few more things

if you read it

from cover to cover

about being male and female.

But it's amazing

what it doesn't say.

You know,

one of the things,

if you watch this documentary

of Anthony Robbins,

it's a fascinating thing.

You know,

people pay $5,000

to spend six days with him.

Five grand U.S.

before taxes.

And,

you know,

one of the things he does,

it's not like he just says,

oh yeah,

you're great,

you're great,

you're great.

I mean,

he tells people off.

People will spend $5,000 U.S.

for six days

to be told off in public.

It's really,

it's a fascinating documentary

to watch.

And there's one time in it

where he goes after a guy

for being a feminine man.

I'm not making this up.

And,

you know,

the interesting thing in here

is the Bible doesn't say,

okay,

now we know all about men.

Men are good with tools.

You know,

men,

you know,

men like to hunt.

You know,

women like to cook.

It doesn't do this,

does it?

Like,

it makes it clear

that these realities exist.

And if you read all of the Bible,

you'll start to get

some other senses

about what's in there.

But it leaves a wide range

of freedom and variability.

But in it all,

it makes it clear

that

in the language today,

Jeremiah and Anna

had a baby this week.

and it's a baby girl.

And she wasn't assigned

being a girl.

It wasn't as if

the baby came out of the womb

and Jeremiah and Anna said,

well,

I don't know,

should it be a boy or a girl?

They said,

it's a girl.

And that's what the Bible teaches.

Here's another thing,

if you could put it up.

Man and woman

are equally created

in God's image.

And our complementarity

is also in God's image.

Man and woman

are equally created

in God's image.

And our complementarity

is also in God's image.

Listen to the Bible.

So God created man

in his own image.

In the image of God,

he created him.

Male and female,

he created them.

Men and women

have their own integrity.

Any culture

that treats women

like chattel,

like slaves,

is condemned

by this biblical text.

Any family

or relationship

where the man

abuses the woman

is condemned

in this text.

Any culture

that says

that women

only have value

if they can produce

children

is condemned

in this text.

this text.

This text

is both

a profound comfort

for those of us

who will find ourselves

being single

our whole lives.

It doesn't say

that you only have value

if you're attached

to a man

or to a woman.

You only have value

if you can have

sexual knowing.

You can only have value

if you can produce.

It denies all of this.

It's a profoundly

important and freeing text

on the dignity

of every human being,

every man and woman,

regardless as to whether

or not they are married,

regardless as to their

ability to produce.

That there's an inherent

worth

and value

and dignity

as a bearer

of God's image.

And at the same time,

while on one hand

you can say

that every man and woman

bears God's image,

at the same time,

God chose to have

men and women,

male and female,

that somehow

the complementarity

that goes with the equality

somehow even more

shows who God is

and what He's like.

Now,

some people have

a great deal of trouble

with the body

that they have.

And there are many people

in our culture

who are biologically male

or biologically female

and that's a very,

very, very complicated

thing for them

and causes them pain.

Just as there are

many people

in our culture

who find themselves

in a male body

but desire to sexually

know people

with the same body

as themselves.

And one thing

which is very important

for us to understand

is that we should

never, ever, ever

say yuck to this.

And we should never

believe that that's

something which has

merely been chosen.

Sometimes

for people

who labor

and suffer under that

it's something

that goes back

as early

as they have memories.

And this call

to view people

with their dignity

and worth

is very important.

But this text here

is not saying

that even if we

are born

in such a way

that from our

earliest memories

we have these desires.

It's not saying

that that

is how we are

made in God's image.

Could you just reverse,

could you put,

I think,

that's two points

from now up right now

rather than the one

I was going to,

I think I gave you?

We still bear

the image of God

but it is bent

and marred.

We're going to look

at that in Genesis 3

in a couple of weeks.

But it's just

really important

for us to understand

that everything,

it's not just

if you're very

uncomfortable,

you're biologically male

but you don't identify

with being a male

at all

or you're biologically female

and you just don't identify.

it's not as if

just people like this

are broken.

If you look in a mirror

and you look around

every single person

in the room

is made in God's image

and every one of us

are bent

or marred

in different ways.

So you can't just go

purely from current

human experience

to extrapolate

and we're going to talk

about that

a little bit more.

But this is all

very, very, very good news.

I mean,

not only is it good news

because it's the basis

of human rights

but it's the good news

because it begins

to help us

to understand

who God is

and here's how

it's good news.

You know,

I like movies

and I probably

don't like,

I mean,

believe it or not,

I actually sometimes

watch more thoughtful movies.

I just don't watch junk.

But, you know,

if you imagine a movie

about an alien coming,

let's say all of a sudden

an alien

ship crashed

right beside

one of our hospitals

and they all go,

the doctors and the nurses,

they go running in.

I mean,

it wouldn't happen nowadays

because they'd want to get,

you know,

all the masks on

so they don't get diseases

but just imagine

they go running in

or however they go in

and they're not clear

when they look at the alien

and let's say the alien

can't communicate with them

and we're not clear

as human beings

is the alien sick

and need help

or is the alien healthy

and we don't know.

Why don't we know?

Here's the thing.

I sit on the toilet

and something comes out of me

that's brown.

That's good.

You know,

in another context,

something comes out of me

yellowish.

That's good.

If all of a sudden

I started to have red blood

coming out of my eyes

or my ears

or my mouth,

we'd all know

that's bad.

Why?

Because we know

what health looks like.

If we go to a human,

I mean,

if we go to an alien

and red stuff

is coming out of its mouth,

we have no idea

whether that's a bad sign

or a good sign.

Maybe

what we call

brown stuff

coming out of one end

is red for the alien

and comes out

of a different part

of its body.

And I'm not just saying

that to be silly.

We really wouldn't know.

And, you know,

the other day

I'm having some problems

with my steering

in my car

and I just assumed

that I had a leak

in my power steering

and I went

to look.

I was going to go

to Canadian Tire

and get it topped up

so I can get it fixed

on Monday or Tuesday

and I go

and I look

at my power steering level

and it's not low.

And so I stick something in

and the color comes out

and I go to the owner's manual

and the owner's manual

written by the designer

tells me basically

that if the steering fluid

is brown

that's not good.

It should be pink.

At least pinkish

but best of all, pink.

So here's what's so good news

about this

is that the Bible here

is letting us know

what health looks like.

And it knows

it's telling us

the direction

that we can go

towards health.

So God created man

in his own image

and the image of God

he created him.

Male and female

he created them.

If you could put up

the point, Andrew,

which I guess

we sort of jumped over,

human beings

are not Lego.

Did you get a picture

of that by the way?

There you go.

In case you don't

have grandchildren

or you're too old

to have played with Lego

when you were a kid.

There's all sorts of movies

about Lego people.

And the fact of the matter is

is that in much of our culture

the way we understand

being human now

aided by medical technology

that can do all sorts

of unbelievable things.

It can pump us

full of hormones.

It can do plastic surgery.

It can do all...

Medicine can do

all sorts of things.

And if we come up

in a culture

whereby increasingly

we just see ourselves

as accidents,

as just stuff,

and that...

Well, it's increasingly

we understand ourselves

as Lego creatures.

Well, you can just

snap that head off,

put a different head on.

You can snap that torso off.

You can put on

a different torso.

You can design the Lego

in such a way

that things pop out

in different spots.

And the hands

or the legs

are all longer.

And it's a very, very...

You know, we don't

consciously think like this

but increasingly

in our culture

we understand ourselves

with the analogy

of being Lego.

And so when we want

to fix ourselves

we go by our feelings

and the best thoughts

that we have

and we just figure

we'll do Lego processes

to fit with what we feel

because that's how

we understand

what health is.

But the Bible here

is telling us

that God created man

in his own image

and the image of God

he created him.

Male and female

he created them.

And the Bible

will also reveal

that we're broken.

And that's why

if you could put up

the next point

we are to understand

that Jesus is

like an art restorer.

A masterpiece restorer.

He is not like

a Lego builder.

And we his disciples

have to learn

to follow him.

See, this is

the wonderful thing

to know that

I am made

in God's image.

And there are

different ways

that I am made

in God's image

that I am bent

and I am broken.

And maybe it is

that I have

a huge desire

for pornography.

Maybe it is

that I have

this uncontrollable

desire to flirt

or possess

as many women

as I have

as I can.

Maybe my bentness

is that I have

absolutely no interest

in any of those

types of things.

Maybe my bentness

or my brokenness

is uncomfortable

with the biology.

And there are

so many different ways

and all of us

are bent or broken

in some particular way.

And the thing

that we can take

is that not only

is the Bible

communicating to us

what health is like,

it means that

when Jesus comes

into our life,

he sees that image,

the masterpiece,

in all of its uniqueness.

And just as

if somebody was

to give a Van Gogh

or a Picasso

that had been found

in an attic

and was very damaged

and gave it

to the National Gallery,

they would hire

the best art restorer

they could at all afford

to restore

the beauty

of the masterpiece.

And that's how

Jesus deals with us.

He is a masterpiece

restorer,

not a Lego builder.

One final thing

just in closing.

If you could put it up,

here's one of the problems

that we all have.

Because we are so

infected with our culture,

with a notion

that somehow or another

human beings are like plastic,

that in some ways

we're like Lego people,

we can't understand,

like in a Lego world,

how could one Lego creature,

how could their life

matter to everybody's

other than the fact

that we might be

interested in it?

And many of us wonder,

because we come

from this Lego perspective,

how is it

that Jesus' death

upon the cross,

that that could somehow

stand for me or you

here in Ottawa,

and it could also stand

for somebody in Korea,

and somebody in China,

and somebody in Singapore,

and somebody in Kenya,

and somebody above

the Arctic Circle.

And from a Lego perspective,

that doesn't make any sense.

But if,

so God created man

in his own image,

in the image of God,

he created him.

Male and female,

he created them.

If in fact,

human beings are one humanity,

bearing the image of God,

then only the image itself

can stand for all

who are made in God's image.

so Jesus' life and death

can stand for me,

and you,

and you,

and you,

and you,

and every person

who receives him by faith

as Savior and Lord.

You see,

if Genesis 1 is true,

the image itself

can stand

both his perfect righteousness

and his bearing

the consequence

of our sin

and our bentness

and brokenness.

The image itself

can stand

for every person

made in the image of God.

The cross

makes sense.

And Jesus died

not to erase

or destroy the image,

but as

a masterpiece

restorer

to begin

to restore us

to the image,

the masterpiece

that God

desires us to be.

Could you please stand?

Just a moment

of,

a bit of a pause.

If you're here today

and

for the first time

the gospel

begins to make sense

to you

and you feel a pressure

to come to Jesus,

let me just tell you,

it doesn't matter

what your issue is.

Jesus just desires

to come into your life

and to be like

that masterpiece

restorer.

That's what he'll do

when he is your Savior

and he is your Lord.

That's what he will do.

And his death

upon the cross

and his resurrection

can stand for you,

can be for you

if you receive it

by faith.

And there's no time

better than right now

to just call out

to him in your own words

that he will be

your Savior

and your Lord

and he will not

turn you away.

And for the rest of us

we all know

the different ways

that we need

Jesus to work

in our lives

to bring restoration

to us.

To have a sense

of restoring

our sense of dignity

and worth

that is given to us

by God himself.

This text tells us

of how unbelievably

precious we are

to God.

So precious

that not only

did he create us

but that God,

the Son of God

would die upon

the cross for us.

And at the same time

it starts to point

towards Genesis 3

and our great need

for God,

for only God

to come and work

in our lives.

Father,

if there are any here

who today have

crossed that divide

and asked Jesus

to be their Savior

and their Lord,

Father,

pour out your Holy Spirit

upon them

and draw them

ever closer to yourself.

Father,

for those who are still

trying to think things through,

pour out your Holy Spirit

upon them

and draw them

to yourself.

Father,

for those of us

who have maybe

right from our family

of origin

or maybe sometime

in our past

we've given our lives

more consciously

to Jesus

but we know

he's our Savior

and our Lord.

Father,

you know the issues

in our life

that are bent

and are marred

and we give you

permission,

Father.

You are wise.

You are the masterpiece

restorer.

You know how to restore us

and we give you

permission to move

with your Holy Spirit

and bring your word

to bear to us

at our point

of deepest need

to work a work

of restoration

within us.

Father,

pour out your Holy Spirit

upon us.

Make us disciples

of Jesus

gripped by the gospel

learning to be restored

by you

and be an agent

of restoration

in others

so that we

and all your children

will live for your glory

and this we ask

in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.